twi-ny recommended events

TRUE CRIME: BONNIE AND CLYDE

Faye Dunaway and Clyde Barrow glamorize bank robbery in Arthur Penn classic

BONNIE AND CLYDE (Arthur Penn, 1967)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Friday, July 17, and Saturday, July 18
Series continues through August 5
212-727-8110
filmforum.org

Arthur Penn changed the course of Hollywood — and world cinema — in 1967 with Bonnie and Clyde, a film previously offered to such Nouvelle Vague luminaries as François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. Cowritten by David Newman (Superman I-III) and Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer), the film mythologizes the true story of depression-era bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, played magnificently by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. At its heart, Bonnie and Clyde is a passionate yet unusual love story, filled with close-ups of the gorgeous Dunaway, who is first seen naked, running to her bedroom window confident and carefree, more a modern 1960s woman than a poor 1930s small-town waitress. Meanwhile, Barrow might know how to shoot a gun, but he’s a dud in bed; “I ain’t much of a lover boy,” he tells Bonnie early on, so their passion plays out in fast-moving car chases and shootouts rather than under the covers (while also playing off of Beatty’s already well-deserved reputation as a ladies’ man). They pick up an accomplice in gas-station attendant C. W. Moss (Michael J. Pollard) and are soon joined by Clyde’s brother, Buck (Gene Hackman), and his wife, Blanche (Oscar winner Estelle Parsons), and continue their rampage as heroic, happy-go-lucky hold-up artists, leading up to one of the most influential and controversial endings ever put on celluloid, an unforgettable finale of violent and poetic beauty. Penn (Little Big Man, Target), editor Dede Allen (The Hustler, Serpico), and Oscar-winning cinematographer Burnett Guffey (All the King’s Men, Birdman of Alcatraz) redefined the gangster picture with their creative use of slow motion, long takes, and crowded shots, defying Hollywood conventions in favor of unique and innovative storytelling devices, allowing the film to work on multiple levels. Nominated for ten Academy Awards, Bonnie and Clyde is screening July 17 & 18 as part of Film Forum’s “True Crime” series, which continues through August 5 with such other ripped-from-the-headlines favorites as Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, Terrence Malick’s Badlands, Leonard Kastle’s The Honeymoon Killers, and double features of John Milius’s Dillinger and Don Siegel’s Escape from Alcatraz and Richard Fleischer’s 10 Rillington Place and The Boston Strangler.

HAPPY DAYS

Brooke Adams is all smiles in Beckett’s HAPPY DAYS at the Flea (photo by Joan Marcus)

The Flea Theater
41 White St. between Broadway & Church St.
Through July 18, $70-$150
866-811-4111
www.theflea.org

Andrei Belgrader brings a twenty-first-century spin to Samuel Beckett’s absurdist Happy Days in this Boston Court production continuing at the Flea through July 18. Beckett’s two-act play, which premiered in 1961 at the Cherry Lane, features a husband and wife facing the passage of time and looking at the end of their lives; Beckett gives them the names Willie and Winnie, each of which comes with multiple meanings, including sexual references. Brooke Adams plays the central role of Winnie, a smiling, positive-thinking fifty-ish woman who is immobile, buried to the waist in a barren mound in the middle of nowhere, surrounded only by a painted trompe l’oeil backdrop of blue skies and white clouds. Blonde and cheerful, she is awoken each day by a loud bell, greeting the day with hope despite her predicament. “Another heavenly day,” she declares. Boasting a heavy bosom in a sexy outfit, she goes through her pocketbook and performs her morning ablutions, brushing her teeth, taking medicine, putting on lipstick, and pulling out a revolver. She wakes up the sixty-ish Willie, played by her real-life spouse, Tony Shalhoub, who unfolds his aged copy of the Liberty Tribune and reads the obituaries and the want ads out loud. Throughout the rest of the play, Winnie does nearly all of the talking, with Willie interacting only occasionally. She remembers old loves, tries to read the writing on her toothbrush (which begins, “Fully guaranteed genuine pure…”), and makes repeated references to quotes she can’t actually recall. (“What is that unforgettable line?” she says over and over again in various ways.) By the second act, she has sunk deeper into the abyss, only her neck and head aboveground, unable to use her hands. She is still smiling, claiming “great mercies,” that “it will have been a happy day, after all, another happy day,” but she also seems to recognize that her situation is a bit more serious now, especially when Willie does not respond to her calls.

We will never know exactly what Willie (Tony Shalhoub) is reaching for in HAPPY DAYS (photo by Joan Marcus)

Adams (Days of Heaven, Invasion of the Body Snatchers) is fabulous as Winnie, her bright eyes sparkling throughout the show despite what must be physical discomfort, trapped in Takeshi Kata’s rustic set. She makes direct eye contact with the audience, spreading her charm, skillfully playing to the crowd at the start of the second act, saying, “Someone is looking at me still. Caring for me still. That is what I find so wonderful. Eyes on my eyes.” The audience spends most of the show looking into Adams’s eyes, and they radiate back a thrilling warmth, guiding us through the bizarre shenanigans and word games. Shalhoub (Act One, Monk), who displayed a wonderful propensity for physical comedy in The Mystery of Love and Sex, ups the ante here, really cutting loose, dressed in a vaudevillian-like tux and makeup that makes him nearly unrecognizable. (The splendid costumes are by Melanie Watnick.) Written in the same period in which Beckett also gave us Waiting for Godot, Krapp’s Last Tape, Act without Words, and Fragments, Happy Days is filled with playful sexual innuendo, double entendres, and allusions to life and death, God and religion as Willie and Winnie discuss eggs, formication (no, that is not a typo), prayer, masturbation, and castrated male swine in classic Beckett style. Although Beckett might have had the end of the world in mind when writing Happy Days — “Do you think the earth has lost its atmosphere?” Winnie asks, in addition to hoping “that perhaps some day the earth will yield and let me go, the pull is so great, yes, crack all round me and let me out” — he could not have known that fifty-plus years later the audience would be thinking so much about global warming and climate change as Willie and Winnie approach their potential fate, but Belgrader (Endgame, The Master Builder) wisely doesn’t force the issue. The bell that rouses Willie and Winnie in the morning and prevents them from falling asleep during the day — it also wakes up any dozing audience members — is kind of a wakeup call for all of us. But in no way would I be so bold as to claim that Happy Days is about anything specific, be it climate change, or matrimony, or aging, or love, or death, or time, or freedom, or guns, or personal hygiene, or theater itself. At intermission, three older patrons left the Flea, two stating that they would not come back for the second act. (One of them finally realized, noticing a poster on the way out, that the play was written by Beckett.) “But I want to find out what happens,” the third one said. They didn’t come back. And of course, nothing happened, except everything.

TWO EVENINGS OF FILMS WITH YOKO ONO

RAPE will be the focus of one of two special evenings in which Yoko Ono will screen and discuss her film work

MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building
4 West 54th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Monday, July 13, and Wednesday, July 15, 7:30
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk and online beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

MoMA’s excellent “Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971” sheds new light on the seminal period of the Tokyo-born multimedia artist’s career, comprising music, photographs, sculpture, interactive performances, memorabilia and ephemera, paintings, films, and instruction pieces. “Ono’s art from this period is run through with a complex interplay between her own absence and presence,” Klaus Biesenbach writes in the extensive exhibition catalog. “Over time, Ono was able to turn her complex handling of artistic presence and absence into a sophisticated treatment of a public image, which allowed her to reach a broad audience with her artistic and political messages.” The artist will be present at MoMA this week for a pair of special presentations of her films and videos. On Monday, July 13, “An Evening with Yoko Ono and Chrissie Iles” will explore Ono’s musical oeuvre through well-known conceptual films and rare footage, followed by a discussion between Ono and Whitney curator Chrissie Iles. On Wednesday, July 15, “An Evening with Yoko Ono and Alexandra Munroe” examines Ono’s 1969 feature-length collaboration with husband John Lennon, Rape, along with the shorts Film No. 4 (Bottoms) and Takahiko Iimura’s Ai (Love), followed by a conversation between Ono and Guggenheim senior curator Alexandra Munroe, who refers to Ono as “one of my dearest friends. Whether sitting around a kitchen table or in more canonized theatres, at this point in our relationship, the most valued time I spend with her are the conversations we have together.” In the catalog, Clive Phillpot explains, “Lennon biographer Ray Coleman claimed that [Rape] ‘parodied the story of the Beatles’ escalator to success,’ but it is much more likely that it reflected what curator Chrissie Iles described as ‘the tension and fear felt by Ono and Lennon as the intrusive press and public attention generated by their fame became increasingly harder to bear.’” The exhibition itself includes such marvelous Ono films as Fly, Cut Piece, Eyeblink, and Film No. 5 (Smile).

4KNOTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: “COLORS IN THE WHITES OF YOUR EYES” BY HEAVEN

Who: Surfbort, Heaven, Heaters, Meatbodies, Happyness, Screaming Females, Mikal Cronin, Twin Peaks, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, and Super Furry Animals
What: Fifth annual Village Voice 4Knots Music Festival
Where: Pier 84, Hudson River Park, West 44th St. at 12th Ave.
When: Saturday, July 11, general admission $25, VIP $50, 12 noon – 10:00
Why: At most outdoor music festivals, there’s almost nobody there for the first few groups, save for a few family members, a coupla friends, a photographer or two, and one dude who is determined to hold his front-and-center spot for the next ten hours. But if you choose to show up for only the bigger-name bands at 4Knots, you’ll be missing out on the wild and unpredictable Surfbort and the somewhat calmer Brooklyn dream popsters Heaven, who will be taking the stage while many in their home borough are just starting to get out of bed. Guitarist and singer Matt Sumrow and drummer Mikey Jones let some of their influences show on their 2013 Covers EP, which featured versions of New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle,” Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way,” and the Kinks’ “See My Friends,” followed shortly thereafter by their debut full-length, Telepathic Love, which boasts such tracks as “Colors in the Whites of Your Eyes,” “Falling Apple,” “Mountains Move,” and “Southern Rain.” Sumrow, Jones, Yoi Fujita, and Ian Fenger will be going on at 12:40 on Saturday; try not to show them your love telepathically and instead by cheering them on at the pier.

Surfbort — 12:00
Heaven — 12:40
Heaters — 1:25
Meatbodies — 2:05
Happyness — 2:45
Screaming Females — 3:45
Mikal Cronin — 4:45
Twin Peaks — 5:45
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks — 6:45
Super Furry Animals — 8:30

THE KNISH: IN SEARCH OF THE JEWISH SOUL FOOD

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge St. between Canal & Division Sts.
Tuesday, July 14, $10, 7:00
212-219-0888
www.eldridgestreet.org
knish.me

I grew up on knishes. When I was a kid, my father would regularly bring home a big cardboard box of Gabila’s square delights, as their fleet of trucks was serviced by our family tire and auto repair shop on Utica Ave. in Brooklyn and Larry would always give a dozen to my father whenever they came in. So I’m particularly looking forward to July 14, when native New Yorker and food journalist Laura Silver will give a talk at the Eldridge St. Synagogue about her book Knish: In Search of the Jewish Soul Food (Brandeis, May 2014, $24.95). “More than latkes, matzoh, or the apple-and-walnut charoset that crowned the seder plate, knishes were my family’s religion. For knishes, we went on pilgrimages,” Silver writes in the first chapter, “Au Revoir, Mrs. Stahl’s: Brighton Beach to the Lower East Side.” She continues her exploration of the “pillow of filling tucked into a skin of dough” in such chapters as “In Search of the First Knish: From the Holy Land to the Old Country,” “Mrs. Goldberg to Gangsta Rap: The Knish in Culture,” and, most important, “Where to Get a Good Knish,” Silver details the history of the doughy delicacy, which can be stuffed with potato, cheese, kasha, mushrooms, spinach, fruit, and rather unusual mixtures in this experimental gourmand time. Attendees will also get a sample from one of our favorite knisheries, Yonah Schimmel (or is it Yonah Shimmel?), where we often go for the delectable chocolate and cheese version.

DO I SOUND GAY?

David Thorpe examines how his voice affects his life in DO I SOUND GAY? (photo courtesy of ThinkThorpe)

DO I SOUND GAY? (David Thorpe, 2015)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Opens Friday, July 10
212-924-7771
www.doisoundgay.com
www.ifccenter.com

About ten minutes into journalist David Thorpe’s absolutely charming yet emotionally bittersweet Do I Sound Gay?, he is at dinner with his best friends, Alberto and Sam, and the three are discussing the title question. It’s a fascinating conversation that is worth detailing extensively here. “I have the impression that you think it sounds bad,” Alberto says about David’s voice. “I interpret David’s feelings about this, and the feelings around this whole project, as bad. He has negative feelings about his voice, about the perception that it creates.” “And you don’t feel that at all yourself?” Sam asks. Alberto responds, “I have sort of a generic self-loathing that is created around my gayness. . . . . But I don’t think I can say it’s the only thing, or the main thing.” Finally, David chimes in, explaining, “I think I feel out of sync with my voice, and, at least it seems to me, that it’s anxiety about sounding too gay, so, okay, let’s see what it’s like to not sound gay, and maybe I’ll feel more in sync and maybe I’ll have some idea what my voice should sound like.” Alberto then gets to the heart of the matter, inquiring, “But you could also argue, why don’t you just accept how you sound?” And Alberto sums it all up: “We have never talked about this idea until you brought it up. I don’t know anybody else that I’ve talked to about it either. So I think there is this thing, obviously, that we all are aware of that hasn’t been spoken of. Maybe this is the elephant in the room.” David spends the rest of the film exploring the elephant in the room, meeting with speech therapists who examine his voice and teach him how to change it; talking to such out-of-the-closet gay icons as Dan Savage, Tim Gunn, Margaret Cho, David Sedaris, Don Lemon, and George Takei, who delve into their own gayness and how their voice is part of that; introducing us to a boy who was beaten up at school at a very young age because of his voice; and interviewing gay people on the street, who share their thoughts on whether they, or he, do or don’t sound gay, and whether that matters. Sedaris, whose short story “Go Carolina” served as inspiration for Thorpe, tells him, “I’m embarrassed to say this, but sometimes somebody will say, ‘I didn’t know you were gay.’ It’s like, Why does that make me feel good. I hate myself for thinking that. It’s very disturbing. I thought I was beyond that. What’s the problem if somebody assumes that I’m gay when I open my mouth? Why do I have a problem with that?”

David Thorpe meets with such gay icons as Dan Savage as he explores how one’s voice affects perception (photo courtesy of ThinkThorpe)

Indeed, why does anyone have a problem with that? Do I Sound Gay? raises a host of important issues, both directly and indirectly, that deal with how we all judge ourselves, and others. We’ve all heard someone’s voice and assumed him or her to be gay, but Thorpe interviews one friend who “sounds gay” but isn’t. We all want to believe we don’t see race or ethnicity or religion, or see or hear “gay,” but of course we do; what’s key is how we respond to that, or even whether we respond at all. After breaking up with his boyfriend, Thorpe decided that his voice was part of the reason why he was forty and single; watching him practice changing his voice makes one think of kids who are sent to special camps to get rid of the gay. There are things we all would like to change about ourselves, but do we actually want or need to change ourselves in this way? Thorpe has an appealing personality, so it hurts to watch him try to alter his voice, even if it’s also funny. Interestingly, he doesn’t get into nature vs. nurture and biological issues, but it’s engrossing to follow this parade of men who sound a certain way and to see that some of them are proud of it, some are not, and others just accept it for what it is. “Some of the gayest people I know are straight, and some of the butchest men I’ve ever met are gay,” Gunn says. “So in some ways, never assume.” In a country mired in a fierce debate over same-sex marriage, Do I Sound Gay? feels like it’s just what the doctor ordered, a playful, fun, yet riveting look into a rarely examined issue that is more ubiquitous than anyone has been willing to admit before, a serious topic with critical ramifications that is handled with grace and humor by Thorpe in his feature-length debut. Do I Sound Gay? opens July 10 at the IFC Center, with Thorpe in person for Q&As following the 7:55 shows on Friday (hosted by Mo Rocca) and Saturday (hosted by Catie Lazarus).

4KNOTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: “REGAN’S LOST WEEKEND (PORNO QUEEN)” BY HAPPYNESS

Who: Surfbort, Heaven, Heaters, Meatbodies, Happyness, Screaming Females, Mikal Cronin, Twin Peaks, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, and Super Furry Animals
What: Fifth annual Village Voice 4Knots Music Festival
Where: Pier 84, Hudson River Park, West 44th St. at 12th Ave.
When: Saturday, July 11, general admission $25, VIP $50, 12 noon – 10:00
Why: British indie three-piece Happyness will be at 4Knots on Saturday, highlighting their slacker-rock songs from their debut full-length, Weird Little Birthday (Bar/None, May 2015), on which they establish their voice and raison d’être. “I’m an anarchist, communist, feminist, phlebotomist, yeah, right,” they explain on “It’s on You.” Guitarist and vocalist Benji Compston, bassist and vocalist Jonny Allan, and drummer Ash Cooper cowrote all the songs on the album, which includes such fabulously named tracks as “Montreal Rock Band Somewhere,” “Pumpkin Noir,” “Great Minds Think Alike, All Brains Taste the Same,” “Baby, Jesus (Jelly Boy),” and the subtly epic title track. If you missed Happyness at last fall’s CMJ Music Festival, you can catch them in Hudson River Park on July 11, slotted between Meatbodies and Screaming Females.