Bikers join with marchers and floats in Celebrate Israel Parade (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
CELEBRATE ISRAEL PARADE AND OTHER EVENTS
57th to 74th St. up Fifth Ave.
Sunday, May 31, free, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
celebrateisraelny.org
On May 14, 1948, “The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel” proclaimed, “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice, and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education, and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” Israel’s existence has been fraught with controversy since the very beginning, but the nation perseveres, and on May 31 its sixty-seventh birthday will be honored with the annual Celebrate Israel Parade. This year’s theme is “Israel Imagines,” a tribute to the ideal of Israel upon its creation. As the official parade website explains, “The founders of Israel had a dream. They imagined a vibrant, independent and Jewish state that would not only be a haven for Jews from all over the world but also one that would incorporate the best characteristics of its citizens: brains and brawn, creativity, determination, fairness, and imagination — a state whose greatest natural resource is its people who could imagine that future — one that would benefit the whole world!” On Sunday, some thirty thousand marchers are expected to make their way from Fifty-Seventh to Seventy-Fourth St. up Fifth Ave. Among the performers will be Miri Ben-Ari, Golem, SOULFARM, Peri Smilow, SHI 360, the Israel Dance Institute, and Areyvut Mitzvah Clowns. Special guests include David Blu, Derrick Sharp, Steve Lacey, Becky Griffin, Robert Moses, Deputy Minister Danny Danon, Ambassadors Ido Aharoni and Ron Prosor, and members of the Israeli Knesset. The day begins with the one-mile Celebrate Israel Fun Run up Fifth Ave. and continues with the Celebrate Israel Festival on Pier 94 ($5-$15), with live performances by Rita and Rinat Gabay, a kosher marketplace, a Technology Pavilion, an “Israel 24/7” Instagram Photography Competition, the CreateLAB, the “Ahava” Art Installation, an Art4Israel community mural, and more; this year’s theme is “Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: Cities of Light.”
Finally, the unaffiliated Israel Day Concert in the Park is a free show in Rumsey Playfield (2:30 – 7:30) with Gad Elbaz, LIPA, Alex Clare, Tal Vaknin, Shloime Dachs, Mati Shriki, Avraham Rosenblum (accompanied by Ruby Harris, Izzy Kieffer, Heshy R, and Sam Ramras) Shloime Dachs Orchestra & Singers, Shlomi Aharoni, Broadway Youth Ensemble, Steve Lucas, Chaim Kiss, Israel Alliel, Born Kids, Aryeh Pollack, Jerry Markovitz singing Hatikva and the National Anthem, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Helen Freedman, Assemblyman David Weprin, and others. The special guest speakers are Governor Mike Huckabee, Ambassador John Bolton, and Science Minister Danny Danon.
Winner of the Silver Lion at the 1955 Venice Film Festival, Michelangelo Antonioni’s sublimely marvelous Le Amiche follows the life and loves of a group of oh-so-fabulous catty, chatty, and ultra-fashionable Italian women and the men they keep around for adornment. Returning to her native Turin after having lived in Rome for many years, Clelia (Eleonora Rossi Drago) discovers that the young woman in the hotel room next to hers, Rosetta (Madeleine Fischer), has attempted suicide, thrusting Clelia into the middle of a collection of self-centered girlfriends who make the shenanigans of George Cukor’s The Women look like child’s play. The leader of the vain, vapid vamps is Momina (Yvonne Furneaux), who carefully orchestrates situations to her liking, particularly when it comes to her husband and her various, ever-changing companions, primarily architect Cesare (Franco Fabrizi). As Rosetta falls for painter Lorenzo (Gabriele Ferzetti), who is married to ceramicist Nene (Valentina Cortese), Clelia considers a relationship with Cesare’s assistant, Carlo (Ettore Manni), and the flighty Mariella (Anna Maria Pancani) considers just about anyone. Based on the novella Tra Donne Sole (“Among Only Women”) by Cesare Pavese, Le Amiche is one of Antonioni’s best, and least well known, films, an intoxicating and thoroughly entertaining precursor to his early 1960s trilogy, L’Avventura, La Notte, and L’Eclisse. Skewering the not-very-discreet “charm” of the Italian bourgeoisie, Antonioni mixes razor-sharp dialogue with scenes of wonderful ennui, all shot in glorious black and white by Gianni Di Venanzo.
The French Institute Alliance Française’s CinéSalon series “Haute Couture on Film,” part of the larger “Fashion at FIAF” festival, comes to a fitting close with Deborah Riley Draper’s fab 2012 doc, Versailles ’73: American Runway Revolution. In June 1919, Germany and the Allies signed a peace treaty at the palace of Versailles in France, where Louis XIV and his family lived until they had to flee in 1789. Nearly two hundred years later, the historic Château de Versailles was in disrepair, and American fashion doyenne Eleanor Lambert decided to do something about it, creating a high-society fundraiser featuring presentations by five French designers and five American designers. Deborah Riley Draper captures all of the backstage intrigue and surprising results in her debut full-length film, speaking with many of those who were on hand for what turned out to be an eye-opening, game-changing haute couture competition. “There are moments in history that change the course of history,” says Versailles ’73 model Alva Chinn. “That was a moment in history that changed the course of fashion history.” Among those sharing their perspectives on the Battle of Versailles, which pitted Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin, and Emanuel Ungaro against Anne Klein, Stephen Burrows, Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, and Halston, are Met Costume Institute curator-in-charge Harold Koda, Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture president Didier Grumbach, American actor and Halston assistant Dennis Christopher (Breaking Away), Château de Versailles chief curator Beatrix Saule, public relations executive and former Lambert assistant John Tiffany, Versailles ’73 patron Simone Levitt, former Halston assistant and Bill Blass executive Tom Fallon, photographer Charles Tracy, designer Burrows, and, most fabulously, participating models China Machado, Barbara Jackson, Charleen Dash, Pat Cleveland, Karen Bjornsen, Norma Jean Darden, Nancy North, Marisa Berenson, Bethann Hardison, Carla LaMonte, and Billie Blair, who are utterly delightful as they detail the fascinating goings-on.