World no. 3 equestrian Kent Farrington will lead riders into Central Park for a series of events September 18-21
Central Park
September 18-21, $32.65-$272.19
www.chronofhorse.com/centralpark
There might be continuing controversy over the future of horse and carriage rides in and around Central Park, but the battle turns to the equestrians this week as the Central Park Horse Show comes to town. The four-day event begins September 18 with the $210,000 Grand Prix, a jumping competition boasting such top riders as Jessica Springsteen (yes, Bruce and Patti’s daughter), Georgina Bloomberg (yes, the former mayor’s offspring), Charlie Jayne, Laura Kraut, McLain Ward, and Kent Farrington. The next night, the $50,000 NYC vs. the World pro-am speed challenge pits the Land Rover of North America NYC Team, captained by Bloomberg, against the Suncast Corporation World Team, led by Farrington, preceded by the $5,000 NYC Amateur Challenge. On Saturday night, the Central Park Dressage Challenge features such international Olympians and World Equestrian Games medalists as Isabell Werth, Hans Peter Minderhoud, Lars Petersen, Tina Konyot, Lisa Wilcox, Jan Ebeling, Ashley Holzer, and Steffen Peters aboard Ravel, along with a U.S. vaulting team demonstration with Akiko Yamazaki. There will also be matinees on Saturday and Sunday before the show concludes on Sunday night with the Central Park Polo Challenge.
The subject of The Green Prince seems like a plotline stolen from an episode of Homeland or a John le Carré thriller, except in this case it’s all very real. Nadav Schirman’s documentary follows what one would expect to be an impossible mission: Gonen Ben Yitzhak, an experienced handler for the Shin Bet, Israeli’s secret police, attempts to “recruit” Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of Hamas’s founders. Writer, director, and producer Schirman, who focused on a Mossad agent in The Champagne Spy and the family of Carlos the Jackal in In the Dark Room, somehow persuaded Gonen and Mosab to go on camera and share the details of their compelling story. Gonen tries to convince Mosab to turn on his friends and relatives, Hamas, and everything he believes in and start working undercover for Shin Bet. But when Gonen grasps an unexpected moment of opportunity, breaking rules he had always followed previously, leading to his Shin Bet bosses thinking he’s compromised the plan, his move actually ends up bringing Mosab and him closer together, beginning what might even be termed a legitimate friendship. The Green Prince is set up like an intricate game of cat and mouse, built around trust, lies, and the search for the truth. Even though the two men and the filmmakers know how it all ends up, they keep viewers on the edge of their seats as wild episodes are described in detail and raw emotions are revealed, supplemented with archival footage, news reports, and staged re-creations — which feel rather unnecessary. The movie, based on Mosab’s book, Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices, is rather static, mostly cutting between Gonen and Mosab talking to the camera, but it is one helluva story — which, by the way, is being turned into a feature film as well. It’s also not just about Israelis vs. Palestinians, Jews vs. Muslims, the Shin Bet vs. Hamas but about family and the hope of a lasting peace.
Taiwanese New Wave auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien’s masterpiece, The Puppetmaster, is a beautifully poetic exploration of the art of storytelling. The second film of his history trilogy, coming between 1989’s A City of Sadness and 1995’s Good Men, Good Women, the 1993 work employs three unique methods as it traces the life and career of puppeteer Li Tien-lu from 1909 to 1945, during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. Episodes from Li’s life are re-created, beginning even before his birth, as his father sacrifices his family name and takes his wife’s instead at the request of her clan, with the modern-day Li adding voice-over narration. (The film is based on Li’s memoirs.) Hou also uses Peking opera, theater, and puppet shows to demonstrate Li’s skill and to place the film in artistic and historical context. And the eighty-four-year-old Li, who had already been in three of Hou’s films, appears onscreen several times, right on the set, adding an intimate, personal touch to the proceedings. Hou and cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-Bin often let the camera remain still for long periods of time, allowing viewers to decide where to look and what to focus on, as if they were watching a live performance. The film features stunning art direction by Chang Hung and Lu Ming-jin and a lovely traditional score by Chen Ming-chang; the stellar cast includes Lin Chung and Lim Giong as Li, Tsai Chen-nan as his father, Yang Li-yin as his stepmother, Liou Hung as his grandfather, Bai Ming Hwa as his grandmother, and Vicky Wei as Lei Tzu.