twi-ny recommended events

NARCO CULTURA

Narcocorrido star Edgar Quintero contemplates his next big hit in NARCO CULTURA

NARCO CULTURA (Shaul Schwarz, 2013)
AMC Empire 25
234 West 42nd St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Opens Friday, November 22
212-398-2597
www.narcoculture.com
www.amctheatres.com

“They say that it’s safe on the other side, that people don’t kill over there. But the narcos are over here,” a young boy says at the beginning of Shaul Schwarz’s startling documentary, Narco Cultura. The child is standing on the Mexican side of the fence that separates one of the most dangerous cities in the world, Juárez, where 3,622 murders occurred in 2010, from the safest in the United States, El Paso, Texas, which had only five murders that same year. In the film, Israeli-born, New York-based photojournalist Schwarz (The Block) examines the exploding narco culture, in which a growing number of men, women, and children in Mexico and America cheer on guns and violence and turn drug lords into heroes. Serving as director and cameraman, Schwarz follows Juárez native Richi Soto, a crime scene investigator who covers his face when on the job to hide his identity, as colleagues keep getting targeted for assassination, and LA-based narcocorrido singer-songwriter Edgar Quintero, who pens individually commissioned tunes for drug cartel members and later performs them with his popular group, BuKnas de Culiacan. While Soto lives in fear, continuing to do his duty even though some ninety-seven percent of murder cases end up not getting investigated by the police, Quintero is famous, appearing at sold-out concerts and starring in quickie films that glorify violence and drug culture. Schwarz, who served in the Israeli Air Force and has covered conflicts in Haiti, the Gaza Strip, and other hot spots around the world, gets right on the front lines, showing horrific scenes of violence while avoiding any talking-head experts, letting the staggering numbers and the rivers of blood speak for themselves, the real-life results of the failed war on drugs.

THE BERLIN SCHOOL — FILMS FROM THE BERLINER SCHULE: THE ROBBER

Marathon champion can’t stop his thieving ways in THE ROBBER

DER RAÜBER (THE ROBBER) (Benjamin Heisenberg, 2010)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Sunday, November 24, 2:00, and Friday, November 29, 7:00
Series runs November 20 – December 6
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 beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www.kinolorber.com

Director Benjamin Heisenberg and star Andreas Lust take viewers on a breathless thrill ride in The Robber. Adapted from Martin Prinz’s novel about real-life 1980s Austrian marathon champion and bank robber Johann Kastenberger, The Robber focuses on Johann Rettenberger (Lust), a grim, ultra-serious man who has just been released from prison after serving six years for armed robbery. Although he tells his parole officer (Markus Schleinzer) that his thieving days are over, Rettenberger seems unable to stop grabbing his shotgun, donning his trademark facemask, and stealing cars and robbing banks. But his motives remain unclear, as he merely stashes the cash under his bed, not using it for himself or giving it away. He initially does not appear prone to violence either, but his cold-blooded stares and inability to really connect with others signal a man threatening to explode at any moment. When not robbing banks, Rettenberger is either training for or running in marathons, a skill that also helps him avoid the police. Despite Rettenberger’s intensely secretive personality, a social worker named Erika (Franziska Weisz) falls for him, putting him up in her house while she imagines he is looking for work and trying to get his life back together. But not even love can warm the frigid heart of this stone-cold thief.

German drama is part of “Berlin School” series at MoMA

The Robber features several exciting, stunningly shot and edited chase scenes (courtesy of cinematographer Reinhold Vorschneider and Heisenberg, who also served as editor and cowrote the screenplay with Prinz) with Rettenberger on foot, especially the long finale, evoking such films as Marathon Man and The Bourne Ultimatum. (Bonus fact: Kastenberger’s story also inspired Kathleen Bigelow’s Point Break.) Lust turns Rettenberger into a complex antihero; even though there is nothing likable about the character, audiences will not be able to stop rooting for him to get away with it all. The Robber is screening on November 24 at 2:00 and November 29 at 7:00 as part of the MoMA series “The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule,” with Heisenberg and Vorschneider on hand for a discussion following the November 24 show. The series continues through December 6 with such other works by directors associated with the Berlin School as Valeska Grisebach’s Longing, Maria Speth’s Madonnen, and Angela Schanelec’s Orly.

BERNARD AND IRENE SCHWARTZ CLASSIC FILM SERIES: PATHS OF GLORY

Kirk Douglas discovers that war is indeed hell in PATHS OF GLORY (courtesty Photofest)

PATHS OF GLORY (Stanley Kubrick, 1957)
New-York Historical Society
The Robert H. Smith Auditorium
170 Central Park West at 77th St.
Friday, November 22, free, 7:00
212-873-3400
www.nyhistory.org

Stanley Kubrick’s harrowing Paths of Glory, based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb, is quite simply the best English-language antiwar film ever made. Kirk Douglas stars as Colonel Dax, a French military man who disagrees with his superiors’ insistence on sending his men into certain annihilation in order to take a worthless hill during World War I. Dax’s verbal battles with Generals Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) and Mireau (George Macready) are unforgettable, as are the final scenes, in which three random men are chosen to pay the price for what the generals call cowardice. Filmed in stunning black and white, Paths of Glory puts you right on the front lines of the folly of war. Kubrick, who wrote the unrelenting script with Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson, also made the best film about the cold war (Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb), the Roman slave revolt (Spartacus), and, arguably, the Vietnam War (Full Metal Jacket). One of the most emotional, powerful stories ever put on celluloid, Paths of Glory is screening for free on November 22 at 7:00 as part of the New-York Historical Society’s Bernard and Irene Schwartz Classic Film Series and will be introduced by author Michael Korda (Ike: An American Hero, With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain) with a focus on “WWI and Its Legacy in Film.”

HOT DERN! THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS

Bruce Dern stars as Jack Nicholson’s wildly unpredictable brother in THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS

THE KING OF MARVIN GARDENS (Bob Rafelson, 1972)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Saturday, November 23, 3:00, 6:00, 9:45
Series runs through November 27
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Steeped in 1970s Vietnam War-era angst, Bob Rafelson’s The King of Marvin Gardens examines nothing less than the impending demise of the American dream. Rafelson’s follow-up to Five Easy Pieces stars Jack Nicholson as David Staebler, a Philly DJ who is introduced in a long, dark scene, shot in one take, in which he delivers a fascinating monologue about his grandfather (Charles Lavine) choking on fish bones, setting the stage for this unusual tale about family. David is contacted by his older brother, Jason (Bruce Dern), a small-time hustler caught in a jam in a decaying Atlantic City. Jason has big plans for them, hoping to open a resort casino in Hawaii, along with his girlfriend, Sally (Ellen Burstyn), and younger companion, Jessica (Julia Anne Robinson), whom they are grooming to become Miss America. But a local gangster, Lewis (Scatman Crothers), might have something to say about their future. Nicholson plays David with a calm, introspective, intensely creepy demeanor that provides fine contrast to Dern’s Jason, a loud, up-front, far more outgoing figure. But as brash as Jason is, Dern sometimes has him make major statements with just a quick move of his eyes. Written by Rafelson and journalist and lyricist Jacob Brackman, the film is beautifully shot by master cinematographer László Kovács, who bathes the Atlantic City boardwalk in luridly depressing colors as four unique characters come together in rather strange ways. The King of Marvin Gardens is screening on November 23 as part of the BAMcinématek series “Hot Dern!” which pays tribute to the seventy-seven-year-old Dern, the father of Laura Dern and former husband of Diane Ladd, on the occasion of the U.S. theatrical release of Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, for which Dern was named Best Actor at Cannes. The series continues through November 27 with such other wide-ranging Dern films as The Trip, The Driver, The Laughing Policeman, and Smile. In addition, Dern will be at BAM on December 4 for “An Evening with Bruce Dern,” which will include a screening of Nebraska followed by an extended Q&A with the actor.

THE MIDDLE AGES ON FILM — SHAKESPEARE: RAN

The Fool (Peter) sticks by Hidetaro (Tatsuya Nakadai) as the aging lord descends into madness in Kurosawa masterpiece RAN

RAN (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
Saturday, November 23, 6:15; Wednesday, November 27, 9:15; Friday, November 29, 9:15
Series runs November 20 – December 1
212-505-5181
www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

Inspired by the story of feudal lord Mori Motonari and Shakespeare’s King Lear, Akira Kurosawa’s Ran is an epic masterpiece about the decline and fall of the Ichimonji clan. Aging Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) is ready to hand over his land and leadership to his three sons, Taro (Akira Terao), Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu), and Saburo (Daisuke Ryû). But jealousy, misunderstandings, and outright deceit and treachery result in Saburo’s banishment and a violent power struggle between the weak eldest, Taro, and the warrior Jiro. Hidetaro soon finds himself rejected by his children and wandering the vast, empty landscape with his wise, sarcastic fool, Kyoami (Peter), as the once-proud king descends into madness. Dressed in white robes and with wild white hair, Nakadai (The Human Condition), in his early fifties at the time, portrays Hidetaro, one of the great characters of cinema history, with an unforgettable, Noh-like precision. Kurosawa, cinematographers Asakazu Nakai, Takao Saitô, and Masaharu Ueda, and Oscar-winning costume designer Emi Wada bathe the film in lush greens, brash blues, and bold reds and yellows that marvelously offset the white Hidetaro. Kurosawa shoots the first dazzling battle scene in an elongated period of near silence, with only Tôru Takemitsu’s classically based score playing on the soundtrack, turning the film into a thrilling, blood-drenched opera. Ran is a spectacular achievement, the last great major work by one of the twentieth century’s most important and influential filmmakers. Ran is screening November 23, 27, and 29 as part of the Anthology Film Archives series “The Middle Ages on Film: Shakespeare,” consisting of ten cinematic adaptations of several of the Bard’s history plays, set in the Middle Ages, including Grigori Kozintsev’s King Lear, William Dieterle and Max Reinhardt’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Orson Welles’s Macbeth. The twelve-day festival was curated in collaboration with professor and scholar Martha Driver, who notes, “Shakespeare’s world was closer to the Middle Ages than our own, not only in time and space but culturally and imaginatively. The plays draw extensively on medieval sources and themes.”

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “III” BY PERFECT PUSSY

Formed at the spur of the moment when lead singer and lyricist Meredith Graves was asked to perform a song in the upcoming Scott Coffey movie Adult World (starring John Cusack and Emma Roberts), Syracuse-based punks Perfect Pussy are out on the road in support of their demo/EP, April’s fearsome four-track, thirteen-minute I have lost all desire for feeling. Her voice buried in the mix, well-read art aficionado Graves channels early Sonic Youth as she screams, “I’m a real piece of shit / I’m a real lost cause / Dare to act like you’re surviving and get thrown to the dogs,” in “IV,” continuing, “Every dog deserves forgiveness / no matter who he bit / I’m a real lost cause / I’m a real piece of shit.” But Perfect Pussy is no lost cause, tearing through vicious songs that even feature an occasional synth line and, of course, lots of feedback. Yes, as in Graves’s previous band, Shoppers, the songs are titled with sequential Roman numerals, although she claims it is not for artistic reasons this time around but just that she couldn’t decide what to call the deeply personal confessions. Well, we call them fuckin’ awesome. Graves, guitarist Ray McAndrew, noise synthesist Shaun Sutkus, bassist Greg Ambler, and drummer Garrett Koloski will be at 285 Kent on November 22 with Beach Fossils and on November 23 with Shannon and the Clams, then the band will be back for a show at NYU’s Kimmel Center on December 5 with Ceremony, White Lung, and Sleepies.

DOC NYC CLOSING NIGHT: IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY?

Michel Gondry details a series of animated conversations with Noam Chomsky in brilliant new documentary

IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY? AN ANIMATED CONVERSATION WITH NOAM CHOMSKY (Michel Gondry, 2013)
Thursday, November 21, SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves., 7:00
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Opens Friday, November 22
212-924-7771
www.docnyc.net
www.ifccenter.com

As it turns out, Michel Gondry’s exciting new documentary, Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? An Animated Conversation with Noam Chomsky, is animated in more ways than one. The fifty-year-old French director initially set out to go toe-to-toe with the controversial octogenarian linguist and philosopher, but he realized early on that the battle was lost. So when editing the series of interviews he had with Chomsky over the course of several months in 2010, he decided to illustrate the film with animated cartoon drawings, only occasionally showing the live-action Chomsky, often in a small box or circle within a colorfully rendered scene. After an attempt to impress Chomsky — the author of such books as Syntactic Structures; Cartesian Linguistics: A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought; Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar; and The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory — with his own views on image and representation, Gondry becomes embarrassed. “As you can see,” he says while the handwritten words appear on the screen, “I felt a bit stupid here. Let me explain: I think I couldn’t get my point through to Noam. Misuse of words and heavy accent aggravated my attempt.” Chomsky and Gondry go on to explore such concepts as generative grammar, language acquisition, and psychic continuity as Gondry, the director of such offbeat films as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, Human Nature, and Be Kind, Rewind, makes his endearing, often childlike drawings, a genius counterpoint to Chomsky’s cool and calm super-intellectualism.

Michel Gondry comes up with a unique way to depict Noam Chomsky in IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY?

Gondry does get Chomsky to open up a little about his personal life, especially his relationship with his late wife, and they wisely avoid politics. The film eventually takes a hysterical turn when Gondry realizes that he better finish it soon, since it’s been three years since he conducted the talks with Chomsky and he wants to make sure he finishes it before Chomsky dies. In the end, Gondry manages to level the playing field as the two men diagram the title question. Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? is an absolute treat, a fun and fascinating examination of human intelligence, the creative process, the manipulative relationship between director and viewer, and the essence of film and storytelling itself. Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? is the closing-night selection of DOC NYC, screening November 21 at 7:00 at the SVA Theatre, and will be followed by a discussion with Gondry and Chomsky, moderated by Anthony Arnove. The film then opens on Friday, November 22, at the IFC Center, with Gondry participating in Q&As following the 6:10 and 8:15 shows on Friday and Saturday.