twi-ny recommended events

LAURENCE ANYWAYS

Laurence (Melvil Poupaud) and Fred (Suzanne Clément) face some tough challenges after he declares his desire to live life as a woman in LAURENCE ANYWAYS

LAURENCE ANYWAYS (Xavier Dolan, 2012)
Angelika Film Center
18 West Houston St. at Mercer St.
Opens Friday, June 28
212-995-2570
www.angelikafilmcenter.com
www.laurenceanywaysthemovie.com

Winner of the Queer Palm at Cannes, Xavier Dolan’s Laurence Anyways is an epic Canadian romance about the sexual and emotional bond between two people in the midst of complex change. Montréal teacher Laurence Alia (Melvil Poupaud) and actress Frédérique Belair (Suzanne Clément) are madly in love, sharing a unique worldview — one of the things they do is regularly list things that minimize their pleasure. But when Laurence suddenly tells Fred that he was born in the wrong body and wants to live life as a woman, their relationship is profoundly challenged. At first, Fred tries to accept Laurence as a woman, helping him choose clothes and defending him in public, but soon it gets to be too much for her as she considers what lies ahead. Meanwhile, Laurence loses his job — although the students are fine with his change, the parents aren’t — and so decides to focus on his writing career. Over the course of twelve tumultuous years, Laurence and Fred pursue life both together and apart, with drama following them everywhere they go. Former child actor Dolan, who turned twenty-four this past March, wrote, directed, and edited Laurence Anyways, already his third feature film, following 2009’s I Killed My Mother and 2010’s Heartbeats. At 168 minutes, it is at least a half hour too long, but it regularly takes intriguing, unexpected twists and turns that makes it worth sticking with, even as Dolan tries to squeeze in too much. Clément, who was named Best Actress at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar, gives a dynamic performance as Fred; her hairstyles alone, as the story moves between 1987 and 1999, are worth the price of admission, especially when seen in Dolan’s stunning compositions, which center on lush reds and whites. Poupaud (A Christmas Tale, Genealogies of a Crime) is beautifully restrained as Laurence as he deals with Fred and her family, his colleagues at work, and his mother (Nathalie Baye), who shockingly admits that she never bonded with him when he was a child. Dolan, who also did the costumes, includes several visually dazzling scenes reminiscent of MTV video interludes, as water crashes down and clothing flies through the air in slow motion; the soundtrack features songs by Fever Ray, Kim Carnes, the Cure, Duran Duran, and Depeche Mode as well as Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Vivaldi. Although it takes some dedication on the part of the viewer, Laurence Anyways is a startlingly different kind of romance, from an emerging young filmmaker with a bright future.

THE HITCHCOCK 9: THE RING

The bell is sounding for the start of BAM series featuring nine early silent films by Alfred Hitchcock, beginning with THE RING

THE RING (Alfred Hitchcock, 1927)
BAMcinématek, BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. between Ashland & Rockwell Pl.
Saturday, June 29, $25, 3:00
Series runs June 29 – July 3
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

When one thinks of Alfred Hitchcock, such psychological thrillers as North by Northwest, Psycho, Vertigo, Notorious, and Rear Window come to mind, not The Manxman, Easy Virtue, The Pleasure Garden, and The Farmer’s Wife. But it is these early, British silent films that are the focus of BAM’s exciting new series, “The Hitchcock 9.” The program runs June 29 through July 3 and features brand-new DCP restorations of nine romantic melodramas made by the Master of Suspense, each one shown in the Harvey Theater on the new Steinberg Screen, with live musical accompaniment. The series begins with 1927’s The Ring, a tantalizing tale of a love triangle set in the world of boxing, a favorite sport of Hitchcock’s. When Bob Corby (Ian Hunter) shows up at a county fair and takes a liking to Mabel (Lillian Hall-Davis), who sells tickets to see her fiance, “One-Round” Jack Sander (Carl Brisson), battle all comers for a cash prize, Corby decides to get in the ring with Sander to impress Mabel; little do they know that Corby is a professional. Soon the two men are also fighting outside the ring, to win the heart of their beloved. Comic relief is supplied by Gordon Harker as Jack’s trainer, who makes some very funny faces throughout. One can see Hitchcock’s visual style emerging in The Ring, as he employs little dialogue in favor of dramatic montages, ghostly superimpositions, and shadowy lighting. The film also deals with issues of class and financial success, themes that will become prevalent in much of Hitchcock’s work. Produced at Elstree Studios and the first film to be released by Gainsborough Pictures, The Ring will be screened at BAM on June 29 at 3:00, with a live score performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER

Eleanor Friedberger will get personal at Music Hall of Williamsburg on June 29 (photo by Michael Rubenstein)

Music Hall of Williamsburg
66 North Sixth St.
Friday, June 28, $17, 9:00
www.musichallofwilliamsburg.com
www.eleanorfriedberger.com

There’s something extremely comforting about Eleanor Friedberger’s voice, whether she’s singing about loneliness and heartbreak or the streets of her adopted hometown of New York City. With the Fiery Furnaces — the constantly shifting experimental outfit she formed with brother Matt in 2000 — on extended hiatus, the Chicago-born Friedberger has just released her second solo album, Personal Record (Merge, June 4), the follow-up to 2011’s Last Summer. Written with John Wesley Harding, the new songs have a more accessible indie pop feel to them, with infectious melodies and even repeated choruses that harken back to the classic rock she grew up on. Several of the songs feature demonstratively emotional titles — “I Don’t Want to Bother You,” “I’ll Never Be Happy Again,” “You’ll Never Know Me” — although the lyrics are somewhat more abstract and poetic. On the album opener, “I Don’t Want to Bother You,” she sings, “And you’ve given me everything I ever wanted / I want to be scared and I want to be haunted / Judgment impaired by your hair as it falls on my face / You’re a disgrace.” “When I Knew” boasts an irresistible Velvet Underground–like bounce, while she takes a look back, and ahead, on “I Am the Past,” explaining, “I am the past / You’ll never forget me / I’d probably come back and stay if you’d let me / I am the past and you cannot ignore me / You’ve got no idea what happened before me. . . . But mostly I’m me / I’m the past to infinity.” The album concludes with the anti-lullaby “Singing Time,” in which Friedberger repeats, “Singing time is over,” but here’s hoping that for Friedberger, singing time keeps going and going and going. She’ll be playing the Music Hall of Williamsburg on June 29, when she’ll also present the debut screening of her short film, “She’s a Mirror,” based on a song from the sweet new album.

4KNOTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: “TAKE THE MIRROR” BY WHITE LUNG

“I want to warn you,” White Lung declares on “Bag,” from their May 2012 sophomore effort on Deranged Records, Sorry. Consider yourself warned. On June 29, the Vancouver quartet — singer Mish Way, guitarist Kenneth William, bassist Grady Mackintosh, and drummer Anne-Marie Vassiliou — will be playing the 4Knots Music Festival at the South Street Seaport, pummeling the crowd with songs from Sorry, which features ten tracks that crash through in less than twenty minutes, as well as their 2010 full-length debut, It’s the Evil, in which eleven songs pass by in a far more leisurely twenty-four minutes. Also on the bill, which spreads across two stages, on Piers 16 and 17, are Kurt Vile & the Violators, Marnie Stern, the Men, Parquet Courts, Heliotropes, Hunters, Reigning Sound, the Babies, Fat Tony, and Steve Gunn. Like we said, consider yourselves warned.

TWI-NY TALK: STEPHEN PETRONIO

The Stephen Petronio Company will perform LIKE LAZARUS DID at St. Paul’s Chapel on June 29 (photo by David Rosenberg)

RIVER TO RIVER FESTIVAL: LIKE LAZARUS DID (LLD 6/29)
St. Paul’s Chapel
209 Broadway between Fulton & Vesey Sts.
Saturday, June 29, free, 7:30
www.rivertorivernyc.com
www.stephenpetronio.com

On April 30, Newark-born choreographer Stephen Petronio threw a New Orleans-style funeral procession at the Joyce Theater, holding the proscenium premiere of his latest evening-length piece, Like Lazarus Did (LLD 4/30). The site-specific work began with live music outside led by composer Son Lux and the Young People’s Chorus of New York City; when the audience arrived inside, they found Petronio lying on his back onstage, as if dead — but he is soon resurrected in what we called “sixty minutes of bold and beautiful movement” that delves into “birth, death, and rebirth and heaven and hell.” Petronio will be presenting another edition of LLD (6/29) on June 29 at St. Paul’s Chapel as part of the free River to River Festival. As he prepared for the one-time-only site-specific event, Petronio answered some questions about LLD and his long, distinguished career.

twi-ny: In October 2010, you performed “Man Walking Down the Side of a Building” as part of a Whitney tribute to Trisha Brown, who recently announced her retirement from creating new pieces. You were the first male member of her company. What is your favorite memory from those years?

Stephen Petronio: Opening night at BAM performing Set and Reset. The excitement in the theater was palpable and I was to have my first solo in TB’s work towards the end of this work. The moment arrived and I could see the top of Laurie Anderson’s spiky hair in the orchestra pit. She lifted the bow of her violin, and when she brought it across the strings she sent me out into a wildly adrenalized state that became a defining moment in my dancing career.

twi-ny: Last June, the company performed a one-night-only edition of LLD at the Ukrainian National Home in the East Village, and then you presented an extended run at the Joyce. How has it evolved since that initial performance?

Stephen Petronio: That edition was focused on the relationship between the men in the company as my dancers and me as their director. Who is breathing life into who? Since that rendition was intimate, with the audience on all sides, the dancing was more like a series of actions to be caught by the viewer as it passed by them. On the Joyce’s proscenium it’s more likely that action transposes into image, so what ended up on that stage was considered with a “long view” in mind. They are uniquely different experiences.

Stephen Petronio walks down the outside of the Whitney as part of Trisha Brown retrospective (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

twi-ny: Each edition of LLD will have site-specific elements. What adaptations are being made for the June 29 River to River show at St. Paul’s Chapel?

Stephen Petronio: Well, St. Paul’s is a multisided venue, like the ballroom of the first edition, but it has a marble aisle down the center of the dancing arena, so I’m considering “fractured compositions” as opposed to the frontal perspective of the Joyce, whole elements broken down and set into the space with shifting orientation.

twi-ny: The show begins with you lying as if dead on the stage, then rising up. Might that be a stranger experience in a church?

Stephen Petronio: Yes, the chapel aspect is large. Last night I dreamed that after a performance in the chapel an archbishop figure took me into the sacristy to discuss my motivations!

twi-ny: Wow. You often use eclectic music in your work; for example, in Underland, you used the songs of Nick Cave, and other collaborators have included Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, the British punk band Wire, and art rockers Fischerspooner. For LLD, you’re back with Son Lux [Ryan Lott], who you previously worked with on Tragic Love and Singing Light. What is it about Ryan and his music that merges so well with your choreographic language?

Stephen Petronio: Ryan and I have some weird connection. We understand each other quickly on some elemental level. I am drawn to him because I like what he does that’s not dance oriented. I always want him to write music that he would write for his own purposes and not some idea of a “dance score.” At the same time he is moved by dance — he is married to a dancer-choreographer [Jennifer McQuiston Lott], so he gets the whole picture of how dance and music can join forces.

twi-ny: Next year will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Stephen Petronio Company. How would you characterize the first three decades, and what can we expect in the next three?

Stephen Petronio: I am blown away that it’s been thirty years. I’m very proud of the body of work and amazing artists that have marked my life over these years.

NYC PRIDE 2013

New York City celebrates gay pride this weekend with a series of special events (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations
June 28-30, free – $45
www.nycpride.org
2012 gay pride parade slideshow

As more and more states pass same-sex marriage bills, especially now that DOMA has been defeated, there is more and more to celebrate at annual gay pride festivities, although there is of course still a long way to go until there is full equality nationwide. The party begins June 28 at 7:00 with the Rally (free) in Hudson River Park’s Pier 26, hosted by Pandora Boxx and Keith Price and featuring performances by Pam Ann, Nhoji, Vicci Martinez, Shawnee She King, Alexis Houston, JLine, Kit Yan, Jessica Halem, Sassfrass Lowrey, Ryan Amador, the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus, Teresa Genecco & Her Little Big Band, and the Imperial Court of New York, with speeches by Rev. Mark Erson, Carl Siciliano, Jacob Rudolph, Danny Garvin, and Janice Thom. The next day, the VIP Rooftop Party ($35-$500) takes place on Hudson Terrace from 2:00 to 10:00, with DJs Serving Ovahness, Marco Da Silva, and Frankie Knuckles, running side by side with the tenth anniversary of the official women’s event Rapture on the River ($25-$1,000) on Pier 26, with DJs Dimples and Whitney Day. On Sunday at 12 noon, the March (free) gets under way, moving from Fifth Ave. & Thirty-Sixth St. down to Christopher & Greenwich Sts., led by grand marshals Edie Windsor, Earl Fowlkes, and Harry Belafonte; among the awards being given out are Best Use of Theme, Best Marching Contingent, Best Decorated Vehicle, Best Musical Contingent, and Most Original. Also on Sunday, the LGBT street fair PrideFest (free) runs from 11:00 to 6:00 on Hudson St., with live performances by Rhythm Locura, Victoria Chase, Lady M., Ladyboi, Tania Marissa, Kelly King, Christine Martucci, and others, while the sold-out Dance on the Pier ($45-$1,250) gets hot and heavy on Pier 26 and people cool off at the new event Pride {Poolside} ($35-$500) presented by Hed Kandi at Hotel Americano in Chelsea.

4KNOTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: “THE DOVE” BY HELIOTROPES

The key thing about the 4Knots Music Festival at the South Street Seaport, which was formerly known as the Siren Festival in Coney Island, is that you get to see — for free — a whole bunch of bands you’ve either never heard of or who are just beginning to catch some buzz. Over the years, the lineup has featured such groups as Black Lips, Sleater-Kinney, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, TV on the Radio, M.I.A., Superchunk, Guided by Voices, Matt and Kim, Oberhofer, Eleanor Friedberger, Titus Andronicus, and so many more, not all of whom were well known at the time. One of this year’s big surprises is likely to be Brooklyn’s Heliotropes, who blew people away recently at SXSW and CMJ and have now released the best album of the summer so far, their stunning debut LP, A Constant Sea (Manimal, June 18), which you can stream here. On the record, bassist Nya Abudu, drummer Cici Harrison, vocalist and tambourine player Amber Myers, and lead singer and guitarist Jessica Numsuwankijkul take listeners on an awesome sonic journey through psychedelic indie rock and punk, from the fuzz blast of the opening track, “Early in the Morning,” to the sweet harmonies of “Unadorned,” from the propulsive “Good and Evil” and “Ribbons” to “I Walk upon the Water,” which ends with a supersonic freakout. “One of these days I’m gonna jump right outta my skin,” Jess sings on “Quatto” — yes, it’s named for the creature in Total Recall — and Heliotropes is liable to have the crowd jumping out of its skin when they take the stage at 4Knots, which also includes Kurt Vile & the Violators, Marnie Stern, the Men, Parquet Courts, White Lung, Hunters, Reigning Sound, the Babies, Fat Tony, and Steve Gunn. And be on the lookout for Heliotropes’ killer cover of Roky Erickson & the Aliens’ “I Walked with a Zombie.”