this week in film and television

TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL: AFTER THE SCREENING

Antonio Banderas will be at the Tribeca Film Festival to discuss his portrayal of Pablo Picasso in Genius: Picasso

Tribeca Film Festival
Multiple locations
April 18-29, $33.15 – $43.45
www.tribecafilm.com/festival

The Tribeca Film Festival’s “After the Screening” series features conversations, panel discussions, live performances, and Q&As following screenings of more than two dozen films and television episodes, not including the special shows at the Beacon Theatre. Most of the events, held at the SVA Theater, BMCC Tribeca PAC, Cinépolis Chelsea, and the festival hub at Spring Studios, cost between $25.94 and $43.45, except on April 27, when they’re free. Among the guests appearing “After the Screening” are Viola Davis, Sam Rockwell, Paris Hilton, André Leon Talley, Jennifer Beals, Steve Buscemi, Sandra Bernhard, Alexandre Rockwell, Brian Grazer, Joy Reid, Terrence McNally, Christine Baranski, F. Murray Abraham, Chita Rivera, Matthew Broderick, Antonio Banderas, Katie Couric, Tom Sturridge, Natalie Dormer, Paul Sparks, Kathleen Cleaver, Alex Gibney, Emily Mortimer, Alessandro Nivola, Ron Perlman, Kyle Abraham, Ralph Macchio, DJ Jahi Sundance, the Last Poets, Jason Reitman, and Tamara Jenkins. Tickets are still available for most of the presentations, although some are already at rush and limited status.

Thursday, April 19
Tribeca Talks: Director’s Series: Tully (Jason Reitman, 2018), conversation with Jason Reitman and Tamara Jenkins, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $43.45, 5:15

Westworld, discussion with Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy, Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, and James Marsden, BMCC Tribeca PAC, rush, 8:30

Friday, April 20
Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story (Julia Willoughby Nason & Jenner Furst, 2018), conversation with codirectors Julia Willoughby Nason and Jenner Furst, the parents of Trayvon Martin, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, executive producers Mike Gasparro and Chachi Senior, and special guests, moderated by Joy Reid, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $33.15, 5:45

Genius: Picasso, conversation with showrunner Ken Biller, executive producers Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo, and cast members Antonio Banderas, Alex Rich, Clémence Poésy, Poppy Delevingne, and Samantha Colley, moderated by Cynthia Littleton, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $33.15, 8:30

Saturday, April 21
Bathtubs over Broadway (Dava Whisenant, 2018), conversation with members of the cast and a special performance inspired by the film with surprise guests, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $33.15, 2:00

Freaks & Geeks: The Documentary (Brent Hodge, 2018), conversation with director Brent Hodge and Freaks and Geeks creator Paul Feig, Tribeca Festival Hub, $33.15, 8:00

Sunday, April 22
Netizens (Cynthia Lowen, 2018), conversation with director Cynthia Lowen and subjects Tina Reine, Carrie Goldberg, and Anita Sarkeesian, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, rush, 2:00

To Dust (Shawn Snyder, 2018), followed by Tribeca Film Institute conversation with writer/director Shawn Snyder, producers Emily Mortimer, Alessandro Nivola, and Ron Perlman, cast members Geza Rohrig and Matthew Broderick, and biologist Dawnie Steadman, hosted by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, SVA Theater 1 Silas, rush, 6:00

Mr. Soul (Melissa Haizlip & Samuel Pollard, 2018), followed by #SOUL50: A 50th Anniversary Tribute to SOUL! hosted by Blair Underwood and featuring performances from Robert Glasper, Lalah Hathaway, Kyle Abraham, DJ Jahi Sundance, Sade Lythcott, Kathleen Cleaver, and the Last Poets: Abiodun Oyewole, Umar Bin Hassan and Felipe Luciano, Tribeca Festival Hub, $33.15, 8:00

Monday, April 23
Every Act of Life (Jeff Kaufman, 2018), conversation with director Jeff Kaufman, playwright Terrence McNally, actor/director Joe Mantello, and actors F. Murray Abraham, Christine Baranski, and Chita Rivera, moderated by Frank Rich, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, rush, 8:00

Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes (Sophie Huber, 2018), followed by special guest performance by Blue Note artists Robert Glasper, Derrick Hodge, and Kendrick Scott, Tribeca Festival Hub, rush, 8:00

Steve Buscemi will take part in twenty-fifth anniversary screening of In the Soup with Jennifer Beals, Sam Rockwell, and others

Tuesday, April 24
In the Soup (Alexandre Rockwell, 1992), conversation with director Alexandre Rockwell, actors Steve Buscemi, Jennifer Beals, and Sam Rockwell, and cinematographer Phil Parmet, SVA Theater 1 Silas, $25.94, 7:30

Cobra Kai, conversation with writers, directors, and executive producers Hayden Schlossberg, John Hurwitz, and Josh Heald and series stars and executive producers Ralph Macchio and William Zabka, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, rush, 7:45

Wednesday, April 25
Bobby Kennedy for President (Dawn Porter, 2018), conversation with director Dawn Porter and Ambassador William vanden Heuvel, SVA Theater 1 Silas, $33.15, 5:00

Woman Walks Ahead (Susanna White, 2017), conversation with director Susanna White, actor Sam Rockwell, and others, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $25.94, 5:45

Phenoms, conversation with executive producers David Brooks and Mario Melchiot, producer Arbi Pedrossian, creative director Chris Perkel, producer and editor Thomas Verette, and directors Jane Hicks, Jeff Zimbalist, and Michael Zimbalist, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, $33.15, 8:30

The Gospel According to André (Kate Novack, 2018), conversation with director Kate Novack, subject André Leon Talley, producers Andrew Rossi and Josh Braun, and executive producer Roger Ross Williams, moderated by Sandra Bernhard, BMCC Tribeca PAC, $33.15, 8:30

Ella Purnell and Paul Sparks will talk about their new series, Sweetbitter, at Tribeca

Thursday, April 26
Sweetbitter, conversation with creator, executive producer, and writer Stephanie Danler, showrunner Stuart Zicherman, and cast members Ella Purnell, Caitlin FitzGerald, Tom Sturridge, and Paul Sparks, moderated by Katie Couric, SVA Theater 1 Silas, rush, 5:00

Enhanced, conversation with executive producer Alex Gibney and directors Chai Vasarhelyi and Jesse Sweet, moderated by Marisa Guthrie, Cinépolis Chelsea 7, $33.15, 6:00

RX: Early Detection a Cancer Journey with Sandra Lee (Cathy Chermol Schrijver, 2018), conversation with director Cathy Chermol Schrijver and subjects Sandra Lee and Kimber Lee, SVA Theater 1 Silas, $25.94, 7:45

Drunk History, conversation with cocreator, director, and host Derek Waters, cocreator and director Jeremy Konner, and special guests (and two complimentary drink tickets), Tribeca Festival Hub, $33.15, 8:30

Friday, April 27
Little Women (Vanessa Caswill, 2017), conversation with executive producers Colin Callender and Rebecca Eaton and cast member Maya Hawke, SVA Theater 1 Silas, free with advance ticket, 5:00

The Last Defense, conversation with executive producers Viola Davis and Julius Tennon, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, free with advance ticket, 6:00

The American Meme (Bert Marcus, 2018), conversation with director Bert Marcus and subjects Paris Hilton, Kirill Bichutsky, Brittany Furlan, the Fat Jew, and Hailey Baldwin, Tribeca Festival Hub, limited, 8:00

Saturday, April 28
The Staircase, conversation with creator and director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and producers Matthieu Belghiti and Allyson Luchak, SVA Theater 2 Beatrice, $33.15, 6:00

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Larysa Kondracki, 2018), conversation with director Larysa Kondracki, executive producer Jo Porter, and cast member Natalie Dormer, SVA Theater 1 Silas, $33.15, 8:00

BROOKLYN MUSEUM FIRST SATURDAY: DAVID BOWIE!

Photograph from the cover shoot for Aladdin Sane, 1973. Photo by Brian Duffy. Photo Duffy (c) Duffy Archives & the David Bowie Archive

Photograph from the cover shoot for Aladdin Sane, 1973 (Photo by Brian Duffy. Photo Duffy © Duffy Archives & the David Bowie Archive)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, April 7, free (“David Bowie is” requires advance tickets of $25), 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The late, great David Bowie is the subject of the Brooklyn Museum’s free April First Saturday program, celebrating the major exhibition “David Bowie is.” There will be live performances by Bowie pianist Mike Garson and Bowie favorite Tamar-kali; a book club talk and signing with Simon Critchley, author of the 2014 book Bowie; a screening of D. A. Pennebaker’s concert film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars; a hands-on art workshop in which participants can make Bowie-inspired watercolors; a photo booth where everyone is encouraged to pose as a Bowie persona; Drink and Draw sketching of live models dressed as Bowie; a Bowie-themed showcase by Bushwig, hosted by Horrorchata, Untitled Queen, and Tyler Ashley; and pop-up gallery talks by teen apprentices in the “American Art” galleries. In addition, the galleries will be open late so you can check out “William Trost Richards: Experiments in Watercolor,” “Arts of Korea,” “Infinite Blue,” “Ahmed Mater: Mecca Journeys,” “Rodin at the Brooklyn Museum: The Body in Bronze,” “A Woman’s Afterlife: Gender Transformation in Ancient Egypt,” and more. However, please note that advance tickets are required to see “David Bowie is,” at the regular admission price.

WWII ON FILM: THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED

Jerry Lewis’s The Day the Clown Cried is screening at inaugural WWII film festival

When Jerry Lewis died last August at the age of ninety-one, it was widely believed that his controversial, unreleased 1972 Holocaust drama, The Day the Clown Cried, would never see the light of day. It looks like he will not be getting his wish. Set in a Nazi concentration camp, the film features Lewis, who also wrote and directed the picture, as Helmut Doork, a German clown who dons his makeup in Auschwitz in order to entertain the imprisoned children. Over the years, trickles of information have come out about the film. In 1992, Harry Shearer, one of the few to see the whole movie, told Spy magazine, “With most of these kinds of things, you find that the anticipation, or the concept, is better than the thing itself. But seeing this film was really awe-inspiring, in that you are rarely in the presence of a perfect object. This was a perfect object. This movie is so drastically wrong, its pathos and its comedy are so wildly misplaced, that you could not, in your fantasy of what it might be like, improve on what it really is. ‘Oh my God!’ — that’s all you can say.” At Cannes, Lewis explained, “It was all bad and it was bad because I lost the magic. You will never see it, no one will ever see it, because I am embarrassed at the poor work.”

Photographs, clips of the film, which also stars Harriet Andersson, Jonas Bergström, Claude Bolling, and Pierre Étaix, and even a draft of the script have leaked out, spurring people’s interest even as fiercely Lewis protected it. “But who am I preserving it for?” Lewis told Entertainment Weekly in 2013. “No one’s ever gonna see it. But the preservation that I believe is that, when I die, I’m in total control of the material now. Nobody can touch it. After I’m gone, who knows what’s going to happen? I think I have the legalese necessary to keep it where it is. So I’m pretty sure that it won’t be seen. The only thing that I do feel, that I always get a giggle out of, some smart young guy like Chris [Nashawaty] is going to come up with an idea and he’s going to run the fucking thing. I would love that. Because he’s going to see a hell of a movie!” Lewis fans, film historians, and curious onlookers will finally get to see The Day the Clown Cried when it is revealed to the world on April 31, kicking off the inaugural “WWII on Film” festival, being held at the Documentary Institute of Manhattan. Tickets are going fast for what might very well be the film’s only public screening ever. As Lewis also said, “Don’t you understand how dramatic it is to be a comic? To be a fool, to get people to laugh at this show-off? Milton Berle could take Laurence Olivier and stick him under the table if he wanted to. And so could I.” Yes, it’s all fools’ gold, especially on a day such as today.

THE GREAT SILENCE

Jean-Louis Trintignant stars as a mute antihero in Sergio Corbucci’s The Great Silence

THE GREAT SILENCE (IL GRANDE SILENZIO) (Sergio Corbucci, 1968)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
March 30 – April 10
212-727-8110
filmforum.org

After half a century, Sergio Corbucci’s underseen masterpiece, The Great Silence, is finally being released in the United States, in a gorgeous fiftieth anniversary restoration screening at Film Forum. Corbucci’s revisionist spaghetti Western was shot by Silvano Ippoliti in the Dolomites in northeastern Italy, where luxurious white snow (actually shaving cream) goes on forever until it is stained with so much blood. French star Jean-Louis Trintignant plays a variation of the quiet hero who lets his guns do his talking; Trintignant, who did not speak English, is Silence, who, as a young boy, witnessed the merciless murder of his parents by bounty killers and is rendered mute with a knife to prevent his testimony. Years later, now an adult, Silence, with his unusual Mauser C96, roams the land in search of bounty killers, getting them to draw first so he can then fire back in self-defense, shooting off their thumbs so they can never use a gun again. It’s 1898, and hard times have come to Snow Hill, leading many average citizens to break laws just to put food on the table. Greedy banker Henry Pollicut (Luigi Pistilli) puts a price on their heads, wanted dead or alive, attracting various bounty killers, including the notorious Loco (German star Klaus Kinski), aka Tigrero, who never brings his targets in breathing, no matter how minor their crimes. Relatively hapless sheriff Gideon Burnett (Frank Wolff) is caught somewhere in the middle, as it’s Loco who is on the right side of the law and Silence who is walking a fine line about what’s legal. After Loco kills James Middleton, his widow, Pauline (Vonetta McGee), hires Silence to gain revenge, setting the stage for one of the most brutal endings in the history of cinema.

Klaus Kinski is a vicious bounty killer on the right side of the law in Corbucci masterpiece

The pairing of Trintignant, who had gained international fame in Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman, and Kinski, who had made such previous Westerns as Damiano Damiani’s A Bullet for the General and Sergio Leone’s For a Few Dollars More, has a dark magic, particularly since their characters are not clear representations of good vs. evil. Each one uses their eyes to intense dramatic effect, with Trintignant particularly effective since he doesn’t speak a word — just wait till you see him scream. In her film debut, McGee (Blacula, Repo Man) brings a stark sensitivity to Pauline; her interracial love scene was shocking for the genre, especially with Corbucci (Django, Navajo Joe) handling it in such a gentle way. Meanwhile, composer Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in the West; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) delivers one of his most emotional and wide-ranging scores. Fifty years on, The Great Silence can still be read as a parable attacking rampant injustice in society while also subverting the Western genre itself, a dark and bleak tale about the hopelessness of life. (If the ending is too much for you, you can watch the absurdly ridiculous alternate happy ending made for some foreign markets here.)

PACINO’S WAY: SALOMÉ AND WILDE SALOMÉ

Al Pacino stars as an intense, leering King Herod in his adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé

Quad Cinema
34 West 13th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Opens Friday, March 30
212-255-2243
quadcinema.com/film/salome
quadcinema.com/film/wilde-salome

In 2006, Oscar, Tony, and Emmy winner Al Pacino starred as the Tetrarch, King Herod, in a staged reading of Oscar Wilde’s controversial 1891 play, Salomé, at the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles, directed by Oscar and Obie winner Estelle Parsons and featuring Kevin Anderson as Jokanaan (John the Baptist), Roxanne Hart as Herodias, and the little-known Jessica Chastain as the title character. During the limited run, Pacino was also working on two films, one a fuller version of the play with the actors performing without script in hand, the other a documentary of the making of it all. Both films, the 2011 Wilde Salomé and the 2013 Salomé, are opening March 30 in their first-ever dual New York City engagement (though not as a double feature), concluding the Quad series “Pacino’s Way.” (As a bonus, Pacino will introduce the 7:30 screening of Wilde Salomé on March 30.) Salomé is a dark interpretation of the Wilde tale, photographed with a large number of close-ups by Benoît Delhomme. Not surprisingly, the production is ruled by Pacino’s portrayal of King Herod, with all the requisite scenery chewing and camp, but Chastain, in her film debut, is mesmerizing as Salomé, Herod’s stepdaughter who, after dancing for the Tetrarch — Pacino’s intense gazing at Chastain’s burgeoning sexuality is more than a bit creepy as Herod’s wife stands firm next to him — demands the head of Jokonaan, who has been imprisoned in a watery dungeon. The milky white Chastain goes head-to-head with the grizzled Pacino, getting the best of him in the end. Aside from Salomé’s dance, the film is sedentary and visually repetitive; Herod is primarily seated on his throne, and most of the other characters, including Ralph Guzzo and Jack Stelin as the Nazarenes, Steve Roman as the Cappadocian, Joe Roseto as the Captain of the Guard, and Phillip Rhys as the Young Syrian, just hang around him. Only Anderson moves about, trapped below. Still, the film is ingrained with a powerful force, driven by Salomé’s yearnings.

Al Pacino and Jessica Chastain discuss a critical scene in Wilde Salomé

Curiously, Wilde Salomé, which at one time was called Salomaybe?, was released two years before the film of the play itself. It is modeled similarly to Pacino’s stellar 1996 directorial debut, Looking for Richard, in which the star explores the play, the character, and the Bard, with the help of such fellow actors as Sir John Gielgud, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Estelle Parsons, Winona Ryder, and Aidan Quinn. Wilde Salomé, which won the Queer Lion and the Glory to the Filmmaker Awards at the Venice Film Festival, is somewhat more audacious, if also not as satisfying as Richard. “This is about a journey I’m gonna take,” Pacino says. “I have an idea for a movie that intermixes the life of Wilde and the life of the play and the life of me trying to make the play. . . . So we went in search of the man who wrote something so personal as Salomé.” Not hiding from the camera, Pacino confesses, in a near fit of rage, “I got too much to do!” He is also seen agonizing over a difficult situation while wolfing down a white-bread sandwich. The documentary follows Pacino from the Wadsworth Theatre in Los Angeles to Masada in Israel to Europe, where he visits places where Wilde lived and worked. He talks about Wilde’s destructive relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas, better known as Bosie, as well as with his wife and children. Pacino freely admits his obsession with all things Wilde, wanting to know everything he possibly can about the poet and playwright’s spirituality, what drove him to write the way he did and make so many damaging life choices. Among those who discuss Wilde’s influence are Tom Stoppard, Gore Vidal, Tony Kushner, and Bono, who also provides the closing song with U2. Pacino is like a kid in a candy store whenever he discovers something new about Wilde; it’s too bad that there isn’t more of that in the film. Instead, there are far too many scenes taken directly from Salomé, which is particularly annoying if you are planning on seeing both films at the Quad. But it still is exciting watching the genius actor on a quest to understand the genius of Wilde.

DANH VO SELECTS: THE EXORCIST

The Exorcist is screening at the Guggenheim in conjunction with Danh Vo exhibition

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St.
Saturday, March 31, free with museum admission, 5:00
Exhibition continues Friday – Wednesday through May 9
212-423-3587
www.guggenheim.org

In conjunction with Danh Vo’s revelatory Guggenheim exhibition, “Take My Breath Away,” the Vietnamese-born Danish artist has curated “Danh Vo Selects,” consisting of screenings of films that have meaning to him. When he was a child, his mother made him watch horror movies because she was too scared to watch them alone. The series concludes on March 31 at 2:30 with Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s 1999 Rosetta — “I confess my brain was gang-raped by the films of Jean-Pierre Dardenne and his brother, Luc. Rosetta and her phallic drive to secure a job (and therefore a place in society) is burned into my mind,” Vo says about the film — followed at 5:00 by William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, which plays an important role in the exhibit. Vo has titled several works, in which he combines sculptural fragments from different time periods into a new piece (inspired by Regan’s ability to spin her head all the way around), after lines spoken by Regan when she is possessed by the demon. The film “was shown to Vo by his horror-film-obsessed mother at the age of seven, when it no doubt made a terrifyingly indelible impression,” exhibition curator Katherine Brinson notes. “The film’s interrogation of religious faith and doubt, its depiction of the appropriated and dislocated body, and its themes of parental nurture and neglect can all be similarly traced in the artist’s work.” He also gave them unusual titles just so curators and critics would have to mention them. Thus, Your mother sucks cocks in Hell; Dimmy, why you did this to me?; and Shove it up your ass, you faggot! combine Roman marble from the first to second century with French Early Gothic oak. In addition, Lick me, lick me consists of part of a Greek-marble Apollo in a wooden crate, and another work features a wall of mirrors engraved with more quotes, as if they’re being spoken directly to the viewer. I’ve seen The Exorcist three times; twice it scared the hell out of me, but the middle time the audience and I laughed our heads off, as if it were a comedy. Which of course it’s not. As a bonus, on May 8 at 7:00 and 9:30, the experimental California band Xiu Xiu will present “Deforms the Unborn,” a new, extended song inspired by demonic possession in general and Vo’s use of The Exorcist specifically.

WHAT THE FEST!?

Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge opens What the Fest!? at IFC Center on March 29

IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
March 29 – April 1
212-924-7771
www.whatthefestnyc.com
www.ifccenter.com

If you’re the kind of moviegoer who likes to be challenged by outrageous genre films and undiscovered gems that provide unique experiences, What the Fest!? might be just the festival you’ve been looking for. Creative director Maria Reinup and executive director Raphaela Neihausen have put together four days of programming at IFC Center meant to make you go, “What the —” The festival consists of ten films never before screened in New York City in addition to a sneak preview of the upcoming series The Terror starring Jared Harris, who will be on hand to talk about the project with executive producers Soo Hugh and David Kajganich. Opening night features the science lecture “Death by Thousand Bites” by biology professor Simon Garnier, followed by Coralie Fargeat’s debut thriller, Revenge, and a reception. Among the other presentations are the world premiere of Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Dana, followed by a Q&A with director Frank Henenlotter, comics legend Mike Dana, and producers Anthony Sneed and Mike Hunchback; the Scandinavian Gothic tale Valley of Shadows, followed by a Q&A with cowriter and director Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen; The Endless, a twist on cults, followed by a Q&A with stars and codirectors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead; the Indonesian smash hit Satan’s Slaves, Joko Anwar’s horror remake; and the restoration of Marek Piestrak’s Estonian adventure flick Curse of Snakes Valley. What the Fest!? concludes Sunday night with Jenn Wexler’s teen-punk The Ranger, followed by a Q&A with Wexler and producer and costar — and low-budget master — Larry Fessenden.