this week in film and television

NEW YORK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT: MOON IN THE 12th HOUSE

Mira (Yuval Scharf) returns home but younger sister Lenny (Yaara Pelzig) is not yet ready to have her back in her life in MOON IN THE 12th HOUSE

MOON IN THE 12th HOUSE (Dorit Hakim, 2016)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Wednesday, January 11, 3:30 & 9:00
New York Jewish Film Festival runs January 11-24
212-875-5601
nyjff.org
www.filmlinc.org

The 2017 New York Jewish Film Festival opens with the tender, emotionally wrenching Moon in the 12th House, the debut feature by Dorit Hakim, who won the 1998 Silver Lion for Best Short Film for her eleven-minute Small Change. Hakim, a journalist and filmmaker who was born in Tel Aviv, lived for several years with her husband, Israeli hi-tech success Shlomo Kramer, in Silicon Valley, then moved back to her homeland. For her first full-length work, she reaches deep into her Israeli youth to tell the story of two sisters separated by tragedy when they were girls. Now adults, the vain Mira (Yuval Scharf) works in a glitzy Tel Aviv nightclub, where she does drugs and sleeps with her selfish, mean-spirited boss, Doron (Gal Toren). Her younger sister, twenty-one-year-old Lenny (Yaara Pelzig), has chosen to remain in the family home in the country, taking care of their ailing father (Avraham Horovitz), who is in an assisted living facility after a stroke. Lenny, who goes for a precious swim every day to temporarily escape her overwhelming responsibilities, is also watching her neighbor’s teenage son, Ben (Gefen Barkai), while his artist mother is away. Long estranged, the sisters are reunited when a desperate Mira suddenly shows up on Lenny’s doorstep, but as much as Mira might need her, Lenny is not yet ready to accept her back in her life. “It’s not as easy for me as it is for you,” Mira says, not understanding the sacrifices that Lenny has made, part of the reason why they are estranged.

Lenny (Yaara Pelzig) takes care of her ailing father (Avraham Horovitz) in debut feature by Dorit Hakim

Inspired by events from her life but not wholly autobiographical, Moon in the 12th House is a fragile, delicate film; it feels as if it could break at any moment, echoing how the sisters exist on a psychological precipice. Writer-director Hakim never makes things simple, avoiding clichéd plot twists as details emerge about what tore Lenny and Mira apart. Scharf (Ha-Emet Ha’Eroma, Ana Arabia) and Pelzig (Policeman, Good Family) have a strong chemistry, whether they’re fighting or cuddled together in bed. The film is beautifully photographed by Amit Yasur (The Slut, Next to Her), with a warm, spare soundtrack by Ishai Adar (Mr. Gaga, Bethlehem). Nominated for six Israeli Oscars — Scharf for Best Supporting Actress, Toren for Best Supporting Actor, Yasur for Best Cinematography, Li Alembik for Best Costume Design, Vered Mevorach for Best Makeup, and Adar for Best Music — Moon in the 12th House is screening at the Walter Reade Theater on January 11 at 3:30 and 9:30, with each show followed by a Q&A with Hakim and Scharf. The twenty-sixth annual New York Jewish Film Festival, a joint production of the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, runs January 11-24, with more than three dozen programs, from new fiction and nonfiction films to special tributes to Valeska Gert and the duo of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder and a master class with Israeli documentarian Tomer Heymann.

NEW EAR FESTIVAL 2017

Yulan Grant will close out the second annual New Ear Festival at Fridman Gallery on January 16 (photo courtesy of the artist)

Fridman Gallery
287 Spring St. by Hudson St.
January 8-16, $20, 8:00 (6:00 opening night)
www.fridmangallery.com

Curated by Peter Evans, the second annual New Ear Festival at Fridman Gallery on Spring St. consists of nine days of unique musical performances that push the edge of sound art. On January 8, opening night pays tribute to accordionist, composer, and humanitarian Pauline Oliveros, who passed away in November at the age of eighty-four, with performances by cellist and composer Leila Bordreuil, turntablist Maria Chavez, trumpeter Nate Wooley, and Evans and the premiere of the film Apple Box Orchestra. January 9 will feature jazz trumpeter, composer, and vocalist Amir ElSaffar, saxophonist and clarinetist Ole Mathison, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara. Drummer and alt rapper Kassa Overall will perform on January 10, followed the next night by keyboardist, vocalist, and mixed-media artist Ohal Grietzer and multimedia artist Victoria Keddie. January 12’s lineup boasts Grammy-nominated composer, musician, and installation artist Miya Masaoka, electronic artist Byron Westbrook, and performance and video artist Ursula Scherrer, while January 13 brings cellist and composer Tomeka Reid, trumpeter Jaimie Branch, and mixed-media and animation artist Selina Trepp. Percussionist, installation artist, and composer Diego Espinosa performs January 14, followed by multimedia artist, percussionist, and instrument inventor Levy Lorenzo and composer Lea Bertucci on January 15. The festival concludes January 16 with a sound and video performance by multidisciplinary artist Yulan Grant. If you can’t make it to the gallery, you can livestream the events here.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM FIRST SATURDAY: NEW YEAR, NEW FUTURES

Jason Benjamin’s SUITED will be shown at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday night, followed by the discussion “Queer Style as Resistance in Post-Trump Activism”

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, January 7, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

A lot of Americans were glad to bid good riddance to 2016, although there’s plenty of fear for what can happen in 2017. The Brooklyn Museum explores some of those very legitimate concerns in its free First Saturday program on January 7. There will be live performances by Tank and the Bangas, Discwoman (DJs BEARCAT and SHYBOI) and Cakes Da Killa; a Brooklyn Dance Festival workshop; a book club reading, discussion, and signing with Daniel José Older for his latest Bone Street Rumba novel, Battle Hill Bolero; a hands-on art workshop in which participants can make masks inspired by “A Woman’s Afterlife: Gender Transformation in Ancient Egypt”; a screening of Jason Benjamin’s Suited, followed by a “Queer Style as Resistance in Post-Trump Activism” talkback with Benjamin, dapperQ, Anita Dolce Vita, Daniel Friedman, Debbie-Jean Lemonte, and Rae Tutera; a curator tour of “A Woman’s Afterlife” with Edward Bleiberg; pop-up gallery talks on “Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty”; a community resource fair with Active Citizen Project/Project EATS, Caribbean Leadership Empowerment Foundation, Historic Districts Council, Spaceworks, Carroll Gardens Association, and Pioneer Works; Kids Corner storytelling (“Virtuous Journeys”) with Rezz and Mando; and pop-up publishing with DIY feminist publishers Pilot Press, led by Jen Kennedy and Liz Linden. In addition, you can check out such exhibits as “Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller,” “Beverly Buchanan — Ruins and Rituals,” “The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago,” “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas,” “Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty,” and “Infinite Blue”; admission to “Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present,” which closes January 8, requires a discounted admission fee of $10.

MARCEL PAGNOL’S MARSEILLE TRILOGY

Fanny (Orane Demazis) and César (Raimu) share a moment of happiness in MARIUS (courtesy Janus Films)

MARIUS (Alexander Korda, 1931)
FANNY (Marc Allégret, 1932)
CÉSAR (Marcel Pagnol, 1936)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
January 4-12
212-727-8110
filmforum.org

One of the great trilogies in the history of cinema, Marcel Pagnol’s Marseille Trilogy will be playing at Film Forum January 4-12 in a new 4K restoration, including marathon viewings of Marius, Fanny, and César on January 7, 8, 11, and 12. French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and director Pagnol penned all three scripts, the first two based on his stage plays, as he investigated love, honor, betrayal, friendship, religion, scandal, and social ritual among the petit bourgeois, the lower-middle-class citizens of the port town of Marseille. Shot on location, the three films, also known as the Fanny Trilogy, center on the big, boisterous César (Raimu in a marvelous comedic tour de force), who runs a local bar with his ne’er-do-well son, Marius (Pierre Fresnay). Marius is childhood friends with the sweet Fanny (Orane Demazis), who declares her love for him only after the rich, successful older merchant Honoré Panisse (Fernand Charpin) requests her hand in marriage. As Fanny’s mother, Honorine (Alida Rouffe), and aunt, Claudine (Milly Mathis), contemplate the potential match, Fanny tries to convince Marius to marry her instead, but he is hesitant, drawn instead to the sea despite his love for Fanny. Directed by Alexander Korda (Rembrandt, The Private Life of Henry VIII), Marius is a rollicking good romance with a surprising dash of naughtiness and featuring an outstanding group of minor characters, including Paul Dullac as Félix Escartefigue, Alexandre Mihalesco as Piquoiseau, Robert Vattier as Albert Brun, and Edouard Delmont as Dr. Félicien Venelle. The camaraderie among the characters is infectious — many of the actors previously played the same roles onstage — with César leading the way, a big, boisterous man whose bravura mix of insults and praise is as potent as the drinks in his bar.

Things get serious for César (Raimu), Fanny (Orane Demazis), and Honoré Panisse (Fernand Charpin) in FANNY (courtesy Janus Films)

It’s a great start to the trilogy, which continues with 1932’s Fanny, directed by Marc Allégret (Zouzou, Lady Chatterley’s Lover). If you don’t want to know what happens next, don’t read on, but make sure to see all three films, as each one is a gem. Marius has headed out to sea for five years, leaving behind a pregnant Fanny, who is shocked but delighted when Panisse agrees to marry her anyway, raising the child as if he were his own. César is overjoyed to have a grandson, who is named after him, Césariot, even though all have decided to keep everything secret in order to avoid scandal. But when Marius shows up during a brief layover, he is curious about the baby and is determined to find out the truth. Most of the cast returns for Fanny, except Auguste Mouries now plays Escartefigue, along with such new characters as Mangiapan (Marcel Maupi) and the local priest, Elzéar Bonnegrâce (Louis Boulle).

Marcel Pagnol’s Marseille Trilogy concludes with CÉSAR (courtesy Janus Films)

The conclusion, directed and written for the screen by Pagnol, César was made four years later but takes place twenty years in the future. As Panisse lies dying in bed, Father Elzear (Thommeray) presses him to confess his sins and, most important, reveal the truth about his son’s birth to the boy himself, Césariot (André Fouche). Meanwhile, Marius toils away in a garage in another town, having been out of everyone’s life for fifteen years. (If the plot of the entire trilogy sounds very familiar, then you must have seen Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.) The setup makes for some hysterical battles between the priest, the doctor, and Panisse, as organized religion takes some heavy hits. Pagnol also explores different reactions to death, sharing clever insight as well as sharp humor. The trilogy, which was restored by Compagnie Méditerranéenne de Film — MPC and the Cinémathèque Française and has been remade (in part or whole) by such directors as James Whale, Joshua Logan, and Daniel Auteuil, is thoroughly charming, a realistic depiction of life with all its grace and indignities. It won’t take long until you feel like you’re a member of this dysfunctional but enchanting family.

THE CONTENDERS: LA LA LAND

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling sing and dance up a CinemaScope storm in Damien Chazelle’s LA LA LAND

LA LA LAND (Damien Chazelle, 2016)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Wednesday, January 4, $15, 7:30
Series runs through January 12
Tickets: $12, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days
212-708-9400
www.lalaland.movie
www.moma.org

Call it Blah Blah Bland. La La Land, writer-director Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated Whiplash, is an overwrought tribute to the old-fashioned romance musical, a genre homage that lacks the energy and chemistry of the films that it directly evokes, including the Hollywood classics Singin’ in the Rain, Funny Face, and An American in Paris, Jacques Demy’s French favorites The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, and Chazelle’s own 2009 black-and-white indie musical, Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. (Look for a billboard of Chazelle’s debut that passes by quickly.) In La La Land, Emma Stone stars as Mia Dolan, a studio barista with dreams of becoming a successful actress; Ryan Gosling is Sebastian Wilder, a down-on-his-luck jazz pianist with dreams of opening his own club. The film opens with a fabulous number on a Hollywood freeway, as hundreds of men and women in a traffic jam get out of their cars and sing and dance, announcing that it’s “Another Day of Sun.” It’s also the first of several awkward, accidental meet-cute scenes between Mia and Sebastian before they get involved with each other. Chazelle, a drummer, knows the source material well, as do composer (and Chazelle’s Harvard classmate) Justin Hurwitz, lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (Dear Evan Hansen, A Christmas Story, the Musical), and So You Think You Can Dance choreographer Mandy Moore. Mary Zophres’s costumes are thoroughly delightful, as is David Wasco’s production design, bathing the film in bright, eye-catching primary colors. Cinematographer Linus Sandgren (American Hustle, The Hundred-Foot Journey) shoots the film in throwback CinemaScope, with the musical numbers done in a single take.

La La Land also features Rosemarie DeWitt as Sebastian’s kind but pushy sister, J. K. Simmons as a restaurant manager who hires Sebastian to play Christmas songs on piano, Finn Wittrock as Mia’s handsome but boring boyfriend, and John Legend as a jazzman who offers Sebastian the chance to play in a real band. Chazelle overmanipulates some alternate-universe twists, a fantasy scene in the Griffith Observatory from Rebel without a Cause makes no sense, and Stone and Gosling are not exactly Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Of the two — who’ve previously costarred in Crazy, Stupid Love and Gangster Squad — Stone avails herself significantly better; it’s impossible to stop gazing at her big, puppy-dog eyes, which continually dominate the screen. La La Land has its share of lovely, clever moments, but it never quite comes together, like a jazz song filled with great improvised solos but just doesn’t know how to end. La La Land is screening January 4 at 7:30 in MoMA’s annual series “The Contenders,” which consists of films the institution believes will stand the test of time; the festival continues through January 12 with such other 2016 works as J. Clay Tweel’s Gleason, Amir Naderi’s Monte, and James Schamus’s Indignation, followed by a discussion with Schamus. (La La Land is also currently playing at AMC Empire 25, Regal Union Square Stadium 14, Cinépolis Chelsea, and AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13.)

PopRally / THE CONTENDERS: DON’T BLINK — ROBERT FRANK

Robert Frank takes a unique look at his life and career in documentary made by his longtime editor

DON’T BLINK — ROBERT FRANK (Laura Israel, 2015)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Saturday, January 7, $15, 7:30
Series runs through January 12
Tickets: $12, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days
212-708-9400
www.dontblinkrobertfrank.com
www.moma.org

“I hate these fucking interviews,” innovative, influential, ornery, and iconoclastic photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank says while preparing to be interviewed in 1984; the scene is shown in Laura Israel’s new documentary, Don’t Blink — Robert Frank. “I’d like to walk out of the fucking frame,” he adds, then does just that. But in Don’t Blink, Frank finds himself walking once more into the frame as Israel, his longtime film editor, attempts to get him to open up about his life and career. Born in Zurich in 1924, Frank immigrated to the United States in 1947, became a fashion photographer, and had his artistic breakthrough in 1958 with the publication of the controversial photo book The Americans, which captured people unawares from all over the country, using no captions, just image, to get his point across. (In 2009, “The Americans”) was installed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in addition to a gallery show of related photographs at Pace/McGill.) In the film, Frank does talk about his past and present, discussing his time with such Beats as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Peter Orlovsky, which he displayed in the 1959 film Pull My Daisy, narrated by an improvising Kerouac and codirected by Alfred Leslie; touching on the tragic early deaths of his son and daughter; sharing details about his parents, including his father, whose hobby was photography; hanging out with his wife, fellow artist June Leaf; and delving into such influences as Walker Evans and his creative process, which is not exactly complex. “Usually the first picture is the best one. Make sure they’re smiling, say cheese,” Frank says with a laugh, then adds, “The main thing is get it over, quick.” Israel takes that advice to heart, trying to get what she can out of Frank before he changes his mind; at first he didn’t want to participate in the film at all, but once he went with it, he also made sure to playfully battle with Israel over who was really in control.

Robert Frank has fun with some of his old films in DON’T BLINK

Israel (Windfall) does not tell Frank’s story chronologically but instead relies on a kind of thematic wandering through his life, intercutting old lectures, interviews, home movies, and photographs with clips from such Frank films as Conversations in Vermont, About Me: A Musical, Energy and How to Get It, Candy Mountain, One Hour, and Paper Route. Israel spends the most time on Cocksucker Blues, an unreleased work about the Rolling Stones on tour in 1972 (and about which Mick Jagger told Frank, “It’s a fucking good film, Robert, but if it shows in America we’ll never be allowed in the country again”), and Me and My Brother, which focuses on Julius Orlovsky, Peter Orlovsky’s brother, who suddenly awakened from a catatonic state and had some fascinating things to say. Just as Frank’s films went back and forth between color and black-and-white and avoided conventional storytelling methods, Israel does the same with Don’t Blink, using offbeat angles, also switching between color and black-and-white, and incorporating other deft touches that lend insight to Frank, who is now ninety-one and still has disheveled hair, and his work, especially when he’s taking Polaroids and scratching and painting on the back of the pictures. (Alex Bingham served as both editor and art director, while the cinematography is by Lisa Rinzler.) The film’s fierce soundtrack meshes well with Frank’s independent streak, with songs by the Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, the Mekons, New Order, the Kills, Yo La Tengo, Patti Smith, Johnny Thunders, the White Stripes, and Tom Waits, many of whom Israel has made music videos for. Perhaps at the heart of Frank’s methodology is what he calls “spontaneous intuition,” something that works for both life and art and helps propel Israel’s warmhearted but never worshipful documentary; their camaraderie is evident in nearly every frame. Don’t Blink — Robert Frank is screening January 7 at 7:30, presented by MoMA’s PopRally programming for ages twenty-one and older, and will be followed by a conversation with MoMA curator Josh Siegel, producer Melinda Shopsin, editor Alex Bingham, and Israel, as well as a reception with wine, beer and music; it is also part of MoMA’s annual series “The Contenders,” which consists of films the institution believes will stand the test of time; the festival continues through January 12 with such other favorites as Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight, Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, Yeon Sang-ho’s Train Busan, and Johnnie To’s Three.

ILLUMINATING MOONLIGHT: MOONLIGHT / KILLER OF SHEEP / SILENT LIGHT / THREE TIMES

Chiron (Alex Hibbert) looks out at a hard future in Barry Jenkins’s powerful MOONLIGHT

MOONLIGHT (Barry Jenkins, 2016)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Thursday, January 5, 6:30
Series runs January 4-9
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.org
moonlight-movie.com

The Film Society of Lincoln Center is paying tribute to one of the best films of the year, Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight, with the six-day series “Illuminating Moonlight,” running January 4-9 and consisting of screenings of the L.A.-based writer-director’s 2008 debut, Medicine for Melancholy, starring Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins, which Jenkins will introduce; his follow-up, Moonlight, which will be followed by a Q&A with Jenkins; and six diverse works that directly influenced Jenkins in making Moonlight: Carlos Reygadas’s Silent Light, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Three Times, Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, Wong Kar-wai’s Happy Together, Nagisa Ôshima’s Gohatto, and Claire Denis’s Beau Travail. In Moonlight, Jenkins tells the powerful and moving story of Chiron, a shy, troubled boy growing up in Liberty City, Florida, in three chapters as Chiron goes from a young boy (Little, played by Alex Hibbert) to a teenager (Chiron, played by Ashton Sanders) to a twenty-seven-year-old man (Black, played by Trevante Rhodes). The semiautobiographical film is based on playwright and actor Tarell Alvin McCraney’s In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue and Jenkins’s own experiences; both men are from Liberty City but did not know each other there. In the first section, Little is chased by bullies and runs into an abandoned building, where he is found by Juan (Mahershala Ali), a drug dealer who brings him home to his girlfriend, Teresa (Janelle Monáe). They become a kind of surrogate family, as Little’s mother, Paula (Naomie Harris), is a crack addict who will do just about anything for her next score. Little also finds solace in his friendship with Kevin (Jaden Piner, later played by Jharrel Jerome and André Holland). In the second chapter, Chiron is taunted and bullied by Terrel (Patrick Decile) while trying to come to terms with his sexual orientation. In the third section, the passage of time reveals how much has changed, although the film turns overly melodramatic at the end. Taking its inspiration from the source material, Moonlight is beautifully photographed by James Laxton, who has previously shot Medicine for Melancholy and Jenkins’s 2003 shorts, My Josephine and Little Brown Boy, and 2011 “Remigration” episode of Futurestates, bathing the film in lush blues. Jenkins’s subtly paced style is accompanied by a gorgeous classical-inspired score by Nicholas Britell (The Big Short). Moonlight is anchored by superb performances by Emmy nominee Ali (House of Cards, Hidden Figures) as the cool and caring Juan; Harris (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, 28 Days Later) as the drug-addicted Paula, who has lost control of her life; Monáe (Hidden Figures, The Electric Lady) as the sweet and understanding Teresa; and Sanders (The Retrieval) as the in-between Chiron, who feels overwhelmed by all the maelstrom swirling around him.

Charles Burnett’s KILLER OF SHEEP examines black life in postwar America

KILLER OF SHEEP (Charles Burnett, 1977)
Wednesday, January 4, 7:00
Sunday, January 8, 8:45
www.filmlinc.org
www.killerofsheep.com

In 2007, Milestone Films restored and released Charles Burnett’s low-budget feature-length debut, Killer of Sheep, with the original soundtrack intact; the film had not been available on VHS or DVD for decades because of music rights problems that were finally cleared. (The soundtrack includes such seminal black artists as Etta James, Dinah Washington, Little Walter, and Paul Robeson.) Shot on weekends for less than $10,000, Killer of Sheep took four years to put together and another four years to get noticed, when it won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1981 Berlin Film Festival. Reminiscent of the work of Jean Renoir and the Italian neo-Realists, the film tells a simple story about a family just trying to get by, struggling to survive in their tough Watts neighborhood in the mid-1970s. The slice-of-life scenes are sometimes very funny, sometimes scary, but always poignant, as Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders) trudges to his dirty job in a slaughterhouse in order to provide for his wife (Kaycee Moore) and children (Jack Drummond and Angela Burnett). Every day he is faced with new choices, from participating in a murder to buying a used car engine, but he takes it all in stride. The motley cast of characters, including Charles Bracy and Eugene Cherry, is primarily made up of nonprofessional actors with a limited range of talent, but that is all part of what makes it all feel so real. Killer of Sheep was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1989, the second year of the program, making it among the first fifty to be selected, in the same group as Rebel Without a Cause, The Godfather, Duck Soup, All About Eve, and It’s a Wonderful Life, which certainly puts its place in history in context. Killer of Sheep is screening January 4 and 8 in the “Illuminating Moonlight” series.

The beautifully minimalist SILENT LIGHT served as an influence on Barry Jenkins’s MOONLIGHT

SILENT LIGHT (STELLET LICHT) (Carlos Reygadas, 2007)
Thursday, January 5, 3:30
Sunday, January 8, 6:00
www.filmlinc.org

Carlos Reygadas’s Silent Light is a gentle, deeply felt, gorgeously shot work of intense calm and beauty. The film opens with a stunning sunrise and ends with a glorious sunset; in between is scene after scene of sublime beauty and simplicity, as Reygadas uses natural sound and light, a cast of mostly nonprofessional actors, and no incidental music to tell his story, allowing it to proceed naturally. In a Mennonite farming community in northern Mexico where Plautdietsch is the primary language, Johan (Cornelio Wall Fehr) is torn between his wife, Esther (Miriam Toews), and his lover, Marianne (Maria Pankratz). While he loves Esther, he finds a physical and spiritual bond with Marianne that he does not feel with his wife and their large extended family. Although it pains Johan deeply to betray Esther, he is unable to decide between the two women, even after tragedy strikes. Every single shot of the spare, unusual film, which tied for the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival (with Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis), is meticulously composed by Reygadas (Japon, Battle in Heaven) and cinematographer Alexis Zabe, as if a painting. Many of the scenes consist of long takes with little or no camera movement and sparse dialogue, evoking the work of Japanese minimalist master Yasujiro Ozu. The lack of music evokes the silence of the title, but the quiet, filled with space and meaning, is never empty. And the three leads — Fehr, who lives in Mexico; Toews, who is from Canada; and Pankratz, who was born in Kazakhstan and lives in Germany — are uniformly excellent in their very first film roles. Screening January 5 and 8 in the “Illuminating Moonlight” series, Silent Light is a mesmerizing, memorable, and very different kind of cinematic experience.

Chang Chen and Shu Qi fall in love in three different decades in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s THREE TIMES

THREE TIMES (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2005)
Friday, January 6, 4:00
Sunday, January 8, 3:00
www.filmlinc.org

Hou Hsiao-hsien’s gorgeous Three Times is an evocative, poetic trilogy of tales about life and love in Taiwan, all starring the mesmerizing Shu Qi (Hou’s Millennium Mambo) and the stalwart Chang Chen (Wong Kar-wai’s 2046 and Happy Together). In A Time for Love, set in 1966 and featuring a repeated soft-rock soundtrack, Chen, about to leave for military service, meets May, a pool-hall girl, and promises to write to her even though they have only just met and barely said a word to each other. When he gets a furlough, he goes to the pool hall only to find that she’s on the move, so with Zen-like cool he tries to track her down. A Time for Freedom, a silent film with interstitial dialogue and period music, takes place in an elegant brothel in 1911, where Mr. Chang regularly visits a beautiful courtesan. But while she dreams of him buying out her contract and marrying her, he seems intent on helping out another couple instead. Hou concludes the trilogy with A Time for Youth, set in fast-paced modern-day Taipei, as Jing, an epileptic singer, and Zhen, a motorcycle-riding photographer, embark on a passionate, nearly wordless affair that has serious consequences for their significant others. Three Times is a rare treat for cineastes, a poetic, intelligent, though overly long study of relationships between men and women in a changing Taiwan over the last hundred years, focusing on character, time and place, and the art of filmmaking itself. Three Times is screening January 6 and 8 in the “Illuminating Moonlight” series.