this week in film and television

NOAH BAUMBACH IN PERSON: THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Lili (Anna Paquin) take measure of their lives in THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

THE SQUID AND THE WHALE (Noah Baumbach, 2005)
Metrograph
7 Ludlow St. between Canal & Hester Sts.
Monday, December 5, $15, 7:00
212-660-0312
metrograph.com

After an eight-year break from directing, Noah Baumbach returned with the exceptional, unexpected drama The Squid and the Whale. You’ll think you’ll know just where this semiautobiographical 2005 Sundance Film Festival award winner (for writing and directing) and New York Film Festival hit is going — yet another painfully realistic look into the dissolution of a New York City family — but lo and behold, The Squid and the Whale will surprise you over and over again. And even when it does head toward the cliché route, it adds just the right twist to keep things fresh. Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and Joan Berkman (Laura Linney) are reaching the end of their marriage, and their two sons, Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Frank (Owen Kline), aren’t handling it very well; Walt is taking credit for having written Pink Floyd’s “Hey You,” and Frank has developed the curious habit of pleasuring himself and then – well, you’ll have to see it to believe it. And while Joan hits the dating scene and has begun writing, Bernard is becoming a woolly has-been author who just might be getting the hots for one of his sexy students (Anna Paquin). Set in 1986 Park Slope (there are scenes shot in Prospect Park, the Santa Fe Grill, and other familiar Brooklyn locations) and at the American Museum of Natural History, The Squid and the Whale features sharp dialogue, well-developed characters, and outstanding acting from a terrific ensemble that includes several rising stars. The soundtrack includes Lou Reed’s great “Street Hassle” and a score, composed by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips (of Luna), that borrows liberally from Risky Business, of all things. The Squid and the Whale is screening December 5 at 7:00 at Metrograph, with Baumbach (Frances Ha, Greenberg) on hand for a Q&A. As a bonus, the first 150 ticket holders will receive a Criterion tote bag and a copy of the director-approved Criterion Blu-Ray 4K digital transfer of the film, a package that includes new interviews with Baumbach, Daniels, Eisenberg, Kline, Linney, Wareham, and Phillips, a behind-the-scenes documentary, audition footage, a booklet essay by Kent Jones, and Jonathan Lethem’s 2005 interview of Baumbach. (A 9:15, $15 screening has been added as well, without the Q&A or goodie bag.)

NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: FRANKENSTEIN

Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch switch roles in National Theatre production of FRANKENSTEIN (photo by Catherine Ashmore)

IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Sunday, December 4, $25, 11:00 am (version B)
Monday, December 5, $25, 7:00 (version A)
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk

In early 2011, Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours) staged Nick Dear’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein at the National Theatre, starring Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch alternating in the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature. If you couldn’t make it to London to see the show, you can now catch it as part of the National Theatre Live series, which screens theatrical productions in movie theaters across the country. Both versions of Frankenstein will be shown at IFC Center, with Miller (Elemental, The Flying Scotsman) playing the Creature on December 4 at 11:00 am and Cumberbatch (Sherlock, The Imitation Game) as Frankenstein’s monster on December 5 at 7:00. The Daily Mail called Frankenstein “a memorable production and will doubtless be spoken of for years to come,” while the Guardian declared it “a humane, intelligent retelling of the original story in which much of the focus is on the plight of the obsessive scientist’s sad creation, who becomes his alter ego and his nemesis: it’s rather like seeing The Tempest rewritten from Caliban’s point of view.” The two-hour show, which earned both Miller and Cumberbatch the Olivier Award as Best Actor, also features Naomie Harris, Karl Johnson, Ella Smith, George Harris, and Andreea Paduraru, with music by Underworld, set design by Mark Tildesley (28 Days Later, 24-Hour Party People), and costumes by Suttirat Larlarb (Slumdog Millionaire, Sunshine).

SEE IT BIG! HOLIDAY FILMS: THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER

Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) and Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) have little time for each other in Ernst Lubitsch’s THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER

THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Friday, December 2, $12, 7:00, and Saturday, December 3, $12, 2:00
Series runs through December 24
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

Jimmy Stewart’s most famous Christmas movie might be It’s a Wonderful Life, but that doesn’t mean it’s his best. That distinction belongs to the 1940 Ernst Lubitsch black-and-white romantic comedy The Shop Around the Corner, which is screening December 2 and 3 in the Museum of the Moving Image series “See It Big! Holiday Films.” (It’s a Wonderful Life is also being shown December 3.) Stewart stars as Alfred Kralik, a serious-minded longtime clerk at the Budapest gift shop Matuschek & Co., serving as the right-hand man to owner Hugo Matuschek (The Wizard of Oz’s Frank Morgan), who relies on his star employee’s honesty and expertise. Also working at the store is Pirovitch (Felix Bressart), a timid family man who hides every time Mr. Matuschek asks for an opinion; the shy Flora Kaczek (Sara Haden); the brash, ambitious delivery boy Pepi Katona (William Tracy); and the self-involved would-be bon vivant Ferencz Vadas (Joseph Schildkraut). When Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) shows up looking for a job, Kralik tries to quickly dismiss her, but she ends up charming Mr. Matuschek and getting hired. She and Kralik, her direct superior, bicker constantly, each one hoping that a romantic pen pal will make their dreary lives much brighter, especially as Christmas approaches. But little do they know the love letters that they are so carefully crafting are actually to each other, their secretive literary relationship a far cry from their actual daily one.

Mr. Matuschek (Frank Morgan) and Pirovitch (Felix Bressart) prepare for Christmas in THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER

The Shop Around the Corner is based on Miklós László’s 1937 play, Parfumerie, and it very much has a claustrophobic feel, as events occur primarily in the small store. Stewart and Sullavan channel some of that Cary Grant / Irene Dunne magic as they go about their private and professional business, even if they don’t even make attempts at Hungarian accents. (Neither does Morgan, who gives one of his finest performances.) “There might be a lot we don’t know about each other. You know, people seldom go to the trouble of scratching the surface of things to find the inner truth,” Mr. Kralik says to Miss Novak, who replies, “Well, I really wouldn’t care to scratch your surface, Mr. Kralik, because I know exactly what I’d find. Instead of a heart, a handbag. Instead of a soul, a suitcase. And instead of an intellect, a cigarette lighter . . . which doesn’t work.” The central object in the shop is a cigarette box that plays the Eastern European folk song “Ochi Tchornya” every time it is opened; while Mr. Kralik thinks that smokers will tire of hearing the same tune over and over, Miss Novak convinces a customer that it is a candy box and that the repetition of the song will turn her away from opening the box again and again to eat more; meanwhile, Mr. Matuschek just wants to sell the darn things, delineating the three characters’ approach to life in general. Written by Samson Raphaelson, who adapted other plays and novels for Lubitsch, including The Smiling Lieutenant, Trouble in Paradise, and Heaven Can Wait, The Shop Around the Corner is a sweetly innocent film with just the right amount of edginess, a fun frolic through human nature and love, a fanciful confection set in the rococo interior of a shop selling little luxuries in a now-lost Hungary between the world wars. The story was also turned into the 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime with Van Johnson and Judy Garland (Johnson also appeared in a 1945 radio version with Phyllis Thaxter) and Nora Ephron’s popular 1998 romantic comedy You’ve Got Mail, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, the latter playing a woman who runs a New York City bookstore called the Shop Around the Corner. “See It Big! Holiday Films” continues through Christmas Eve with such other seasonal flicks as Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale, Charles Poekel’s Christmas, Again, and Vincente Minnelli’s Meet Me in St. Louis.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM FIRST SATURDAY: WORLD AIDS DAY

Marilyn Minter, “Blue Poles,” enamel on metal, 2007 (private collection, Switzerland)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, December 3, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum honors World AIDS Day with its free First Saturday programming on December 3. There will be live performances by MC and producer SCIENZE, the Brooklyn Ballet (The Brooklyn Nutcracker), and DJ Sabine Blaizin; a curator tour of “Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty,” led by assistant curator Carmen Hermo; a Community Resource Fair focusing on political advocacy; a hands-on sketching workshop with live clothed models; pop-art talks of “Infinite Blue” led by teen museum apprentices; a Day With(out) Art / Visual AIDS screening of the video compilation Compulsive Practice, followed by a discussion with Juanita Mohammed of the Women’s AIDS Video Enterprise, feminist writer and Brooklyn College film department chair Alexandra Juhasz, and HIV and gay civil rights activist Justin B. Terry-Smith; and a screening of David Kornfield’s The Red Umbrella Diaries, followed by a talkback with documentary subjects Dale Corvino and Essence. 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” requires a discounted admission fee of $10.

THE NITEHAWK HOLIDAY SHOW SPECTACULAR: BLACK CHRISTMAS

Creepy phone calls lead to gory violence in Bob Clark’s holiday favorite, BLACK CHRISTMAS

NITEHAWK MIDNITE SCREENINGS: BLACK CHRISTMAS (Bob Clark, 1974)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
Friday, December 2, and Saturday, December 3, 12:20 am
718-384-3980
www.nitehawkcinema.com

American-Canadian filmmaker Bob Clark might be best known for the holiday favorite A Christmas Story, but he also directed another, very different yuletide cult classic, Black Christmas. Clark, who had previously made Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things and would go on to make such wide-ranging fare as Rhinestone, Turk 182!, Porky’s, and Baby Geniuses, assembled quite a cast for the 1974 horror flick, also known as Silent Night, Evil Night: Olivia Hussey (Romeo and Juliet), Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey, Bunny Lake Is Missing), Margot Kidder (Sisters, Superman), John Saxon (Enter the Dragon, A Nightmare on Elm Street), Art Hindle (The Brood, Invasion of the Body Snatchers), and Andrea Martin (SCTV, Pippin). The story is set in a sorority house run by Mrs. MacHenry (Marian Waldman), who lets the young women pretty much do whatever they want (while regularly sneaking drinks herself). A series of obscene phone calls has some of the sisters on edge while Barb (Kidder) is much more bold, challenging the twisted voice. After Clare (Lynne Griffin) disappears, the other women start growing more concerned, including Phyllis (Martin) and Jess (Hussey), as do Phyllis’s boyfriend, Patrick (Michael Rapport), Clare’s boyfriend, Chris (Hindle), and Olivia’s lover, Peter (Dullea), along with Clare’s prim and proper father (James Edmond) and local police lieutenant Kenneth Fuller (Saxon). With Christmas approaching, the body count starts piling up, as do the genre clichés, but it’s all in good fun.

Written by A. Roy Moore and shot in dark, eerie killer’s-point-of-view creepiness by former documentary cinematographer and longtime Clark collaborator Reg Morris (A Christmas Story, Empire of the Ants), Black Christmas is a choppy yet scary slasher flick, evoking the giallo tradition exemplified by Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Clark keeps things mysterious as the brutal murders unfold while also avoiding the key question: Why does no one ever check the freaking attic? Red herrings abound as Carl Zittrer’s sinister score ups the tension. Inspired by real murders as well as urban legends, Black Christmas, which was remade by Glen Morgan in 2006 (with Andrea Martin as Ms. MacHenry!), should be a seasonal tradition in every household, but for now you can check it out in its annual screenings at Nitehawk Cinema, December 2 and 3, as part of the Holiday Show Spectacular, which continues through December 25 with such other Xmas classics as White Christmas, Eyes Wide Shut, Jingle All the Way, Love Actually, Elf, and It’s a Wonderful Life.

WORLD AIDS DAY: DALLAS BUYERS CLUB

Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey give eye-opening performances in gripping DALLAS BUYERS CLUB

ONE NITE ONLY: DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (Jean-Marc Vallée, 2013)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
Thursday, December 1, $16, 6:30
718-384-3980
www.nitehawkcinema.com
www.focusfeatures.com

In honor of World AIDS Day, Nitehawk Cinema is teaming up with UNAIDS for a special presentation of the Oscar-nominated Dallas Buyers Club. When foul-mouthed homophobic womanizing racist Ron Woodroof (a career redefining and Oscar-winning Matthew McConaughey) suddenly finds out he has contracted the AIDS virus and has thirty days to live, he is determined to do whatever it takes to stay alive. Soon he has set up a small operation where people with HIV and AIDS can obtain medications that the FDA has not approved but that appear to help control the disease. Based on a true story that was documented in a Dallas Life magazine article in August 1992, Dallas Buyers Club is a gripping look at the AIDS crisis as seen through the eyes of a macho Texas electrician and rodeo man who doesn’t like what he sees when it comes to the medical establishment, believing that doctors and the FDA are in bed with the big pharmaceutical companies, who want to fast-track the questionable AZT drug. Jared Leto gives a spectacular Oscar-winning performance as Ron’s business partner, Rayon, a transgender woman trying to live life as a woman; Leto, almost unrecognizable, immerses himself in the complex role, avoiding genre clichés as the Marc Bolan-worshiping Rayon works alongside Woodroof. And McConaughey goes the full Christian Bale route as Woodroof, losing fifty pounds to play the gaunt wheeler-dealer who loves life too much to just give up. The cast also features Jennifer Garner as Eve Saks, a doctor who is sympathetic to Ron and Rayon’s plight; Denis O’Hare as her strict boss, Dr. Sevard; Griffin Dunne as a former doctor helping AIDS patients in Mexico; and Deerhunter lead singer Bradford Cox as Rayon’s lover, Sunny. Directed by Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y., The Young Victoria) and written by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack, Dallas Buyers Club is a powerful examination of a different side of the AIDS dilemma. The film, which was nominated for six Oscars and won three, is screening at Nitehawk on December 1 at 6:30 and will be followed by a Q&A with Treatment Action Group HIV Prevention Research and Policy Coordinator Jeremiah Johnson.

POETIC AND POLITICAL — THE CINEMA OF RABAH AMEUR-ZAÏMECHE: BACK HOME

Kamel (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche) and Louisa (Meryem Serbah) are outsiders in their own village in BACK HOME

CINÉSALON: BACK HOME (BLED NUMBER ONE) (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche, 2006)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, November 29, $13, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through December 13
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

FIAF’s Cinésalon series “Poetic and Political: The Cinema of Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche” continues November 29 with Ameur-Zaïmeche’s second feature, Bled Number One (Back Home), the follow-up and kind of prequel to Wesh Wesh and the second part of an unofficial trilogy that concludes with Adhen (Dernier Maquis). Kamel (Ameur-Zaïmeche) has returned home to his isolated village of Loulouj in northeast Algeria after having spent several years in France. Meanwhile, Louisa (Meryem Serbah) has left her husband, Ahmed (Ramzy Bedia), but her parents (Meriem Ameur-Zaïmeche and Larkdari Ameur-Zaïmeche) and brother (Soheb Ameur-Zaïmeche) insist she go back to him, saying she is bringing shame on the family. Both Kamel and Louisa feel like outsiders in their own village, which is balancing precipitously between the past and the future. The desperados, a group of young men who are spreading fundamentalist Muslim views, is battling with the patriots, the longtime members of the community, threatening violence on anyone who doesn’t follow the letter of the Koran. During Zerda, the pre-Islamic ritual of slaughtering and serving a bull in which the women are kept separate from the men, Kamel, in his ever-present orange hat, decides to be with the women instead, and the men, feeling shunned, remind him over and over that he is not to eat with them. The treatment of women in this patriarchal society is a central focus of the film. Louisa wants to break free of the chains that bind her, but she takes a bigger risk every time she strays from accepted, outdated convention. And the more Kamel proves to be his own man, the more the other men want to be rid of him. In fact, the patriots closely watch the town border, refusing entry to anyone they don’t want inside.

The film, which was written by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche and Louise Thermes, is photographed in a documentary style, with long shots both in time and distance; often what is being said among the characters can’t be heard and is not translated into English, as it is more for setting a realistic pace and a naturalistic flow. The muted, faded greens and blues of the village residences stand in stark contrast to the lush green mountainside and bright blue sky. The few times there is music, it turns out that it is being played live by Rodolphe Burger by the sea; at one point he sings William Blake’s “The Little Vagabond,” about God and the Devil. Bled Number One (“bled” in Algerian means “field” or “terrain”) is a subtle, poetic film laden with sociopolitical undertones, a melancholic yet beautiful work from an auteur who deserves a bigger audience. “To write Bled Number One, I didn’t return at all to Algeria to capture something about today’s youth there. I wrote this story based on my holiday memories,” Ameur-Zaïmeche has said. “But it is also because I felt that things hadn’t really changed, that time passes differently there. You have the time to reflect and be, faced with the elements. . . . A film is a gesture, a burst, a job, an enterprise, an action. An action in life, a pure lesson of life. It is here that we grasp something alive. For it is necessary to remain alive, no matter what else happens.” Bursting with life, Bled Number One is screening at FIAF on November 29 at 4:00 and 7:30; the later show will be followed by a Q&A with ArteEast executive director Jaime-Faye Bean, and both shows will end with a wine and beer reception. “Poetic and Political: The Cinema of Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche” continues December 6 with Smugglers’ Songs before concluding December 13 with Story of Judas.