this week in film and television

MONTHLY CLASSICS: THE SWORD OF DOOM

Rogue samurai Ryunosuke Tsukue (Tatsuya Nakadai) leaves a path of bodies behind him in THE SWORD OF DOOM

THE SWORD OF DOOM (大菩薩峠) (THE GREAT BODHISATTVA PATH) (Kihachi Okamoto, 1966)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, February 5, $12, 7:00
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Japan Society’s Monthly Classics series continues February 5 with the story of one of the screen’s most brutal antiheroes, a samurai you can’t help but root for despite his coldhearted brutality, a heartless killer called “a man from hell.” Based on Kaizan Nakazato’s forty-one-volume serial novel Dai-bosatsu Tōge, Kihachi Okamoto’s The Sword of Doom, aka The Great Bodhisattva Pass, begins in 1860 with Ryunosuke Tsukue (Tatsuya Nakadai) slaying an elderly Buddhist pilgrim (Ko Nishimura) apparently for no reason as the man visits a far-off mountain grave. Shortly before Ryunosuke is to battle Bunnojo Utsuki (Ichiro Nakaya) in a competition using unsharpened wooden swords, the man’s wife, Ohama (Michiyo Aratama), comes to him, begging for Ryunosuke to lose the match on purpose to save her family’s future. A master swordsman with an unorthodox style, Ryunosuke takes advantage of the situation in more ways than one. As emotionless as he is fearless, Ryunosuke is soon ambushed on a forest road, but killing, to him, comes natural, whether facing one man or dozens — or even hundreds. The only person he shows even the slightest respect for is Toranosuke Shimada (Toshirō Mifune), the instructor at a sword-fighting school. “We have rules concerning strangers,” Toranosuke tells him, but Ryunosuke plays by no rules. “The sword is the soul. Study the soul to know the sword. Evil mind, evil sword,” Toranosuke adds, words that torment Ryunosuke, who tries to start a family in spite of his hard, detached demeanor. But regardless of circumstance, Ryunosuke continues on his bloody path, culminating in an unforgettable battle that is one of the finest of the jidaigeki genre.

A snowy battle is one of the many highlights of Kihachi Okamoto classic

The Sword of Doom boasts a memorable performance by Nakadai, the star of such other classics as Masaki Kobayashi’s Harakiri, Hiroshi Teshigara’s The Face of Another and Samurai Rebellion, and Okamoto’s Battle of Okinawa and Kill!, as well as many Akira Kurosawa films, including Yojimbo, Sanjuro, High and Low, and Ran. In The Sword of Doom he is reunited with Aratama, who played his wife in Okamoto’s masterpiece trilogy, The Human Condition. Nakadai is brilliant as Ryunosuke, able to win over the audience, riveting your attention even though he is portraying a horrible man who rejects all sympathy. Also contributing to the film’s relentless intensity are Hiroshi Murai’s gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, which features a beautiful sword fight in the snow and an exquisitely photographed scene in a claustrophobic mill, and Masaru Sato’s sparse but effective score. The Sword of Doom is a masterful tale of evil, of one man’s struggle with inner demons as he wanders through a changing world. The Monthly Classics series continues on April 1 with Kurosawa’s Stray Dog.

TICKET ALERT: JOHN CARPENTER LIVE RETROSPECTIVE

John Carpenter is setting out on his first-ever live tour, coming to New York City in July

Who: John Carpenter
What: Concert tour
Where: PlayStation Theater, 1515 Broadway at 44th St., 888-929-7849
When: Tickets go on sale Friday, February 5, 12 noon, for Friday, July 8, 8:00 performance (price TBA)
Why: We’ve all sat on the edge of our seats, suffering wonderfully through cult horror films and low-budget thrillers by John Carpenter, who has written and directed such classics as Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, The Fog, Escape from New York, They Live, and Ghosts of Mars. One of the reasons we are so glued to the screen is because of the creepy, propulsive music, memorable themes that were composed and performed by Carpenter (along with such regular collaborators as Alan Howarth). Carpenter has made only one feature film in the last fifteen years, 2010’s The Ward, instead concentrating on his synth-heavy music. In February 2015, he released his debut album, Lost Themes, and now the master of horror is readying the sequel, Lost Themes II (April 15, Sacred Bones), which boasts such tracks as “Distant Dream,” “White Pulse,” “Windy Death,” and “Bela Lugosi.” In addition, and even more exciting, Carpenter will be setting off on his first-ever live tour, playing songs from the Lost Themes records as well as soundtrack favorites from throughout his career; Carpenter, who hails from Carthage, New York, will be at the PlayStation Theater in Times Square on July 8. Tickets go on sale February 5 at noon. Get that popcorn and soda ready; this should be one splendid, and of course unusual, evening.

CHARLOTTE RAMPLING: THE NIGHT PORTER

Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) and Max (Dirk Bogarde) relive their Holocaust experience in THE NIGHT PORTER

WEEKEND CLASSICS: THE NIGHT PORTER (Liliana Cavani, 1974)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
February 5-7, 11:00 am
Series runs through March 6
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com

Disgraceful Nazi porn or searing allegory about the devastating after-effects of the Holocaust on victims as well as Europe as a whole? Lurid exploitation or sensitively drawn, poignant exploration of a severe case of Stockholm syndrome? You can decide for yourself when Liliana Cavani’s ever-so-kinky, extremely controversial 1974 drama, The Night Porter, screens at the very strange time of eleven o’clock in the morning February 5-7 as part of the IFC Center’s eight-film tribute to Charlotte Rampling, being held on the occasion of the release of her latest movie, 45 Years, which has earned the British actress, model, and singer her first Oscar nomination. Rampling is downright frightening as Lucia, a young woman who was tortured as a sex slave by SS officer Maximilian Theo Aldorfer (Dirk Bogarde) in a Nazi concentration camp. It’s now 1957, and Lucia has arrived in Vienna with her husband (Marino Masé), a prominent American conductor. Lucia and Max, who is the night porter at the fashionable Hotel zur Oper, instantly recognize each other, and the moment hangs in the air, neither sure what the other will do. They say nothing, and soon the two of them have seemingly journeyed back to the camp, involved in a dangerous descent into sex and violence behind closed doors. But a small group of Max’s Nazi friends, including Klaus (Philippe Leroy), Hans Folger (Gabriele Ferzetti), and Stumm (Giuseppe Addobbati), who have dedicated themselves to destroying documents — and witnesses — as former members of the SS are brought to trial, become suspicious of Max’s bizarre relationship with Lucia, who could make trouble for them all.

THE NIGHT PORTER is part of eight-film Charlotte Rampling tribute at IFC Center

Cavani (The Berlin Affair, Ripley’s Game), er, takes no prisoners in The Night Porter, holding nothing back as Max and Lucia grow closer and closer, eventually isolating themselves from the rest of the world. Rampling plays Lucia like a caged animal, her penetrating eyes bathed in mystery; we never know what she’s going to do next, and still we’re continually shocked by her actions. Bogarde plays Max with a grim elegance; he believes that he truly loves Lucia, and that she loves him. He uses his body, and especially his hands, with an eerie grace that is both complicated and scary. The film is very much about performance and voyeurism, about the relationship between creator, performer, and audience. When Max first sees Lucia in the concentration camp, he is instantly taken with her, and he begins filming her with his camera. In one of the movie’s most provocative and titillating scenes, Max and other Nazis watch the young Lucia, wearing an SS outfit but with only suspenders on top, sing “Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte” (“If I Could Wish for Something”), a German song made famous by Marlene Dietrich (and originally written by Friedrich Hollaender for the 1931 film The Man in Search of His Murderer). It’s a mesmerizing few minutes that takes the sadomasochism to a whole new psychological level. Max is also still taking care of Bert (Amedeo Amodio), another survivor who has been dancing for Max and other SS officers since the war. So it is not surprising that Lucia has married a conductor, a man with the power to control others. The film has holes you can drive a Panzer through, but it’s impossible to take your eyes off of Rampling (Georgy Girl, Stardust Memories, The Verdict), who will turn seventy on February 5, and Bogarde (The Servant, Darling, Death in Venice), two beautiful actors locked in a grotesque game of cat and mouse. The Rampling series continues at IFC through March 6 with Heading South, Under the Sand, The Cherry Orchard, and Farewell, My Lovely.

FIRST SATURDAY: RADICAL BLACK HISTORY

Stanley Nelson will be at the Brooklyn Museum to screen and discuss his 2015 documentary, THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION, as part of free Black History Month program

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, February 6, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum turns its attention to Black History Month for its February edition of its free First Saturday program. There will be live performances by Dasan Ahanu and Tai Allen (“The Originals,” a live mix-tape honoring Gil Scott-Heron and Oscar Brown Jr.), the New Black Fest (“HANDS UP 7: Testaments,” monologues followed by a Q&A), L.A. Lytes (Latasha Alcindor, DJ Afro Panther, and NonVisuals), and Charles Perry; art chats with experts using the ASK app; interactive activities with the Museum of Impact, the Very Black Project, and #TeamMelanin; an art workshop inspired by Romare Bearden’s collage portraits; an art workshop about Black Lives Matter and gender justice led by activist Joshua Allen; book-club discussions of Joshua Bloom and Waldo E. Martin’s Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party and Bob Avakian’s From Ike to Mao and Beyond: My Journey from Mainstream America to Revolutionary Communist, led by Andy Zee; and a screening of Stanley Nelson’s 2015 documentary, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, followed by a conversation with Nelson and Elizabeth Sackler. In addition, the galleries are open late so you can check out such exhibitions as “Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008,” “Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (to a Seagull),’” “KAWS: ALONG THE WAY,” “Forever Coney: Photographs from the Brooklyn Museum Collection,” and “Agitprop!”

RAMS

A community of sheep farms is threatened by a devastating disease in RAMS

RAMS (Grímur Hákonarson, 2015)
Film Forum, 209 West Houston St., 212-727-8110
Lincoln Plaza Cinema, 1886 Broadway at 63rd St., 212-757-2280
Opens Wednesday, February 3
cohenmedia.net

When scrapie, a fatal neurodegenerative disease, is discovered in sheep in a close-knit farming community in rural Iceland, two brothers who have not spoken in forty years are forced to take a hard look at their lives in Grímur Hákonarson’s endearing gem of a film, Rams. Siblings Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson) raise sheep on their family farm, but they are locked in a feud that has lasted four decades. Neither man has ever married or had kids, and they essentially ignore each other when not exchanging handwritten messages relayed by Kiddi’s dog. The outbreak of scrapie, which is related to mad cow disease, means that all of the rams and sheep in the area have to be slaughtered and all the facilities thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, threatening the livelihood of numerous farmers. While Kiddi reacts by hitting the bottle, Gummi, ruled by his heart, has a different plan, one that could land him in serious trouble.

Brothers Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson) take a hard look at life and legacy in award-winning Icelandic charmer

Rams is a sweetly told tale with a healthy dose of black comedy and spectacular facial hair. Hákonarson, a documentarian whose previous feature film was 2010’s Summerland, was inspired by his friends’ and family’s actual stories — he himself spent a lot of time on a farm as a child — giving the film an unimpeachable authenticity enhanced by the casting of local, nonprofessional actors and, of course, real sheep, which he selected very carefully. Icelandic film and theater veterans Sigurjónsson (Borgriki, Spaugstofan), who has voiced SpongeBob in the Icelandic version of SpongeBob SquarePants, and Júlíusson are fabulous together as brothers with a common goal — preserving the family legacy — while locked in a brutal personal battle. A scene involving the siblings and a backhoe loader is absolutely brilliant, laugh-out-loud funny but tinged with just the right smidgen of compassion, emblematic of the film as a whole, which uses dark humor to counteract the devastating effects of scrapie and a lament for a disappearing way of life. Rams is beautiful to look at and listen to as well, with stunning shots of the vast Bárðardalur landscape by cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen and a spare score by Atli Örvarsson amid long dialogue-free scenes featuring natural sound and classical music in the background. Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and Iceland’s submission for the Academy Awards, Rams is a lovely little film, a deeply humanistic charmer that will infect your soul — and perhaps have you reexamining any long-running family feuds of your own while stroking your favorite wool sweater.

NITEHAWK BRUNCH SCREENINGS: GROUNDHOG DAY

Bill Murray stars as a cynical weatherman reliving day over and over until he gets it right in GROUNDHOG DAY

GROUNDHOG DAY (Harold Ramis, 1993)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
Saturday, February 6, $11, 11:45 am
718-384-3980
www.nitehawkcinema.com

“Well, what if there is no tomorrow?” asks weatherman Phil Connors in Groundhog Day. “There wasn’t one today.” Bill Murray gives one of his most nuanced performances in the 1993 comedy, ably directed by his Stripes cohort, SCTV alum Harold Ramis. Murray stars as cynical, smarmy, mean-spirited meteorologist Phil Connors, who has been sent by his local TV station to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities and report on whether Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow. He is joined by segment producer Rita (a radiant Andie MacDowell) and cameraman Larry (the always funny Chris Elliott), who find him to be a pompous ass. But just like Punxsutawney Phil comes out of his hole every February 2, Phil Connors is soon getting out of bed reexperiencing the same exact day, given the chance over and over to change, for better or worse. Besides being downright hysterical, Groundhog Day has a lot of heart, making it the kind of movie you can watch, well, over and over again, still pulling each time for Connors (who, not coincidentally, has the same name as the famous groundhog) to do the right thing and become a worthwhile human being. It seems that Murray does some of his best work when paired with a small, furry creature, like when he desperately tried to catch and kill a too-smart gopher in Caddyshack. And be on the lookout for Michael Shannon in his film debut, as the wet-behind-the-ears groom at a wedding celebration. The Groundhog Day Film Feast screening at Nitehawk Cinema on Groundhog Day itself is sold out, but you can catch the movie there on February 6 at 11:45 am as part of the Williamsburg theater’s Brunch Screenings series, which continues February 13-14 with The Wizard of Oz and The Artist and February 20-21 with Charlotte’s Web and the Spoons, Toons & Booze Valentine’s Day Special.

RABIN, THE LAST DAY

Amos Gitai digs deep behind the assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in gripping docudrama

RABIN, THE LAST DAY (Amos Gitai, 2015)
Lincoln Plaza Cinema
1886 Broadway at 63rd St.
January 29 – February 4
212-757-2280
www.lincolnplazacinema.com
www.kinolorber.com

On November 4, 1995, Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated at the conclusion of a major peace rally in Tel Aviv. Israeli auteur Amos Gitai explores what led to, and followed, the tragedy in the tense and gripping Rabin, the Last Day. Gitai and cowriter Marie-José Sanselme combine archival footage of news reports, press conferences, political rallies, and public speeches with extensively researched re-created scenes of the killer, Yigal Amir (Yogev Yefet), loading his gun and, afterward, being interrogated, showing no remorse; of the Shamgar Commission, which conducted hearings to find out what went wrong with security and whether there was some kind of conspiracy; and of a small group of Israelis establishing a tiny settlement in Gaza. The film plays out like a procedural thriller with flashbacks as a radical right-wing rabbi tells his congregation that Rabin, who had signed the Oslo Accords and was negotiating with Yasser Arafat and the PLO about ceding parts of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank to the Palestinians, is subject to the Talmudic concept of din rodef (“the case of the pursuer”), marking the Nobel Peace Prize recipient for death; a psychiatrist (Dalia Shimko) declares that Rabin must be schizophrenic because of the decisions he is making; and a police officer (Gdalya Besser) gives information to a hungry press. Meanwhile, the Shamgar Commission chairman (Yitzhak Hiskiya) and two members (Pini Mittelman and Michael Warshaviak) question Rabin’s driver (Tomer Sisley) and bodyguard (Eldad Prywes), the director of the hospital (Tomer Russo) where Rabin was brought after the shooting, the intelligence officer (Shalom Shmuelov) in charge of security, and others as they attempt to uncover every detail of the horrific event to see if anything could have been done differently — and whether more people than just Amir were involved. However, when the name of GSS agent Avishai Raviv is raised, two commission lawyers (Ronen Keinan and Einat Weizman) suddenly stop the proceedings, declaring that anything relating to the secret operative is classified. Perhaps most frightening is the footage of rallies — led by then-Likud leader and now Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu — in which participants chant “Death to Rabin!” and hold up signs depicting Rabin dressed as a Nazi and as Arafat.

Gitai, who served in a rescue unit during the Yom Kippur War and has made such other political, often controversial films as Kippur, Kadosh, Kedma, and the Border Trilogy (Promised Land, Free Zone, Disengagement), is not only seeking to uncover the truth of what led to the assassination but is also warning us that something like this can happen again, as all the elements are in place once more, and not only in Israel. It is almost impossible to watch the film without thinking about the growing hate speech in the United States in our national conversation about immigrants, Muslims, refugees, and building walls, all while more and more people, and small militias arm themselves and have less and less respect for the presidency. Gitai and cinematographer Eric Gautier (Into the Wild, The Motorcycle Diaries) move the camera very slowly, zooming in on the characters’ faces as they ask questions and give answers. The steady pace creates a tense atmosphere as scenes fade out to give viewers time to process what they’ve just witnessed. Editors Yuval Orr, Tahel Sofer, and Isabelle Ingold seamlessly weave the archival footage into the re-creations, making it difficult to sometimes know whether we are watching something real or restaged. But Gitai asserts that every single word spoken in the film is “completely factual,” that everything that is said has been taken directly from existing documentation. There is no omniscient third-person narration, no screen text or intertitles stating statistics. And to further the reality behind the film, Leah Rabin, the prime minister’s widow, and Shimon Peres, who was Rabin’s foreign minister in 1995 and won the Nobel Peace Prize along with the prime minister and Arafat (before becoming president of Israel in 2007), both speak with Gitai on camera. Could something like this indeed happen again in a democratic nation? Rabin, the Last Day essentially wonders why it hasn’t already.