this week in film and television

NYFF52 MAIN SLATE: GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE

Jean-Luc Godard’s GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE speaks for itself

GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE (ADIEU AU LANGAGE) (Jean-Luc Godard, 2014)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Saturday, September 27, 9:00, and Wednesday, October 1, 9:00
Festival runs September 26 – October 12
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.com

After the New York Film Festival advance press screening of Jean-Luc Godard’s 3D Goodbye to Language, a colleague turned to me and said, “If this was Godard’s first film, he would never have had a career.” While I don’t know whether that might be true, I do know that Goodbye to Language is the 3D flick Godard was born to make, a 3D movie that couldn’t have come from anyone else. What’s it about? I have no idea. Well, that’s not exactly right. It’s about everything, and it’s about nothing. It’s about the art of filmmaking. It’s about the authority of the state and freedom. It’s about extramarital affairs. It’s about seventy minutes long. It’s about communication in the digital age. (Surprise! Godard does not appear to be a fan of the cell phone and Yahoo!) And it’s about a cute dog (which happens to be his own mutt, Miéville, named after his longtime partner, Anne-Marie Miéville). In the purposefully abstruse press notes, Godard, now eighty-three, describes it thusly: “the idea is simple / a married woman and a single man meet / they love, they argue, fists fly / a dog strays between town and country / the seasons pass / the man and woman meet again / the dog finds itself between them / the other is in one / the one is in the other / and they are three / the former husband shatters everything / a second film begins / the same as the first / and yet not / from the human race we pass to metaphor / this ends in barking / and a baby’s cries.” Yes, it’s all as simple as that. Or maybe not.

Jean-Luc Godard has fun with 3D in GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE

Godard divides the film into sections labeled “La Nature” and “La Métaphore,” cutting between several ongoing narratives, from people reading Dostoyevsky, Pound, and Solzhenitsyn at an outdoor café to an often naked man and woman in a kitchen to clips of such old movies as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Snows of Kilimanjaro to Lord Byron and the Shelleys on Lake Geneva. Did I say “narrative”? It’s not really a narrative but instead storytelling as only Godard can do it, and this time in 3D, with the help of cinematographer Fabrice Aragno. Godard has a blast with the medium, which he previously used in a pair of recent shorts. He has fun — and so do we — as he toys with the name of the film and the idea of saying farewell (he plays with the French title, Adieu au langage, forming such puns as “Ah, dieu” and “Ah, dieux,” making the most of 3D layering); creates superimpositions and fast-moving shots that blur the image, making the glasses worthless; changes from sharp color to black-and-white to wild pastel-like bursts of red, blue, and green; evokes various genres, with mystery men in suits and gunshots that might or might not involve kidnapping and murder; and even gets a kick out of where he places the subtitles. These games are very funny, as is the voiceover narration, which includes philosophy from such diverse sources as Jacques Ellul (his essay “The Victory of Hitler”) and Claude Monet (“Paint not what we see, for we see nothing, but paint that we don’t see”). And for those who, like my colleague, believe the film to be crap, Godard even shows the man sitting on the bowl, his girlfriend in the bathroom with him, directly referencing Rodin’s The Thinker and talking about “poop” as he noisily evacuates his bowels. So, in the end, what is Godard saying farewell to? Might this be his last film? Is he saying goodbye to the old ways we communicated? Is he bidding adieu to humanity, leaving the future for the dogs, the trees, and the ocean? Does it matter? A hit at Cannes, Goodbye to Language is screening at the New York Film Festival on September 27 at 9:00, followed by a Q&A with star Héloïse Godet, and October 1 at 9:00. You can check out the NSFW French trailer here.

A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES

Unlicensed P.I. Matthew Scudder (Liam Neeson) searches for clues in Red Hook in A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES

A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES (Scott Frank, 2014)
Opens Friday, September 19
www.awalkamongthetombstones.net

Irish thespian Liam Neeson’s rebirth as an action star continues with the gritty New York City-set thriller A Walk Among the Tombstones. Based on Edgar Award winner Lawrence Block’s tenth of seventeen novels about Matthew Scudder, a former NYPD detective and recovering alcoholic, the film follows Scudder as he reluctantly gets hired to find a pair of killers who are kidnapping relatives of drug dealers, collecting large ransoms, and mutilating the bodies anyway, purely for pleasure. Fellow AA member Peter Kristo (Boyd Holbrook) introduces Scudder to his brother, stylish Brooklyn drug kingpin Kenny Kristo (Dan Stevens), who wants Scudder to find the two men who brutally cut up his wife. Soon the unlicensed private investigator is on the hunt for Ray (David Harbour) and Albert (Adam David Thompson), taking him from Red Hook to Green-Wood Cemetery to Washington Heights as he pursues the stealthy, dangerous madmen. He is occasionally accompanied by the young TJ (Brownsville-born rapper Brian “Astro” Bradley), a homeless teen he met in the library. (The story takes place in 1999 as Y2K approaches; ever old-fashioned and traditional, Scudder is looking for information in the library using microfiche.) But the game changes when Russian drug dealer Yuri Landau (Sebastian Roché) needs Scudder to help find his kidnapped daughter, reminding Scudder of the incident from his past that led to his quitting the force and the bottle.

Scudder (Liam Neeson) gets unwanted help from TJ (rapper Brian “Astro” Bradley) in thriller based on Lawrence Block novel

A Walk Among the Tombstones is a gripping thriller in which Neeson and Frank (the screenwriter of Get Shorty and Out of Sight and writer-director of The Lookout) manage to get past at least three potential problems that could have dragged the film down to the level of the previous Scudder movie project, Hal Ashby’s 1986 dud Eight Million Ways to Die, in which Jeff Bridges portrayed the P.I. First, this is yet another film about men butchering women, with no fully developed female characters. Second, TJ’s necessity in the story is tenuous at best, especially when he becomes an annoying red herring. And third, the AA aspects threaten to derail the ending. But Neeson, fitting neatly in the action void between Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford (in fact, about a dozen years ago Ford was attached to the project), gives an unpredictable depth to Scudder, who seems to be merely passing through life, involved only when he feels like it, a lost loner with no friends or relatives that matter to him. He does what he wants and says what he thinks, with a rather limited sense of humor, though he is occasionally very funny nonetheless. It’s hard not to be transfixed by Neeson’s unflinching performance as he wanders the streets of the city, looking for answers that will never come.

MEET THE AFRICA CENTER

Emeka Ogboh’s “Lagos State of Mind II” is part of Africa Center celebration on Saturday (photo by Steven John Irby aka stevesweatpants, © Emeka Ogboh)

The Africa Center: Africa’s Embassy to the World
Saturday, September 20, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
1280 Fifth Ave. between 109th & 110th Sts.
www.theafricacenter.org

The former Museum of African Art has gone through a dramatic transformation that will be revealed to the public on September 20 at a free festival celebrating the renamed Africa Center, also known as Africa’s Embassy to the World. As part of “its mission to become the world’s leading civic African institution . . . [the center] aims to transform the international understanding of Africa and promote direct engagement between African artists, business leaders, and civil society and their counterparts from the United States and beyond.” The museum will open permanently in late 2015, but on Saturday visitors can get a taste of what’s to come with the immersive sound-art installation “Lagos State of Mind II” by Emeka Ogboh involving a Danfo bus; the unveiling of Meschac Gaba’s hanging sculpture, “Citoyen du Monde,” in the atrium; live performances by the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang, Chop and Quench, Mamadou Dahoue & the Ancestral Messengers Dance Company, Nkumu Isaac Katalay, and DJs Rich Medina, Underdog, and Birane; screenings of The Power of Protest Music; arts and crafts workshops; traditional storytelling; grill tastings from chef Alexander Smalls of the Harlem brasserie the Cecil; and other cultural activities. The revelry will conclude with a private-event Festival-in-Exile concert that focuses on the musical connections between America and Africa, particularly Mali, with performances by Amanar, Amkoullel, Rocky Dawuni, Salif Keïta, and Samba Touré and Vieux Farka Touré.

NEW YORK ON LOCATION

Kaufman Astoria Studios and the Museum of the Moving Image will be the site of a movie street fair and celebration (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Kaufman Astoria Studios and the Museum of the Moving Image will be part of movie street fair and celebration (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Ave. at 36th St.
Kaufman Astoria Studios backlot, 36th St. between 34th & 35th Aves.
Sunday, September 21, free, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

On September 21, the Museum of the Moving Image is hosting “New York on Location,” a cinematic street fair and celebration, taking visitors behind the scenes of the filmmaking process in New York City, in conjunction with Theatrical Teamsters Local 817 and Kaufman Astoria Studios. During the all-day free event, people will be invited into more than twenty working movie trailers and trucks, meet film professionals, and find out just what the best boy and key grip are responsible for. You can even eat the same catered food the stars do — and use the same bathrooms as well. (Among the other vendors will be Papaya King, Jiannetto’s, Fun Buns, Brooklyn Popcorn, and Andy’s Italian Ice & Espresso Bar.) In addition, there will be demonstrations of stunts and special effects, including high falls, weather effects, street fighting, and driving, featuring such big-time pros as Frank Alfano Jr., Chris Colombo, Chris Barnes, Tim Gallin, Tony Guida, and Chazz Menendez. As a bonus, the museum will be open for free as well, so be sure to check out such exhibitions as “Behind the Screen,” “What’s Up, Doc? The Animation Art of Chuck Jones,” “Plymptoons: Short Films and Drawings by Bill Plympton,” “In Memory of Astoria,” and “Lights, Camera, Astoria!”

NYFF OPENING ACTS: BLEAK MOMENTS

A pair of sisters contemplate their miserable lives in Mike Leigh’s first film, BLEAK MOMENTS

BLEAK MOMENTS (LOVING MOMENTS) (Mike Leigh, 1971)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Monday, September 22, 6:30
Series runs September 19-25
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.com

British master filmmaker Mike Leigh’s feature debut, 1971’s Bleak Moments, is just that, a series of grim scenes involving five main characters who are not exactly the most scintillating of conversationalists. But slowly, the dark, dreary opening evolves into a wickedly funny black comedy about different sorts of relationships (familial, sexual, professional), comprising episodes that help define the film’s alternate title, Loving Moments. It would be hard for Sylvia (Anne Raitt) to live a more boring life. A typist at an accounting firm, she spends most of her free time at home taking care of her sister, Hilda (Sarah Stephenson), who suffers from a kind of autism. Hilda works with Pat (Joolia Cappleman), a strange bird obsessed with movies, Maltesers, and Hilda. Meanwhile, teacher Peter (Eric Allan), who seems terrified of people, shows interest, if you can call it that, in all three women. And Norman (Mike Bradwell), a wannabe singer-songwriter, has moved into Sylvia’s garage, where he plays music that intrigues Hilda. Over a short period of time, the three women and two men sit around, go for walks, eat, drink, and, mostly, say very little to one another, their tentativeness palpable, each one terribly frightened in his or her own way of what life has to offer, of connecting. But Leigh isn’t making fun of them; instead, Bleak Moments is a lovingly drawn story of real life, where people don’t always know exactly what to say or do or how to react in various situations.

Peter (Eric Allan) and Sylvia (Anne Raitt) go on a date to remember in BLEAK MOMENTS

Originally mounted as a stage production, Bleak Moments transitioned to the big screen with the financial help of Albert Finney. As became his trademark, Leigh, who would go on to make such highly regarded fare as High Hopes, Life Is Sweet, Naked, Secrets & Lies, Topsy-Turvy, and Happy-Go-Lucky, had the actors first embody the roles in rehearsals and preparation, giving the film a believability despite the absurdity of it all. The overwhelming despair and hesitation demonstrated by the characters becomes painfully funny, especially when Peter takes Sylvia to a Chinese restaurant and, afterward, she tries to ply him with sherry. (Might the man who stares at them in the restaurant be a forerunner of the man who mocks Rupert Pupkin in the diner in The King of Comedy?) In January 2013, Leigh discussed Bleak Moments with the Guardian, at first comparing it to watching paint dry and acknowledging that some people thought it was “the most boring film in the world” while also explaining, “From this distance, I cautiously feel I’m allowed to feel a touch of paternal pride in my young self. With such brief life experience, did I really invent this painful, tragic-comic tale of a beautiful but suppressed young woman, tied to her elder, mentally challenged sister? I guess I’m astonished at the maturity and sophistication of my achievement, not to mention its pathos and irony. . . . I’ve tried to vary my films considerably, but I would have to admit that Bleak Moments remains, in some ways, the mother of all Mike Leigh films. And I’m very proud of it.” As well he should be.

Bleak Moments is screening September 22 at 6:30 as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “NYFF Opening Acts,” a collection of early films by eleven directors showing new works at this year’s New York Film Festival, including Abel Ferrara’s Body Snatchers, Mia Hansen-Løve’s All Is Forgiven, Olivier Assayas’s Cold Water, and Alain Resnais’s Love Unto Death.

THE SOURCE360: DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY

DAVE CHAPPELLE’S BLOCK PARTY (Michel Gondry, 2006)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Saturday, September 20, $14, 9:45
Series runs September 19-20
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.chappellesblockparty.com

In September 2004, comedian Dave Chappelle put on a surprise block party in Bedford-Stuyvesant, sort of a mini-Brooklyn version of Wattstax, Mel Stuart’s seminal L.A. concert film in which Richard Pryor teamed up with a host of black musicians, including Isaac Hayes, Albert King, the Staples Singers and Carla and Rufus Thomas. Directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep) and photographed by Ellen Kuras (Neil Young: Heart of Gold, Blow) Block Party is Chappelle’s Wattstax for the twenty-first century. Gondry and Chappelle take viewers on a very funny trip as the comedian wanders around his hometown of Dayton, Ohio, handing out golden tickets like a black Willy Wonka, offering everyone free transportation to Brooklyn, loading buses up with a fascinating mix of people of all races. When he bumps into a college marching band, he invites them to play at the party, joining such big names as Kanye West, the reunited Fugees, Big Daddy Kane, Common, John Legend, the Roots, and Dead Prez. Gondry cuts between the preparation for the block party and the actual festivities, an infectious blend of music and comedy that makes you feel like you’re right in the middle of it all. Musical highlights include West performing “Jesus Walks” with Legend and Common, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu backing the Roots on “You Got Me,” and Talib Kweli, Common, and Fred Hampton Jr. rapping with Mos Def on “Umi Says.”

Dave Chappelle invites everyone to his Bed-Stuy block party

Unfortunately, the songs are not seen in their entirety, one of the film’s only drawbacks. Behind the scenes, Chappelle tickles the ivories to “Misty” and “Round Midnight,” hangs out with the bizarre white couple who live in the Broken Angel house across the street, and jokes around with Mos Def. The film avoids any overt political messages, although some of the songs deal with controversial topics. One of the sweetest moments is when Wyclef Jean plays “President” for the marching band, letting the members know they can be anything they want to be. Block Party is a shining, defining moment for Chappelle, who shortly after walked away from a $50 million Comedy Central contract, succumbing to the pressure of fame and expectation. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party is screening September 20 at 9:15 as part of BAMcinématek’s “The Source360” series, honoring the twenty-fifth anniversary of the influential magazine. The two-day festival also includes George Tillman Jr.’s Notorious, a biopic about Biggie Smalls; One9’s Time Is Illmatic, a documentary about Nas; The Man with the Iron Fists, followed by a Q&A with director and star RZA; and Peter Spirer’s Rhyme & Reason, which follows the history of rap music. In addition, Pass the Mic: Ladies First — A Night of Women Emcees, with Nitty Scott, Rajé Shwari, Roxanne Shanté, and Sweet Tee, takes place in the BAMcafé on September 19 and International Hip-Hop Night, with Amkoullel, Gokh Bi System, Rebel Diaz, Shokanti, AYoinmotion, and Bocafloja, hosted by Toni Blackman, is scheduled for September 20.

HIGH ART: HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE

Harold and Kumar and Neil Patrick Harris are on a mission not quite from God as they search for White Castle

Harold, Kumar, and the NPH are on a mission not quite from God as they search for a White Castle to feed their buzz

WAVERLY MIDNIGHTS: HAROLD & KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE (Danny Leiner, 2004)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Third St.
Friday, September 19, and Saturday, September 20, 12 midnight
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com

Harold (John Cho) is a hardworking Asian who is taken advantage of by the men in his office, forced to do their work and have no fun while having no idea how to talk to hot neighbor Maria (Paula Garcés). Kumar (Kal Penn) comes from a family of doctors and is expected to follow in the same direction. But all Kumar likes to do is get blasted on beer and pot and chase girls. So one night he convinces the much more straitlaced Harold that they have to go to White Castle to fill their craving for major munchies. Unfortunately, the nearest White Castle branch is no more, so they set out on a rowdy all-night adventure in search of the next WC, in Cherry Hill, and on the way they get sidetracked by college parties, strange bathroom incidents, the ugliest man in the world, a team of extreme idiots, cops with attitude, and Doogie Howser. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle knows exactly what it is, and it does it extremely well, expertly directed by Danny Leiner, who also brought us the unforgettable classics Dude, Where’s My Car? and Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach. The film also features a bevy of cool cameos, including David Krumholtz as Goldstein and Eddie Kaye Thomas as Rosenberg, Harold and Kumar’s drug-addled sloth friends; Fred Willard as Dr. Willoughby, who has one hell of an interview with Kumar; Ryan Reynolds as a male nurse; Anthony Anderson as a fast-food employee; Christopher Meloni and Malin Åkerman as Mr. & Mrs. Freakshow; and, yes, Neil Patrick Harris as the ultimate Neil Patrick Harris. You’ll start out hating yourself for laughing so much, but eventually you’ll just come around to accepting that this is just a damn funny movie that you understand far too well. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle — which led to a pair of lesser sequels, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo and A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas — is screening in a tenth anniversary 35mm print September 19-20 as part of the IFC Center’s Waverly Midnights: High Art series, which continues through November 8 with such other highbrow drug-related fare as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Dazed & Confused, True Romance, and Reefer Madness.