Ten-year-old runaway Kishan Tiwari has some lofty decisions to make in Pan Nalin’s FAITH CONNECTIONS
FAITH CONNECTIONS (Pan Nalin, 1958)
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
September 12-19
212-620-5000
www.rubinmuseum.org
www.faithconnections.in
In December 2007, Indian filmmaker Pan Nalin’s debut feature, Samsara, had a two-week theatrical run at the Rubin Museum; we called the film “lush” and “gorgeous,” with a “documentary-like feel . . . an unforgettable journey of mind and body, of the inner struggle to find one’s place in the world — or to renounce it.” We can say just about the same thing about his latest film, the very different Faith Connections, which is having its U.S. theatrical release September 12-19 at the Rubin as well. Last year, Nalin’s father asked him to go on the massive Hindu spiritual pilgrimage known as Kumbh Mela, which occurs every twelve years when, over the course of fifty-five days, one hundred million men, women, and children descend on a fifty-five-square-mile area centered around the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna, and mythical Sarasvati rivers in India, where they enter the water and ritually cleanse themselves. The elderly man wanted a bottle of water for himself, but Nalin decided to take along his camera and also bring back stories to share with his father. Amid all the mayhem, he found several remarkable tales that, although true, are like gripping fictional mysteries. The hermit Hatha Yogi Baba had renounced the world, but he has encountered a new view of existence after finding an abandoned baby and raising the child himself. Vivekanandji and Umeshji are sadhus, holy men seeking liberation, primarily via marijuana, which is also a favorite of the pilgrim Shuklaji.
Hermit Hatha Yogi Baba finds himself at the Kumbh Mela with a new reason to consider a different path
The most heartbreaking tale belongs to Mamta Devi and Sonu, who are desperately trying to locate their three-year-old son, Sandeep, who has disappeared; as it turns out, more than one hundred thousand people at the Kumbh Mela go missing, their families making their way to the Lost and Found Centre in search of hope. But the most entertaining story is that of ten-year-old Kishan Tiwari, a tough, streetwise runaway orphan deciding whether to become a sadhu or a gangster. Beautifully photographed by Anuj Dhawan, Swapnil Sonawane, and Nalin and featuring an exquisite score by Cyril Morin, Faith Connections is a spellbinding journey into the mystical world of the Kumbh Mela, expertly edited by Shreyas Beltangdy and Julie Delord from hundreds of hours of footage to create a captivating narrative. Out of tens of millions of people with their own stories, Nalin (Valley of Flowers, Ayurveda: Art of Being) located a handful of compelling tales that serve as a microcosm of all the swirling activity going on during this unique communion. Nalin casts no judgment, makes no excuses, as he celebrates this mind-boggling ritual that brings so many different people together, in a society that has been built around the separatist caste system. At nearly two hours, the film could probably use a little trimming, but it’s still a marvel to experience. Faith Connections will have a one-week run at the Rubin, with Nalin participating in a Q&A after the 7:00 screening on September 12, opening night.
It’s the drapes versus the squares as Grease and Rebel without a Cause meet West Side Story and Jailhouse Rock in one of trash king John Waters’s most accessible films, the romantic musical comedy Cry-Baby. Waters snatched 21 Jump Street heartthrob Johnny Depp right off the covers of teen magazines for his first starring role in a feature film, with Depp playing high school heartthrob and leather-jacketed bad boy Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker, leader of the rough-and-tough drapes, who also include his pregnant sister, Pepper (Ricki Lake), the trampy Wanda Woodward (porn star Traci Lords), Mona “Hatchet-Face” Malnorowski (Kim McGuire), and Milton Hackett (Darren E. Burrows). Lenora Frigid (Kim Webb) is desperate to go out with Cry-Baby, who earned his nickname because of the solitary tear that can trickle from one of his eyes, but he has his sights set on square queen Allison Vernon-Williams (Amy Locane), whose grandmother (Polly Bergen) runs a charm school and is disgusted by the juvenile delinquents. She much prefers Allison stay true to nerd king Baldwin (Stephen Mailer) than hang out with the dregs of society. But Allison and Cry-Baby’s love just might be meant to be. Writer-director Waters wonderfully evokes 1950s teen flicks with fast cars, the pangs of first love, and a delicious soundtrack of old and new tunes as Cry-Baby and Baldwin fight it out onstage in song instead of with knives or other weapons. (James Intveld sings Depp’s part, while Rachel Sweet does Allison’s.) Waters has also assembled a cast of parents to end all casts of parents: Troy Donahue and Mink Stole are Mr. and Mrs. Malnorowski, Joe Dallesandro and Joey Heatherton are Mr. and Mrs. Hackett, David Nelson and Patricia Hearst are Mr. and Mrs. Woodward, and Iggy Pop and Susan Tyrell are Mr. and Mrs. Rickettes. The story doesn’t always hold together, but Depp easily gets things back on track with his damn fine looks — er, charismatic performance. And yes, that prison guard is indeed Willem Dafoe. Cry-Baby, which was turned into a Broadway musical that earned four Tony nominations but had a very short run at the Marquis Theatre, is screening September 13 at 3:00 and September 14 at 8:00 as part of the spectacularly titled Film Society of Lincoln Center series “Fifty Years of John Waters: How Much Can You Take?” The series runs through September 14 and features all of Baltimore’s favorite son’s shorts and full-length works in addition to “Movies I’m Jealous I Didn’t Make,” eight films that Waters says are “extreme, astoundingly perverse, darkly funny, and, most importantly, supremely surprising films that turn me green with envy.
Taiwanese New Wave master Hou Hisao-hsien might be the best filmmaker whose work you’ve never seen. For more than thirty years, he has been telling intimate, meditative stories about life, family, and relationships with a gentle, deeply intuitive style, infused with gorgeous visuals and subtly beautiful soundtracks. The Museum of the Moving Image is honoring the sixty-seven-year-old auteur with “Also like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien,” a five-week series that includes all of his feature films, some shorts, Olivier Assayas’s documentary about him, and other films that he either appeared in or cowrote. The festival, organized by Richard I. Suchenski in conjunction with the publication of a new book about Hou, begins with one of his most elegant works, Flowers of Shanghai. The film is set in brothels, known as flower houses, in 1884 in the British Concession, where men and women congregate for social interaction and develop long-term bonds and responsibilities to one another based on much more than just sex. The men play drinking games, smoke opium, and buy the women gifts. The story, told in a series of vignettes as Mark Lee Ping Bin’s camera slowly moves through dark, lush, reddish gas-lit interiors, focuses on Master Wang (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), who has promised to be the sole patron of Crimson (Michiko Hada) but who has also been secretly seeing the younger Jasmin (Vicky Wei) and lavishing her with presents. The elder Master Hong (Luo Tsai-erh) and Auntie Huang (Rebecca Pan), the madam, discuss the situation, bringing up issues of responsibility and honesty, attempting to come to some kind of understanding in an exchange that shows respect for both the men and women who are a far cry from the Western conception of johns and prostitutes.
Writer-director Ari Folman imagines a sad but visually dazzling future in the spectacular fantasy The Congress. Inspired by Stanislaw Lem’s 1971 short novel The Futurological Congress, the film follows Robin Wright playing a fictionalized version of herself, an idealistic actress about to turn forty-five who has let her career come second to raising her two children, daughter Sarah (Sami Gayle) and, primarily, son Aaron (Kodi Smit-McPhee), who is slowly losing the ability to see and hear. Wright’s longtime agent, Al (Harvey Keitel), has a last-chance opportunity for her: Jeff Green (Danny Huston), the head of Miramount, wants to scan her body and emotions so the studio can manipulate her digital likeness into any role while keeping her ageless. They don’t want the modern-day Robin Wright but the young, beautiful star of The Princess Bride, State of Grace, and Forrest Gump. The only catch is that in exchange for a substantial lump-sum payment, the real Wright will never be allowed to act again, in any capacity. With no other options, she reluctantly takes the deal. Twenty years later, invited to speak at the Futurological Congress, she enters a whole new realm, a fully animated world where men, women, and children live out their entertainment fantasies. Shocked by what she is experiencing, Wright meets up with Dylan Truliner (Jon Hamm), who has been animating her digital version for years, as a revolution threatens; meanwhile, Green has another offer for her, even more frightening than the first.