De Sica neorealist classic is the heartbreaking story of an elderly man and his faithful dog
UMBERTO D. (Vittorio De Sica, 1952)
Socrates Sculpture Park
32-01 Vernon Blvd.
Wednesday, August 27, free, 7:00 (rescheduled from Wednesday, July 23)
718-956-1819
www.socratessculpturepark.org
We don’t think we’ll ever stop crying. Vittorio De Sica’s neorealist masterpiece Umberto D. stars Carlo Battisti (a professor whom De Sica saw one day and thought would be perfect for the lead role; it would be Battisti’s only film) as Umberto Domenico Ferrari, an elderly former bureaucrat who is too proud to sacrifice his dignity in order to pay his mean-spirited landlady (Lina Gennari), who rents out his room by the hour while he’s out walking his beloved dog, Flag, and trying to find some way to get money and food. Umberto D. is befriended by the boardinghouse maid (Maria Pia Casilio), who is pregnant with the child of one of two servicemen, neither of whom wants to have anything to do with her. As Umberto D.’s options start running out, he considers desperate measures to free himself from his loneliness and poverty. His relationship with Flag is one of the most moving in cinema history. Don’t miss this remarkable achievement, which was lovingly restored last decade by eighty-six-year-old lighting specialist Vincenzo Verzini, known as Little Giotto. Umberto D. is screening July 23 in Long Island City as part of Socrates Sculpture Park’s free summer Outdoor Cinema series and will be preceded by live music; Italian food from Pomegranate will be available for purchase as well. The sixteenth annual series continues through August 27 with such other international fare as Matías Piñeiro’s Viola, Linda Västrik’s Forest of the Dancing Spirits, and Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins. [Program note: Umberto D. has been rescheduled as part of a double feature August 27 with Maxim Pozdorovkin and Mike Lerner’s Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.]
Luis Buñuel’s adaptation of Benito Pérez Galdós’s 1892 novel Tristana is an often underrated, deceivingly wicked psychological black comedy. A dubbed Catherine Deneuve stars as the title character, a shy, virginal young orphan employed in the household of the aristocratic, atheist Don Lope (Fernando Rey), an avowed atheist and aging nobleman who regularly spouts off about religion and the wretched social conditions in Spain (where the Spanish auteur had recently returned following many years living and working in Mexico). Soon Don Lope is serving as both husband and father to Tristana, who allows the world to pile its ills on her without reacting — until she meets handsome artist Horacio (Franco Nero) and begins to take matters into her own hands, with tragic results. Although Tristana is one of Buñuel’s more straightforward offerings with regard to narrative, featuring fewer surreal flourishes, it is a fascinating exploration of love, femininity, wealth, power, and a changing of the old guard. Deneuve is magnetic as Tristana, transforming from a meek, naive, gorgeous girl into a much stronger, and ultimately darker, gorgeous woman. Lola Gaos provides solid support as Saturna, who runs Don Lope’s household with a firm hand while also taking care of her deaf son, Saturno (Jesús Fernández), yet another male who is fond of the beautiful Tristana. The film is one of Buñuel’s most colorful works, wonderfully shot by cinematographer José F. Aguayo, who photographed Buñuel’s 1961 masterpiece Viridiana, which was also based on a novel by Galdós and starred Rey. Tristana is screening July 19 & 20 as part of BAMcinématek’s five-week tribute to the master filmmaker, who passed away in 1983 at the age of eighty-three. The series continues through August 14 with such other Buñuel works as The Milky Way, The Phantom of Liberty, Wuthering Heights, Belle de Jour, The River and Death, El Bruto, and the superb double-feature pairing of The Exterminating Angel and Simon of the Desert.
Former nun Frances-ko (Mayuko Iwasa) has problems with God and her vagina in writer-director Ryoko Yoshida’s bizarre, warped comedy The Passion, which has its international premiere July 18 at Japan Society’s Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema. After getting hit by a car, the would-be model is possessed by a male spirit (Kanji Furutachi) who lives inside her nether regions and brutally insults her for remaining a virgin, unable to get any man to sleep with her. Somewhat of a simpleton who develops a special power in her right hand, Frances-ko can’t take control of her life, even when she sees the man she likes, Cus (Yasushi Fuchikami), hooking up with her best friend, With-me (Kumiko Ito). Meanwhile, the dude in her genitals, whom she names Mr. Koga, keeps letting her have it. Relatively nonplussed by the ridiculousness of it all, Frances-ko asks such questions as, “What does it mean to feel?” and “What does being loved feel like?,” trying to elude her deep loneliness and sense of utter and complete unworthiness. The oddities are also evident in Otomo Yoshihide’s wildly inventive score, which references traditional Japanese music as well as Jewish klezmer. Based on Kaoruko Himeno’s 1997 novel, The Passion, Yoshida’s follow-up to 2004’s Love Twisted regularly makes no sense at all, and its mannered abstruseness often becomes extremely frustrating, but there’s just something about it, about Iwasa, that keeps you watching, wondering just what the hell is going to happen next. Japan Cuts continues through July 20 with such other films as Aya Hanabusa’s Tale of a Butcher Shop, Keisuke Yoshida’s My Little Sweet Pea, Azuma Morisaki’s Pecoross’ Mother and Her Days, and Katsuhito Ishii’s Hello! Junichi.
