this week in film and television

JAPAN CUTS: THE PASSION

Frances-ko (Mayuko Iwasa) is ruled by her nether regions in a unique way in THE PASSION

THE PASSION (JUNAN) (Ryoko Yoshida, 2013)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, July 18, 6:30
Festival runs July 10-20
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

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.

AN AUTEURIST HISTORY OF FILM: BARRY LYNDON

The sumptuous BARRY LYNDON is a treat for the eyes and ears

BARRY LYNDON (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research Building
4 West 54th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
July 16-18, 1:00
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.moma.org

Stanley Kubrick’s lush, romantic epic, Barry Lyndon, is one of the most elegantly visual pictures ever made. Based on William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1844 serialized picaresque novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, Kubrick’s extravagant three-hour tale follows the shenanigans of one Redmond Barry, played with endless charm by Ryan O’Neal. The man soon to be known as Barry Lyndon has a remarkable knack for survival — or maybe it’s just plain old Irish luck — as he rises in English society via a series of duels (with epees, guns, and bare knuckles), military battles (the Seven Years’ War), and, most prominently, sexual conquests. Consisting of two sections, “By What Means Redmond Barry Acquired the Style and Title of Barry Lyndon” and “Containing an Account of the Misfortunes and Disasters Which Befell Barry Lyndon,” the film features glorious music by Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart, Schubert, and the Chieftains in addition to absolutely divine locations that lay the groundwork for the sumptuous Oscar-winning art direction by Ken Adam, Vernon Dixon, and Roy Walker and cinematography by John Alcott; virtually every scene contains beautiful shots based on famous paintings, a treat for the eyes and the ears. (Leonard Rosenman took home an Academy Award as well for his adapted score.) The overly long story does drag at times, but it flows better once you get used to O’Neal in the title role. The underappreciated film also has a great supporting cast, with Marisa Berenson as Lady Lyndon, Patrick Magee as the Chevalier de Balibari, Hardy Krüger as Captain Potzdorf, Steven Berkoff as Lord Ludd, Leonard Rossiter as Captain John Quin, and Gay Hamilton as Nora Brady. Barry Lyndon is screening July 16-18 at 1:00 as part of MoMA’s ongoing series “An Auteurist History of Film,” which continues July 23-25 with Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and July 30 – August 1 with Woody Allen’s Annie Hall.

THE HISTORIC HARLEM PARKS FILM FESTIVAL: BROTHERS HYPNOTIC

Documentary follows Hypnotic Brass Ensemble as brothers travel the world sharing their artistic vision

SUMMER OF MUSIC: BROTHERS HYPNOTIC (Reuben Atlas, 2013)
Jackie Robinson Park Bandshell
148th St. & Bradhurst Ave.
Thursday, July 17, free, music 7:45, film 8:45
212-582-6050
www.maysles.org
www.hypnoticbrassfilm.com

A real family affair, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble includes eight sons of jazz musician Kelan Phil Cohran, a trumpeter who played with such legends as Jay McShann and Sun Ra, cofounded the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and started the Affro-Arts Theatre in Chicago. HBE’s compelling story is told in Reuben Atlas’s spirited feature documentary debut, Brothers Hypnotic. Atlas followed the band for four years, from its hometown of Chicago to Amsterdam, from Ireland to London, and to numerous spots in New York City, a kind of second home for the group, which consists of siblings Gabriel “Hudah” Hubert on trumpet, Saiph “Cid” Graves on tenor trombone, Amal “Baji” Hubert on trumpet, Tycho “L.T.” Cohran on bass/sousaphone, Jafar “Yosh” Graves on trumpet, Uttama “Rocco” Hubert on euphonium, Seba “Clef” Graves on bass trombone, and Tarik “Smoove” Graves on trumpet (in addition to Christopher Anderson on drums). Atlas shows the band playing its unique blend of funk, jazz, and hip-hop at major festivals, in clubs, on the street, in the subway, and in the studio. Their music comes together organically, as evidenced onstage and on such albums as Flipside, Bulletproof Brass, and The Brothas, highlighted by such original songs as “War,” “Balicky Bon,” “Touch the Sky,” “Black Boy,” and “Party Started.” The members of HBE talk about what it was like being raised by two mothers on Chicago’s South Side (the eight brothers come from three different women; their father has nearly two dozen children total) and a father who would get them up at six in the morning to start rehearsing in what became the Phil Cohran Youth Ensemble. They discuss their father’s legacy and their career strategies, in particular an offer from Atlantic Records; meet with managers Knox Robinson and Mark Murphy; and, later, hang with Blur frontman Damon Albarn, who runs the independent label Honest Jon’s. Along the way, they get to play with Yasin Bey (Mos Def) and Prince while striving to maintain their artistic integrity and high moral values. It’s a feel-good tale that turns poignant when they reconvene with their father near the end of the film. Brothers Hypnotic is screening for free in Jackie Robinson Park on July 17 at 8:45 as part of the Historic Harlem Parks Film Festival, in conjunction with Maysles Cinema’s Summer of Music series, and will be preceded by a “Horn Section” DJ set with DJ Laylo. The Historic Harlem Parks Film Festival continues July 23 in St. Nicholas Park with The Night James Brown Saved Boston.

RIVERFLICKS — BIG HIT WEDNESDAYS: AMERICAN HUSTLE

All-star cast has a ball keeping the twists coming in David O. Russell’s 1970s-set AMERICAN HUSTLE

AMERICAN HUSTLE (David O. Russell, 2013)
Hudson River Park, Pier 63 lawn at 23rd St.
Wednesday, July 16, free, dusk
www.riverflicks.com
www.americanhustle-movie.com

Combining cast members from his previous two hits, Silver Linings Playbook and
The Fighter, which garnered fifteen Academy Award nominations and three wins between them, David O. Russell scores big again with American Hustle. Inspired by a true story — the film opens by playfully declaring “Some of this actually happened” — American Hustle is set in 1978, focusing on smarmy con man Irving Rosenfeld (a dynamic Christian Bale), a paunchy small-timer with a spectacular comb-over and ultra-cool, ever-present shades who is pulling off low-level dirty deals first by himself, then with a new partner, the sexy-beautiful Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams, channeling a young Nicole Kidman), who also goes by the name Lady Edith Greensly. Soon the Feds come calling, and FBI agent Richie DiMaso (a superbly coiffed Bradley Cooper) gives them little choice but to take part in a sting involving Camden mayor Carmine Polito (a wonderfully wigged Jeremy Renner), a fake Arab sheikh (Michael Peña), several congressmen (including one played by longtime character actor Anthony Zerbe), and a major mobster (a surprise, uncredited appearance by a two-time Oscar winner doing what he does best). While Richie falls for Edith — they have one heckuva night at Studio 54 — Irving has to deal with his shrewish, demanding wife (a scene-stealing Jennifer Lawrence) as he develops a real fondness for Carmine. As in the best caper flicks, Russell (Flirting with Disaster, Three Kings), who rewrote Eric Warren Singer’s original script (there is also substantial improvisation by the outstanding cast), keeps the twists coming, leaving the audience guessing who’s conning who up to the very last minute. Linus Sandgren’s cinematography, Michael Wilkinson’s fab costumes, Judy Becker’s spot-on production design, and the period-heavy soundtrack (featuring songs by Elton John, the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Tom Jones, America, Wings, and others) capture the late 1970s in all its bizarre glory, with no detail overlooked. Bale is sensational as Irving, giving the role a heartfelt depth, while Adams, in boob-baring dresses, and Lawrence, in gorgeous, upswept blond hair, are superb as the strong women he is caught between. An expertly made movie that celebrates the art of filmmaking itself, American Hustle might be a fictionalized version of what really went down, but everything about it rings absolutely true. Nominated for ten Oscars but shut out of the winners circle, American Hustle is screening July 16 at Hudson River Park’s Pier 63 as part of the free River Flicks: Big Hit Wednesdays series, which continues through August 20 with such other 2013 movies as This Is the End, Lone Survivor, and Captain Phillips. For a day-by-day listing of free summer movie screenings throughout New York City, go here.

JAPAN CUTS: UNFORGIVEN

Yūya Yagira, Akira Emoto, and Ken Watanabe play an unlikely trio of bounty hunters in Lee Sang-il’s brilliant adaptation of Clint Eastwood’s UNFORGIVEN

UNFORGIVEN (YURUSAREZARU MONO) (Lee Sang-il, 2013)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Tuesday, July 15, 8:30
Festival runs July 10-20
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org
www.warnerbros.co.jp

For more than half a century, Hollywood has remade a plethora of Asian films, from The Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai) to The Departed (Infernal Affairs), from Shall We Dance? (Sharu wi Dansu?) to The Grudge (Ju-On), among so many others. But there’s a relatively new trend in which Japan, Korea, and China are now remaking American films, including Ghost: Mouichido Dakishimetai (Ghost), Wo Zhi Nv Ren Xin (What Women Want), and Saidoweizu (Sideways). One of the latest, and best, is Japanese-born Korean director Lee Sang-il’s spectacularly honest and faithful remake of Clint Eastwood’s 1992 Oscar-winning revisionist Western, Unforgiven — in some ways returning the favor of Eastwood’s having starred in Sergio Leone’s 1964 spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars, a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. In Unforgiven, Ken Watanabe, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in The Last Samurai and starred in Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima, plays Jubei Kamata, the Japanese version of Eastwood’s William Munny.

Jubei Kamata (Ken Watanabe) and Natsume (Shiori Kutsuna) are out for revenge in UNFORGIVEN

The Meiji restoration is under way, as the age of the shogunate has ended and Japan is finally opening to the West and beginning to modernize. Formerly a famous warrior and killer, Jubei is now a poor farmer living in isolation with his two young children from his sadly brief marriage to an Ainu woman. One day an old ally from his violent past, Kingo Baba (Akira Emoto), suddenly shows up, asking Jubei to join him on a manhunt to collect a reward for killing two samurai brothers (Yukiyoshi Ozawa and Takahiro Miura) who brutally cut up a prostitute (Shiori Kutsuna). Sworn to peace, Jubei at first refuses, but he relents because he desperately needs money to take care of his family. The two men are soon joined by Goro Sawada (Yūya Yagira), a wild, unpredictable Ainu who is looking to get even with all the Japanese who have abused and continue to mistreat his race. But standing in their way is vicious police chief Ichizo Oishi (Koichi Sato), a ruthless, power-mad sadist who will do anything to get what he wants. All the while, writer Yasaburo Himeji (Kenichi Takito) keeps taking notes, initially as the biographer of notorious killer Masaharu Kitaoji (Why Don’t You Play in Hell?’s Jun Kunimura), who strolls into town thinking that Oishi’s rules don’t apply to him. It all leads to a tense and gripping climactic showdown that honors Eastwood’s original while also establishing its own memorable identity.

Lee (Hula Girls, Villain) marvelously adapts David Webb Peoples’s Oscar-nominated screenplay, moving the setting to 1880s Hokkaido. The general story follows the American version very closely, with Lee adding uniquely Japanese elements, focusing on the transition from swords to guns in addition to Japanese racism against the Ainu, which also evokes the continued discrimination in Japan against Koreans born there. The film is strikingly photographed by Norimichi Kasamatsu and lovingly directed by Lee, alternating between glorious shots of the vast landscape and claustrophobic interiors where danger hovers in every corner. Unforgiven is no mere good vs. evil tale, with clear-cut heroes and villains; nearly all the men and women fall somewhere in between. Watanabe gives a mesmerizing performance as Jubei, especially when he shows and admits his fear. Sato is appropriately vicious as Oishi, putting his own spin on a character made famous by an Oscar-winning Gene Hackman, while Emoto ably recalls Morgan Freeman as the loyal but aging old friend. Taro Iwashiro’s score can get a little melodramatic, but that’s just a minor quibble with this otherwise brilliant Japanese adaptation of an American classic. The East Coast premiere of Unforgiven is taking place July 15 at Japan Society’s Japan Cuts: The New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema series, which runs through July 20 and includes such other films as Yoju Matsubayashi’s The Horses of Fukushima, the world premiere of Moko Ando’s 0.5mm, Eiji Uchida’s Greatful Dead, and a surprise screening of the Mo Brothers’ Killers.

FRONT/ROW CINEMA: I AM LEGEND

Sam and Robert Neville (Will Smith) fight to survive the zombie apocalypse in New York City in I AM LEGEND

SEE/CHANGE: I AM LEGEND (Francis Lawrence, 2007)
South Street Seaport
Corner of Front & Fulton Sts.
Saturday, July 12, free, 8:00
www.southstreetseaport.com
www.iamlegendmovie.com

Director Francis Lawrence’s modern-day update of Richard Matheson’s classic 1954 novel, I Am Legend, is a tense, nonstop thriller, liberally adapted by screenwriters Mark Protosevich (The Cell) and Akiva Goldsman (I, Robot). While the book was a claustrophobic masterpiece, the film opens things up dramatically, with Robert Neville (Will Smith), the last survivor of a supposed cancer cure that turned into a deadly virus, riding the streets of New York City every day in a fancy car with his dog, Sam. In addition to hunting wild game that leaps through Midtown, Neville, an army scientist who is still searching for an antidote in his makeshift basement laboratory, kills cells of infected vampiric beings that have more in common with the violent creatures of 28 Days Later than the slow-moving zombies of Night of the Living Dead. Every night Neville barricades himself and Sam into their apartment overlooking Washington Square Park and dreams of the events that brought him to this point, centered on his desperate attempt to save his wife (Salli Richardson) and daughter (Willow Smith, Will’s real-life daughter). I Am Legend was actually filmed in New York, with pivotal scenes shot in and around Madison Square Park, Grand Central Terminal, the South Street Seaport, and a barren Park Ave., lending it a stark, frightening reality. Smith excels as Neville, his eyes quickly shifting from hope to disappointment, from promise to pain, and Lawrence (Constantine, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) does a marvelous job of translating the book’s inner monologue into a postapocalyptic visual nightmare. I Am Legend is screening July 12 at one of the film’s locations, the South Street Seaport, as part of the “Front/Row Cinema: See/Change” series, which continues Wednesday and Saturday nights through August 31. For a day-by-day listing of free summer movie screenings throughout New York City, go here.

MOVIE MEDICINE — A FILM SERIES ABOUT THE HEALING FACTOR IN CINEMA: NIGHT NURSE

Joan Blondell and Barbara Stanwyck play daring nurses in William A. Wellman’s pre-code doozy

CABARET CINEMA: NIGHT NURSE (William A. Wellman, 1931)
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, July 11, free with $10 K2 minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rubinmuseum.org/cabaretcinema

It’s hard to believe that the Hays Code, a set of standards initiated by two religious figures and named after chief censor Will H. Hays, was enacted and enforced, to varying degrees, in Hollywood from 1934 all the way up to 1968. One of the best examples of the racier pre-code films is William A. Wellman’s rarely screened 1931 doozy, Night Nurse. The first of five collaborations between Wellman and Barbara Stanwyck, Night Nurse, based on Dora Macy’s 1930 novel, stars Stanwyck as Lora Hart, a young woman determined to become a nurse. She gets a probationary job at a city hospital, where she is taken under the wing of Maloney (Joan Blondell), who likes to break the rules and torture the head nurse, the stodgy Miss Dillon (Vera Lewis). Shortly after treating a bootlegger (Ben Lyon) for a gunshot wound and agreeing not to report it to the police, Lora starts working for a shady doctor (Ralf Harolde) taking care of two sick children (Marcia Mae Jones and Betty Jane Graham) whose proudly dipsomaniac mother (Charlotte Merriam) is being manipulated by her suspicious chauffeur (Clark Gable). Wellman pulls out all the stops, hinting at or simply depicting murder, child endangerment, rape, alcoholism, lesbianism, physical brutality, and Blondell and Stanwyck regularly frolicking around in their undergarments. It’s as if Wellman is thumbing his nose directly at the upcoming Hays Code in scene after scene. Although far from his best film — Wellman directed such classics as Wings (1927), The Public Enemy (1931), A Star Is Born (1937), Nothing Sacred (1937), Beau Geste (1939), and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) — Night Nurse is an overly melodramatic, dated, but entertaining little tale with quite a surprise ending. Night Nurse is screening July 11 as part of the Rubin Museum’s Cabaret Cinema series “Movie Medicine: A Film Series about the Healing Factor in Cinema,” being held in conjunction with the “Bodies in Balance: The Art of Tibetan Medicine” exhibition, and will be introduced by Edna Igoe of the New York Professional Nurses Union. The series continues July 18 with Woody Allen’s Sleeper, introduced by psychotherapist Maggie Robbins, July 25 with Arthur Hiller’s The Hospital, introduced by Dr. Kenneth Perrine, and August 1 with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Black Narcissus, introduced by award-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker.