this week in film and television

THE CONTENDERS 2013: THE GREAT BEAUTY

Toni Servillo is spectacular as an Italian writer looking back on his life in Paolo Sorrentino’s THE GREAT BEAUTY

THE GREAT BEAUTY (LA GRANDE BELLEZZA) (Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Friday, January 10, 7:00
Series continues through January 16
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
www.janusfilms.com/thegreatbeauty

Told with the surreal flair of Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and 8½, the dark, witty cynicism of Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories and Deconstructing Harry, and the psychological intricacies of Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal, Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty is a masterful epic about an Italian writer looking back at his life as he turns sixty-five, and not liking what he sees. Toni Servillo gives a sparkling deadpan performance as Jep Gambardella, a deeply sarcastic and intentionally hypocritical journalist in Rome who scored a huge success with his first novel, The Human Apparatus, but has been unable to write a follow-up for decades, instead spending his time attending wild parties, sleeping with woman after woman, and sharing his unique views on the sociocultural, political, and religious nature of modern-day Rome. He is surrounded by sycophants, jealous writers, a mysterious neighbor, a culinary cardinal, bizarre performance artists, an aging stripper, a magician, and many more hangers-on (played by Isabella Ferrari, Roberto Herlitzka, Sabrina Ferilli, Carlo Verdone, Massimo De Francovich, Pamela Villoresi, and others who appear to have come straight from a Fellini set), but the only person who truly understands him is his diminutive editor, Dadina (Giovanna Vignola). “You’re a spectacular woman,” he tells her. “You’ve had the career you deserve.” She responds, “But you haven’t had the career you deserve.”

Director Paolo Sorrentino and star Toni Servillo discuss a scene in THE GREAT BEAUTY

Written by Sorrentino with Umberto Contarello, who previously collaborated on Sorrentino’s first English-language film, This Must Be the Place, The Great Beauty is a visual and aural delight from start to finish, featuring gorgeous cinematography by regular Sorrentino DP Luca Bigazzi, glorious sets by Stefania Cella, dazzling art direction by Ludovica Ferrario, and a lovely melancholy score by Lele Marchiteli. Sorrentino (Il Divo: The Spectacular Life of Giulio Andreotti, The Consequences of Love, both of which also starred Servillo) gives tremendous care to every shot, imbuing each moment with its own poetry and meaning, often focusing on the vast cityscape of Rome; the sky, where birds are migrating; and water, whether slowly moving rivers, historic fountains, or ritzy swimming pools. But the key element in the film, which is Italy’s official entry for the 2014 Academy Awards and has made the Oscar short-list, is Servillo’s steady, intelligent, yet sad face, his eyes seeing a lot more than just what’s in front of him. It’s an epic performance in an epic film. The Great Beauty is screening January 10 at 7:00 as part of MoMA’s annual series “The Contenders,” consisting of exemplary films the museum believes will stand the test of time; upcoming entries include John Lee Hancock’s Saving Mr. Banks, Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is the Warmest Color, Pema Tseden’s Old Dog, and Frederick Wiseman’s At Berkeley.

THE GREAT FLOOD

THE GREAT FLOOD (Bill Morrison, 2011)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
January 8-16
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.icarusfilms.com

Sound and image meld together beautifully in Bill Morrison’s meditative, elegiac The Great Flood. Inspired by John M. Barry’s 1997 book Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, Morrison teamed up with improvisational musician Bill Frisell on the project. The two had previously worked together on a pair of short works, The Mesmerist and The Film of Her, after meeting at the Village Vanguard when Morrison was a dishwasher at the jazz club where Frisell was playing. Morrison, who specializes in using deteriorated and degraded archival footage and experimental scores, scoured the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the Hoover Presidential Library, and other sources to come up with remarkable scenes of the flooding of the Mississippi in 1927. Divided into such chapters as “Sharecroppers,” “Swollen Tributaries,” “Evacuation,” “Aftermath,” and “Watershed,” with snippets of informational text but without narration, the film follows the southern blacks who were most affected by the massive flood, being forced to shore up the levees around white areas, losing their own homes, and ultimately heading north as part of the Great Migration, bringing the Delta blues with them. Guitarist Frisell, joined by Ron Miles on cornet, Tony Scherr on guitar and bass, and Kenny Wollesen on drums and vibes, has composed a gorgeous, moving score, heavily influenced by a trip his band and Morrison took in early 2011 up the Mississippi, with the group playing in multiple cities while the river threatened to flood again.

Each chapter, from an overhead view of a computerized map that details the 1927 flood to a fast and furious foray through the Sears Roebuck catalog, from a Baptist church procession to a series of rare clips of such bluesmen as Big Bill Broonzy, Son House, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Robert Lockwood, features a different piece of music, highlighted by Frisell’s always inventive guitar and Miles’s deeply expressive horn. Of course, as the images pass by, it’s impossible not to think of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and be awed by the devastating power of nature, as well as realize how little has changed with regard to the reaction of politicians and who the victims tend to be. But the film is rarely mournful; instead, there’s often a celebratory quality about it, centered on people’s natural instinct to survive. The Great Flood is scheduled to run January 8-16 at the IFC Center, with Morrison, who has also created such other unique cinematic experiences as Spark of Being and The Miners’ Hymns, on hand to talk about the film at the 8:05 screenings on January 9 and 11. In addition, the IFC Center will screen Morrison’s masterpiece, Decasia, in an HD digital projection daily at 2:40 and 6:20.

DECASIA

DECASIA (Bill Morrison, 2002)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
January 8-16
212-924-7771
www.icarusfilms.com
www.billmorrisonfilm.com

Experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison’s production company is called Hypnotic Pictures, and for good reason; the Chicago-born, New York-based auteur makes mesmerizing, visually arresting works using archival found footage and eclectic soundtracks that are a treat for the eyes and ears. Several of his films were shown at a terrific 2012 retrospective at the World Financial Center, including The Miners’ Hymns, Spark of Being, The Great Flood, and his masterpiece, Decasia. Now, in conjunction with the theatrical release of The Great Flood, running January 8-16 at the IFC Center, Decasia will be screening there as well, in an HD digital projection, daily at 2:40 and 6:20. Made in 2002, Decasia is about nothing less than the beginning and end of cinema. The sixty-seven-minute work features clips from early silent movies that are often barely visible in the background as the film nitrate disintegrates in the foreground, black-and-white psychedelic blips, blotches, and burns dominating the screen. The eyes at first do a dance between the two distinct parts, trying to follow the action of the original works as well as the abstract shapes caused by the filmstrip’s impending death, but eventually the two meld into a single unique narrative, enhanced by a haunting, compelling score by Bang on a Can’s Michael Gordon, which begins as a minimalist soundtrack and builds slowly until it reaches a frantic conclusion. The on-screen destruction might seem random, but it is actually carefully choreographed by Morrison, who wrote, directed, produced, and edited the film.

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

Oscar Isaac has to see a man about a cat in the Coen brothers’ INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2013)
Opened December 6
www.insidellewyndavis.com

Over the years, Joel and Ethan Coen have created a slew of offbeat protagonists and antiheroes who trudge through surreal life experiences, from the McDunnoughs in Raising Arizona and Tom Reagan in Miller’s Crossing to the title character in Barton Fink and Anton Chigurth in No Country for Old Men. But they have come up with their most despicable — and most believable — main character in Inside Llewyn Davis. The previously little-known Oscar Isaac gives a career-defining performance as Llewyn Davis, a selfish wastrel who mistreats everyone he meets. A broke singer-songwriter in 1961 Greenwich Village whose former partner (voiced on record by Marcus Mumford) killed himself, Davis loses a mentor’s (Ethan Phillips) cat, curses out his agent (Jerry Grayson), impregnates a married friend (Carey Mulligan), makes fun of the husband’s (Justin Timberlake) new song, avoids visiting his ailing father (Stan Carp), insults a portly jazzman (John Goodman) — essentially, he meets every situation by insulting someone, then turning and walking away, without even the slightest hint of regret. And the beautiful thing is, the Coens aren’t about to offer him redemption. Inspired in part by the life of Dave Von Ronk and with sly references to such other musicians as Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Tom Paxton, Dr. John, Doc Pomus, and Jim and Jean along with music impresario Bud Grossman and Gerde’s Folk City, Inside Llewyn Davis is a bitingly funny black comedy about a nasty man living in his own egocentric world, refusing to share any part of himself with anyone else, through his music or face-to-face, even though people keep giving him opportunity after opportunity. And the audience is in on it too, wanting him to succeed despite his myriad offenses. The soundtrack, overseen by T Bone Burnett, who previously worked with the Coens on O Brother, Where Art Thou? brings it all back home, with such highlights as Isaac’s performance of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me,” Timberlake, Mulligan, and Stark Sands teaming up on “Five Hundred Miles,” and Timberlake, Davis, and Girls hunk Adam Driver all having fun with an updated version of “Please Mr. Kennedy.”

Nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Cinematography (Bruno Delbonnel), Best Sound Mixing (Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, and Peter F. Kurland)

ZOË BELL — FROM STUNTWOMAN TO STAR: KILL BILL VOL. 1

Uma Thurman, with the help of stunt double Zoë Bell, gets ready for quite a finale in KILL BILL VOL. 1

KILL BILL VOL. 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Sunday, January 5, free with museum admission, 2:30
Series runs January 4-7
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

Take a little bit of Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns, mix in a bunch of Saturday afternoon Kung-Fu Theater, add a touch of Japanese anime and a pinch of Sam Peckinpah’s “Salad Days,” and toss liberally with blood and guts and you’ll end up with Quentin Tarantino’s awesome gorefest about a wronged woman (Uma Thurman as Black Mamba, the Woman with No Name) seeking revenge against the people (Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu, and David Carradine) who tried to kill her on her wedding day but made the fatal mistake of not finishing the job, with the only person apparently on her side being Hattori Hanzo, played by the great Sonny Chiba. Monty Python would be proud of all the limbs that are cut off and the comic blood that flows. Yeah, a lot of the movie is Tarantino just showing off, but there are enough gorgeous shots (Thurman fighting in the dark, silhouetted against a blue background; Thurman and Liu battling in the pristine white snow in a Japanese garden) that it is all worth it. And, of course, the soundtrack is just killer, as is Vol. 2, which followed a six months later. Vol. 1 is screening January 5 at 2:30 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image series “Zoë Bell: From Stuntwoman to Star,” which consists of five films in which the New Zealand actress gets to strut her stuff, not only as a stunt double for Thurman in the two Kill Bill films (Vol. 2 is being shown January 5 at 5:30), but also in more regular, credited roles in Drew Barrymore’s Whip It, Tarantino’s grindhouse flick Death Proof, and in the “Fist and Sword” presentation of Josh C. Waller’s Raze, which will be followed by a Q&A with Bell.

COUNTRY BRUNCHIN’: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Javier Bardem is coiffed to kill in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

COEN BROTHERS — BEFORE FARGO: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2007)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
Saturday, January 4, and Sunday, January 5, 11:30 am
718-384-3980
www.nitehawkcinema.com

Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a gripping thriller dominated by the mesmerizing performance of Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh, a psychopathic killer who believes in chance. When Llewelyn Moss (an outstanding Josh Brolin) accidentally stumbles upon the site of a drug deal gone terribly wrong, he walks away with a satchel of cash and the dream of making a better life for him and his wife (Kelly MacDonald). He also knows that there will be a lot of people looking for him — and the two million bucks he has absconded with. On his trail are the Mexican dealers who were ripped off, bounty hunter Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson), and the cool, calm Chigurh, who leaves a bloody path of violence in his wake. Meanwhile, Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) philosophizes on the sorry state of the modern world as he follows the proceedings with an almost Zen-like precision. Though it struggles to reach its conclusion, No Country for Old Men is an intense noir Western, an epic meditation on chance in which the flip of a coin can be the difference between life and a horrible death. Nominated for eight Oscars and winner of four — for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Bardem), Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay — No Country for Old Men is screening January 4-5 at 11:30 am as part of Nitehawk Cinema’s “Country Brunchin’” and “Coen Brothers Before Fargo” series and will be preceded by a live performance by NYC band Tatters & Rags. Yes, the Nitehawk knows that No Country for Old Men actually came after Fargo, which is part of the month-long festival along with Miller’s Crossing, Raising Arizona, Blood Simple, and The Hudsucker Proxy.

COIL 2014

Multiple venues
January 3 – February 1, $15-$20
212-352-2101
www.ps122.org

PS122’s East Village home might be under renovation, but that isn’t stopping the organization from presenting the ninth annual incarnation of its winter performance festival, Coil. This year’s festivities comprise nine cutting-edge works in various disciplines, with tickets for all shows only $20, so there’s no reason not to check out at least one of these unique, unusual productions. Reid Farrington stages the ultimate heavyweight match in the world premiere of Tyson vs. Ali at the 3LD Art & Technology Center (January 3-19), in which live action and multiple screens pit Mike Tyson against Muhammad Ali. Mac Wellman’s Muazzez at the Chocolate Factory (January 7-17), from “A Chronicle of the Madness of Small Worlds,” transports the audience, and actor Steve Mellor, into outer space. Heather Kravas’s a quartet at the Kitchen (January 8-12) consists of four dancers performing four dances in four parts each. Director Phil Soltanoff, systems designer Rob Ramirez, and writer Joe Diebes boldly go where no one has gone before in An Evening with William Shatner Asterisk at the New Ohio Theatre (January 9-12), creating a hybrid work highlighted by humans interacting with video clips of words spoken by Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek but strung into new thoughts and statements. Tina Satter’s highly stylized House of Dance at Abrons Arts Center (January 9-13) investigates a tap-dance contest and the relationship between a teacher and his student. The performance series CATCH 60 celebrates its tenth anniversary with the one-night-only CATCH Takes the Decade at the Invisible Dog Art Center (January 11), with works by Cynthia Hopkins, Molly Lieber & Eleanor Smith, Anna Sperber, Ivy Baldwin, and others. Okwui Okpokwasili’s solo Bronx Gothic at Danspace Project (January 14 – February 1) is a song-and-movement-based coming-of-age story about two eleven-year-old girls. All three parts of Jeremy Xido’s solo piece The Angola Project will take place at the Invisible Dog (January 14-17). And family tragedy lies at the center of Brokentalkers’ Have I No Mouth at Baryshnikov Arts Center (January 14-26), with company director Feidlim Cannon and his mother trying to put things back together. In addition, the Red + White Party will get folks mingling as SPIN New York on January 12 ($30 and up) with Elevator Repair Service, and the SPAN conversation series will be held at NYU on January 18.