this week in film and television

THE CONTENDERS 2013: BEFORE MIDNIGHT

Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) are back together again in Richard Linklater’s BEFORE MIDNIGHT

BEFORE MIDNIGHT (Richard Linklater, 2013)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Wednesday, November 27, 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.sonyclassics.com/beforemidnight

Unable to resist revisiting the characters who first fell in love in 1995’s Before Sunrise and again in 2004’s Before Sunset, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their roles as Jesse and Celine, respectively, in Richard Linklater’s absolutely wonderful Before Midnight. The couple first met on a train to Vienna in 1994, talking at length about their hopes and desires and planning on getting together in six months’ time, but they don’t reconnect for another nine years, when Celine comes to one of Jesse’s book signings in Paris. In real time, they walk around the City of Light, catching up on what has happened in their lives as Jesse prepares to take a plane back home to his wife and son. And now another nine years have passed, and Jesse and Celine are living together, the parents of twins (Charlotte and Jennifer Prior). As the film opens, the divorced Jesse is putting his teenage son, Hank (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick), on a plane after having spent the summer together in Greece. What follows is a marvelous fourteen-minute scene of Jesse driving down a mountain road as he and Celine essentially let the audience know what has occurred over the last nine years: They have twin girls (sleeping in the back), Celine has been offered an important environmental job, and Jesse is considering moving to Chicago to be closer to Hank. They return to a country estate owned by Patrick (award-winning cinematographer Walter Lassally, making his acting debut at the age of eighty-six), who is hosting an outdoor lunch with a group of friends (including French actress Ariane Labed, coproducer and filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari, and Xenia Kalogeropoulou, who came out of retirement to appear in her first picture since 1985). They all talk of life and love, with Celine being particularly charming. But when Jesse and Celine go off to a hotel room for what is supposed to be a romantic rendezvous, some things are said and truths revealed that complicate things.

Cowriters Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke explore life and love in Greece in third film about Celine and Jesse

As with the first two films, Before Midnight consists of long takes of Jesse and Celine discussing their past, present, and future as cowriters Linklater (Slacker, Dazed and Confused), Delpy, and Hawke, who were nominated for an Oscar for their script for Before Sunset, continue to explore these engaging characters; both the dialogue and the acting have matured with an intelligent grace and elegance that are captivating. The couple wanders around Messinia examining their lives as only fortysomethings can, trying to figure out whether what they have is what they want. The central focus, though, once again is time, whether it is the years Jesse and Celine have spent together, the time they have left, time as a concept in Jesse’s semiautobiographical novels, or Jesse making a joke about being a time traveler. It’s been eighteen years since we first met Jesse and Celine, and we’ve grown eighteen years older too, lending fascinating perspectives that can’t help but force us to take a look at our own lives as well. The trilogy is America’s version of François Truffaut’s Antoine Doinel series, filled with humor, lyricism, and an inherent understanding of twenty-first-century realities. Will there be a fourth film in nine years? As of now, the principals aren’t saying because they just don’t know, but Before Midnight ends on just about the perfect ambiguous note. Before Midnight is screening November 27 at 7:00 as part of MoMA’s annual series “The Contenders,” which consists of exemplary films that MoMA believes will stand the test of time, continuing with such films as Jem Cohen’s Museum Hours, Jia Zhangke’s A Touch of Sin, Spike Jonze’s Her, and Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha.

STEPHEN WESTFALL ON NEIL WELLIVER

Neil Welliver, “Blueberries in Fissures,” oil on canvas, 1983

National Academy Museum
1083 Fifth Ave. at 89th St.
Tuesday, November 26, $15, 6:30
212-369-4880
www.nationalacademy.org

The National Academy’s current exhibition, “See It Loud: Seven Post-War American Painters,” on view through January 26, examines a lesser-known group of U.S. artists who, in the years following World War II, walked the fine line between representation and abstraction. “There was very nearly a moral dimension to the opposition between the two aesthetics,” notes senior curator Bruce Weber. The seven artists featured in the exhibition are Leland Bell, Paul Georges, Peter Heinemann, Albert Kresch, Stanley Lewis, Paul Resika, and Neil Welliver. On November 26 at 6:30, Schenectady-born painter, critic, professor, and National Academician Stephen Westfall, a 2007 Guggenheim Fellow and winner of a 2009 Rome Prize in the visual arts, will discuss the work of Welliver (1929-2005), whose large-scale landscapes, including the beautifully composed and somewhat dizzying “Blueberries in Fissures,” are a highlight of the show. The talk will be followed by a screening of artist and collector Rudy Burckhardt’s half-hour documentary, Neil Welliver Painting in Maine. (Also in conjunction with the exhibition, Lewis will be teaching the “Working from the Masters” painting class on December 5; tuition is $200.)

THE CONTENDERS 2013: CUTIE AND THE BOXER

Documentary tells the engaging story of a pair of Japanese artists and the life they have made for themselves in Brooklyn

CUTIE AND THE BOXER (Zachary Heinzerling, 2013)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Tuesday, November 26, 8:00
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.facebook.com/cutieandtheboxer

Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer is a beautifully told story of love and art and the many sacrifices one must make to try to succeed in both. In 1969, controversial Japanese Neo Dada action painter and sculptor Ushio Shinohara came to New York City, looking to expand his career. According to the catalog for the recent MoMA show “Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde,” which featured four works by Ushio, “American art had seemed to him to be ‘marching toward the glorious prairie of the rainbow and oasis of the future, carrying all the world’s expectations of modern painting.’” Four years later, he met nineteen-year-old Noriko, who had left Japan to become an artist in New York as well. The two fell in love and have been together ever since, immersed in a fascinating relationship that Heinzerling explores over a five-year period in his splendid feature-length theatrical debut. Ushio and Noriko live in a cramped apartment and studio in DUMBO, where he puts on boxing gloves, dips them in paint, and pounds away at large, rectangular canvases and builds oversized motorcycle sculptures out of found materials. Meanwhile, Noriko, who has spent most of the last forty years taking care of her often childlike husband and staying with him through some rowdy times and battles with the bottle, is finally creating her own work, an R. Crumb-like series of drawings detailing the life of her alter ego, Cutie, and her often cruel husband, Bullie. (“Ushi” means “bull” in Japanese.) While Ushio is more forthcoming verbally in the film, mugging for the camera and speaking his mind, the pig-tailed Noriko is far more tentative, so director and cinematographer Heinzerling brings her tale to life by animating her work, her characters jumping off the page to show Cutie’s constant frustration with Bullie.

Ushio Shinohara creates one of his action paintings in CUTIE AND THE BOXER

During the course of the too-short eighty-two-minute film — it would have been great to spend even more time with these unique and compelling figures — the audience is introduced to the couple’s forty-year-old son, who has some issues of his own; Guggenheim senior curator of Asian Art Alexandra Munroe, who stops by the studio to consider purchasing one of Ushio’s boxing paintings for the museum; and Chelsea gallery owner Ethan Cohen, who represents Ushio. But things never quite take off for Ushio, who seems to always be right on the cusp of making it. Instead, the couple struggles to pay their rent. One of the funniest, yet somehow tragic, scenes in the film involves Ushio packing up some of his sculptures — forcing them into a suitcase like clothing — and heading back to Japan to try to sell some pieces. Cutie and the Boxer is a special documentary that gets to the heart of the creative process as it applies both to art and love, focusing on two disparate people who have made a strange yet thoroughly charming life for themselves. Cutie and the Boxer is screening November 26 at 8:00 as part of MoMA’s annual series “The Contenders” and will be followed by a discussion with Heinzerling. “The Contenders,” which consists of exemplary films that MoMA believes will stand the test of time and continues with such films as Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjda, Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, and Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight.

THE MIDDLE AGES ON FILM — SHAKESPEARE: A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

Warner Bros. production of Shakespeare play is a bizarre classic

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Max Reinhardt & William Dieterle, 2004)
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave. at Second St.
Monday, November 25, 6:30, and Tuesday, November 26, 7:30
Series runs November 20 – December 1
212-505-5181
www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle’s 1935 adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one freakishly weird flick. In a misty forest, fairies go around sprinkling love potions on sleeping humans, creating mixed-up relationships that even venture out into the realm of bestiality. “The course of true love never did run smooth,” Lysander tells Hermia, and that sums up this star-studded screwball comedy of a sort. Warner Bros. put together quite a lineup for this big-time production, with plenty of strange casting choices that end up working rather splendidly. James Cagney prances about as Bottom, Dick Powell plays Lysander, Olivia de Havilland makes her film debut as Hermia, Joe E. Brown is Flute, Billy Barty plays Mustardseed, and a teenage Mickey Rooney offers a delirious take on Puck, howling at the moon with sheer glee. The wacky movie also features Ian Hunter, Arthur Treacher, Victor Jory, and Anita Louise as the fairy queen Titania. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, and won for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, will be screening November 25 & 26 as part of the Anthology of Film Archives series “The Middle Ages on Film: Shakespeare,” consisting of ten cinematic adaptations of several of the Bard’s history plays, set in the Middle Ages, including Grigori Kozintsev’s King Lear, Bela Tarr’s Macbeth, and Akira Kurosawa’s Ran and Throne of Blood. The twelve-day festival was curated in collaboration with professor and scholar Martha Driver, who notes about A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “In Reinhardt’s enchanted forest, the fairies, gnomes, and elves are inspired by German folk tradition. While the bewildered young lovers and the rude mechanicals are imported intact from Shakespeare’s original, the spinning of Titania’s wedding veil (before she beds Bottom) to the Wedding March of Felix Mendelssohn, a modest addition to Shakespeare’s play, remains surreal and haunting. Jimmy Cagney is a crackjack Bottom and Pyramus while Joe E. Brown inhabits the twin roles of Flute and Thisbe with panache.”

THREE BY DAVID O. RUSSELL: THE FIGHTER

Brothers Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) and “Irish” Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) go through good times and bad in THE FIGHTER

Brothers Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) and “Irish” Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) go through good times and bad in David O. Russell’s THE FIGHTER

THE FIGHTER (David O. Russell, 2010)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Saturday, November 23, free with museum admission, 7:00
Series continues through December 19
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.thefightermovie.com

A lot of professional fighters face adversity in and out of the ring, but “Irish” Micky Ward took it to a whole new level on his quest to be welterweight champion of the world, as documented in the winning motion picture The Fighter. Ward (Mark Wahlberg) surrounded himself with his family, with his mother, Allice Eklund (Melissa Leo), as his manager, his half-brother, the Pride of Lowell (for once knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard), Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale), as his trainer, and his many big-haired sisters, including Tar (Erica McDermott), Little Alice (Melissa McMeekin), Pork (Bianca Hunter), Red Dog (Dendrie Taylor), and Beaver (Kate O’Brien), part of the team as well. Despite getting pummeled over and over again and continually finding his brother at a condemned crack house, Micky stands by the family until Dicky is back in prison and Micky finally decides to go with a new promoter. As his stock begins to rise again, he is deeply affected by his separation from his family, who are blaming the parting on his new girlfriend, local bartender Charlene (Amy Adams). Based on the true story of the Ward/Eklund clan of Lowell, Massachusetts, The Fighter is a poignant tale of fighting and family, of love and responsibility. Bale is a whirlwind as the effusive, drug-addicted Dicky, who dreams of helping his brother get a title shot even as he misses training sessions because of his dependence on crack. Leo, who nearly steals the show, is virtually unrecognizable as Alice, who can’t understand why Micky would go with a new crew and has quite a few battles of her own with Charlene. And Walhlberg, who trained for several years to get himself in shape for the film, is strong and solid as the conflicted yet determined potential boxing champion. Director David O. Russell (Three Kings) gives The Fighter a realistic feel, at times echoing the documentary that HBO made about Dicky in the movie, and even hiring Ward’s trainer, Mickey O’Keefe, to play himself. In fact, much of the cast got to meet their real-life counterparts, all of whom loved how they were portrayed onscreen, which is actually quite funny once you see how some of them come off. You don’t have to love boxing to love The Fighter, although fans of the sweet science will be impressed by the carefully choreographed fight scenes, complete with the original HBO commentary (and shot by some of the same cameramen). Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, with Leo winning Best Supporting Actress and Bale taking home the trophy for Best Supporting Actor, The Fighter is screening November 23 at the Museum of the Moving Image, kicking off the series “Three by David O. Russell” in anticipation of the December release of his latest film, American Hustle. The series continues December 7-8 with Silver Linings Playbook, followed by a special presentation of American Hustle on December 19, with Russell on hand to discuss it.

WORKS BY HANNA SCHAICH AND JANET BIGGS

Hanna Schaich’s EVELYN is one of three of her works that will mark her New York debut on November 23

Microscope Gallery
4 Charles Pl. at Myrtle Ave.
Saturday November 23, free (suggested donation $6), 7:00
347-925-1433
www.microscopegallery.com

Earlier this year, Brooklyn-based visual artist Janet Biggs teamed up with French-born Montréal installation artist Aude Moreau on a dual show at Smack Mellon as part of the “Brooklyn/Montréal” cultural exchange. Now Biggs is collaborating with German artist Hanna Schaich on a one-night-only project November 23 at Microscope Gallery in Bushwick. The evening will consist of three short films by Schaich, in her New York debut, and two by Biggs, selected by Schaich, followed by an in-depth conversation. The two works by Biggs, Brightness All Around and In the Cold Edge, were both shot during trips to the Arctic and investigate individual identity amid unique, dangerous environments. “There is clearly a performative side to my work that has to do with me physically and psychologically pushing myself or assuming some kind of risk in order to capture the images and action needed for a piece,” Biggs told us in a 2011 twi-ny talk. “I didn’t realize I was such a thrill seeker until I set out to make this kind of work. This part of my process is compelling enough that I often find myself looking for new challenges, although my exploration of the addictive nature of risky behavior is primarily as a witness to someone else’s action and off-camera.”

Janet Biggs fires a warning shot in the frozen north in her short film IN THE COLD EDGE

Schaich, who was born and raised in Berlin but is now based in Brooklyn as well, will be showing Evelyn, a portrait of an elderly woman going for a swim in a pool; Taking Over, which involves an ice-cream truck and an ice-skating rink; and Falling Into, which also deals with ice skating (and the Central Park Zoo). The latter two films evoke Biggs’s journeys to freezing zones, finding a common language between the filmmakers. “My artistic work focuses on body-related video performances and installations,” Schaich explains in her official artist statement. “My body is my tool in my artwork and takes up a large and important part of my conceptual work. Paradoxical action sequences and storylines, and playing with gender and gender roles, are key to my work.” Schaich and Biggs met earlier this year and have become fast friends, so this should be an intimate, fun, and fascinating evening.

NARCO CULTURA

Narcocorrido star Edgar Quintero contemplates his next big hit in NARCO CULTURA

NARCO CULTURA (Shaul Schwarz, 2013)
AMC Empire 25
234 West 42nd St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
Opens Friday, November 22
212-398-2597
www.narcoculture.com
www.amctheatres.com

“They say that it’s safe on the other side, that people don’t kill over there. But the narcos are over here,” a young boy says at the beginning of Shaul Schwarz’s startling documentary, Narco Cultura. The child is standing on the Mexican side of the fence that separates one of the most dangerous cities in the world, Juárez, where 3,622 murders occurred in 2010, from the safest in the United States, El Paso, Texas, which had only five murders that same year. In the film, Israeli-born, New York-based photojournalist Schwarz (The Block) examines the exploding narco culture, in which a growing number of men, women, and children in Mexico and America cheer on guns and violence and turn drug lords into heroes. Serving as director and cameraman, Schwarz follows Juárez native Richi Soto, a crime scene investigator who covers his face when on the job to hide his identity, as colleagues keep getting targeted for assassination, and LA-based narcocorrido singer-songwriter Edgar Quintero, who pens individually commissioned tunes for drug cartel members and later performs them with his popular group, BuKnas de Culiacan. While Soto lives in fear, continuing to do his duty even though some ninety-seven percent of murder cases end up not getting investigated by the police, Quintero is famous, appearing at sold-out concerts and starring in quickie films that glorify violence and drug culture. Schwarz, who served in the Israeli Air Force and has covered conflicts in Haiti, the Gaza Strip, and other hot spots around the world, gets right on the front lines, showing horrific scenes of violence while avoiding any talking-head experts, letting the staggering numbers and the rivers of blood speak for themselves, the real-life results of the failed war on drugs.