this week in film and television

FILMS IN TOMPKINS: THE BIG LEBOWSKI

The Dude will abide in Tompkins Square Park on Thursday night, with free pizza, live music, and the cult favorite

THE BIG LEBOWSKI (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1998)
Tompkins Square Park
500 East Ninth St. between Aves. A & B
Thursday, August 9, free, sundown
www.filmsintompkins2012.com

One of the ultimate cult classics and the best bowling movie ever, the Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski has built up such a following since its 1998 release that fans now gather every year for Lebowski Fest, where they honor all things Dude, and with good reason. The Big Lebowski is an intricately weaved gem that is made up of set pieces that come together in magically insane ways. Jeff Bridges is awesome as the Dude, a laid-back cool cat who gets sucked into a noirish plot of jealousy, murder, money, mistaken identity, and messy carpets. Julianne Moore is excellent as free spirit Maude, Tara Reid struts her stuff as Bunny, and Peter Stormare, Flea, and Torsten Voges are a riot as a trio of nihilists. Also on hand are Philip Seymour Hoffman, David Huddleston, Aimee Mann, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, David Thewlis, Sam Elliott, Ben Gazzara, Jon Polito, and other crazy characters, but the film really belongs to the Dude and his fellow bowlers Jesus Quintana (John Turturro, who is so dirty he is completely cut out of the television version), Donny (Steve Buscemi), and Walter (John Goodman), who refuses to roll on Shabbos. And through it all, one thing always holds true: The Dude abides. The Big Lebowski is screening Thursday night in Tompkins Square Park as part of Two Boots’ twenty-fifth anniversary celebration, so there will be free pizza as well as a live performance by the Luddites and the East Village All-Stars. (And just for the record, the Two Boots specialty pie known as the Dude consists of tasso, ground beef, and cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, a Cajun bacon cheeseburger delight.)

GENART FILM FESTIVAL

Jennifer (Laura Prepon) has a tough time turning thirty in GenArt closing-night film THE KITCHEN

School of Visual Arts Theatre
333 West 23rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
August 8-14, $30 (includes film screening and free drinks at after-party), seven-day pass $150
212-255-7300
festival.genart.com

The seventeenth annual GenArt Film Festival begins August 8, kicking off a week of screenings dedicated to one feature, one short, and one after-party each night. The opening-night films are Martin Snyder’s Missed Connections, a New York-set romantic comedy that won the Audience Award at this year’s Sarasota Film Festival, and Leah Shore’s animated documentary Old Man, made from actual conversations between author Marlin Marynick and Charles Manson. The festival continues with such films as Jorg Ihle’s cell-phone thriller Privacy, Nelson Cheng’s magician documentary The Magic Life, Jonah Ansell’s animated afterlife short Cadaver, with the voices of Christopher Lloyd and Kathy Bates, Jaime King’s Latch Key, in which a young teenager tries to ignore the sudden death of her mother, and Evan Abramson and Carmen Lopez’s Carbon for Water, about the search for clean water in Kenya. The closing-night selections are Ishai Setton’s The Kitchen, in which a woman’s (Laura Prepon) thirtieth birthday is not quite the celebration she imagined, and Ryan Eggold’s Literally, Right Before Aaron, about a man (Adam Rose) invited to his ex-girlfriend’s wedding. Awards will be given out for Best Feature, Best Short Film, best emerging-actor performance, and audience favorite; this year’s jury consists of Jay Duplass, Ben Lyons, Matt Singer, and David Blaustein. Each evening will begin with a cocktail reception, include a postscreening Q&A, and conclude with an after-party at the Thompson LES hotel in the East Village or another location.

A VIEW FROM THE VAULTS, 2012: BLACK SWAN

Nina, Nina, ballerina discovers that the mirror has at least two faces in BLACK SWAN

RECENT ACQUISITIONS: BLACK SWAN (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Tuesday, August 7, 7:00
Series runs through August 19
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
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www.foxsearchlight.com/blackswan

A companion piece to 2008’s multilayered The Wrestler, in which a rejuvenated Mickey Rourke plays an aging athlete trying to regain control of his body and his life while attempting to reestablish a connection with his daughter, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan is an even more complex psychological study of just how far the mind and body can go to get what it wants and needs. Natalie Portman stars as Nina Sayers, a member of a Manhattan-based ballet company who is vying for the lead role in a new production of Tchaikovsky’s classic 1877 ballet, Swan Lake, the tragic tale of a princess transformed into a white swan who must find true human love to be released, complicated by an evil magician, a black swan rival, and a handsome prince. Nina lives a sheltered existence dominated by her failed-ballerina mother, Erica (Barbara Hershey), squeezed into a cramped New York City apartment and not allowed to have a social life. Womanizing choreographer Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) is convinced that Nina can dance the white swan but has severe doubts that she has it within her to dance the black swan, even after selecting her to replace former prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder). Desperate to bring out Nina’s dark side, Leroy creates a competition between her and free-spirited dancer Lily (Mila Kunis), a sexy, tattooed young dancer who lives life on the edge. As opening night approaches, Nina must reach deep inside herself if she is to attain her dream, leaving all her fears and insecurities behind.

Lily (Mila Kunis) helps Nina (Natalie Portman) explore her darker side in BLACK SWAN

A gripping thriller that works on multiple levels, Black Swan is a superbly crafted examination of innocence and experience, good and evil, loyalty and betrayal that goes far beyond the basic black and white. Aronofsky and co-screenwriters Mark Heyman and Andrés Heinz delve into the nature of duality and the very creation of art itself, as the story of Black Swan mimics that of Swan Lake, and Nina continually sees doppelgangers of herself in mirrors and other people, especially Lily and Beth. As Nina struggles to bring out the black swan within her, her body literally bleeds, evoking both birth and death, her hallucinations and fantasies walking the fine line between dream and nightmare. As serious and frightening as Black Swan can be, however, Aronofsky has also infused it with cheesy horror-movie scares, referencing such diverse films as Carrie and The Turning Point, All About Eve and Single White Female, Repulsion and The Red Shoes, The Fly and Rosemary’s Baby, a potent mix of Polanski and Cronenberg filtered through Balanchine and Baryshnikov. (The cheesiness factor also extends to character names; it takes both gumption and supreme confidence to name your star ballerina Nina.) Even the casting touches on the idea of the double; Nina is replacing Beth much the way Portman is now getting the kind of roles Ryder used to get. Once again Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) has proved himself to be one of cinema’s most inventive directors, a master visual storyteller not afraid to take chances both with himself and with the audience. Nominated for four Oscars — Portman took home the picture’s only statuette, for Best Actress — Black Swan is screening August 7 at 7:00 at MoMA as part of the series “A View from the Vaults, 2012: Recent Acquisitions,” which continues through August 19 with such new films in MoMA’s collection as Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, Elaine May’s Mikey and Nicky, Lynn Hershman-Leeson’s Conceiving Ada, and William A. Wellman’s Frisco Jenny.

BRYANT PARK SUMMER FILM FESTIVAL: THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD

Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn capture each other’s fancy in one of the grandest adventure movies ever made

THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (Michael Curtiz, 1938)
Bryant Park Summer Film Festival
41st St. at Sixth Ave.
Monday, August 6, free, dusk
212-512-5700
www.bryantpark.org

With King Richard the Lionheart (Ian Hunter) off fighting the Crusades, his scheming brother, Prince John (Claude Rains), has taken over England, planning to become king with the help of the conniving Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone) and the cowardly Sheriff of Nottingham (Melville Cooper). But one brave man stands in his way, “an impudent, reckless rogue who goes around the shire stirring up the Saxons against authority,” according to the Bishop of the Black Canons (Montagu Love). “And he has the insolence to set himself up as a protector of the people.” Sir Robin of Locksley (Errol Flynn), better known as Robin Hood, is fiercely loyal to King Richard and will do anything to preserve the sanctity of the throne and fight for the rights of the common people as he occupies Sherwood Forest with his band of merry men in tights, including Will Scarlet (Patric Knowles), Little John (Alan Hale Sr.), Friar Tuck (Eugene Pallette), and Much (Herbert Mundin). He also falls for the lovely Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland), King Richard’s ward whom John promises to Gisbourne. Directed with appropriate flair and fanfare by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, Mildred Pierce) and William Keighley (Each Dawn I Die, The Man Who Came to Dinner) The Adventures of Robin Hood is a rollicking romp through the famous legend, complete with exciting fight scenes, lots of male camaraderie, and just the right touch of romance. Flynn and de Havilland, who ended up making eight films together, are magnetic as Robin Hood and Maid Marian, a classic love story mired in life-threatening danger. There have been numerous versions of Robin Hood, starring such actors as Douglas Fairbanks, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Patrick Bergin, Cary Elwes, and the voice of Brian Bedford, but there’s no Sir Robin quite like Flynn, who flits about with an endless supply of charm, humor, grace, and bravery. By the way, Marian’s horse, then known as Golden Cloud, was sold after the movie to Roy Rogers and was renamed Trigger, going on to have quite a career himself. Winner of Three Oscars (for art direction, editing, and original score — it lost Best Picture to Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take It with You) — The Adventures of Robin Hood is screening on August 6 as part of the Bryant Park Summer Film Festival, which continues August 13 with All About Eve before concluding August 20 with Raiders of the Lost Ark.

SEE IT BIG! THE WILD BUNCH

Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, William Holden, and Ernest Borgnine play friends to the bloody end in THE WILD BUNCH

THE WILD BUNCH (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Saturday, August 4, and Sunday, August 5, free with museum admission, 6:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

Sam Peckinpah cemented his reputation for graphic violence and eclectic storytelling with the genre-redefining 1969 Western The Wild Bunch. When a robbery goes seriously wrong, Pike Bishop (William Holden), Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine), Freddie Sykes (Edmond O’Brien), Angel (Jaime Sánchez), and brothers Lyle (Warren Oates) and Tector Gorth (Ben Johnson) set out to get even, planning an even bigger score by going after a U.S. Army weapons shipment on a railroad protected by detective Pat Harrigan (Albert Dekker) and his hired gun, Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), who is given nothing but “egg-suckin’, chicken-stealing gutter trash” to work with, including the hapless Coffer (Strother Martin) and T.C. (L. Q. Jones). The aging Pike, who sees this as his last score, is worried about being in cahoots with the unpredictable General Mapache (Emilio Fernández), a local warlord battling Pancho Villa’s freedom forces. But at the center of the film is the cat-and-mouse game between Pike and Thornton, the latter determined to capture his former partner, who left him to rot in jail years earlier. It all comes to a head in Agua Verde, which might translate to “Green Water” but will soon be bathed in red blood in one of the most violent shoot-outs ever depicted on celluloid. Peckinpah fills the film with plenty of drinking and whoring, and even torture, while exploring friendship and loyalty, embodied by Dutch’s selfless dedication to Pike. The Wild Bunch might be famous for its intense violence, much of it shot in slow motion, but it also has a lot more going for it, from its Oscar-nominated score by Jerry Fielding to its terrific cast and suspenseful twists and turns. (Western fans might get a kick out of knowing that Mapache’s right-hand man, Lt. Herrera, is portrayed by Mexican actor and director Alfonso Arau, who later played El Guapo in John Landis’s comic Western The Three Amigos.) The Wild Bunch is screening August 3 and 4 in a new DCP restoration at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of the institution’s continuing See It Big! series.

SEE IT BIG! RIO BRAVO

Dean Martin and John Wayne have their hands full in Howard Hawks’s RIO BRAVO

RIO BRAVO (Howard Hawks, 1959)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Saturday, August 4, and Sunday, August 5, free with museum admission, 3:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

Howard Hawks’s anti-High Noon is a surprisingly sensitive, extremely clever exploration of interpersonal relationships disguised as a Western genre picture. John Wayne stars as Sheriff John T. Chance, a big, bold small-town Texas lawman who arrests local bully Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) for committing cold-blooded murder. The cocky Burdette doesn’t expect to be in jail long, not with his brother, Nathan (John Russell), being the most powerful — and potentially dangerous — man in Rio Bravo, and what with Chance’s deputies being useless drunk Dude (Dean Martin) and an old cripple known as Stumpy (Walter Brennan). Despite offers of help from such friends as businessman Pat Wheeler (Ward Bond), Chance is determined to go it with just Dude and Stumpy as they attempt to hold Joe until the federal marshal arrives. But Nathan and his hired band of bounty hunters are just as determined to free Joe, whatever the cost. Chance is not so foolish as to think that he can take Burdette’s crew on just by himself; he actually doesn’t want anyone else to die for something he considers his responsibility. Meanwhile, he is keeping his eyes on Feathers (Angie Dickinson), a tough-talking young woman with a sordid past, and Colorado (Ricky Nelson), a sharpshooting young stud only out for himself. The set-up is merely an excuse for Hawks to delve into some serious male bonding and potential romance as Dude, called Borrachón (“Drunk”), tries to put down the bottle, Feathers attempts to prove that she’s not all bad, and Colorado eventually replaces his guns for a few minutes with a guitar to sing with Dude and Stumpy. Wayne plays it all marvelously, portraying Chance as a complex individual who understands the fears and desires, limitations and possibilities inherent in everyone he meets, yet always remaining cool. Appropriately enough, the local hotel, run by the always helpful Carlos (Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez) and his wife, Consuela (Estelita Rodriguez), is named the Alamo, not boding well for Chance and his meager team. Even at its 141-minute running time, Rio Bravo feels far more intimate than epic. Rio Bravo is screening August 3-4 in a new DCP restoration at the Museum of the Moving Image as part of the institution’s continuing See It Big! series.

FIRST SATURDAYS: CARIBBEAN RHYTHMS

Zing Experience will help celebrate Haitian culture at Brooklyn Museum on Saturday night

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, Augsut 4, free, 5:00 – 10:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum is getting into its annual Caribbean groove with its August First Saturdays program, celebrating the cultural heritage of Haiti. The free evening begins at 5:00 with Val Jeanty, Buyu Ambroise, and Zing Experience showcasing a mix of Haitian music and also includes dance performances by Makeda Thomas (FreshWater), NICODA (How We Are Connected), and League of Unreal Dancing and a dance workshop taught by Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy. There will be a screening of Reina de mi misma, Queen of Myself: Las Krudas d’ Cuba, Celiany Rivera-Velázquez’s 2010 documentary about the lesbian hip-hop group Las Krudas, as well as a book talk with Elizabeth Nunez, who will discuss her 2011 novel, Boundaries, which deals with a Caribbean immigrant in New York. There will also be gallery talks and a hands-on art workshop, along with time to see such exhibitions as “Raw Cooked: Ulrike Müller,” “Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company,” “Playing House,” “Rachel Kneebone: Regarding Rodin,” “Newspaper Fiction: The New York Journalism of Djuna Barnes, 1913–1919,” and others.