this week in film and television

THE CONNECTION

THE CONNECTION celebrates its fiftieth anniversary with a beautifully restored new print at the IFC Center

THE CONNECTION (Shirley Clarke, 1962)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
May 4-24
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.milestonefilms.com

“Now look, you cats may know more about junk, see,” square film director Jim Dunn (William Redfield) says midway through The Connection, “but let me swing with this movie, huh?” Adapted by Jack Gelber from his play and directed and edited by Shirley Clarke, The Connection is a gritty tale of drug addicts awaiting their fix that was banned for obscenity after only two matinee screenings back in October 1962. It opens in a sharp new fiftieth-anniversary print on May 4 at the IFC Center, beautifully restored by Ross Lipman of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. In a New York City loft, eight men are waiting for their man: Leach (Warren Finnerty), the ringleader who has an oozing scab on his neck; Solly (Jerome Raphael), an intelligent philosopher who speaks poetically about the state of the world; Ernie (Garry Goodrow), a sad-sack complainer who has pawned his horn but still clutches tight to the mouthpiece as if it were a pacifier; Sam (Jim Anderson), a happy dude who tells rambling stories while spinning a hula hoop; and a jazz quartet consisting of real-life musicians Freddie Redd on piano, Jackie McLean on sax, Larry Richie on drums, and Michael Mattos on bass. Dunn and his cameraman, J. J. Burden (Roscoe Lee Browne), are in the apartment filming the men as Dunn tries to up the drama to make it more cinematic as well as more genuine. “Don’t be afraid, man,” Leach tells him. “It’s just your movie. It’s not real.” When Cowboy (Carl Lee) ultimately shows with the stuff, Bible-thumping Sister Salvation (Barbara Winchester) at his side, things take a decidedly more drastic turn. Mixing elements of the French New Wave with a John Cassavetes sensibility and cinema verité style, Clarke has made an underground indie classic that moves to the beat of an addict’s craving and eventual fix. Shot in a luridly arresting black-and-white by Arthur Ornitz, The Connection is like one long be-bop jazz song, giving plenty of time for each player to take his solo, with standout performances by McLean musically and Raphael verbally. The film-within-a-film narrative allows Clarke to experiment with the mechanics of cinema and challenge the audience; when Dunn talks directly into the camera, he is speaking to Burden, yet he is also breaking the fourth wall, addressing the viewer. Cutting between Burden’s steady camera and Dunn’s handheld one, Clarke adds dizzying swirls that rush past like a speeding subway train. A New York City native, Clarke made such other films as The Cool World and Portrait of Jason and won an Academy Award for her 1963 documentary Robert Frost: A Lover’s Quarrel with the World. This new print of The Connection is part of Milestone Films’ Shirley Clarke Project, which will preserve and restore a quartet of her best work, with the 1985 documentary Ornette: Made in America up next.

FOCUS FEATURES — 10th ANNIVERSARY SALUTE: THE CONSTANT GARDENER

Diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) refuses to leave well enough alone in THE CONSTANT GARDENER

THE CONSTANT GARDENER (Fernando Meirelles, 2005)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Saturday, May 5, 7:30, and Monday, May 7, 4:30
Series runs through May 20
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.focusfeatures.com

Fernando Meirelles knows how to make movies. His previous film, the remarkable City of God (2002), was deservedly nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and he earned a nod for Best Director as well, sending him off to Hollywood for his first English-language effort. The result is this exciting tale of a low-level British diplomat who becomes obsessed with investigating his radical wife’s murder. As he uncovers more and more information, he learns surprising things about his wife — and the British government. Based on John Le Carré’s novel, The Constant Gardener opens with the murder of Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz); her husband, Justin (Ralph Fiennes), is a diplomat stationed in Kenya who prefers not to ruffle any feathers. As he is told what might have happened to her, he continues watering his plants, tending to his garden. Tessa’s death is ruled a crime of passion, allegedly committed by a peace worker, Dr. Arnold Bluhm (Hubert Koundé), but Justin believes there’s more to it. He soon finds himself in the middle of a complex conspiracy that puts him in the cross hairs of some very powerful — and dangerous — people. Meirelles alternates between the past and the present, using flashbacks to reveal Justin and Tessa’s complicated, often mysterious relationship. By focusing on the characters instead of the conspiracy, Meirelles has crafted an exciting spy thriller with a heart. Nominated for four Oscars, The Constant Gardener is screening May 5 and 7 at MoMA as part of the series “Focus Features: 10th Anniversary Salute,” which pays tribute to the New York-based distributor responsible for such cutting-edge independent films as Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gus Van Sant’s Milk, Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right, and David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises, all of which are part of this festival, which runs through May 20.

FOCUS FEATURES — 10th ANNIVERSARY SALUTE: BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) get involved in an unusual love story in Ang Lee’s BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (Ang Lee, 2005)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Thursday, May 3, 7:00, and Sunday, May 6, 4:00
Series runs May 3-20
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.brokebackmountain.com

>In the summer of 1963, two cowboys head up Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming to watch over a herd of sheep. Ennis Del Mar (an outstanding Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) have never met before, but it doesn’t take long for them to jump into each other’s arms when it gets mighty cold up there. Their brief but powerful affair haunts them when they each return to their lives — Ennis marries his fiancee, Alma (Michelle Williams), and starts a family, while Jack settles down with Lureen (Anne Hathaway) in a clearly loveless relationship. As time moves on, their desperate need to be together only grows stronger — and more dangerous. Based on Annie Proulx’s New Yorker story and directed by Ang Lee (Hulk, The Ice Storm, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Brokeback Mountain is an emotional tale of forbidden love that will break your heart. However, it’s not quite as great as you’ve heard; Ennis and Jack’s physical relationship starts way too soon, without enough buildup, and Lee doesn’t quite know how to end it (it’s at least twenty minutes too long). But he gets one heckuva wrenching performance from Ledger as a tough man afraid to let go of traditional values and follow his dreams. Brokeback Mountain is screening May 3 and 6 at MoMA as part of the series “Focus Features: 10th Anniversary Salute,” which pays tribute to the New York-based distributor responsible for such cutting-edge independent films as Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Gus Van Sant’s Milk, Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right, and David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises, all of which are part of this festival, which runs May 3-20. The May 3 screening of Brokeback Mountain will be followed by a Q&A by longtime Lee producer and Focus Features CEO James Schamus.

FOCUS FEATURES — 10th ANNIVERSARY SALUTE: A SERIOUS MAN

Joel and Ethan Coen’s Oscar-nominated A SERIOUS MAN kicks off MoMA tribute to Focus Features

A SERIOUS MAN (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2009)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Thursday, May 3, and Friday, May 4, 4:00
Series runs May 3-20
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.focusfeatures.com

The Coen brothers take their unique brand of dry, black comedy to a whole new level with A Serious Man. Poor Larry Gopnik (a remarkably even-keeled Michael Stuhlbarg) just keeps getting dumped on: His wife, Judith (Sari Lennick), wants to leave him for, of all people, touchy-feely Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed); his brother, Arthur (Richard Kind), keeps hogging the bathroom so he can drain his cyst; his son, Danny (Aaron Wolf), won’t stop complaining that F-Troop isn’t coming in clearly and is constantly on the run from the school drug dealer (Jon Kaminsky Jr.); his daughter, Sarah (Jessica McManus), wants to get a nose job; one of his students (David Kang) has bribed him for a passing grade; his possible tenure appears to be in jeopardy; and he gets no help at all from a series of funnier and funnier rabbis. But Larry keeps on keepin’ on in the Jewish suburbs of Minnesota in 1967, trying to make a go of it as his woes pile higher and higher. Joel and Ethan Coen have crafted one of their best tales yet, nailing the look and feel of the era, from Hebrew school to Bar Mitzvah practice, from office jobs to parking lots, from the Columbia Record Club to transistor radios, from television antennas to the naked neighbor next door. The Coens get so many things right, you won’t mind the handful of mistakes in the film, and because it’s the Coens, who’s to say at least some of those errors weren’t intentional? A Serious Man is a seriously great film, made by a pair of seriously great filmmakers. And while you don’t have to be Jewish and from Minnesota to fall in love with it, it sure can’t hurt. A Serious Man is screening May 3 and 4 at MoMA as part of the series “Focus Features: 10th Anniversary Salute,” which pays tribute to the New York-based distributor responsible for such cutting-edge breakthrough independent films as Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, Fernando Meirelles’s The Constant Gardener, Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, and Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, all of which are part of this festival, which runs May 3-20.

CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY

Brothers Bryce and Aaron Dessner have put together quite a multimedia festival at BAM (photo by David Kressler)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Bam Rose Cinemas, BAMcafe
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
May 3-5, $45
718-636-4100
www.crossingbrooklynferry.com
www.bam.org

In his poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” from Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman wrote, “Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passengers! / Stand up, tall masts of Mannahatta! — stand up, beautiful hills of Brooklyn! / Throb, baffled and curious brain! throw out questions and answers! / Suspend here and everywhere, eternal float of solution! / Gaze, loving and thirsting eyes, in the house, or street, or public assembly!” BAM is now inviting Manhattanites — and everyone else — to once again dare to venture across the river for “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry,” a three-day film and music festival curated by Bryce and Aaron Dessner of the National. The festivities begin May 3 with live performances by the Walkmen, Sharon Van Etten, Twin Shadow, Jherek Bischoff, ZS, Callers, People Get Ready, yMusic, JACK Quartet, Heather Broderick, and Yellowbirds, with nine short films (which will be screened each night) by Poppy de Villeneuve & Missy Mazzoli; Jonas Mekas, Dalius Naujo, and friends; Michael Brown & Glenn Kotche; Bill Morrison & William Basinski; Justin Davis Anderson & Juan Comas; Tunde Adebimpe & Ohal Grietzer; Matthew Ritchie & Bryce Dessner; Su Friedrich; and Joseph Gordon-Levitt & wirrow. On May 4, the musical lineup features St. Vincent, the Antlers, Tyondai Braxton, Sō Percussion, Buke and Gase, Sinkane, Ava Luna, Missy Mazzoli and Victoire, NOW Ensemble, Hubble, and Nadia Sirota, followed by DJ sets by Chris Keating and Joakim. The May 5 show is sold out, but in case you can still score a ticket somehow, it includes Beirut, Atlas Sound, My Brightest Diamond + yMusic, Caveman, Oneohtrix Point Never, Janka Nabay & the Bubu Gang, Skeletons, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, the Yehudim, Benjamin Lanz, and Thieving Irons, with late-night / early-morning DJ sets by Pat Mahoney and Nancy Whang.

PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

Salman Rushdie will deliver the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture at this year’s PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations
April 30 – May 6, free – $75
www.pen.org

This year’s PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature celebrates the ninetieth anniversary of the organization, which is dedicated to freedom of speech and human rights around the globe, with a bevy of events beginning April 30 and continuing through May 6. Here are just some of the many highlights: On Monday night, Graydon Carter, Victor S. Navasky, George Packer, and Katha Pollit will pay tribute to the late Christopher Hitchens at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, and Hank Dutt, Onome Ekeh, Emily Howard, and Beth Levin will take part in the U.S. premiere of Kevin Malone’s thirty-five-minute Clockwork Orange operetta at the Top of the Standard. On Tuesday, Mike Daisey will host “Revolutionary Plays Since 2000: The Future of Political Theater” at the CUNY Graduate Center, an evening of readings, discussion, and live music with Lasha Bugadze, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, Laila Soliman, and the Civilians. On Wednesday, the amazing trio of Martin Amis, Margaret Atwood, and E. L. Doctorow will gather together for a TimesTalk at the Times Center, while the Kronos Quartet presents “Exit Strategies” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Rula Jebreal, Tony Kushner, and Marjane Satrapi. There are more than a dozen programs on Thursday, including Elevator Repair Service performing the site-specific Shuffle, a mash-up of classic novels at NYU’s Bobst Library, screenings of Satrapi’s Persepolis and Chicken with Plums at MoMA, and “Herta Müller on Silence” at Deutsches Haus. On Friday, Jennifer Egan will talk about “How to Create Your Own Rules” with Jacob Weisberg at the New School, seventeen writers will come together for “A Literary Safari” at the Westbeth Center, and the all-day “John Cage: How to Get Started” at Symphony Space will feature David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet, Aleksander Hemon, Etgar Keret, Sonia Sanchez, and audience performers. On Saturday, “An Evening with Doon Arbus, Francine Prose, and Michael Cunningham — and Diane Arbus” consists of readings from the recent biography Diane Arbus: A Chronology and a screening of A Slide Show and Talk by Diane Arbus at MoMA, author-illustrator Brian Selznick will be in conversation with David Levithan at the New School, Egan, Teju Cole, Karl O. Knausgaard, Riikka Pulkkinen, Luc Sante, and others will interact with R. Justin Stewart’s art installation at the Invisible Dog Art Center for “Messiah in Brooklyn,” and Sanchez, Keret, Adam Mansbach, Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, Marcus Samuelsson, and Tracy K. Smith will discuss “Memory in Harlem” at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. The festival concludes on Sunday with Cunningham, Deborah Eisenberg, Daniel Kehlmann, and Edmund White at the Museum of Jewish Heritage for “A Place Out of Time: Gregor von Rezzori’s Bukovina Trilogy” and Salman Rushdie delivering the Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture at the Cooper Union, followed by a pop Q&A led by Gary Shteyngart.

TWI-NY TRIBUTE: AMOS VOGEL

Writer, activist, programmer, teacher, film lover, and all-around mensch Amos Vogel introduced independent and avant-garde cinema to America

Were it not for Amos Vogel, you would not be reading this right now, because we would not be writing it. After taking a film class with Professor Vogel at the University of Pennsylvania, we decided to pursue a graduate degree in cinema studies, with the help of a letter of recommendation from one of the giants of independent cinema. It was in his class that we first learned about Stan Brakhage, Michael Snow, Maya Deren, Bruce Conner, Hollis Frampton, and the other greats of experimental film. In 2003, we got to thank the mighty professor in person at a Tribeca Film Festival screening of the celebratory documentary Film as a Subversive Art: Amos Vogel and Cinema 16. The Vienna-born Vogel, who passed away on April 24 at the age of ninety-one in his Greenwich Village apartment, ran Cinema 16 from 1947 into the 1960s, screening alternative, avant-garde, foreign-language, scientific, and other controversial works that had never before been seen in America. In the documentary, director Paul Cronin follows Vogel as he walks around the Village, stopping by familiar places where his career began. Vogel also opens up his home and office to the camera for a fascinating look into his unique world. A radical leftist, he eagerly fought censorship to bring new ideas to adventurous moviegoers. All the while he was involved in a wonderful love story with his wife of more than five decades. Vogel also was the founder and first director of the New York Film Festival, where we would see him many a year, as well as the author of the seminal text Film as a Subversive Art, a watershed examination of the history of avant-garde cinema. Farewell, Professor Vogel; there was no one else quite like you.