this week in film and television

KOREAN MOVIE NIGHT: RE-ENCOUNTER

Yoo Da-in is mesmerizing in Min Yong-geun’s wonderful RE-ENCOUNTER

THE HIDDEN GEMS OF INDIE CINEMA: RE-ENCOUNTER (Min Yong-geun, 2010)
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick St. at Laight St.
Tuesday, May 10, free, 6:30
Series runs every other Tuesday through June 21
212-759-9550
www.subwaycinema.com
www.tribecacinemas.com

The popular — and free — Korean Movie Night returns to Tribeca Cinemas this month with the start of Subway Cinema’s new Tuesday-night series, “The Hidden Gems of Indie Cinema,” focusing on smaller, independent films from South Korea. First up is the North American premiere of writer-director Min Yong-geun’s wonderful Re-Encounter, winner of a number of international festival awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress. Yoo Da-in stars as Hye-hwa, a charming young woman who works in a veterinary hospital, rescues stray dogs from the evil dogcatcher, and helps take care of her widowed boss’s (Park Hyeok-Kwon) son. But when her high school boyfriend, Han-soo (Yoo Yeon-seok), suddenly shows up after a stint in the military, her life is turned upside down, as he convinces her that their baby, the result of a teen pregnancy five years earlier, is living nearby, having been adopted by a local professor and his wife. Re-Encounter is a moving, intimate film about motherhood, family, and adoption, filled with plot twists that echo Hye-hwa’s complex emotional state; at one moment, she can be playing “mom” to a young boy, while the next she clips her fingernails and adds them to her growing collection. While she relates well to canines, her human relationships are far more difficult. Min never gives straight answers, instead keeping things just mysterious enough to keep the audience riveted without getting frustrated. Yoo is outstanding in the lead role; you won’t be able to take your eyes off her. The series continues May 24 with the North American premiere of Lee Seo’s Missing Person, June 7 with Lim Woo-seong’s Vegetarian, and June 21 with Jeong Seong-il’s Café Noir.

NEW YORK GALLERY WEEK 2011

William Kentride will be signing books at Marian Goodman on Saturday as part of New York Gallery Week (William Kentridge, “Drawing for ‘Other Faces,’” charcoal and coloured pencil on paper, 2011; courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York / Paris)

Multiple locations
May 6-8, free
www.newyorkgalleryweek.com

More than sixty galleries and organizations will be participating in this weekend’s New York Gallery Week festivities, featuring a host of opening receptions, walking tours, and other special events, including being open late Friday night (till 8:00) and all day Sunday, when most galleries are closed. Among the many Saturday highlights are William Kentridge signing books at Marian Goodman from 11:00 to 1:00, Barnaby Furnas and Ivan Witenstein in conversation at Derek Eller at 12 noon, Amy Granat/Cinema Zero and a dance performance by Felicia Ballos at Nicole Klagsbrun at 1:00, an artist talk with Sara VanDerBeek at Leo Koenig at 2:30, the panel discussion “New Directions in Curatorial Models” at Sean Kelly at 3:00, and a live performance by Black Lake at David Nolan at 5:00. On Sunday, Louise Lawler’s Birdcalls will be screening at Metro Pictures from 11:00 to 6:00, Marianne Boesky will host a panel discussion on Salvatore Scarpitta’s “Trajectory” at 12 noon (with Germano Celant, Nicholas Cullinan, James Harithas, Jeff Koons, Nancy Rubins, and Paul Schmmel, moderated by Anne-Marie Russell), Hilton Als and Kara Walker will lead an artist walk-through of Walker’s “Dust Jackets for the Niggerati — and Supporting Dissertation” at Sikkema Jenkins at 2:00, Liam Gillick and Sean Landers will lead a walk-through of Landers’s “Around the World Alone” at Friedrich Petzel at 3:00, and Stephen Vincent will give a talk and poetry reading at Jack Hanley at 6:00.

OCTUBRE

Local loan shark Clemente is suddenly strapped with a baby in OCTUBRE (courtesy New Yorker Films)

OCTUBRE (Daniel Vega & Diego Vega, 2010)
Angelika Film Center, 18 West Houston St. at Mercer St., 212-995-2570
Lincoln Plaza Cinema, 1886 Broadway at 63rd St., 212-757-2280
Opens Friday, May 6
www.newyorkerfilms.info/octubre

Winner of the Jury Prize of the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes last year, Octubre is a deadpan black comedy about loneliness and, ultimately, a different kind of family. In Daniel and Diego Vega’s first feature, Bruno Odar stars as Clemente, a low-key money lender in Lima, Peru, who comes home one day to his stark apartment to find a baby left in a back room. Figuring out it must be his by one of the prostitutes he frequents, he goes in search of the woman, known as la Cajamarquina, who does not want to be found. After the authorities strongly suggest that he keep the baby, Clemente hires the deeply religious Sofia (Gabriela Velásquez) to help take care of the child. The events unfold during the Purple Month, October, when Lima celebrates El Señor de los Milagros (the Lord of the Miracles), worshiping a seventeenth-century image of Christ that many believe is responsible for myriad miracles. Citing Robert Bresson, Jim Jarmusch, and Aki Kaurismäki as direct influences, the brothers Vega have made a slow-paced little gem, a curious tale with strange characters centered around the idea of money — but not greed. Clemente, the son of a respected pawnbroker, lends out cash to locals who tend to dictate the terms to him. When one man pays him back with a questionable bill, Clemente spends the rest of the film trying to get rid of it, but everyone else seems to be a lot smarter than he is when it comes to money. Sofia sells homemade nougat, a Purple Month tradition, and plays the numbers with Don Fico (Carlos Gassols), hoping for a small break in her spinsterish life. The only relationships that Clemente and Sofia have with other people involve money, either lending it, borrowing it, gambling it, or, in Clemente’s case, spending it to have sex. But the surprise baby has the potential to change both of their drab, boring lives. Octubre is a promising debut from the Vegas, who, along with cinematographer Fergan Chávez-Ferrer, display a smart sense of subtle visual and narrative style in telling this offbeat story.

MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND: MILDRED PIERCE

Kate Winslet takes on iconic role first played by Joan Crawford in HBO miniseries MILDRED PIERCE

MILDRED PIERCE (Todd Haynes, 2011)Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Sunday, May 8, free with museum admission of $10, 10:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.hbo.com/mildred-pierce/index.html

Clearly, the Museum of the Moving Image has a wicked sense of humor. This Mother’s Day, the Astoria institution will be screening all five and a half hours of Todd Haynes’s splendid new version of Mildred Pierce, which recently premiered on HBO. This new Mildred Pierce is less a remake of Michael Curtiz’s 1945 noir original, which earned Joan Crawford a Best Actress Oscar for the title role, than a more faithful retelling of James M. Cain’s 1941 novel about a dedicated mother who cannot see through the deception of her awful, terrible, miserable, horrible, conniving daughter. Kate Winslet is stoic as Mildred, who, after her husband, Bert (Brian F. O’Byrne), leaves her for another woman, takes a job as a waitress to help take care of her two children, especially her piano-prodigy daughter, Veda (first played by Morgan Turner, then Evan Rachel Wood when she’s older). Soon after Mildred’s pies become extremely popular, she opens up her own restaurant, with the help of Bert’s former business partner, Wally Burgan (James LeGros), who doesn’t mind getting a little something extra from Mildred. Mildred starts living a more exciting life, gallivanting around with would-be playboy Monty Beragon (Guy Pearce), but her happiness is continually thwarted by her undying, undeserving love for her daughter, who does not return the feeling but is more than content to take her mother’s money. Haynes and cowriter Jon Raymond focus on the characters instead of the camp, coming up with a compelling and involving depression-era tale that will break your heart over and over again.

SUNSHINE AT MIDNIGHT: THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS

Asia Argento stars as a newfangled Mommie Dearest in HEART IS DECEITFUL

THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS (Asia Argento, 2005)
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
143 East Houston St. between First & Second Aves.
Friday, May 6, and Saturday, May 7, 12 midnight
212-330-8182
www.landmarktheatres.com
www.heartisdeceitful.com

Asia Argento wrote, directed, and stars in this inspired adaptation based on the supposedly autobiographical novel by the recently exposed JT Leroy (a mysterious writer who turned out to be an elaborate creation of a former sex-phone operator). Argento, whose long resume includes a trio of films directed by her cult-fave father, Italian horrormeister Dario Argento, plays Sarah, a drug-addled loser who reclaims her seven-year-old son, Jeremiah (the frightfully good Jimmy Bennett), from his loving and well-off foster parents. Sarah, one of the worst mothers to ever grace the silver screen, mistreats the boy horribly again and again, even allowing her stream of dangerous and weird boyfriends (which include Michael Pitt, Marilyn Manson, and Jeremy Sisto) to do the same — and worse. At one point Jeremiah winds up living with his grandparents (Peter Fonda and Ornella Muti), religious nutcakes who harbor their own secrets. With pulsating original music by Marco Castoldi and Sonic Youth, brutal, fast-paced action, and leather-and-chains sadomasochism, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things is reminiscent of Alex Cox’s Sid & Nancy (1986), with a little bit of Mommie Dearest (Frank Perry, 1981) thrown in. Argento’s compelling vision, which will grow on you if you let it, is not for everyone; at times it’s lurid, graphic, and hard to watch, but it’s also got its share of breathtaking moments. Just try your best to forget about the literary hoax that gave birth to this sordid story in the first place.

WEEKEND CLASSICS — KUROSAWA: IKIRU

Takashi Shimura does a stellar job with a rare leading role in Kurosawa’s captivating melodrama IKIRU

IKIRU (TO LIVE) (DOOMED) (Akira Kurosawa, 1952)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
May 6-8, $13, 11:00 am
Series continues through August
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com

In Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 gem, Ikiru, the great Takashi Shimura is outstanding as the simple-minded petty bureaucrat Kanji Watanabe, a paper-pushing section chief who has not taken a day off in thirty years. But when he suddenly finds out that he is dying of stomach cancer, he finally decides that there might be more to life than he thought after meeting up with an oddball novelist (Yunosuke Ito). While his son, Mitsuo (Nobuo Kaneko) and coworkers wonder just what is going on with him — he has chosen not to tell anyone about his illness — he begins cavorting with Kimura (Shinichi Himori), a young woman filled with a zest for life. Although the plot sounds somewhat predictable, Kurosawa’s intuitive direction, a smart script, and a marvelously slow-paced performance by Shimura make this one of the director’s best melodramas. Ikiru will be screening at 11:00 am on May 6-8 as part of the IFC Center’s Weekend Classics — Kurosawa series, with half of the proceeds from all festival screenings benefiting Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund. Upcoming screenings include The Bad Sleep Well (May 20-22), The Hidden Fortress (May 27-30), and Stray Dog (June 3-5).

TAIWAN STORIES: CLASSIC AND CONTEMPORARY FILM FROM TAIWAN — JULIETS

Unrequited love is at the center of three very different tales in the cinematic omnibus JULIETS

JULIETS (Hou Chi-Jan, Shen Ko-Shang & Hou Chi Jan, 2010)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St.
Saturday, May 7, 1:30, and Wednesday, May 18, 4:00
Series runs May 6-19
212-875-5610
www.filmlinc.com

The opening-night selection of the Golden Horse Film Festival, Juliets is a three-part anthology that offers unique takes on Shakespeare’s classic story of unrequited love, Romeo & Juliet. In Chen Yu-Hsun’s Juliet’s Choice, Vivian Hsu stars as Ju, a mousy, handicapped young woman who walks with one crutch — not very well — and toils in her father’s printing shop. Ju is immediately struck by Ro (Wang Po-chieh), a university student who is trying to get someone to print a Marxist pamphlet, not exactly the safest idea in 1970s Taipei, which is under martial law. Although Ju’s father rejects Ro’s proposition, fearing the authorities, she goes ahead with the project in secret, leading to personal, professional, and political repercussions and a sly twist. In Shen Ko-Shang’s Two Juliets, One Million Star finalist Lee Chien-na was named Best New Performer at the 2010 Golden Horse Film Awards for her role as Julie, a sexy chanteuse in a traveling outdoor burlesque show who gets into trouble when her relationship with the puppeteer’s son (River Huang) suddenly goes public, causing fighting among the families. The story is actually told in flashback through the eyes of the man thirty years later and the woman taxi driver (Hsu) who wants to help him make amends. And in Hou Chi-Jan’s One More Juliet, Hong Kong television star Kang Kang plays Ju Li-ye, a despondent thirty-nine-year-old who has just had his heart broken for the twenty-eighth and, he’s decided, last time. But just as he’s about to hang himself from a tree using the chain from his broken bicycle, he is asked to appear in a commercial that his being shot nearby. As the goofy ad for sculpted superhero undies is delayed by the rain, Ju hears a stirring tale told by another actor, Ron (Liang He Chun), bringing the two men closer together. Juliets offers three very different tales of unrequited love, set in three different times and in three different genres, yet they work well as a whole, displaying the main characters’ desperation, disappointment, and determination as they try to deal with the rough hand love has dealt them.

Juliets is screening May 7 & 18 as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s “Taiwan Stories: Classic and Contemporary Film from Taiwan,” which runs May 6-20 and also includes such older works as Liang Zhefu’s Early Train from Taipei (1964), Li Hanxiang’s Beauty of Beauties (1965), and King Hu’s A Touch of Zen (1969) as well as such modern films as Wei Tei-Sheng’s Cape No. 7 (2008), Chen Wen-tang’s Tears (2009), and Chung Mong-Hong’s The Fourth Portrait (2010).