Amy Hardie’s THE EDGE OF DREAMING documentary is centerpiece of annual Rubin Museum Brainwave festival
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
February 7 – April 20, $15-$30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org
The Rubin Museum’s fourth annual Brainwave lineup is another compelling collection of events featuring unusual and eclectic pairings of artists with scientists, this year focusing on dreams and prophecy. The centerpiece of the festival is the U.S. theatrical premiere of Amy Hardie’s documentary THE EDGE OF DREAMING, which will screen at the Rubin February 16-26; if you attend one of the showings ($12), you are eligible to participate in a dream workshop being led by Hardie the following day ($75) in which the nature of storytelling is explored in dreams and the changing world of cinema. The Brainwave discussions begin February 7 when punk-rock icon and spoken-word poet and comedian Henry Rollins is joined by neuroscientist David Eagleman for “The Assassin of My Dreams,” followed February 11 by composer Meredith Monk teaming with nueropsychologist John Antrobus for “Secrets of a Dream Diary.” Among the other intriguing programs, in which things threaten to get deeply personal and revelatory, are author Nathan Englander and neuroscientist Amir Raz pontificating on “Bedtime Hypnotism” February 27, novelist Amy Tan and dream researcher Deirdre Barrett talking about “Creativity in the Dreaming Brain” March 5, author and lawyer Scott Turow and Michael Gazzaniga of the Sage Center for the Study of Mind delving into “The Murderous Mind,” actress Debra Winger and psychiatry professor Robert Stickgold of the Center for Sleep and Cognition asking, “Do Dreams Come True?” March 20, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg and cognitive scientist Lawrence Barsalou getting into “The Buddhist Dreamer” April 13. In addition, Cornell’s Dr. Edward Nersessian will guide a “Dream-over” March 5-6, a twelve-hour event beginning at 9:15 in the evening in which participants (eighteen and over only, $55) will sleep in the galleries under a specially selected work of art; registrants must fill out an online Dreamlife Questionnaire between February 1 and 15 to qualify.
Inspired by the story of feudal lord Mori Motonari and Shakespeare’s KING LEAR, Akira Kurosawa’s RAN is an epic masterpiece about the decline and fall of the Ichimonji clan. Aging Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) is ready to hand over his land and leadership to his three sons, Taro (Akira Terao), Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu), and Saburo (Daisuke Ryû). But jealousy, misunderstandings, and outright deceit and treachery result in Saburo’s banishment and a violent power struggle between the weak eldest, Taro, and the warrior Jiro. Hidetaro soon finds himself rejected by his children and wandering the vast, empty landscape with his wise, sarcastic fool, Kyoami (Peter), as the once-proud king descends into madness. Dressed in white robes and with wild white hair, Nakadai (THE HUMAN CONDITION), in his early fifties at the time, portrays Hidetaro, one of the great characters of cinema history, with an unforgettable, Noh-like precision. Kurosawa, cinematographers Asakazu Nakai, Takao Saitô, and Masaharu Ueda, and Oscar-winning costume designer Emi Wada bathe the film in lush greens, brash blues, and bold reds and yellows that marvelously offset the white Hidetaro. Kurosawa shoots the first dazzling battle scene in an elongated period of near silence, with only Tôru Takemitsu’s classically based score playing on the soundtrack, turning the film into a thrilling, blood-drenched opera. RAN is a spectacular achievement, the last great major work by one of the twentieth century’s most important and influential filmmakers.
As Im Sang-soo’s updated, reworked version of Kim Ki-young’s classic 1960 erotic thriller THE HOUSEMAID opens, restaurant worker Eun-yi (Jeon Do-yeon) is intrigued by a young woman’s suicide jump on the street right outside. It’s a rather ominous sign for Eun-yi, who then gets a job as a nanny for a rich businessman, Hoon (Lee Jung-jae), his pregnant wife, Hae-ra (Seo Woo), and their daughter, Nami (Ahn Seo-hyeon). When Hoon finds his way into her bed, Eun-yi is at first resistant, then surrenders to her master, much to the dismay of Mrs. Cho (Yoon Yeo-jeong), who has been running the household for years. And once Mrs. Cho tells Hae-ra’s mother, Mi-hee (Park Ji-young), precisely what’s going on, the real trouble starts. Im (THE PRESIDENT’S LAST BANG) infuses his tale of wealth, power, and sex with elements of horror and suspense, at times evoking Richard Donner’s THE OMEN as Mi-hee seeks to protect the family at all costs. Jeon, who was named Best Actress at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival for her haunting work in SECRET SUNSHINE, is riveting as the conflicted young maid, caught in a web of shame, jealousy, betrayal, and ecstatic pleasure, going from childlike when playing with Nami to alluring when making passionate love with Hoon. Im’s fiftieth-anniversary reimagining of an influential Korean classic is a highly charged, potent melodrama with plenty of thrills, shocks, and surprises.
There’s something inherently creepy about THE WOODMANS, C. Scott Willis’s documentary about a family of artists that opens tonight at Film Forum for a two-week run. For the first half of his debut theatrical release, Willis, an eleven-time Emmy winner who has spent most of his career working for television news organizations, speaks with successful ceramic sculptor Betty Woodman, who had a