Jude Law is all the rage in Sally Potter film set in the fashion world
RAGE (Sally Potter, 2009)
MoMA Film
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Thursday, July 8, 8:00, and Friday, July 16, 4:00
Series runs July 7-21
Tickets: $10, 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.ragethemovie.com
For the next two weeks, MoMA will be celebrating the eclectic career of iconoclastic sixty-year-old British director Sally Potter with a retrospective of her work, from her 1969 short JERK through the new digitized version of her most well known feature, ORLANDO (1992), to her latest, 2009’s RAGE, which was first available on mobile devices before hitting art houses last September. RAGE is set in the world of high fashion, as an unseen teenager who goes by the name Michelangelo is interviewing a group of fourteen people involved in one way or another with a runway show introducing a new perfume known simply as “M.” As the movie proceeds, the carefully crafted characters reveal more and more intimate thoughts and reactions, in front of different-colored screens, as mystery, mayhem, and murder ensue. Among the participants are transvestite model Minx (Jude Law), wartime photographer Frank (Steve Buscemi), cynical critic Mona Carvell (Judi Dench), former “face of the year” Lettuce Leaf (Lily Cole), financier Tiny Diamonds (Eddie Izzard), his bodyguard, Jed (John Leguizamo), and pizza deliveryman Vijay (Riz Ahmed). The lurid tale is slowly unveiled as the mostly self-centered men and women talk about themselves, looking directly into the camera and staying within the same frame as the action can be heard offscreen. The cast, which also includes Bob Balaban, Dianne Wiest, and Simon Abkarian, is exceptional throughout, bringing everything to life even though Potter, who is operating the camera, never leaves the claustrophobic confines of the single tiny space. The story is rather mundane and the themes somewhat clichéd, but the way it all comes together borders on the dazzling. “I don’t want to be famous,” seamstress Anita (Adrian Barraza) says at one point. “I want to be invisible.” She’s the only one. Potter will be at MoMA for Q&As following the July 7 screening of ORLANDO (8:00), the July 8 screening of RAGE (8:00), and the July 9 screenings of THE GOLD DIGGERS (4:30) and YES (8:00).
Japanese writer-director Yuki Tanada made quite a cinematic debut in 2004 with ELECTRIC BUTTON (MOON & CHERRY), a romantic sex comedy that was part of the Love Collection Project. Shortly after shy virgin Tadokoro (Tasuka Nagaoka) joins the university erotic literature club, he finds himself being used over and over again as sexual fodder by the small club’s lone female, Mayama (Noriko Eguchi), who is doing a rather unique kind of research for her latest novel. Meanwhile, Tadokoro meets the sweetly innocent Akane (Misato Hirata) at the bookstore where they both work and wonders if he can have a real relationship with her. What follows is a funny, heated battle between Tadokoro’s heart, mind, and nether regions as he delves into his own writing and sense of self-worth. Recalling Pinku Eiga films, ELECTRIC BUTTON is playfully sexual and insightfully honest, a work that earned the female director well-deserved accolades. (She has gone on to make such films as 2006’s HAVE A NICE DAY and 2008’s AINT’ NO TOMORROWS.) Although the titillating ELECTRIC BUTTON was made back in 2004, the July 7 screening at the Japan Society, in the “Best of the Unreleased Naughties” section of the Japan Cuts festival, is its U.S. premiere. (Look for Akira Emoto as elder statesman Sakamoto, erstwhile leader of the club of oddballs; Emoto also appears in the festival’s MEMORIES OF MATSUKO and GOLDEN SLUMBER and was the irrepressible title character of Shohei Imamura’s DR. AKAGI.)
A precursor to such emotional, intense examinations of the contemporary Japanese family as Hirokazu Kore-eda’s STILL WALKING and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s TOKYO SONATA, Toshiaki Toyoda’s HANGING GARDEN is a smart, surreal look at the dark underbelly building beneath a seemingly happy family. Eriko Kyobashi (Kyôko Koizumi) has one rule for her husband, Takashi (Itsuji Itao), son, Ko (Masahiro Hirota), and daughter, Mana Kyobashi (Anne Suzuki): that there are no secrets. The family that shares together, stays together. But there are secrets galore, with Dad sleeping with the younger Mina (Sonim), soon to become Ko’s tutor; Mana frequenting the love hotel where she was conceived; and Eriko harboring thoughts of bloody murder. Based on the novel by Mitsuyo Kakuta, HANGING GARDEN is a superb character study, a cynical, funny, and at times horrific look at a dysfunctional family ready to implode at any moment. After making HANGING GARDEN, Toyoda was arrested on drug charges and reemerged four years later with 
In a close-knit rural village far from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, the police have arrived, investigating the mysterious disappearance of Dr. Ino (Tsurube Shofukutei), the local doctor who takes care of everyone’s medical needs, running the clinic and making regular house calls, a trusted figure often seen riding around on his motorized bike, greeting the citizens like an old friend. As the detectives question the residents, flashbacks depict the special relationship that existed between the well-compensated doctor — the town pays him $200,000 a year — and the people. Dr. Ino had recently been joined by an intern, med-school graduate Keisuke Soma (Eita), who showed up in a flashy convertible, upset he didn’t get a position in a Tokyo hospital, but even he was soon won over by Dr. Ino’s charm and skill. But when nurse Akemi Ohtake (Kimiko Yo) has to guide Ino through a difficult procedure and city doctor Ritsuko Torikai (Haruka Igawa) has doubts about how Ino is treating her ill mother (Kaoru Yachigusa), questions arise that bring some surprising answers. Winner of three major categories at the 2009 Hochi Film Awards — Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Eita), and Best Supporting Actress (Yachigusa) — DEAR DOCTOR is a warm, tender-hearted story written and directed by Miwa Nishikawa, who also earned accolades for her first two films, 2003’s WILD BERRIES and 2006’s SWAY. Shofukutei is terrific as Dr. Ino, a cross between Akira Emoto’s Dr. Akagi and Robin Williams’s Patch Adams (and we mean that in a good way). The solid cast also includes the ubiquitous Teruyuki Kagawa (SWAY, TOKYO SONATA, GOLDEN SLUMBER) as pharmaceutical supplier Masayoshi Saimon. DEAR DOCTOR is a real charmer.