this week in film and television

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE & THE NOSE

The Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center
Between West 62nd & 65th Sts. and Columbus & Amsterdam Aves.
March 5-25, $15 standing room – $375
212-362-6000
www.metoperafamily.org

In spring 2007, William Kentridge’s magical production of Mozart’s THE MAGIC FLUTE dazzled audiences at BAM. Now, as part of numerous events across the city celebrating the multifaceted career of the South African artist, his highly anticipated adaptation of Shostakovich’s version of Gogol’s 1836 short story THE NOSE will have six performances at the Metropolitan Opera this month. The multimedia presentation, conducted by Valery Gergiev and featuring baritone Paulo Szot as Kovalyov and tenors Andrei Popov as the police inspector and Gordon Gietz as the Nose, was designed by Kentridge with Sabine Theunissen. Tickets are going fast in the lower-priced sections, so act quickly if you’d rather pay $150 or less rather than as much as $375. In addition, Kentridge’s NOSE-related drawings and collages are on view at the Gallery Met, his limited edition SHEETS OF EVIDENCE book is on display at Dieu Donné through April 24, he will be in conversation with Paul Goldberger discussing “Learning from the Absurd” at the New York Public Library on March 12, “Sounds from the Black Box: The Music of Philip Miller for the Films of William Kentridge” screens at the World Financial Center, with live music by Ensemble Pi, March 21-22, and the major retrospective “William Kentridge: Five Themes” runs at MoMA through May 17.

THAT’S MONTGOMERY CLIFT, HONEY!

Montgomery Clift would join Marilyn Monroe in Hollywood Babylon five years after appearing together in THE MISFITS

BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
March 11-25
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

In “The Right Profile,” the Clash’s Joe Strummer famously declared, “That’s Montgomery Clift, honey!” in a song that referenced the Hollywood star’s troubled career and fatal struggle with pills and the bottle. Born in Nebraska in 1920, Clift quickly rose to fame in his first few films in the late 1940s, which included Academy Award nominations for his roles in THE SEARCH and A PLACE IN THE SUN. But his career took a tragic turn when he suffered severe facial disfigurements in a car accident while filming RAINTREE COUNTRY in 1956. In 1961, Clift starred in THE MISFITS, the John Huston film that featured the final screen appearances of both Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable; Clift made only three more movies before dying a broken man in his New York City bedroom in 1966, at the age of forty-five, guaranteeing himself a place in Hollywood Babylon alongside such other denizens as Monroe and James Dean. BAM is celebrating what would have been Clift’s ninetieth year with a two-week festival of eleven of his films, beginning March 11 with William Wyler’s THE HEIRESS and continuing through THE MISFITS on March 25. On March 14, Clift biographer Patricia Bosworth will introduce FROM HERE TO ETERNITY; the series also includes screenings of A PLACE IN THE SUN, THE HEIRESS, I CONFESS, RED RIVER, FREUD, and other Clift classics.

CHELSEA ART WALK: MARCH 2010

Shaq is a little too big to squeeze into Maurizio Cattelan’s elevators, which are less than a foot tall (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

SIZE DOES MATTER
FLAG Art Foundation
545 West 25th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Wednesday – Saturday 12 noon – 5:00 through May 27
Admission: free
212-206-0220
www.flagartfoundation.org
size does matter slideshow

Since 1992, Shaquille O’Neal has been a huge force in the NBA, using his massive 7’1 frame and 320-pound bulk to redefine the center position during his long career with the Magic, Lakers, Heat, Suns, and now Cavaliers. He has transcended the sport, also releasing music albums, starring in films (anyone remember KAZAAM?), and even being named an honorary U.S. marshal. Shaq has now turned art curator, selecting and/or commissioning all the works that make up “Size DOES Matter,” a well-organized if often obvious exhibition spread across two floors of Chelsea’s nonprofit FLAG Art Foundation. Ranging from Willard Wigan’s “Micro Shaq,” which has to be viewed through a microscope, to Robert Therrien’s enormous table and chairs that nearly burst through the ceiling, the show addresses scale and scope in fun, entertaining ways. When visitors first get off the elevator on the ninth floor, they are greeted by Maurizio Cattelan’s miniature working elevators; other stand-out selections include Ron Mueck’s desperately unhappy “Big Man,” Joe Fig’s small diorama of Jasper Johns at work, Tomoaki Suzuki’s tiny group of friends, Evan Penny’s elongated “Stretch #2,” and Ivan Witenstein’s “The Kiss,” in which a boy gives viewers the finger for walking in on him and his girlfriend in an intimate moment. Be sure to walk around Richard Dupont’s “Terminal Stage” and Therrien’s stacked plates to get their full effect.

Also in Chelsea

Olafur Eliassion’s “Multiple shadow house” continues at Tanya Bonakdar through March 20 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Parents and children who visit the family-friendly “Size DOES Matter” should also stop by Tanya Bonakdar, where Olafur Eliassion’s “Multiple shadow house” is on view through March 20, encouraging people of all ages to walk through its mazelike structure and create ever-changing images on screens. Over the last few years, we’ve been following the intriguing short films of Guido van der Werve, catching his existential vision at the Hirshhorn and the Aldrich as well as on Governors Island. His latest, “Nummer twaalf,” at Luhring Augustine through March 13, consists of three sections that use chess as the starting point to examine humanity’s place in the universe, with van der Werve traveling to Mount St. Helens and the San Andreas Fault and getting lost in gorgeous landscapes as his original music composition and continuing chess moves link the set pieces. Erwin Loaf’s “Hotel & Dawn/Dusk,” at Hasted Hunt Kraeutler through March 20, equates a black world with a white one in his dual-screen projection, along with a compelling series of photographs of lonely women in hotel rooms. Horror movie fans should get a kick out of Gary Simmons’s “Midnight Matinee” at Metro Pictures through March 20, a collection of black-on-black pieces featuring the houses from THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, BURNT OFFERINGS, PSYCHO, and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.

UNDER GREAT NORTHERN LIGHTS

THE WHITE STRIPES UNDER GREAT NORTHERN LIGHTS (Emmett Malloy, 2009)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Third St.
Wednesday, March 10, 8:00, and Thursday, March 11, 7:00 & 9:00
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.whitestripes.bside.com

In the summer of 2007, Jack White and Meg White, better known as the White Stripes, celebrated their tenth anniversary as a band by touring Canada for the first time, intent on playing every province. Their cross-country journey was documented by video director Emmett Malloy, with guitarist Jack and drummer Meg often setting up their instruments in offbeat, surprising venues, including their infamous one-note show. Although the film is having its official U.S. premiere this week at the SXSW festival in Austin, there will be sneak peeks at theaters across America, including three screenings at the IFC Center, in advance of its March 16 release on Blu-ray and DVD and as a live CD. One of the best bands in the world, the White Stripes recently saw several of their records (ELEPHANT, GET BEHIND ME SATAN, ICKY THUMP) named to numerous best-of-the-decade lists; now you can see them before everyone else does in what promises to be one damn cool concert film.

ARMORY ARTS WEEK: SITE FEST ’10

sitefest2

Multiple locations in Bushwick
March 6-7, 1:00 – 9:00 (music continues past midnight)
Suggested donation for certain events $5, day pass $10, weekend pass $20
www.artsinbushwick.wordpress.com

For something a little different during Armory Arts Week, head out to Brooklyn for two days of open studios, gallery openings, live performances, and more at the second annual SITE Fest. Organized by Arts in Bushwick, the festival has three primary theater, dance, and performance art hubs — 3rd Ward on Morgan Ave., Chez Bushwick on Boerum St., and the Grace Exhibition Space on Broadway — while Goodbye Blue Monday will be home base for much of the live music, curated by ionSOUND. Among the performers scheduled to appear are Kung Fu Crimewave, Larkin Grimm, Meng-Hsuan Wu, Homunculus Mask Theater, Yoo & Dancers, Jenny Vogel, Synthesis Dance Project, HoverBound, the Movement Farm, Ling-Fen Chien, and the Omen Project. There will also be site-specific installations, interactive performances, artist talks, film screenings, sketch comedy, and panel discussions at such satellite sites as the Bushwick Starr, English Kills Gallery, the Petri Space, Bushwick Music Studios, House of Yes, Brooklyn Fireproof Gallery, and many others.

VICTOR FLEMING

Clara Bow reveals all in Victor Fleming’s HULA (courtesy Photofest)

Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
March 5-18
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org

For years, one of our favorite trivia questions has involved naming the director of GONE WITH THE WIND and THE WIZARD OF OZ. Not only do most people not know who made those classic films, but when we tell them that they were both credited to the same man, Victor Fleming, the answer usually is accompanied by a shrug. (Interestingly, he was called in to take over both of those epics following situations with other directors.) Fleming is among the least well known and studied filmmakers despite a resume that also includes CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS, A GUY NAMED JOE, THE VIRGINIAN, TREASURE ISLAND, JOAN OF ARC, and DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE. Film Forum will be screening twenty-three of his films through March 18, from 1919’s WHEN THE CLOUDS ROLL BY to 1948’s JOAN OF ARC, with enticing double features of RED DUST (1932) and BOMBSHELL (1933), THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939) and CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (1937), A GUY NAMED JOE (1943) and TEST PILOT (1938), and others. Fleming worked with the best in the business; among the stars in this series are Douglas Fairbanks, Myrna Loy, Clark Gable, Hedy Lamarr, Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, Henry Fonda, Clara Bow, John Garfield, Janet Gaynor, and Spencer Tracy.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Tim Burton reimagines ALICE IN WONDERLAND in thrilling new 3D adventure

ALICE IN WONDERLAND (Tim Burton, 2010)
Opens Friday, March 5
www.adisney.go.com

Screenwriter Linda Woolverton and director Tim Burton reimagine Lewis Carroll’s Victorian era children’s classics, ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE, in their thrilling version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Combining elements from both stories, Woolverton (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, THE LION KING) and Burton (EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, SLEEPY HOLLOW) turn Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) into a modern-thinking nineteen-year-old young woman facing a very public proposal from the wealthy but insipidly snobbish Hamish (Leo Bill). Instead of answering his question, she takes off after an odd white rabbit (voiced by Michael Sheen) and falls down a hole, plummeting into a colorful but dangerous world known as Underland, where she might or might not be the same Alice who had been there years before and was destined to come back as their savior. There she encounters a slyly smiling cat (Stephen Fry), a wise, hookah-smoking blue caterpillar (Alan Rickman), a pair of goofy twins (Matt Lucas), a truly mad milliner (Johnny Depp), and other strange talking creatures and weird personalities. Alice soon finds herself in the middle of an epic battle between the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter, with an unusually large head) and her sister, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway, with unusually red lipstick), a fight that also involves the smarmy Knave of Hearts (Crispin Glover), the terrifying Bandersnatch, and the murderous Jabberwocky (Christopher Lee). Filmed in 2D and converted to 3D, ALICE IN WONDERLAND is one of Burton’s most imaginative and exciting films. Although Carroll purists might be upset by the plot tweaks, Burton manages to stay true to the spirit of the books, creating an ALICE in which viewers are continually surprised, never knowing quite what is going to happen next. And Wasikowska (IN TREATMENT) makes a terrific Alice, a confused teenager on the cusp of adulthood who is not yet ready to give up being a child.