The third installment of THE BLACK LIST premieres at the Paley Center on February 3 (photographs (c) Timothy Greenfield-Sanders)
THE BLACK LIST: VOLUME THREE
Paley Center for Media
25 West 52nd St. between Fifth &Sixth Aves.
Wednesday, February 3, $25, 6:30
212-621-6600
www.paleycenter.org
www.blacklistproject.com
Photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and film critic Elvis Mitchell will be on hand for the premiere of the third installment of their fascinating HBO documentary series, THE BLACK LIST, in which African American individuals share inspirational stories from their life. Photographed against a plain background by Greenfield-Sanders and interviewed by Mitchell, such figures as Russell Simmons, Bill T. Jones, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Toni Morrison, and Colin Powell sat for the first film, with Laurence Fishburne, T. D. Jakes, RZA, Kara Walker, Melvin Van Peebles, and others participating in the second. Among the subjects in the third installment are Beverly Johnson, Whoopi Goldberg, Debra Lee, Lee Daniels, and John Legend. The Black List Project, which also includes a book, traveling exhibition, and education initiatives, is part of One Million Stories, a wide-ranging program that “considers that as we each tell our own story, the subtle and seismic voice of each person’s narrative illuminates not just what makes us different . . . but what makes us the same.” The screening will be followed by a discussion with Greenfield-Sanders, Mitchell, Faye Wattleton, and others. Greenfield-Sanders’s photographs will remain on view at the Paley Center through May 1.
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. Film Forum is screening RAN in a brand-new twenty-fifth-anniversary 35mm print, concluding its terrific six-week-long Kurosawa festival celebrating the auteur’s centennial.
Named Best Debut Feature at the 2009 New York Asian Film Festival and winner of a Tiger Award at Rotterdam, Yang Ik-june’s BREATHLESS is an involving portrait of family hidden beneath a veil of blood and violence. Yang, who wrote, directed, and produced the film, also stars as Sang-hoon, a local gangster who goes out every day and does whatever is necessary to collect for his loan-shark boss, Man-sik (Jeong Man-sik). Dour, angry, and full of rage, Yang curses at and strikes his coworkers, cops, and strangers as well as the people who owe Man-sik money. Not one to make friends, he is soon hanging around with a high school girl, Yeon-hee (Kim Kkot-bi), who has taken a liking to him and his young nephew, Hyeong-in (Kim Hee-soo). Although they don’t know it, Yeon-hee and Sang-hoon are drawn to each other because of their difficult relationships with their fathers, both of whom are struggling to deal with different kinds of tragedy. Although Yang does try to pull at the heartstrings with some over-the-top melodrama near the end, BREATHLESS is well-paced study of family and friendship, following a bloody path to show the importance of blood. The free screening at Tribeca Cinemas will be followed by a Q&A with Yang, who mortgaged his house to make this low-budget picture.
The third jewel in Universal’s horror crown (following 1931’s DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN), THE WOLF MAN stars Lon Chaney, Jr., in his signature role, the goofily charming Larry Talbot, who just happens to have a problem on certain evenings when there is a particularly bright moon. Talbot has returned home to the family mansion after the sudden death of his brother, who appeared to have been mauled by some kind of wild animal. Reunited with his erudite father, Sir John (THE INVISIBLE MAN’s Claude Rains), Larry quickly gets the hots for local antiques dealer Gwen Conliffe, but when their first date involves the tragic death of Gwen’s friend Jenny (Fay Helm) and Bela the Gypsy (Bela Lugosi), Larry becomes a suspect in the murders. And when he keeps waking up with ripped clothing and blood on him, he begins to think that maybe he has indeed done some very terrible things. THE WOLF MAN is the only one of Universal’s three primary horror classics that is not based on a popular novel; instead, Curt Siodmak wrote a fascinating original script that delves deep into the psyche of its protagonist, whose physical and mental transformation echoes the rage inside us all. The all-star cast also features Ralph Bellamy as Colonel Montford, the town constable; Patric Knowles as Frank Andrews, Gwen’s fiancé; and the great Maria Ouspenskaya as the mysterious Gypsy woman Maleva. THE WOLF MAN might not have the chills and thrills of DRACULA and FRANKENSTEIN, but it still more than holds its own after all these years. (Oh, and if you’re expecting the famous scene when Chaney’s face goes all hairy, that actually occurs in the sequel, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN.)
