Somewhat autobiographical work is part of 92YTribeca Guy Maddin film series
MY WINNIPEG (Guy Maddin, 2008)
92YTribeca
200 Hudson St. at Canal St.
Friday, January 15, $10, 10:30
212-415-5500
www.92YTribeca.org/film
www.ifcfilms.com/films/my-winnipeg
In 2008, Guy Maddin (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD, CAREFUL) returned to the Tribeca Film Festival, where his splendid cinematic installation COWARDS BEND THE KNEE was a hit in 2003, with MY WINNIPEG, an insanely brilliant homage to his native city. In MY WINNIPEG, he pays tribute to the long, bizarre history of the title Canadian province, which sits directly in the middle of North America, what Maddin refers to as the “heart of the heart of the continent.” Combining archival footage with newly re-created scenes, all of which look like faded newsreels and early, degraded prints, Maddin, in voice-over narration, tells of horses buried in ice with their heads sticking out, the Happyland amusement park, Ledge Man, the Hudson’s Bay Company, stampedes, spirit photography and seances, a beauty pageant for men, local scavenger hunts in which the winner gets a ticket out of town, and other strange elements; one of the many joys of the film is not knowing what is exactly true and what is invention, although there is more fact here than you might think. “Everything that happens in this city is a euphemism,” Maddin says, just to keep us guessing. He also gets personal in the film, which he calls a “docu-fantasia,” with many scenes focusing on his mother — or an actress playing his mother. A masterful meditation on memory, MY WINNIPEG is one of Maddin’s most accomplished, most accessible works, the successor to such classic avant-garde filmmakers as Dali and Bunuel (UN CHIEN ANDALOU), Brakhage (DOG STAR MAN), and Welles (F FOR FAKE). The screening is part of the 92YTribeca’s Guy Maddin Film Series, which continues on January 22-23 with TALES FROM GIMLI HOSPITAL (1988), preceded by MY DAD IS 100 YEARS OLD, and on January 29-30 with THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD (2003). To get a little taste of what Maddin is all about, you can check out many of his short films, including NUDE CABOOSE, FUSEBOY, A TRIP TO THE ORPHANAGE, and SISSY-BOY SLAP-PARTY, on YouTube. Don’t worry about feeling like you’re “stealing” them by seeing them for free; Maddin put them up there himself.
Japanese novelist Kôbô Abe and director Hiroshi Teshigahara collaborated on five films together, including the marvelously existential WOMAN OF THE DUNES in 1964 and THE FACE OF ANOTHER two years later. In THE FACE OF ANOTHER, Tatsuya Nakadai (THE HUMAN CONDITION, KILL!) stars as Okuyama, a man whose face has virtually disintegrated in a laboratory accident. He spends the first part of the film with his head wrapped in bandages, a la the Invisible Man, as he talks about identity, self-worth, and monsters with his wife (Machiko Kyo), who seems to be growing more and more disinterested in him. Then Okuyama visits a psychiatrist (Mikijirô Hira) who is able to create a new face for him, one that would allow him to go out in public and just become part of the madding crowd again. But his doctor begins to wonder, as does Okuyama, whether the mask has actually taken control of his life, making him as helpless as he was before.
Akira Kurosawa might be one of the greatest filmmakers of the twentieth century, but the Japanese master wasn’t immune from laying an egg or two along the way. His debut film, SANSHIRO SUGATA, released in 1943, and its sequel, made two years later (THE MOST BEAUTIFUL was released in between), are a deadly dull duo that pits two styles of fighting, judo and jujitsu, against one another. The relatively straightforward genre film, based on the novel by Tsuneo Tomita that was inspired by the real life of Shiro Saigo, stars Susumu Fujita as Sanshiro Sugata, a hesitant judo champion who is forced back into the ring by politics. While Kurosawa does show flashes of the director he would soon become, the two-part saga is far too worshipful of its subject, lacking any sense of nuance or actual drama, hitting viewers over the head with its very basic themes. The extremely rare double feature is part of the Kurosawa Festival at Film Forum, which continues through February 18 with such upcoming classics as IKIRU, I LIVE IN FEAR, HIGH AND LOW, and DRUNKEN ANGEL.
Art, American consumerism, the Vietnam and Algerian wars, Hollywood, and the cinema itself get skewered in Jean-Luc Godard’s fab feaux gangster flick / road comedy / romance epic / musical PIERROT LE FOU. Based on Lionel White’s novel OBSESSION, the film follows the chaotic exploits of Ferdinand Griffon (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and Marianne Renoir (Anna Karina, Godard’s then-wife), former lovers who meet up again quite by accident. The bored Ferdinand immediately decides to leave his wife and family for the flirtatious, unpredictable Marianne, who insists on calling him Pierrot despite his protestations. Soon Ferdinand is caught in the middle of a freewheeling journey involving gun running, stolen cars, dead bodies, and half-truths, all the while not quite sure how much he can trust Marianne. Filmed in reverse-scene order without much of a script, the mostly improvised PIERROT LE FOU was shot in stunning color by Raoul Coutard. Many of Godard’s recurring themes and style appear in the movie, including jump cuts, confusing dialogue, written protests on walls, and characters speaking directly at the audience, which is more or less along for the same ride as Ferdinand. And as with many Godard films, the ending is a doozy. The screening is part of the IFC Center’s twelve-film series of classic French crime thrillers, which continues on weekend nights at 11:00 through April 4; the upcoming lineup includes Henri-Georges Clouzot’s QUAI DES ORFEVRES and Jules Dassin’s RIFIFI, and that’s just January. Keep watching this space for more select reviews.
