Ramin Bahrani and Annette Insdorf will discuss The White Tiger and more in 92Y talk and Q&A
Who:Annette Insdorf, Ramin Bahrani What: Special online conversation about The White Tiger Where:92Y When: Monday, February 8, free with RSVP. 8:00 Why: Iranian-American writer, director, and producer Ramin Bahrani burst onto the indie scene in 2005 with his brilliant Man Push Cart, followed by the charming Chop Shop and Goodbye Solo. He was nominated for the Golden Lion for 2013’s At Any Price and 2015’s 99 Homes but slipped a bit with his 2018 HBO adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Bahrani is now back with the Netflix original The White Tiger, based on the Booker Prize–winning novel by his friend Aravind Adiga. The film stars Adarsh Gourav as a young boy who sees his future out of poverty by working for wealthy masters (Rajkummar Rao and Priyanka Chopra Jonas) who will help him climb the ladder of success, at an ever-increasing price. On February 8 at 8:00, Bahrani, a Columbia graduate and film professor, will join film historian, Columbia professor, and author Annette Insdorf for her 92nd St. Y series “Reel Pieces,” a livestreamed conversation and audience Q&A; admission is free with RSVP. You can also check out previous episodes of the show, online during the pandemic (Aaron Sorkin, Sofia Coppola) and from the before time in person (Greta Gerwig, Glenda Jackson, Nick Nolte), here.
The Orchestra Now (TŌN) will present livestreamed concerts from the Fisher Center this month (photo courtesy the Orchestra Now)
Who:The Orchestra Now (TŌN) What: Two livestreamed concerts Where:Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard When: Sunday, February 7, free – $35, 2:00, and Sunday, February 21, free – $35, 2:00 Why: The Orchestra Now (TŌN), which features young musicians handpicked from around the world, will be presenting two live programs this month, broadcast from the Fisher Center at Bard in Annandale-on-Hudson. On February 7 at 2:00, “Schoenberg & Bach” features Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, Lutosławski’s Funeral Music, Teresa Carreño’s Serenade for Strings, and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), conducted by Leon Botstein. On February 21 at 2:00, “New & Classic Works for Strings” consists of a timely world premiere by Sarah Hennies, Jonny Greenwood’s Popcorn Superhet Receiver, Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and Grieg’s Holberg Suite, conducted by James Bagwell. Tickets to each concert are free to $35 depending on what you can afford, and each will be available on demand on the STAY TŌNED digital platform beginning the Thursday following the live performance.
Harold (Bud Cort) has a little bit of an obsession with death in very different kind of romantic comedy that is part of Metrograph series
HAROLD AND MAUDE (Hal Ashby, 1971)
Metrograph Digital
Sunday, February 7, 8:00
Series continues through February 18 metrograph.com/screenings
New York City–based cinematographer and documentarian Kirsten Johnson has jumped into the spotlight with her latest nonfiction film, Dick Johnson Is Dead, which is garnering Oscar buzz; the film imagines multiple deaths for her father, who is suffering from dementia. The film was a follow-up to her 2016 autobiographical cinematic memoir, Cameraperson, which put her on the map after years of serving as director of photography for Laura Poitras (The Oath, Citizenfour), Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11), and others. She is currently hosting “Kirsten Johnson Carte Blanche,” five specially selected films for Metrograph Digital, each uniquely dealing with life and death, including Elia Suleiman’s Divine Intervention, Yuval Hameiri’s I Think This Is the Closest to How the Footage Looked, Souleymane Cissé’s Yeelen, and Keisha Rae Witherspoon’s T.
On February 7 at 8:00, she will introduce a one-time-only live fiftieth anniversary screening of the existential cult fave Harold and Maude. Bud Cort (Harold) and Ruth Gordon (Maude) are magnificent in this glorious black comedy from director Hal Ashby (The Last Detail, Shampoo, Being There) and writer Colin Higgins (Foul Play, 9 to 5). Harold is an eighteen-year-old rich kid obsessed with death, regularly flirting with suicide. Maude is a fun-loving, free-spirited senior citizen approaching her eightieth birthday. Ashby throws in just the right amount of post-1960s social commentary, including a very funny antiwar scene, without becoming overbearing, as this could have been a maudlin piece of sentimental claptrap, but instead it’s far from it. Even the Cat Stevens soundtrack (“If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,” “Tea for the Tillerman,” “Where Do the Children Play?”) works beautifully. Harold and Maude is a tender, uproarious, bittersweet tale that is one of the best of its kind, completely unforgettable, enlightening, and, ultimately, life-affirming in its own odd way. While H&M will screen only on Sunday night, offering a respite from the Super Bowl frenzy, all the other films in “Kirsten Johnson Carte Blanche” will be available for several days after their initial livestream.
Maurits Cornelis Escher, better known as M. C. Escher, is one of the most popular graphic artists of the twentieth century, even though he considered himself a mathematician, not an artist. His fantastical works, often of impossible architectural configurations, are imbedded with a scientific surrealism that has made them favorites on T-shirts, posters, placemats, puzzles, album covers, ads, and tattooed body parts. In 2019, the traveling show “Escher: The Exhibition & Experience” came to Industry City in Brooklyn; the Italian-sponsored presentation included lots of Instagram-friendly installations that invited visitors to put themselves inside some of Escher’s most famous pieces. But who was the Dutch artist?
At the beginning of Robin Lutz’s documentary, M. C. Escher: Journey to Infinity, there’s a shot of fingers typing out the following: “I’m afraid there is only one person in the world who could make a good film about my prints; me.” And so it is; the movie is structured around Escher’s own words, compiled from his notes, journals, lectures, calendars, and letters, elegantly narrated by British actor Stephen Fry. The only talking heads who share their thoughts are two of Escher’s children, George and Jan Escher, and one of Escher’s daughters-in-law, along with, curiously enough, superfan Graham Nash. “I cannot understand why the out-of-control youths of today appreciate my works so much,” Escher says of late-1960s psychedelic re-creations of his butterflies and geometric space objects. Of course, it’s easy to tell what drew, and continues to draw, so many to his artistry.
Supplemented by archival photographs and film footage, Lutz traces Escher’s life and career from his love of drawing as a child and his studies at the Haarlem School of Architecture and Decorative Artists to his falling in love with Jetta Umiker, a romance he explains in rather unique language. His description of a picture of a seemingly endless winding road of trees is particularly revealing, accompanied by the sounds of an echoing church organ, played at St. Bartholomew’s in Haarlem, where Escher honed his craft. The camera focuses on a pair of feet treading the same paths that Escher took, as if he himself is leading us on this journey, focusing on rocks, flowers, birds, leaves, chameleons, and other elements that became his subject matter.
At the age of forty, he writes about his evolving process, involving systematism, recognizability, and the importance of background: “I have things of my own that had to come out, that I could express something others don’t have. . . For me, this is the richest of times.” The film grows richer as well as Escher shares insight behind the creation of some of his most famous works while also discussing isolation, human contact, and the horrors of Fascism and WWII. In addition, Lutz, who also served as producer and cinematographer, has plenty of fun with animation, bringing works to life, from a skull floating through the clouds to moving chess pieces to figures going up and down impossible staircases.
Breathlessly edited by Moek de Groot, M. C. Escher: Journey to Infinity is a pure joy because Lutz lets Escher, who passed away in 1972 at the age of seventy-three, run the show, his words poetic and passionate, the images captivating and mind-bending, infused with an infectious, futuristic energy that transcends the now. It’s an exciting trip deep into one man’s relationship with a complex world that he captured in extraordinary artworks that are likely to dazzle and confound viewers for a long time to come.
21st CENTURY JAPAN: FILMS FROM 2001-2020
Japan Society
February 5-25, $8-$12 for three-day rental per film, $99 for all-access pass through February 4 film.japansociety.org
Japan Society and Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs have teamed up for “21st Century Japan: Films from 2001-2020,” an impressive collection of Japanese works from the last twenty years, streaming February 5-25. This inaugural ACA Cinema Project consists of thirty films, from recent classics to online US premieres as well as a focus on Kiyoshi Kurosawa, including a one-hour talk with the director, moderated by Abi Sakamoto. Among the primo filmmakers being represented are Sion Sono, Yukiko Mishima, Shinya Tsukamoto, Naomi Kawase, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Yoji Yamada, and Takashi Miike, many of whom are well known to regular attendees of Japan Society’s annual summer Japan Cuts festival.
“While it’s impossible to really capture the last two decades of Japanese narrative fiction filmmaking in its full breadth, we are excited to share at least the tip of the iceberg for these three weeks in February,” Japan Society deputy director of film K. F. Watanabe said in a statement. “Online or otherwise, a large majority of these titles remain unavailable to watch with English subtitles in the U.S., so I hope this series provides an opportunity to create new fans of filmmakers such as Naoko Ogigami or Shuichi Okita and expand any preconceptions of what modern Japanese cinema can offer.” Below are select reviews; keep watching this space for more recommendations.
Nozomi (Bae Doona) dreams that there’s more to life in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Air Doll
AIR DOLL (Hirokazu Kore-eda, 2009)
Over the last twenty-five years, Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda has compiled a remarkable resume, directing fourteen narrative features and five documentaries that investigate such themes as memory and loss. His 2009 film, Air Doll, examines loneliness through the eyes of a blow-up doll come to life. Bae Doona stars as Nozomi, a plastic sex toy owned by Hideo (Itsuji Itao), a restaurant worker who treats her like his wife, telling her about his day, sitting with her at the dinner table, and making love to her at night. But suddenly, one morning, Nozomi achieves consciousness, discovering that she has a heart, and she puts on her French maid costume and goes out into the world, learning about life by wandering through the streets and working in a video store, always returning home before Hideo and pretending to still be the doll. Adapted from a manga by Yoshiie Goda, Air Doll is another beautiful, meditative study from Kore-eda. Nozomi’s wide-eyed innocence at the joys of life comes sweet and slowly, played with a subtle wonderment by South Korean model and actress Bae (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, The Host). The film does, however, take one nasty turn and is a bit too long, at more than two hours. But it’s still another contemplative gem from the masterful director of Maborosi, Nobody Knows, Shoplifters, and Still Walking.
Hiroyuki Sanada gets ready to fight in Yoji Yamada’s The Twilight Samurai
THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI (Yoji Yamada, 2002)
Hiroyuki Sanada is outstanding as the title character in Yoji Yamada’s period drama, The Twilight Samurai, playing a lowly ronin who chooses to take care of his family after his wife dies, instead of wielding his sword. During the day, he works as a bean counter, then goes straight home to his aging mother and two young daughters. When he learns that a childhood friend, Tomoe (Rie Miyazawa), is divorcing her abusive husband, he ends up fighting for her honor. But instead of battling his opponent with a sharp sword, he pulls out a piece of wood. Word of his skill reaches the highest level of his clan, who wants him to kill for them, setting up an emotional and psychological inner struggle for the quiet and shy family man. The Twilight Samurai, which was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, is a different kind of samurai movie, focusing more on love and loss than blood and vengeance.
The great Takashi Miike adapts manga in family-friendly genre fantasy The Great Yokai War
THE GREAT YOKAI WAR (YÔKAI DAISENSÔ) (Takashi Miike, 2005)
Mixing in a liberal amount of Time Bandits with The Wizard of Oz, throwing in a little Hayao Miyazaki, and adding dashes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Lord of the Rings, Gremlins, Return of the Jedi, Labyrinth, and even Kill Bill, Takashi Miike has wound up with an entertaining fantasy film for both kids and adults. Known more for such ultraviolent, hard-to-watch frightfests as Audition and Ichi the Killer, Miike reveals his softer side in this genre film based on a yokai manga by Shigeru Mizuki (who also plays the Demon King). Ryunosuke Kamiki is splendid as Tadashi, a young city boy taking care of his grandfather (Hiroyuki Miyasako) in a country village, where he is chosen at a local festival as the mythical Kirin Rider, the guardian of peace and friend of justice. Soon he finds himself in a real battle between good and evil, taking him from the heights of the Great Goblin’s mountain cave to the depths of a seedy underworld run by the very white Agi (Chiaki Kuriyama) and powerful mastermind Katou Yasunori (Etsushi Toyokawa). Joined by yokai spirits Kawahime (Mai Takahashi), Kawatarou (Sadao Abe), and the oh-so-cute Sunekosuri, Tadashi fights to save the human world, wielding his special sword against a phalanx of mechanical robots and other villainous creatures. At more than two hours, The Great Yokai War is at least twenty minutes too long and would have greatly benefited by the excision of one very silly subplot. But it is still a charming tale from one of the true masters of horror.
Last week, New York–based PlayCo premiered the first iteration of William Burke’s Is It Supposed to Last?, an interactive Zoom party in which attendees brought streamers, fun dress, and food and drink to a gathering that began with an ominous live piano performance of Neil Diamond’s classic “Sweet Caroline,” a favorite in bars, concert halls, sports arenas, and the internet, as evidenced by a December global singalong. But Is It Supposed to Last?, directed by Burke and Bryn Herdrich and starring Jehan O. Young and Carolina Đỗ, with music by Sugar Vendil, took a turn on the state of the world with a pair of monologues and an isolated man getting wrapped up, concluding with multiple recorded versions (Elvis!) as people decided how long they wanted to continue listening to a song that usually provides an instant connection among friends and strangers. PlayCo has vowed to do less in February, hosting four free activities before returning with the next iteration of Is It Supposed to Last? in March. It all starts February 4 at 12:30 with a gentle, guided nap led by Đỗ, addressing such questions as “Why must we, as adults, have to live with nap regrets?” and “Do you feel the siren’s call to just slip away from work into dreamland for just a lil teeny tiny nap?” On February 14 at 5:00, Justin Taylor explores self-compassion in a group meditation, advising you to love yourself even if you might be alone on Valentine’s Day. On February 17 at 11:30, Charlene Adhiambo will offer journaling tips with prompts and freewriting. And on February 28 at 8:00, you can get shaking with the virtual Social DisDance Party with Ani, Sunny, and other members of PlayCo, kicking loose as the cold, short month comes to an end.
Who:Eden Theater Company What: Short Zoom plays about isolation Where: Eden Theater Zoom and Facebook Live When: February 5, 11, 12, 19, 20, $5-$50, 8:00 Why: New City–based Eden Theater Company continues exploring our living quarters, where we’ve been stuck since last March, with The Kitchen Plays, the follow-up to last year’s Room Plays, which took us through the bedroom,the living room, and the bathroom. The short works are like windows into the situations so many of us are experiencing as we still shelter in place, waiting for the vaccine to be administered to enough people so we can really start opening things up and return to some semblance of normalcy.
The Kitchen Plays consist of Jake Brasch’s (The Man in the Fuchsia Mask) Ginger Bug, directed by Amber Calderon and starring Brasch and Madeline Barr as a husband and wife battling it out in their weekly cookoff; Eden creative artistic director Cassandra Paras’s (Daeva) Passion Project, directed by Byron Anthony (The Man in the Fuchsia Mask) and featuring Paras (Monogamous Animals) and Larry Fleischman as a couple rehearsing an audition scene; and Madison Harrison’s For the Family, directed by Eden producing artistic director Diane Davis, with Owen Alleyne and Danielle Kogan in a story set around a Thanksgiving with estranged parents as guests. The three works will be performed live February 5, 11, 12, 19, and 20 at 8:00; tickets begin at $5 based on what you can afford.
