Dream-Over participants sleep under a specially selected work of art at the Rubin Museum chosen to impact their dreams
Rubin Museum
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Tickets go on sale Tuesday, September 13, $125, 11:00 am
Event takes place October 15, 8:00 pm – 9:00 am
212-620-5000
www.rubinmuseum.org
Tickets go on sale September 13 at eleven o’clock for a uniquely satisfying and rewarding program at the Rubin Museum. The Dream-Over, which began in 2011, offers adults the opportunity to spend a special evening inside the museum, exploring the inner workings of their mind in a fascinating way. Each lucky participant fills out a Dreamlife Questionnaire in advance, giving details about themselves that will help consultants, under the leadership of dream facilitator Dr. Vanessa Sinclair, who curates the “Art and the Occult” series at the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn, select a specific work of art in the museum under which they will sleep; hopefully the painting, photograph, or sculpture will influence their dreams. The evening will begin with a talk on the significance of dreams with Khenpo Lama Pema Wangdak and Dr. Sinclair and include lullabies and bedtime stories. Dreamers are required to arrive at the Rubin already in pajamas, robe, and slippers and must bring their own bedding. Food and drink are not allowed; there will be a midnight snack and a Tibetan breakfast. Couples can sleep and dream under the same work of art (each paying full price). In the morning, Dream Gatherers and Dream Interpreters will speak individually with the participants to figure out what their dreams might mean. Tickets for the Dream-Over sell out immediately, so don’t hesitate if you want to take part in this ultracool event.
I remember the first time I saw the BBC series Ways of Seeing, thoroughly entranced by the host, a curly-haired British art critic with the cutest little lisp of his “R”s who promised that, while looking at European painting in a whole new way, “we shall discover something about ourselves and the situation in which we are living.” Years later, I was distraught when I couldn’t find my paperback copy of the companion book; my wife quickly ordered it and it was soon in my hands, where I devoured every word and image again and again. So I was terrifically excited when I heard about the new documentary The Seasons in Quincy: Four Portraits of John Berger, which opens August 31 at Film Forum. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but I came away from the four-part film feeling disappointed and let down; I selfishly wanted only Berger (pronounced with a soft “g”) but instead got too much of his friends and colleagues. And to make matters worse, the directors are too often what Berger tried so hard to avoid being throughout his long, influential career: pretentious. The film begins in winter with “Ways of Listening,” in which director Colin MacCabe focuses on Berger and his longtime friend, Oscar-nominated actress Tilda Swinton, as they talk at Berger’s farm in the small French town of Quincy, where he moved in the 1970s after becoming fed up with England. Filmed in 2010, the segment works best when Berger tells personal stories about his father and war; Swinton listens while peeling apples, the camera on her as much as on him. It occasionally feels as if she can’t decide whether to share Berger or keep him to herself; they already have a special connection, sharing the same birthday, albeit thirty-four years apart. But I wanted to make my own connection with Berger, a down-to-earth intellectual with a lust for life and a wide-ranging legacy, an artist, critic, “radical humanist,” social commentator, political activist, husband, father, farmer, and self-described “revolutionary writer” who prefers to simply be known as a storyteller.
In Dani Menkin’s Is That You?, young film student Myla (Naruna Kaplan de Macedo) is making a documentary, asking strangers what they regret. If she asked me, I might just have told her that I regret having watched Is That You? Nominated for an Israeli Academy Award for Best Picture and winner of Best Indie Film, Dani Menkin’s Is That You? is a convoluted road-trip movie that manipulates its paper-thin plot until almost none of it makes sense. Israeli film, television, and stage favorite Alon Aboutboul (London Has Fallen, The Dark Knight Rises) stars as Ronnie, an outdated analog man in an ever-more-digital world. After losing his job as a projectionist in an Israeli art house, Ronnie heads to the States, determined to find his lost love, Rachel, who he has not seen in nearly forty years. He picks up an old used car (no fancy new styles for him) from his brother, Jacob (Rani Bleier), and sets out on his mission. The lemon soon breaks down, and Ronnie is offered help by Myla, whose film is called The Road Not Taken. Moved by Ronnie’s story, Myla joins him on his journey, taking her brother’s SUV, without permission. As Ronnie and Myla try to track down Rachel, who can’t seem to settle down in one place for very long, they stop along the way so Myla can interview people on the street and in their homes, getting them to share what they would change in their lives if they could. But the hardest person to get to open up is Ronnie himself.