this week in lectures, signings, panel discussions, workshops, and Q&As

LHOMME BEHIND THE CAMERA: THE FLESH OF THE ORCHID

Charlotte Rampling is on the run in THE FLESH OF THE ORCHID

CinéSalon: THE FLESH OF THE ORCHID (LA CHAIR DE L’ORCHIDÉE) (Patrice Chéreau, 1975)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, January 26, $14, 4:00 & 7:30
Series continues Tuesdays through February 23
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org

French stage and opera director Patrice Chéreau made an offbeat choice for his debut film, deciding to adapt British thriller writer James Hadley Chase’s The Flesh of the Orchid, the 1948 sequel to his first novel, 1939’s No Orchids for Miss Blandish, which had been made into a 1948 film by St. John Legh Clowes considered to be one of the worst movies ever. So it’s little surprise that The Flesh of the Orchid is a dark and gloomy, not wholly successful, both tantalizing and frustrating tale of lust and greed. Following up her controversial role in Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter, the exquisite Charlotte Rampling stars as Claire, a mentally unbalanced heiress who has a penchant for blinding men who attempt to have sex with her. But she takes an odd liking to Louis Delage (Bruno Cremer), a man with financial problems who is on the run after witnessing a murder committed by a pair of cold-blooded killers, brothers Gyula and Joszef Berekian (Hans Christian Blech and François Simon). Meanwhile, Claire’s aunt, the elegant, très chic Madame Wegener (Edwige Feuillère), and her ne’er-do-well son, Arnaud (Rémy Germain), are hot on her trail as well, determined to lock her away again so they can get their hands on the family money.

flesh of the orchid

Adapted by Chereau and Oscar-winning screenwriter and novelist Jean-Claude Carrière (Heureux Anniversaire, Belle de Jour), The Flesh of the Orchid is a peculiar, dreary mystery that is made palatable by Rampling’s mesmerizing performance, her dark, penetrating eyes offering an intriguing counterpoint to what her character likes to do to men’s faces, and Pierre Lhomme’s César-nominated cinematography, which uses water as a major theme and incorporates clever shots of windows and mirrors to heighten psychological tension. The back story involving Oscar winner Simone Signoret (Les diaboliques, Room at the Top) is never fully realized, while a cameo by Alida Valli (The Third Man, The Paradine Case) is simply baffling, unless it’s a strange reference to Georges Franju’s 1960 horror classic Eyes without a Face, in which Valli plays an assistant to a doctor trying to rebuild his daughter’s face after a terrible accident. And yes, that is Mr. Slugworth himself, Günter Meisner, as Madame Wegener’s trusted right-hand man. Chereau would go on to make such films as Queen Margot, Intimacy, and Persécution before passing away in 2013 at the age of sixty-eight. The Flesh of the Orchid is screening at Florence Gould Hall on January 26 at 4:00 and 7:30 in FIAF’s CinéSalon series “Lhomme Behind the Camera,” a tribute to the eighty-five-year-old award-winning French cinematographer who shot more than sixty films, working with such directors as Joris Ivens, William Klein, Jean-Pierre Melville, Robert Bresson, Jean Eustache, Benoît Jacquot, Marguerite Duras, Dusan Makavejev, Claude Miller, and Claude Berri. The 7:30 show will be introduced by documentary director and cinematographer Frédéric Tcheng (Dior and I, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel). The series continues through February 23 with such other Lhomme-lensed films as James Ivory’s Maurice, which will be followed by a Q&A with Lhomme and Ivory; Alain Cavalier’s Le Combat dans l’île; Chris Marker and Lhomme’s Le Joli Mai; and Jean-Paul Rappenau’s Cyrano de Bergerac.

PUBLIC ART FUND TALKS: ADRIÁN VILLAR ROJAS

Adrian Villar Rojas’s “The Evolution of God” evolved over time on the High Line (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Adrián Villar Rojas’s “The Evolution of God” evolved over time on the High Line (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Who: Adrián Villar Rojas
What: Public Art Fund Talks
Where: The New School, 66 West Twelfth St. Auditorium
When: Monday, January 25, $10, 6:30
Why: Argentine artist Adrián Villar Rojas will be at the New School on January 25, giving a talk about public installations. Villar Rojas most recently displayed “Two Suns” at Marian Goodman, “The Evolution of God” on the High Line, and “La inocencia de los animales” at MoMA PS1. Among his public works, which feature organic matter, clay, concrete, fiberglass, and brick, are “The Most Beautiful of All Mothers” on the Sea of Marmara for the 2015 Istanbul Biennial, “Return the World” for dOCUMENTA(13), and “Poems for Earthlings” at the Jardin des Tuileries for the Musée du Louvre’s SAM Art Projects.

NEW YORK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL: CARVALHO’S JOURNEY

The remarkable tale of nineteenth-century Jewish American Renaissance Man S. N. Carvalho is revealed in CARVALHO’S JOURNEY

The remarkable tale of nineteenth-century Jewish American Renaissance Man S. N. Carvalho is told in CARVALHO’S JOURNEY

CARVALHO’S JOURNEY (Steve Rivo, 2015)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Monday, January 25, 1:00 & 6:00
Festival runs January 13-26
nyjff.org
carvalhosjourney.com

The extraordinary story of nineteenth-century Jewish-American Renaissance Man Solomon Nunes Carvalho is told in the beautiful documentary Carvalho’s Journey. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, the Jewish cultural center of the U.S. in 1815, Carvalho was a painter, daguerreotypist, inventor, philosopher, husband, father, and practicing Jew. In 1853, Mathew Brady recommended him to explorer John C. Frémont, who was looking for a photographer to document his fifth and final Westward Expedition. So Carvalho brought his bulky equipment and set out to do what no one had done before, take pictures of a vast and treacherous landscape, a journey that would risk the lives of everyone involved as Frémont searched for a railroad route through the Rocky Mountains. Along the way, Carvalho never lost sight of his faith and his deep love for his wife, Sarah Miriam, as evidenced by the detailed, poetic letters he wrote her in addition to his 1857 memoir, Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West. “With few men, religion is a color, a lifeless, abstract notion, but abstraction is not pure religion. Religion must signify itself in our actions in life. Aye, it must embrace the whole sphere of our activities and affections,” Carvalho, voiced by Josh Hamilton in the film, wrote. Historian David Oestreicher explains, “He was very proud of who he was, but at the same time he was a proud American; he saw the promise of America. I believe that he was being a good American by exercising his right to openly belong to his people. I don’t think he saw a conflict there.”

Producer, director, and writer Steve Rivo (Death Row Stories) combines interviews with such other historians as Arlene Hirschfelder (Photo Odyssey: Solomon Carvalho’s Remarkable Western Adventure 1853-54), Jonathan Sarna, and Eileen Hallet Stone with breathtaking shots of the American West by cinematographers David A. Ford and Antonio Rossi and original music by Jamie Saft as he follows modern-day daguerreotypist Robert Shlaer (Sights Once Seen: Daguerreotyping Frémont’s Last Expedition Through the Rockies), who traveled in a homemade dark room in his van as he traced Carvalho’s footsteps and retook all of the same pictures with similar equipment, since Carvalho’s original plates no longer exist. Narrated by Michael Stuhlbarg (Boardwalk Empire, A Serious Man), the film is filled with surprises; at one critical juncture Carvalho meets up with Brigham Young and the Mormons, Carvalho’s father cofounds the reform Judaism movement in the United States, and the Cheyenne consider the photographer to be a supernatural being. It all makes for quite a story, and Rivo will be on hand to discuss it further when Carvalho’s Journey screens at 1:00 and 6:00 on January 25 at the twenty-fifth annual New York Jewish Film Festival at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The festival, cosponsored by the Jewish Museum, continues through January 26 with such other films as Nitzan Gilady’s Wedding Doll, Jeroen Krabbé’s Left Luggage, and Natalie Portman’s A Tale of Love and Darkness as well as a master class with Alan Berliner.

WORKS & PROCESS: COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE BY JOHN ZORN

John Zorn returns to the Guggenheim for Works & Process program

Who: John Zorn
What: Works & Process: “Commedia dell’arte” by John Zorn
Where: Peter B. Lewis Theater, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St., 212-423-3500
When: Sunday, January 24, $20, 9:00
Why: Innovative avant-garde composer, musician, and native New Yorker John Zorn will be the special guest at the next Works & Process program at the Guggenheim, in which artists perform and discuss upcoming pieces. Zorn, who has played on hundreds of albums and with creators from across the artistic spectrum, will be premiering his five-miniatures suite “Commedia dell’arte,” each one inspired by a different character from the sixteenth-century Italian improvisational theatrical art form: Colombina, Harlequin, Pierrot, Pulcinella, and Scaramouche. (In 2013, Zorn premiered two works inside the James Turrell installation at the Guggenheim.) This one-time-only presentation will be followed by a later Works & Process event in which the music will be set to new choreography. The Works & Process spring season continues through May 9 with such other participants as members of the cast and crew of Shuffle Along, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Malpaso Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre, Ryan McNamara, and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.

NEW PORC CITY: COCHON 555

Angie Mar of the Beatrice Inn is among five chefs who will be battling it out at Cochon 555 on Sunday

Weylin B. Seymour’s
175 Broadway at Driggs Ave., Brooklyn
Sunday, January 24, $125 (5:00 entry) – $200 (4:00 VIP entry)
www.cochon555.com
www.weylinbseymours.com

New York City turns into New Porc City for the Cochon 555 culinary competition, in which five chefs — Justin Smillie of Upland, Hillary Sterling of Vic’s, Michael Poiarkoff of Vinegar Hill House, Angie Mar of the Beatrice Inn, and Danny Mena of Hecho en Dumbo — will battle it out over more than three dozen dishes that feature locally raised heritage breed pigs, seeking to become the Prince or Princess of Porc. The two thousand pounds of pig will be paired with wine, beer, and other spirits; there will also be such pop-up eateries and drinkeries as TIKI Isle, Luxe Butter Bar, Ramen Shop, Wines of Germany, and Swine & Sweets. The winemakers pouring potent potables are Abe Schoener Pax Mahle, Rajat Parr, Jeff Pisoni, and Paul Draper. Other highlights include a Welcome Punch Reception, an Artisan Cheese Bar, a Butcher Shop (with Jocelyn Guest and Erika Nakamura), a Vermouth Experience, a TarTare Bar (with Francis Derby), Seafood Shelf, Mezcal Expressions, and the Perfect Manhattan Bar, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting Piggy Bank, which states, “By breaking down all the barriers and flattening out the distribution of knowledge, we will advance the mission of creating an ecosystem of improved education and knowledge sharing required by emerging farms to succeed.” General admission to Cochon 555 is $100 for 5:00 entry, but $200 gets you in an hour early so you can get first dibs on the food while also meeting the chefs and judges. The event, with fundraiser emcee Billy Harris, will culminate in an awards ceremony, followed by an after-party. In addition, the Piggy Bank Dinner Series will host an Asian Speakeasy late-night pop-up dinner at Hecho en Dumbo on January 22 ($130), with Chinese, Sichuan, Korean, Thai, and Japanese dishes.

SCREENING & DISCUSSION: NICKY’S FAMILY

Emotional documentary tells the story of an unassuming hero who helped save hundreds of children from the Nazis

NICKY’S FAMILY (Matej Minác, 2011)
Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Pl.
Tuesday, January 26, $10, 7:00
866-811-4111
www.mjhnyc.org
www.menemshafilms.com

“There are some stories which we are not only an audience to, but may become their participants,” Canadian journalist Joe Schlesinger says at the beginning of Matej Mináč and Patrik Pašš’s poignant, powerful documentary Nicky’s Family. Schlesinger is one of hundreds of Czech and Slovak men and women who, as children, were saved from the Nazis by unassuming Englishman Nicholas Winton on the eve of World War II. Winton’s story remained virtually unknown for sixty years, until his wife found a suitcase in the attic filled with documentation detailing her husband’s quiet heroism. Over the last fifteen years, the “British Schindler” has been celebrated around the world, being knighted by the queen, meeting many of the people he helped save, and inspiring children who are not directly part of “Nicky’s Family” to help others in what is called the “Winton virus of good.” It’s an unforgettable story centered around a man who didn’t set out to be a hero and still appears to be somewhat uncomfortable with all the accolades, which include being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The film interviews such members of Nicky’s Family as Alice Masters, Ben Abeles, Liesl Silverstone, Dr. Lenata Laxova, Tom Berman, and Tom Schrecker, who have made significant contributions to society that might have never happened had they not been rescued as children by Winton. Director-producer-cowriter Mináč and producer-cowriter-editor Pašš include unnecessary staged re-creations of some of the events of 1938 that actually detract from the central narrative, and the documentary overplays the emotional card in its final scenes, but it tells a story that needs to be told, of a remarkable man who, up to his recent death at the age of 106, continued to be an inspiration and proved that one person can indeed make a difference. Nicky’s Family is screening on January 26 at 7:00 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage and will be followed by a Q&A with Winton’s daughter, Barbara Winton, author of If It’s Not Impossible: The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton, and Budd Mishkin.

TICKET ALERT: LIL BUB AT THE MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE

Lil BUB will make a special appearance at the Museum of the Moving Image on January 30

Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Saturday, January 30, $25-$100 (includes gallery admission)
Exhibit continues Wednesday – Sunday through January 31, $6-$12
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
lilbub.com

The Museum of the Moving Image is celebrating the last weekend of its “How Cats Took Over the Internet” exhibit with an ASPCA Mobile Adoption Event and a special appearance by feline superstar Lil BUB on January 30. From 1:00 to 5:00 right outside the museum, the ASPCA will have lots of cats for people to take home with them. At 2:00 ($25), the polydactyl perma-kitten, who was born with osteopetrosis, and her dude, Mike Bridavsky, will share “The Story of Lil BUB,” then stick around for a Q&A. That will be followed at 4:00 ($100, includes 2:00 talk) with a meet-and-greet fundraiser where you’ll get to pet the Most Amazing Cat on the Planet, take a photo with her, and receive a personalized art print and a signed photo print. All proceeds benefit special-needs pets via Lil BUB’s Big Fund at the ASPCA. You know you want to go. So what are you waiting for? Cuteness overload awaits.