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

ADVANCE RESERVATION ALERT: OHNY WEEKEND

Advance reservations at many Open House New York events and tours should help you avoid long lines

OPEN HOUSE NEW YORK
Multiple venues in all five boroughs
Saturday, October 17, and Sunday, October 18 (and additional events Friday, October 16), free
Advance reservations available October 7, $5, 11:00 am
OHNY Passport: $150 (sold out)
212-991-6470
www.ohny.org

Open House New York Weekend, during which hundreds of spaces throughout the five boroughs, often not accessible to the general public, open their doors to visitors, takes place October 17-18, but advance reservations are necessary to be able to check out some of the best local architectural wonders. On October 7 at 11:00 am, you can start booking spots for dozens and dozens of special events — at five bucks a pop — including the Vertical Tour of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Crossing Wallabout in Brooklyn, the DOT Art Bike Tour, the DSNY Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station in Gowanus, Food Factory Friday (Breuckelen Distilling, Brooklyn Roasting Company, Raaka Chocolate, Tom Cat Bakery), General Grant National Memorial After-Hours Tours, Google Inc. — Design & Workplace Tour, High Line Engineering Tour, Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park, Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum: Behind the Scenes in Aircraft Restoration, Maple Grove Cemetery, Marcus Garvey Park & “caesura: a forum” art installation, New York University: Edward Hopper Studio, Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, Ridgewood Reservoir, the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, Urban Post-Disaster Housing Prototype, Whose Art Is It? Landmark Skirmishes Over Artworks in the Public Realm, the Woolworth Building, and more. All tours and events that do not require advance reservations are first-come, first-served.

THE FORBIDDEN ROOM

Roy Dupuis plays a heroic woodsman in Guy Maddin and Evan Johnsons unpredictably strange and wonderful homage to early cinema, THE FORBIDDEN ROOM

Roy Dupuis plays a heroic woodsman in Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson’s unpredictably strange and wonderful homage to lost early cinema, THE FORBIDDEN ROOM

THE FORBIDDEN ROOM (Guy Maddin & Evan Johnson, 2015)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
October 7-20
212-727-8110
filmforum.org
theforbiddenroom-film.com

Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson’s The Forbidden Room is a deliriously mesmerizing epic tone poem, a crafty, complex avant-garde ode to cinema as memory, and memory as cinema. An homage to the lost films of the silent era, it is the illegitimate child of Bill Morrison and David Lynch, of Jack Smith and Kenneth Anger, of D. W. Griffith and Josef von Sternberg. The impossible-to-describe narrative jumps from genre to genre, from submarine thriller to Western adventure to murder yarn, from romantic melodrama and crime story to war movie and horror tale, complete with cannibals, vampires, poisoned leotards, “valcano” eruptions, caged lunatics, butt obsession, squid theft, explosive jelly, a fantastical mustache, and skeletal insurance defrauders. Intertitles that often fade away too soon to decipher help propel the plot, contain lines from John Ashbery and the Bible, and blast out such words as “Deliverer of Doom,” “Diablesa!” and “Trapped!” Text in intricate fonts announces each new character and actor, including Maddin regular Louis Negin as the Sacrifice Organizer, Slimane Dazi as shed-sleeper and pillow-hugger Baron Pappenheim, Lewis Furey as the Skull-Faced Man, and Roy Dupuis as a “mysterious woodsman” determined to rescue captured amnesiac Margot (Clara Furey) from the evil clutches of the Red Wolves. Also involved in the bizarre festivities are Udo Kier, Geraldine Chaplin, Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Rampling, and Maria de Medeiros.

Although shot digitally, the film explores photographic emulsion and time-ravaged nitrate while treating celluloid as an art object unto itself, looking like Maddin (Tales from the Gimli Hospital, My Winnipeg) and Johnson stomped on, burned, tore up, and put back together the nonexistent physical filmstrip. Thus, major kudos are also due Maddin’s longtime editor, John Gurdebeke, and music composers Galen Johnson, Jason Staczek, and Maddin himself for keeping it all moving forward so beautifully. The film was photographed by Benjamin Kasulke and Stéphanie Anne Weber Biron in alternating scenes of black-and-white, lurid, muted color, and sepia tones that offer constant surprises. The Forbidden Room might be about the magic of the movies, but it is also about myth and ritual, dreams and fantasy as it explores storytelling as psychodrama. Oh, and it’s also about taking baths, as Marv (Negin) so eagerly explains throughout the film. But most of all, The Forbidden Room is great fun, a truly unpredictable and original work of art that is a treat for cinephiles and moviegoers everywhere. Following its recent screenings at the New York Film Festival, The Forbidden Room is opening theatrically on October 7 at Film Forum, with Maddin present on October 12 for a Q&A after the 7:00 show (moderated by Jonathan Marlow) and to introduce the 9:30 show.

NEW YORK COMIC CON

Jason Jones and Samantha Bee will be at New York Comic Con on Friday for a special fireside chat

Javits Center
655 W 34th St. at 12th Ave.
October 8-11, sold out
www.newyorkcomiccon.com

So you’re one of the lucky ones who got a ticket to New York Comic Con before they sold out. Now what? Navigating among the thousands of panels, signings, screenings, booths, cosplay contests, writing workshops, and fan meet-ups can be absolutely staggering, enough to send any relatively sane attendee off screaming onto Thirty-Fourth St. So we’ve done some of the work for you; below is a handful of our recommendations for each day. In addition, throughout the weekend, there will be autograph sessions with the following special guests: Danny Glover, Carl Lumbly, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Phil LaMarr, Kevin Conroy, Ron English, Grumpy Cat, Terry Brooks, David Mack, Finn Jones, Natalie Dormer, Todd McFarlane, John Hodgman, Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Andrea Romano, John Rhys-Davies, Orlando Jones, Greg Rucka, Jerry “the King” Lawler, Cassandra Clare, Tim Bradstreet, Billie Piper, Doug Jones, Walter Simonson, Jewel Staite, Jose Feliciano, John Leguizamo, Frank Miller, R.L. Stine, Ann M. Martin, Raina Telgemeier, Chip Kidd, Ruben Bolling, and hundreds more.

Thursday, October 8
We Need More Diverse Comics, with Ivan Velez, Alex Simmons, Eric Dean Seaton, and Karen Green, moderated by Christian Zabriskie, Room 1AO5, 11:15 am

Andre the Giant: The Man Behind the Legend, with Robin Christensen-Roussimoff, Shannon Eric Denton, Jarrett Williams, and Michael Kingston, Room 1A24, 12:30

Gamera 50th Anniversary Event, NYCC Live Stage, Booth #656, 1:00

Nerdist Writers Panel, with Aaron Cohen, Ben Blacker, Brian Koppelman, and Craig Engler, Room 1A10, 3:00

Sean Bean Brings Legends to NYCC, with Sean Bean and Kenneth Biller, Empire Stage 1-E, 7:00

Friday, October 9
75 Spirited Years: Will Eisner & the Spirit, with Denis Kitchen, J. C. Vaughn, Karen Green, Melissa Bowersox, Michael Solof, and Paul Levitz, Room 1B03, 11:00 am

In Conversation with Seth Meyers: Late Night Host Discusses His Career in Comedy with Vulture.com’s Jesse David Fox, Room 1A10, 1:45

The Adventure Continues: A Justice League Reunion Event, with Andrea Romano, Carl Lumbly, George Newbern, Kevin Conroy, Maria Canals-Barrera, and Phil LaMarr, Empire Stage 1-E, 2:00

A Fireside Chat with Comedy’s First Couple Samantha Bee + Jason Jones, Room 1A10, 3:00

Wicked Reads, with Zac Brewer, April Genevieve Tucholke, Kim Liggett, Jake Halpern, Danielle Vega, Michael Buckley, and Danielle Paige, WORD Bookstore 1-B, 4:00

Pop Surrealism: Behind the Scenes with Top Artists and Galleries, with Camilla d’Errico, Carlo McCormick, Jonathan LeVine, Mab Graves, Tara McPherson, and Travis Louie, Room 1B03, 6:30

GOTHAMs Ben McKenzie and Robin Lord Taylor will sit down for a Warner Bros. panel at Comic Con on Sunday (photo by Jessica Miglio/FOX; © 2015 Fox Broadcasting Co.)

Saturday, October 10
Chicks Kick Ass — the Ongoing Epic, with Daniel Jose Older, Hannah Moskowitz, Kim Harrison, Melissa Grey, Rachel Vincent, and Sara Raasch, Room 121, 11:00

Firefly Reunion, with Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, and Jewel Staite, Main Stage 1-D, 11:30

Sexy, Scary and Seriously Funny: Rachel Rising and the Horror Comic Tradition, with Ben Saunders and Terry Moore, Room 1B03, 12:15

The X-Files, advance screening of first new episode and Q&A, with Chris Carter and David Duchovny, Moderated by Kumail Nanjiani, Main Stage 1-D, 1:15

The Last Witch Hunter, with Breck Eisner, Elijah Wood, Rose Leslie, and Vin Diesel, Main Stage 1-D, 3:15

Comics Creators Consuming Coffee: Where Food & Comics Collide, with C. B. Cebulski, Amy Chu, Steve Orlando, Justin Jordan, Regine Sawyer, Ryan Dunlavey, and Grady Hendrix, Room 1A05, 4:15

The Cyanide and Happiness Group Sketch Jam Panel, with Joel Watson, Kris Wilson, Rob Denbleyker, and Shawn Coss, Room 1A10, 8:00

Sunday, October 11
Goosebumps & The Baby-Sitters Club Revisited: A Conversation with R.L. Stine, Ann M. Martin, Raina Telgemeier, and Dave Roman, Room 1A10, 10:45 am

Lucasfilm Presents: Star Wars: A Galactic Reader’s Theatre, with Michael Siglain, Adam Gidwitz, Alexandra Bracken, Chuck Wendig, Ian Doescher, and Tom Angleberger, Room 1A21, 12 noon

Darryl DMC McDaniels Presents: Boom! Bap! Pow! Hip-Hop & Comics! with Alan Ket, Chuck Creekmur, Kwame Holland, Bio, and Darryl DMC McDaniels, Room 1A18, 1:15|

Warner Bros. Television Takeover Featuring Gotham, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Blindspot, Supergirl, and Person of Interest, with Amy Acker, Arthur Darvill, Ashley Johnson, Audrey Esparza, Ben McKenzie, Brandon Routh, Caity Lotz, Ciara Renée, Cory Michael Smith, Glen Winter, Jaimie Alexander, James Frain, Jessica Lucas, Jim Caviezel, John Stephens, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Martin Gero, Michael Emerson, Phil Klemmer, Rob Brown, Robin Lord Taylor, and Sullivan Stapleton, Empire Stage 1-E, 1:30

Mad about MAD, with John Ficarra, Sam Viviano, Jonathan Bresman, Peter Kuper, and Tom Richmond, Room 1A21, 2:30

The 8 Doctors of Classic Doctor Who, with Andre Tessier, Barnaby Edwards, Deborah Stanish, Kathleen Schowalter, Ken Deep, and Lanaia DuBose, Room 1A10, 4:00

NYFF53 SPECIAL EVENTS: HEART OF A DOG

Laurie Anderson meditates on life and death in intimately personal HEART OF A DOG

NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL: HEART OF A DOG (Laurie Anderson, 2015)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
Thursday, October 8, $15, 6:00
Festival runs through October 11
212-875-5050
www.heartofadogfilm.com
www.filmlinc.org

Multimedia artist Laurie Anderson’s first full-length film in nearly thirty years, Heart of a Dog, is a deeply personal poetic meditation on death, yet it avoids being mournful and melancholy and is instead a wistful tribute to life. Anderson, who directed her concert film, Home of the Brave, in 1986, details the story of her beloved rat terrier, Lolabelle, as the “mall dog” ages, goes blind, and dies. Using clips from home movies, archival footage, animation, and re-creations, Anderson delves into the nature of time, memory, beauty, and the process of grieving, referencing Wittgenstein, Kierkegaard, and David Foster Wallace as she narrates the tale in her familiar dramatic voice. The film is also about communication and language, two of her favorite topics, which come to the fore when she describes going to the mountains in Northern California with Lolabelle. “The idea was to take a trip and spend some time with her and do a kind of experiment to see if I could learn to talk with her. Now, I’d heard that rat terriers could understand about five hundred words, and I wanted to see which ones they were.” The story takes a fascinating turn when Anderson recognizes that Lolabelle, who she identifies as a painter, a pianist, and a protector, understands that circling hawks are a threat to her, that the dog is prey to them, a direct reference to Americans’ fear in a post-9/11 world, where armed soldiers are everywhere to guard against terrorist attacks, especially from the sky. Anderson goes back to her past, talking about a horrific childhood accident that almost left her paralyzed and led her to realize “that most adults have no idea what they’re talking about.” She also discusses her awkward relationship with her mother, subversive software, her obsession with JFK, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, ghosts, dreams, and sadness, explaining that her Tibetan teacher, Mingyur Rinpoche, once told her that “you should try to learn how to feel sad without being sad,’” which, Anderson notes, “is actually really hard to do.”

Avoiding over-self-indulgence, Anderson tells this autobiographical “story about a story” with a diverse range of compelling imagery, from lovely scenes of snowy woods and birds in trees to scratched, distorted avante-garde footage and many scenes of rain, as if the camera is gently crying. The soundtrack, primarily Anderson on violin, is mostly elegiac, tinged with heartbreak as she philosophizes about life and death, though it is ultimately an uplifting experience. Anderson dedicates the film “to the magnificent spirit of my husband Lou Reed,” who makes a brief appearance as a doctor and is shown later on the beach, his bare feet in the sand; he also sings “Turning Time Around,” a song from his 2000 album, Ecstasy, over the closing credits, in which the punk godfather, who passed away in 2013 at the age of seventy-one, explains, “My time is your time when you’re in love / and time is what you never have enough of / You can’t see or hold it / It’s exactly like love.” Heart of a Dog is screening October 8 at 6:00 at the Walter Reade Theater as part of the Special Events program at the New York Film Festival, with Anderson, whose stunning immersive multimedia installation “Habeas Corpus” just finished its short run at the Park Avenue Armory, present to talk about the film, which will open theatrically October 21 at Film Forum.

LOPATE AND LOVACORES: EATING AROUND THE WORLD

Marcus Samuelsson, Madhur Jaffrey, and Maangchi will join Leonard Lopate for discussions, demonstrations, and tastings at the Greene Space

Who: Leonard Lopate, Marcus Samuelsson, Maangchi, and Madhur Jaffrey
What: “Lopate and Locavores: Eating Around the World”
Where: The Greene Space at WNYC, the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, 44 Charlton St. at Varick St., 646-829-4000
When: Wednesday, October 7, 14, 21, $25 (includes one drink), 7:00
Why: Three-time James Beard Award winner Leonard Lopate will host his annual food series this month at the Greene Space at WNYC, featuring three celebrity chefs joining him for a discussion, demonstration, and tasting. On October 7, the WNYC legend will welcome Marcus Samuelsson (Red Rooster Harlem, Streetbird Rotisserie, Marcus Off Duty: The Recipes I Cook at Home) to talk about Ethiopian and Swedish cuisine, followed by the Korean Julia Child, Maangchi, author of Maangchi’s Real Korean Cooking, on October 14, and Madhur Jaffrey, the Godmother of Indian Cooking and author of Vegetarian India: A Journey Through the Best of Indian Home Cooking, on October 21.

THEATER & CINEMA: CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA

Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart mix fact and fiction in Olivier Assayas’s CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA

CINÉSALON: CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA (Olivier Assayas, 2014)
French Institute Alliance Française, Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
Tuesday, October 6, $14, 4:00 & 7:30 (later screening introduced by Florence Colombani)
Series continues through October 27
212-355-6100
www.fiaf.org
www.ifcfilms.com

The related concepts of time and reality wind through Olivier Assayas’s beautifully poetic, melancholy Clouds of Sils Maria much like actual snakelike clouds slither through the twisting Maloja Pass in the Swiss Alps, as life imitates art and vice versa. Juliette Binoche stars as Maria Enders, a famous French actress who is on her way to Zurich to accept an award for her mentor, playwright Wilhelm Melchior, who eschews such mundane ceremonies. But while en route, Maria and her personal assistant, the extremely attentive and capable Valentine (Kristen Stewart), learn that Wilhelm has suddenly and unexpectedly passed away, and Maria considers turning back, especially when she later finds out that Henryk Wald (Hanns Zischler), an old nemesis, will be there to pay homage to Wilhelm as well, but she decides to go ahead after all. At a cocktail party, Maria meets with hot director Klaus Diesterweg (Lars Eidinger), who is preparing a new stage production of Wilhelm and Maria’s first big hit, The Maloja Snake, but this time Maria would play Helena, an older woman obsessed with ambitious eighteen-year-old Sigrid, the role she originally performed twenty years earlier, to great acclaim. Klaus is planning to cast Lindsay Lohan-like troublemaking star and walking tabloid headline Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloë Grace Moretz) as Sigrid, which does not thrill Maria as her past and present meld together in an almost dreamlike narrative punctuated by the music of Handel and cinematographer Yorick Le Saux’s gorgeous shots of vast mountain landscapes.

Valentine (Kristen Stewart) and Maria (Juliette Binoche) go in search of the Maloja Snake in the Swiss Alps

Clouds of Sils Maria resonates on many levels, both inside and outside of the main plot and the film itself. Assayas (Irma Vep, Demonlover) cowrote André Téchiné’s 1983 film, Rendez-Vous, which was Binoche’s breakthrough; Assayas and Binoche wouldn’t work together again until his 2008 film Summer Hours, similar to the relationship between Wilhelm and Maria. Meanwhile, the story of the play-within-the-film is echoed by the relationship between Maria and Valentine, who are having trouble separating the personal from the professional. It is often difficult to know when the two women are practicing lines and when they are talking about their “real” lives. Binoche (Blue, Caché) is simply extraordinary as Maria, a distressed and anxious woman who is suddenly facing getting older somewhat sooner than expected, while Stewart (The Twilight Saga, On the Road) became the first American woman to win a French César, for Best Supporting Actress, for her sensitive portrayal of Valentine, a strong-willed young woman who might or might not be holding something back. The scenes between the two are riveting as they venture in and out of the reality of the film, their onscreen chemistry building and building till it’s at last ready to ignite. Art, life, cinema, theater, fiction, and reality all come together in Clouds of Sils Maria, as Maria, Assayas, and Binoche take stock of where they’ve been, where they are, and where they’re going. The film is screening at 4:00 and 7:30 on October 6 in FIAF’s CinéSalon series “Theater & Cinema”; the later show will be introduced by Florence Colombani. The Tuesday festival continues through October 27 with such other stage-related dramas as Arnaud Desplechin’s Esther Kahn, Abdellatif Kechiche’s Games of Love and Chance, and François Truffaut’s The Last Metro.

NEW YORK SUPER WEEK

Multiple locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan
October 5-12, free – $249
www.newyorksuperweek.com

Fretting because you didn’t get your New York Comic-Con tickets in time and it’s completely sold out now? The vast popularity of NYCC has led to New York Super Week, with related special events beginning on Monday and running for eight days. There are more than eighty panels, concerts, trivia contests, movie screenings, comedy shows, social media parties, and other geek gatherings, with appearances by the likes of Kevin Smith, Masashi Kishimoto, Seth Green, Janeane Garofalo, Kristian Nairn, Finn Jones, Danny Fingeroth, Justin Guarini, Larry Fessenden, and John Hodgman. Below are only some of the many highlights.

Monday, October 5
Celebrity Karaoke: An Epic Evening with the Stars, with Deborah Cox, Justin Guarini, Tony Vincent, and Alex Brightman, Hard Rock Café, $25-$40, 7:00

Playing a Superhero: Privilege or Curse?, with Mark Editz, author of How to Be a Superhero, the Learning and Media Center at the DiMenna Center, $8, 7:15

Star Wars vs. Star Trek: Attack of the Khan, with DJ Benhameen, Tatiana King Jones, Jean Grae, Pharoahe Monch, and Quelle Chris, Benzaquen Hall at the DiMenna Center, 410, 7:15

Tuesday, October 6
The Best American Comics 2015, with Bill Kartalopoulus, the Strand, free with suggested purchase of book or $15 gift card, 7:00

Running Late with Scott Rogowsky: Brooklyn’s Live Late Night Comedy Talk Show, with Horatio Sanz, Impractical Jokers “Sal” Vulcano & Brian “Q” Quinn, Budd Mishkin, Dale Seever, and Here We Go Magic, Littlefield, $10-$20, 9:00

Wednesday, October 7
Comics and Jews: Panel and Auction, with Danny Fingeroth, Paul Levitz, Arie Kaplan, and Paul Kupperberg, hosted by Karen Green, Center for Jewish History, $10, 6:30

Meet the Creator of Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto, discussion, Q&A, and signing with Masashi Kushimoto, Apple Store SoHo, free, 7:00

Thursday, October 8
Robot Chicken Season 8 Party, with Seth Green and Matt Senreich, Brooklyn Bowl, free with RSVP, 6:00 – 10:00

Uptown Showdown: Superheroes vs. Villains, with Janeane Garofalo, Travon Free, Jessica Delfino, Michael Hartney, Nick Turner, and Joe Garden, Symphony Space, $15, 8:00

Twentieth anniversary screening of Habit (Larry Fessenden, 1985), with Larry Fessenden and cast members in person, part of weeklong thirtieth anniversary celebration of Glass Eye Pix, IFC Center, $14, 9:00

Friday, October 9
A Night of Ice and Fire, Featuring Kristian Nairn, Finn Jones, and More, Hard Rock Café, $45, 8:00

The Thrilling Adventure Hour Presents: POW! Sparks Nevada Live, with Marc Evan Jackson, Mark Gagliardi, Hal Lublin, Janet Varney, Scott Adsit, and special guests, Littlefield, $15-$50, 10:00

Saturday, October 10
Hollywood Babble On Live! with Ralph Garman and Kevin Smith, Hammerstein Ballroom, $20-$60, 7:30

Comic Con Vixens II, with Topher Bousquet, Hazel Honeysuckle, Dangrrr Doll, Bastard Keith, Tiger Bay, Rosey la Rouge, Puss N’ Boots, and Lux La Croix, Hard Rock Café, $25-$75, 10:00

Sunday, October 11
PressPlayNYC, with Christian Leave, Tina Woods, Sigh Mike, Drew Phillips, Joey Kidney, Taylor Baxter, Chase Goehring, Alex Reininga, Pierson Oglesby, Tyler White, Dakota Brooks, Wes Finn, Chris O’Flyng, Cody Ryle, and Steffan Argus, Hammerstein Ballroom, $35-$249, 12 noon – 6:00 pm

We Got This Live! with Mark Gagliardi, Hal Lublin, John Hodgman, and Carter Parton Rogers, (le) poisson rouge, $15, 8:00

Monday, October 12
New York premiere of Wagakkiband Concert Movie (avex music creative, 2014), IFC Center, $14, 7:30