ADVANCED STYLE (Lina Plioplyte, 2014)
City Winery
155 Varick St.
Monday, September 22, $15-$40, 8:00
212-608-0555
www.advancedstylefilm.com
www.citywinery.com
Since August 2008, photographer Ari Seth Cohen has run his Advanced Style blog, focusing on the fashion trends of senior citizens in New York City. “I roam the streets of New York looking for the most stylish and creative older folks,” Cohen, who grew up in San Diego, writes on his blog. “Respect your elders and let these ladies and gents teach you a thing or two about living life to the fullest. Advanced Style offers proof from the wise and silver-haired set that personal style advances with age.” In May 2012, he released the Advanced Style book, and next up is a documentary that Cohen and Lithuanian-born director Lina Piloplyte financed via Kickstarter. On September 22, City Winery will host a celebration of the many aspects of Advanced Style, hosted by Barneys creative ambassador Simon Doonan, featuring a discussion, a slideshow of Cohen’s photographs, and an exclusive preview of the film, which follows seven fashionably eclectic New York women between the ages of sixty-two and ninety-five, with no topic off limits; the documentary opens in theaters September 26 and will be available on VOD and DVD October 7. Tickets for the City Winery event begin at $15; the $40 VIP seats earn you a gift bag complete with a DVD of the film. “The soul of Advanced Style is not bound to age, or even to style, but rather to the celebration of life,” Maira Kalman writes in the introduction to Cohen’s book. “These photos offer proof that the secret to remaining vital in our later years is to never stop being curious, never stop creating, and never stop having fun.”
TICKET GIVEAWAY: “A Celebration of Advanced Style” takes place at City Winery on September 22, and twi-ny has a pair of VIP seats to give away for free. Just send your name, daytime phone number, and all-time favorite stylish older woman to contest@twi-ny.com by Wednesday, September 17, at 5:00 to be eligible. All entrants must be twenty-one years of age or older; one winner will be selected at random.
Taiwanese New Wave auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien’s masterpiece, The Puppetmaster, is a beautifully poetic exploration of the art of storytelling. The second film of his history trilogy, coming between 1989’s A City of Sadness and 1995’s Good Men, Good Women, the 1993 work employs three unique methods as it traces the life and career of puppeteer Li Tien-lu from 1909 to 1945, during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. Episodes from Li’s life are re-created, beginning even before his birth, as his father sacrifices his family name and takes his wife’s instead at the request of her clan, with the modern-day Li adding voice-over narration. (The film is based on Li’s memoirs.) Hou also uses Peking opera, theater, and puppet shows to demonstrate Li’s skill and to place the film in artistic and historical context. And the eighty-four-year-old Li, who had already been in three of Hou’s films, appears onscreen several times, right on the set, adding an intimate, personal touch to the proceedings. Hou and cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-Bin often let the camera remain still for long periods of time, allowing viewers to decide where to look and what to focus on, as if they were watching a live performance. The film features stunning art direction by Chang Hung and Lu Ming-jin and a lovely traditional score by Chen Ming-chang; the stellar cast includes Lin Chung and Lim Giong as Li, Tsai Chen-nan as his father, Yang Li-yin as his stepmother, Liou Hung as his grandfather, Bai Ming Hwa as his grandmother, and Vicky Wei as Lei Tzu.
Hou Hsiao-hsien’s gorgeous Three Times is an evocative, poetic trilogy of tales about life and love in Taiwan, all starring the mesmerizing Shu Qi (Hou’s Millennium Mambo) and the stalwart Chang Chen (Wong Kar-wai’s 2046 and Happy Together). In A Time for Love, set in 1966 and featuring a repeated soft-rock soundtrack, Chen, about to leave for military service, meets May, a pool-hall girl, and promises to write to her even though they have only just met and barely said a word to each other. When he gets a furlough, he goes to the pool hall only to find that she’s on the move, so with Zen-like cool he tries to track her down. A Time for Freedom, a silent film with interstitial dialogue and period music, takes place in an elegant brothel in 1911, where Mr. Chang regularly visits a beautiful courtesan. But while she dreams of him buying out her contract and marrying her, he seems intent on helping out another couple instead. Hou concludes the trilogy with A Time for Youth, set in fast-paced modern-day Taipei, as Jing, an epileptic singer, and Zhen, a motorcycle-riding photographer, embark on a passionate, nearly wordless affair that has serious consequences for their significant others. Three Times is a rare treat for cineastes, a poetic, intelligent, though overly long study of relationships between men and women in a changing Taiwan over the last hundred years, focusing on character, time and place, and the art of filmmaking itself. Three Times is screening September 14 at 7:00 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image series “Also like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien” and will be introduced by Amy Taubin.
Inspired by her mother’s aging and another family member’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, Sharon Greytak’s Archaeology of a Woman examines the complex relationship between Kate (Tony winner Victoria Clark), a New York City chef, and her mother, Margaret (Oscar nominee Sally Kirkland), a fiercely independent woman who is suffering the beginning stages of dementia. As the film opens, Margaret cannot find her car in a parking lot and reaches out to the police for help. Disoriented, she calls Kate, who is in the midst of passionate sex with her boyfriend (Alex Emanuel). Soon Kate is shuttling back and forth on Metro-North between Manhattan and her mother’s suburban home as Margaret continues having episodes that often turn destructive, to both herself and others. Although she keeps getting more and more forgetful and unsettled, one memory keeps haunting her, something that happened thirty years before and has risen up again to threaten her. Kirkland (Anna, Cold Feet) does all she can with the juicy role, baring her heart and soul — and septuagenarian body — but Greytak’s choppy direction and hole-filled script let the talented Method actor and teacher down. The subplots don’t meld into the main storyline, instead lingering outside as annoying diversions, including scenes with a young police officer (Karl Geary) who takes a liking to Kate, and an older cop, Sergeant Calder (James Murtaugh), who is caught between speculating about Margaret’s past and wanting to be part of her future. Greytak (The Love Lesson, Hearing Voices) never achieves a flow in the film, which plays out like a series of disjointed moments that don’t come together, as if she had too much to say but not enough time to say it all, unfortunately choosing melodrama over nuance. Archaeology of a Woman opens September 12 at the Village East; Greytak and Kirland will participate in Q&As following the 7:00 screening on Friday night (moderated by Michael Musto) and the 4:25 shows on Saturday and Sunday.
