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

STARTALK LIVE! WITH NEIL deGRASSE TYSON

The Town Hall
123 West 43rd St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Monday, November 4, $33-$38, 8:00
212-840-2824
www.thetownhall.org
www.startalkradio.net

Fresh off his November 1 appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, genius astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson — the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, the future host of the Cosmos television series, and the bestselling author of such books as Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries, and the controversial The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet — will host a special live edition of his weekly StarTalk radio show on November 4 at Town Hall. In recent weeks, StarTalk has featured such guests as Dan Aykroyd, Buzz Aldrin, Questlove, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, rapper GZA, Joe Rogan, and Anthony Bourdain discussing such topics as storms, ghosts, the speed of light, asteroid mining, aliens, sex, human endurance in space, and the coming zombie apocalypse. At Town Hall he will be joined by comic cohost Eugene Mirman and special guests; attendees are invited to submit a question on Tyson’s blog in advance, and if yours is selected, you will get the chance to ask it live at the show, then go backstage afterward and meet the man himself. Among the cosmic queries so far? “Could it be that everything around us is simply an illusion?,” “How will the human race end?,” and “Other than yourself, who would you want as the human race’s first representative to an alien race?”

BOBCAT GOLDTHWAIT: SLEEPING DOGS LIE

Amy (Melinda Page Hamilton) harbors a dirty little secret in Bobcat Goldthwait film

SLEEPING DOGS LIE (Bobcat Goldthwait, 2006)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Sunday, November 3, 3:00
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Syracuse-born comic Bobcat Goldthwait might still be best known as the dude with the annoying voice in the Police Academy movies, but he’s carved out quite a little career for himself as a director, helming such television series as Jimmy Kimmel Live, Chappelle’s Show, and The Man Show as well as several low-budget indie films that he also wrote. On November 3, BAMcinématek will be screening three of the latter in a mini-festival, beginning with 2006’s Sleeping Dogs Lie, an oddly charming, offbeat romantic comedy. Amy (Melinda Page Hamilton) is a lonely college student who suddenly decides to try something a little different — she pleasures her dog in a special way, but immediately regrets it. Eight years later, she is in a serious relationship with John (Bryce Johnson), who wants them to be completely honest with each other. Hesitant to share this one detail of her life, she ultimately confesses, believing love trumps all. How wrong she is. Hamilton (Desperate Housewives, Big Love, Mad Men) is terrific in the lead role, playing a smart, attractive woman overwhelmed by this one secret. She gets comfort from a fellow teacher, Ed (Colby French), but none from her old-fashioned parents (Geoff Pierson and Bonita Friedericy) or her crystal-meth-smoking loser of a brother, Dougie (Jack Plotnick). Goldthwait and cinematographer Ian S. Takashi shot Sleeping Dogs Lie in a mere sixteen days, putting together part of the crew from Craigslist. A truly indie film, it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. The Goldthwait triple play continues at 6:00 with the New York premiere of Willow Creek, followed by a Q&A with Goldthwait, and concludes at 9:00 with his 2009 film, World’s Greatest Dad, starring Robin Williams.

FIRST SATURDAYS: JEAN PAUL GAULTIER

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, November 2, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The career of French fashion designer John Paul Gaultier will be celebrated at the Brooklyn Museum’s November edition of its free First Saturdays program. In conjunction with the opening of the multimedia exhibition “The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk,” there will be a curator talk by Lisa Small, an arts workshop demonstrating how to make Gaultier-inspired fashion plates, fashion-related pop-up gallery talks, a lecture on fashion, ethics, and the law by Susan Scafidi, a special performance by Company XIV and Dances of Vice with Miss Ekat and DJ Johanna Constantine, a discussion with photographer Richard Corman about his book Madonna NYC 83, and screenings of Loic Prigent’s 2009 documentary The Day Before, which follows Gaultier as he prepares for a fashion show, and Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element, for which Gaultier designed the costumes. The night will also include live music by Au Revoir Simone, Watermelon, and Tamar-kali. In addition, the galleries will be open late, giving visitors plenty of opportunity to check out “Valerie Hegarty: Alternative Histories,” “Käthe Kollwitz: Prints from the ‘War’ and ‘Death’ Portfolios,” “Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt,” “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas,” “Connecting Cultures: A World in Brooklyn,” “Wangechi Mutu: A Fantastic Journey,” and other exhibits.

I DON’T KNOW: THE WOMEN

Mrs. Stephen Haines (Norma Shearer) learns the awful truth in George Cukor’s THE WOMEN

Mrs. Stephen Haines (Norma Shearer) discovers some awful truths in George Cukor’s THE WOMEN

CABARET CINEMA: THE WOMEN (George Cukor, 1939)
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, November 1, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org

One of the cattiest movies ever made, The Women is a screwball comedy that has the distinction of not having a single man in it; it was even written by Anita Loos and Jane Murfin, based on Clare Booth’s 1936 Broadway play, and helmed by George Cukor, who is often considered “the women’s director.” Set in Manhattan, the film follows the intrigue and gossip surrounding a group of socialite women who yap yap yap all day long while shopping in ritzy stores, eating in fancy restaurants, and getting their nails done in high-end salons. Their attention is suddenly turned to the sweetly innocent Mary Haines (Norma Shearer) when it is believed that her husband, Stephen, is having an affair with conniving perfume salesperson Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford). Mary’s supposed best friends, Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell), Edith Potter (Phyllis Povah), and Peggy Day (Joan Fontaine), at first keep the story from her, but as the facts continue to pile up, Mary considers heading to Reno to get a quickie divorce, even as her mother (Lucile Watson) tells her to just live with the deception, as most women do. In Reno, Mary stays at a ranch with other wives trying to get out of their marriages, including a boisterous, oft-wed countess (Mary Boland), a tough-talking chorus girl (Paulette Goddard), and a few surprises. As the women discuss life and love, wealth and poverty, heartache and motherhood — Mary is desperate to protect her daughter, also named Mary (Virginia Weidler), from the nasty proceedings — relationships twist and turn, loyalty is questioned, and the possibility of true love is clouded in doubt.

An all-star cast discuss what went wrong with their marriages in THE WOMEN

The Women is a riotous, fast-paced romp that flies by despite clocking in at more than two hours. The opening title sequence sets the stage, with each of the main characters represented by a different animal: deer (Mary), leopard (Crystal), black cat (Sylvia), monkey (the countess), hyena (Miriam), sheep (Peggy), owl (Mary’s mother), cow (Edith), doe (Mary’s daughter), and horse (Lucy). The narrative mixes slapstick humor and tender moments with scenes of backstabbing bravado. Dennie Moore nearly steals the show as fabulously gossipy manicurist Olga, who unwittingly sets the main plot in motion and is responsible for painting many of the characters’ nails in the critical color Jungle Red. (Among the other highlights are an exercise class at the spa and the maid spying on a heated argument between Mary and Stephen.) The cast also features Hedda Hopper as gossip columnist Dolly Dupuyster, Butterfly McQueen as Crystal’s assistant, Lulu, and Marjorie Main as Lucy, who runs the Reno divorce ranch. Although the film was primarily shot in black-and-white, it has an oddball Adrian fashion show in Technicolor that feels out of place, and some of the ideas regarding a woman’s freedom versus her dependence on men don’t quite hold up, but The Women is still one of the greatest Hollywood pictures ever told from the perspective of the fairer sex. Amazingly, Cukor’s film did not receive a single Oscar nomination, having come out the same year as Wuthering Heights, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Gone with the Wind, Ninotchka, Love Affair, Dark Victory, The Wizard of Oz, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. The Women is screening November 1 as part of the Rubin Museum Cabaret Cinema series “I Don’t Know” — “about what we don’t know, or choose not to know” — and will be introduced by Justin Vivian Bond. The festival continues November 8 with John Kelly introducing Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt and November 15 with Rachel Dratch introducing Peter Brook’s Lord of the Flies.

THE WINSLOW BOY

The Winslow family faces a series of crises in revival of 1946 Terence Rattigan play (photo by Joan Marcus)

American Airlines Theatre
227 West 42nd St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday through December 1, $52-$137
212-719-1300
www.roundabouttheatre.org

The Roundabout production of Terence Rattigan’s 1946 drawing-room drama The Winslow Boy is like a fine episode of Masterpiece Theatre brought to life on the Broadway stage. Originally presented at the Old Vic, this new version of the rarely revived play, which was inspired by a true story and made into films twice (Anthony Asquith, 1948; David Mamet, 1999), follows the trials and tribulations of the Winslow clan just before World War I. Younger son Ronnie (Spencer Davis Milford), his father’s favorite, returns home after having been expelled from a prominent naval school for stealing a five-shilling postal order. The boy professes his innocence to his stern father, Arthur (Roger Rees), and his understanding mother, Grace (Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio), so Arthur sets off on a quest to protect the family name, writing letters, going to the press, and hiring big-time lawyer Sir Robert Morton (Alessandro Nivola). But Arthur’s determination to get justice is soon negatively impacting the family, affecting daughter Catherine’s (Charlotte Parry) engagement to John Watherstone (Chandler Williams) as well as older son Dickie’s (Zachary Booth) future at Oxford. Meanwhile, Ronnie doesn’t really seem to care all that much, oblivious to all that is going on around him.

Ronnie (Spencer Davis Milford) takes a rest while his father (Roger Rees) fights to save the family name (photo by Joan Marcus)

Written just after World War II about a period right before World War I and dealing with an anxiety-ridden middle class, The Winslow Boy still feels fresh and relevant. In his Broadway bow, director Lindsay Posner, who has previously helmed more than fifty shows in England — including several by Mamet — delicately balances humor with seriousness while guiding the action on Peter McKintosh’s lovely living-room set. Rees (Nicholas Nickleby, Indiscretions) is excellent as a father on a mission, willing to do whatever it takes to prove Ronnie’s innocence, no matter the personal and financial cost. Parry (Look Back in Anger, The Importance of Being Earnest) nearly steals the show as Catherine, a suffragist who always puts the cause ahead of her own desires. The solid cast also features Michael Cumpsty (End of the Rainbow) as family friend and solicitor Desmond Curry, an endlessly dull man who harbors a longtime fondness for Catherine, and Henny Russell (The Other Place, Lombardi) as Violet, the Winslows’ rather chatty maid. From top to bottom, The Winslow Boy is a wonderfully involving trip into another time that is really not that different from our own.

TWI-NY TALK: AMY NICHOLSON / ZIPPER

LOCAL COLOR — ZIPPER: CONEY ISLAND’S LAST WILD RIDE (Amy Nicholson, 2012)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
Wednesday, October 30, 9:30
718-384-3980
www.zipperfilm.com
www.nitehawkcinema.com

This past August, Amy Nicholson’s compelling, bittersweet documentary Zipper: Coney Island’s Last Wild Ride opened to wide acclaim during an extended run at the IFC Center. Winner of a Special Jury Prize at the 2012 DOC NYC festival, Zipper follows the fate of Eddie Miranda’s Zipper amusement park ride as a microcosm of the controversial rezoning and commercialization plans that threaten to change Coney Island forever. In her director’s statement, Nicholson, a longtime marketing creative director in New York City who has taken the film, her third documentary, all over the country, explains, “I have two ambitions for Zipper. First, to expose how and why the ‘poor people’s Riviera’ became the prize in a fight between a billionaire developer and a billionaire mayor. Second, to remind the world of Coney Island’s true character, so that other great cultural icons might be valued more for their sense of place than for their real estate.” Her next stop is Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg, where she’ll take part in a Q&A following a special “Local Color” screening on October 30 at 9:30. As an added bonus, each attendee gets a free Coney Island beer. In anticipation of the Nitehawk event, Nicholson recently discussed with twi-ny the Zipper, the advertising business, the future of Coney Island, and more.

twi-ny: What was the genesis of the Zipper project?

Amy Nicholson: Believe it or not, I was looking for the Jumble in the Daily News when I came across an article about the Zipper leaving Coney Island and my heart sank. I loved that ride as a kid; it’s the quintessential crazy carnival contraption and the perfect symbol of all that’s great about a place like Coney Island. Originally I was just going to do a short homage to the Zipper, but I got sucked into the politics of why Eddie Miranda and a lot of other small operators were leaving. The more I looked into it, the bigger it got.

twi-ny: What kind of personal connection did you have with Coney Island prior to starting the project? How would you say it has changed since then?

Amy Nicholson: I have lived in New York since the late ’80s and my best friend and I would go down to Coney Island on hot summer nights and just hang out and people watch. It’s really the best place in the world to soak up that beach/carnival/melting pot atmosphere. As Joey says in the film, “Once you get the sand in your shoes….”

(Sidebar about riding the Zipper in Coney: Eddie’s Zipper was an older hydraulic model, which meant it used a lot of oil. If the temperature was hot during the day — and cooler at night — the Zipper would spin a lot more aggressively as the oil cooled. The loader, Freddie, and I made a pact to ride on the last night after the very last shot, but when he chickened out, so did I. Apparently the conditions were perfect for making the Zipper spin like crazy that day and he said there had been a lot of barfing!)

twi-ny: How would you say it has changed since the late ’80s?

Amy Nicholson: Coney Island is a really addicting place for so many reasons. I can never sum it up as well as the guys do in the last scenes of Zipper. But I can tell you for certain that’s been the biggest change. The complexion of the place is very different now and not in a good way. There are still a few of the old guard there, but the rest is either an empty lot or new construction that feels soulless. The new rides are nice, but Coney Island is well on its way to being sterilized.

twi-ny: Has anything changed in the rezoning/development fight since the film was released?

Amy Nicholson: When the film leaves off at the end of 2009, Bloomberg was just reelected to a third term. A deal was made with Thor Equities to purchase about half of their property for around $100 million, and the city leased newly created parkland to a single operator. Since then, Thor has built one retail building and Central Amusements International has brought in new rides, primarily in areas where there were rides before the fight began. There have been some nice improvements, but there are still plenty of empty lots and none of the promised affordable housing or hotels have materialized. Nor is Coney Island year-round — the reason the public was told the rezoning had to happen. We are also coming up on the one-year anniversary of Sandy, which did some horrific damage, but almost all of the rides and games survived. The final super[title] of the film that states what the resolution was after all the years of battling still stands.

ZIPPER director Amy Nicholson celebrates documentary at Coney Island History Project

twi-ny: How do you think documentaries like yours can make a difference in such battles?

Amy Nicholson: I think documentaries like mine not only serve as a record of history, but I hope they exposed the truth about how politics and the constant need for growth can change cities far too quickly and not necessarily for the better. As a regular citizen, you would have had to follow the story for six years, digging around, attending meetings, and asking questions. It’s a lot to ask for a busy public, and in the end, the public process is pretty much a joke. So on the most basic level, you can watch Zipper and see the whole story unfold in seventy-seven minutes and at least walk away with a basic understanding of why there’s an Applebee’s in Coney Island now.

twi-ny: You’ve shown the film all over the country. How do audiences in other cities react to such a New York story? Coney Island has a unique legend, but most of those people have probably never been there.

Amy Nicholson: The film speaks to people everywhere because there has been such an increase in development like this where cities decide to proactively stimulate economic growth with developer incentives. The easiest way to do that is to change the zoning. Right now, Los Angeles is doing exactly what New York did with a huge zoning overhaul. It hasn’t escaped anyone’s attention that small businesses everywhere are being displaced by chains.

And then there are the sweetest older people everywhere we go who attend the screenings and they just want to relive a little bit of their Brooklyn childhood. When we get compliments on how well we captured the feeling of the place, that’s when I think we’ve been successful. That’s the best.

twi-ny: You’ve spent a lot of years in advertising. What kind of impact do you think that has on your filmmaking style, as well as the film’s promotion?

Amy Nicholson: Well, in this case it gave me a fairly keen understanding of the attempted branding of both Coney Island and Brooklyn. (In the case of Brooklyn, the city has been far too successful!) It definitely gave me the radar to know when I was being sold something. I could feel it in the interviews, and twice I found “talking points” left behind in the rooms we were in. As far as how it applies to the marketing of the film, I can’t take all the credit. Coney Island was the most amazing place visually. And I had help. That best friend who I went to Coney with on hot summer nights is also an amazing designer. We just did our best attempt to bring it to life.

twi-ny: You’ve previously made Beauty School and Muskrat Lovely. Do you have any plans yet for your next film?

Amy Nicholson: I have to recover financially from this one first (we could not get funding), but I have a few ideas rolling around in my head. Stay tuned….

NEXT WAVE THEATER: NOSFERATU

Grzegorz Jarzyna adds to the vampire legend in multimedia NOSFERATU running this week at BAM (photo by Stefan Okolowicz)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. between Ashland & Rockwell Pl.
October 30 – November 2, $20-$65
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Halloween is quickly upon us, so arts organizations across the city are turning to horror to try to scare the hell out of us this week. Over at BAM, you can catch the frightening “Puppets on Film” series, which includes Godzilla, Aliens, and the terrifying The Great Muppet Caper; Alfred Hitchcock’s Family Plot and The Lodger, the latter with live music by Morricone Youth; and the twelfth annual BAMboo!, a free, child-friendly block party with music, candy, games, workshops, and more. But the strangest of them all is likely to be TR Warszawa and Teatr Narodowy’s multimedia production of Nosferatu, inspired by Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula — which was also the inspiration for F. W. Murnau’s 1922 horror classic, Nosferatu, a film that had to change its title, character names, and plot details because the Stoker family would not authorize the rights. Written and directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna, who brought Thomas Vinterberg’s Dogme 95 film The Celebration to mesmerizing life as Festen at St. Ann’s Warehouse last year, Nosferatu has an original score by John Zorn, with sets and costumes by Magdalena Maciejewska, lighting by Jacqueline Sobiszewski, and video design by Bartek Macias. The cast consists of Sandra Korzeniak, Katarzyna Warnke, Wolfgang Michael, Jan Englert, Jan Frycz, Krzysztof Franieczek, Marcin Hycnar, Lech Łotocki, and Adam Woronowicz. The show runs October 30 through November 2 at the BAM Harvey; on November 1 at 6:00 in the Hillman Attic Studio ($15), New Yorker journalist Joan Acocella will give the related talk “On Vampires.” In addition, Film Forum is showing Werner Herzog’s remake Nosferatu the Vampyre through November 7, with a bonus screening of Murnau’s original on November 4 at 7:30.