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

CUT TO BLACK

Writer, producer, director, and star Dan Eberle plays the big, silent type in neo-noir CUT TO BLACK

CUT TO BLACK (Dan Eberle, 2013)
Cinema Village
22 East 12th St. between University Pl. & Fifth Ave.
Opens Friday, October 18
212-924-3363
insurgentpictures.com
www.cinemavillage.com

Winner of the Audience Award at the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival, Cut to Black is a dark, gritty slice of neo-noir from writer, director, producer, and star Dan Eberle. Part brooding Mickey Rourke, part humorless Vin Diesel, Eberle (The Local, Prayer to a Vengeful God) plays brooding, humorless disgraced ex-cop Bill Ivers, a big, hulking man who doesn’t say much as he goes through his lonely daily existence. Running out of money to pay the landlord — whose wife (Alexandra Mingione) he is sleeping with — Ivers is surprised by a visit from an old police friend, Gunther (Beau Allulli), who takes him to meet with his former boss, John Lord (James Alba), who wants Ivers to track down a man who is stalking his biological daughter, Jessica (Jillaine Gill). Ivers at first is hesitant, not wanting to get involved in anything having to do with Lord, a possible gubernatorial candidate, but he can’t say no to 200 G’s. It turns out that Jessica is working as a stripper, and her longtime boyfriend, a sleazeball named Duane (Joe Stipek), owes a fat wad of cash to local gangster Yates (Paul Bowen). Ivers can’t help himself from doing what he thinks is right, so he’s soon in the middle of it all, with all kinds of people wanting him out of the picture. Eberle regular cinematographer James Parsons shoots Cut to Black in sharp black-and-white, offering a unique view of modern-day Brooklyn (as well as Manhattan, Queens, and upstate New York). Eberle might not have a lot of range as an actor, but he dominates the screen with a firm presence, especially when Parsons zooms in on his beaten and battered face. The pacing is relatively slow until the twists start piling up one after another, some predictable, some not, others just plain strange, as Ivers is determined to see things through to the potentially violent end. As low-budget crime thrillers go, Cut to Black packs quite a stylish little punch. The film opens October 18 at Cinema Village, with Eberle and other members of the cast and crew on hand for a Q&A following the 7:15 screening.

CMJ 2013: DAY TWO

No, Jamaican Queens has nothing to do with changing trains on the LIRR. Instead, it’s a Detroit-based duo that has numerous CMJ gigs scheduled this week; you can catch Ryan Spencer and Adam Pressley and their “satanic doo wop” October 16 at Pianos at 6:00 and Webster Hall’s Marlin Room at 9:20, followed on October 17 at Muchmore’s at 3:00 and at Littlefield at 7:00. See below for our other top picks for CMJ Day Two.

KEXP Live Broadcast: Bear Ceuse, 10:00; Cub Sport, 12 noon; Weekend, 2:00; the Helio Sequence, 4:30

“The New Curators,” with Kenna, David Adams, and Matthew Perpetua, NYU Kimmel Center, room 802 Shorin, 12:30

Kanine Records and SESAC’s Trick or Treat Party: the History of Apple Pie, 2:00; the Valleys, 2:45; Joanna Gruesome, 3:30; Beach Day, 4:15; Eagulls, 5:45; Eternal Summers, 6:30, Pianos, 158 Ludlow St.

Julia Weldon, Alphabet Lounge, 104 Ave. C, 7:00

Glenn Tilbrook, with the Fabulous Miss Wendy and Awake, Stage 48, 605 West 48th St., 8:00

Tijuana Gift Shop: Amy Lynn & the Gun Show, 8:30; These Animals, 9:20; Mia Dyson, 10:10; Firehorse, 11:00; Wake Island, 11:50; Pool Cosby, 12:40, Bowery Electric, 327 Bowery

NME showcase: Theo Verney, 8:45; Porcelain Raft, 9:30; Courtney Barnett, 10:15; Eagulls, 11:00; Yuck, 12 midnight, Tammany Hall, 152 Orchard St.

Duck Down/Javotti showcase: Black Moon LIVE backed by Phony Ppl (Enta Da Stage 20-year anniversary set), Cory Mo, DJ Set by Meka of 2dopeboyz, Res of Idle Warship, Smif N Wessun Reggae Jam Session, T’Nah Apex (Pro Era), Talib Kweli, the Underachievers, Children of the Night, F. Stokes, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 9:00

Au Revoir Simone, Highline Ballroom, 431 West 16th St., 10:30

Megafauna, Left Field, 87 Ludlow St., 10:45

RICHIE’S FANTASTIC FIVE — KUROSAWA, MIZOGUCHI, OZU, YANAGIMACHI & KORE-EDA: HIGH AND LOW

A group of men try to find kidnappers in Akira Kurosawa’s tense noir / police procedural

HIGH AND LOW (TENGOKU TO JIGOKU) (Akira Kurosawa, 1963)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, October 18, $12, 7:00
Series runs monthly through February
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

On the verge of being forced out of the company he has dedicated his life to, National Shoes executive Kingo Gondo’s (Toshirō Mifune) life is thrown into further disarray when kidnappers claim to have taken his son, Jun (Toshio Egi), and are demanding a huge ransom for his safe return. But when Gondo discovers that they have mistakenly grabbed Shinichi (Masahiko Shimazu), the son of his chauffeur, Aoki (Yutaka Sada), he at first refuses to pay. But at the insistence of his wife (Kyogo Kagawa), the begging of Aoki, and the advice of police inspector Taguchi (Kenjiro Ishiyama), he reconsiders his decision, setting in motion a riveting police procedural that is filled with tense emotion. Loosely based on Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct novel King’s Ransom, Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low is divided into two primary sections: the first half takes place in Gondo’s luxury home, orchestrated like a stage play as the characters are developed and the plan takes hold. The second part of the film follows the police, under the leadership of Chief Detective Tokura (Tatsuya Nakadai), as they hit the streets of the seedier side of Yokohama in search of the kidnappers. Known in Japan as Tengoku to Jigoku, which translates as Heaven and Hell, High and Low is an expert noir, a subtle masterpiece that tackles numerous socioeconomic and cultural issues as Gondo weighs the fate of his business against the fate of a small child; it all manages to feel as fresh and relevant today as it probably did back in the ’60s.

Kingo Gondo (Toshirō Mifune) has some tough decisions to make in HIGH AND LOW

High and Low is screening on October 18 at 7:00 at Japan Society, kicking off the first section of the monthly tribute series “Richie’s Fantastic Five: Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, Ozu, Yanagimachi & Kore-eda,” which honors Ohio-born writer, critic, scholar, curator, and filmmaker Donald Richie, who died in February at the age of eighty-eight. Richie was a tireless champion of Japanese culture and, particularly, cinema, and the series features six works by five of his favorite directors. Richie called High and Low, which will be introduced by series curator Kyoko Hirano and followed by a reception, “a morality play in the form of an exciting thriller. A self-made man (Mifune) is ruined by a jealous nobody ([Tsutomu] Yamazaki in his first important screen role) but goes on to do the right thing and in the end the camera observes more similarities than differences between the two. With a memorable mid-film climax on a high-speed bullet-train.” The series continues in November with Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Life of Oharu, in December with Yasujiro Ozu’s Late Autumn (screening on Ozu’s birthday, which will also mark the fiftieth anniversary of his death), in January with Mitsuo Yanagimachi’s Himatsuri, and in February with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life, appropriately on the one-year anniversary of Richie’s passing. “Thanks to Richie,” Hirano explained in a statement about the festival, “the world knows the greatness of Japanese cinema.”

WALLS AND BRIDGES — THE ANIMAL VISION: IN CONNECTION WITH THE DRAWING CENTER EXHIBIT “ALEXIS ROCKMAN: DRAWINGS FROM ‘LIFE OF PI’”

Alexis Rockman will discuss his fantastical creations he made, such as the above watercolor, for Ang Lee’s LIFE OF PI in special Walls and Bridges program

The Drawing Center
35 Wooster St. between Grand & Broome Sts.
Thursday, October 17, free, 6:30
www.wallsandbridges.net
www.drawingcenter.org

When making his 2012 hit film Life of Pi, director Ang Lee turned to artist Alexis Rockman to create aquatic species for the central part of the narrative, which takes place on the open sea. Rockman’s watercolor drawings are now on view at the Drawing Center, which is the site for the special October 17 program “The Animal Vision,” part of the third annual Franco-American Walls and Bridges festival. New York native Rockman will discuss his hallucinatory work with Belgian philosopher and ethologist Vinciane Despret; the event will be hosted by Rice University English professor Cary Wolfe (Animal Rites: American Culture, the Discourse of Species, and Posthumanist Theory). Rockman’s “Drawings from Life of Pi” continues at the Drawing Center through November 3; in addition, Rockman’s “Rubicon,” consisting of such new paintings as the large-scale “Bronx Zoo” and “Gowanus,” which depict a heavily detailed, surreal animal world, are on view through November 2 at Sperone Westwater. The ten-day Walls and Bridges festival also includes the multimedia presentation “Unrest” October 18 at the Whitney, featuring the live performance “Meurtrière” by Philippe Grandrieux, a screening of Grandrieux’s film White Epilepsy, and a discussion with Grandrieux, Avital Ronell, and Lynne Tillman; “City Shapes,” in which French geographer Michel Lussault and American photographer Matthew Pillsbury discuss the changing urban environment, October 19 at the Aperture Gallery; and the Oh! Oui… company’s music and theater production Stille Nacht October 20 at the Invisible Dog Art Center.

CMJ 2013: DAY ONE

The CMJ Music Marathon begins on October 15, kicking off five days of live music, panel discussions, talks, and other special events. Below are our suggestions for the first day, including the annual New Zealand showcase, Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, the Gutter Twins), and a gig by the recently reunited Bongos, whose “Numbers with Wings” appears above, from the Maxwell’s farewell concert.

“How to Survive as a Musician in 2013,” with Mike Fordham, Seth Kallen, Travis Morrison, Josh Roth, and Joe Vesayaporn, NYU Kimmel Center, room 905/907, 12:30

What Blog?!: Owel, 1:00; Traumahelikopter, 1:45; Conjjjecture, 2:30; the Box Tiger, 3:15; Beach Day, 4:00; Ghost Wave, 4:45; Milagres, 5:30; Pianos, 158 Ludlow St.

Niall Connolly, 2:00, Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen St.

The Outlet Collective: Ula Ruth, 4:30; Whale Belly, 5:10; Poory Remy, 5:50; Tam Lin, 6:30; Cold Blood Club, 7:10, Bowery Electric, 327 Bowery

NZ@CMJ: Tiny Ruins, 6:00; Black City Lights, 6:35; Eden Mulholland, 7:10; Streets of Laredo, 7:45; Ghost Wave, 8:20, (le) poisson rouge, 158 Bleecker St.

Oh My Rockness: Big Ups, 7:00; Greys, 8:00; Ovlov, 9:00; PUP, 10:00; Kirin J Callinan, 11:00; Hunters, 12 midnight, Cameo Gallery, 93 North Sixth St.

The Bongos, 8:00, the Living Room, 54 Ludlow St.

Mark Lanegan, 9:45, Gramercy Theater, 127 East 23rd St.

Banners CMJ Party: Bored Nothing, 9:00; Total Slacker, 9:15; Honduras, 9:45; Spires, 10:00; How Sad, 10:30, Pianos, 158 Ludlow St.

Radical Dads, 12 midnight, Muchmore, 2 Havermeyer St.

SELECTED SHORTS: THE STORIES OF JOHN UPDIKE

Symphony Space, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Wednesday, October 16, $28, 7:30
212-864-5400
www.symphonyspace.org

Winner of multiple Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Critics Circle Awards, National Book Awards, O. Henry Prizes, and others, literary master John Updike was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, so it is appropriate that a group of actors and writers will be paying tribute to him by reading from his work at the latest edition of Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts series. (We know that the town in Pennsylvania is pronounced differently from the verb, but we couldn’t help ourselves.) The event will feature Tony Kushner, Sally Field, Alec Baldwin, Jane Kaczmarek, and others introducing and/or reading from the new eight-hundred-page Updike: Collected Early Stories (Library of America, September 2013, $24.49), comprising 102 stories published between 1953 and 1975, 80 of which first appeared in The New Yorker. Selected Shorts continues November 6 with Colum McCann, Gabriel Byrne, Terry Tempest, Tea Obreht, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and others presenting stories from the new collection The Book of Men.

THE RATIONALIST: ALAN ALDA AS HAWKEYE PIERCE IN MAS*H

Alan Alda will sit down for an in-depth conversation about his role in M*A*S*H at the Museum of the Moving Image

ICONIC CHARACTERS OF COMEDY: A CONVERSATION WITH ALAN ALDA MODERATED BY JEFF GREENFIELD
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Tuesday, October 15, $25, 7:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.comedyhalloffame.com

From 1972 to 1983, Larry Gelbart’s M*A*S*H television series ran on CBS, garnering fourteen Emmys as it explored the nature of war, politics, and the military industrial complex through the daily life of the men and women of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War. The show’s centerpiece was Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce, played by Alan Alda, taking on the role originally played by Donald Sutherland in Robert Altman’s Oscar-nominated 1970 film. Surrounded by such characters as Hot Lips Houlihan (Loretta Swit), Max Klinger (Jamie Farr), Trapper John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers), Henry Blake (McLean Stevenson), Frank “Ferret Face” Burns (Larry Linville), B. J. Hunnicut (Mike Farrell), Sherman Potter (Harry Morgan), Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers), Radar O’Reilly (Gary Burghoff), and Father Mulcahy (William Christopher), expert surgeon Pierce regularly took on the establishment, fighting against absurd rules and regulations while trying to save lives — and score with as many nurses as possible. On October 15, Alda, who won five Emmys for M*A*S*H — three for acting, one for writing, and one for directing — will sit down with moderator Jeff Greenfield at the Museum of the Moving Image for “The Rationalist: Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H,” an in-depth conversation copresented with the Comedy Hall of Fame, the first installment of the new series “Iconic Characters of Comedy.”