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

THE WORKS — KAREN BLACK: EASY RIDER

Dennis Hopper, Peter Fonda, and Jack Nicholson play a trio who get their motor running and head out on the highway in EASY RIDER

EASY RIDER (Dennis Hopper, 1968)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
April 5-6, 12:10 am
718-384-3980
www.nitehawkcinema.com

No mere relic of the late 1960s counterculture movement, Easy Rider still holds up as one of the truly great road movies, inviting audiences to climb on board as two peace-loving souls search for freedom on the highways and byways of the good ol’ U.S. of A. Named after a pair of famous western gunslingers, Wyatt (producer and cowriter Peter Fonda), as in Earp, and Billy (director and cowriter Dennis Hopper), as in “the Kid,” make some fast cash by selling coke to a fancy connection (Phil Spector!), then take off on their souped-up bikes, determined to make it to New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras. Along the way, they break bread with a rancher (Warren Finnerty) and his family, hang out in a hippie commune, pick up small-town alcoholic lawyer George Hanson (an Oscar-nominated Jack Nicholson), don’t get served in a diner, and eventually hook up with friendly prostitutes Karen (Karen Black) and Mary (Toni Basil) in the Big Easy. “You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can’t understand what’s gone wrong with it,” George says to Billy as they start discussing the concept and reality of freedom. “Oh, yeah, that’s right. That’s what it’s all about, all right. But talkin’ about it and bein’ it, that’s two different things. I mean, it’s real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don’t ever tell anybody that they’re not free, ’cause then they’re gonna get real busy killin’ and maimin’ to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they’re gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it’s gonna scare ’em.” The always calm Wyatt, who is also known as Captain America, and the nervous and jumpy Billy make one of cinema’s coolest duos ever as they personally experience the radical changes going on in the country, leading to a tragic conclusion. The Academy Award–nominated script, written with Terry Southern, remains fresh and relevant as it examines American capitalism and democracy in a way that is still debated today. And the soundtrack — well, it virtually defined the era, featuring such songs as Steppenwolf’s “The Pusher” and “Born to Be Wild,” Jimi Hendrix’s “If 6 Was 9,” the Electric Prunes’ “I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night),” the Chambers Brothers’ “Time Has Come Today,” Thunderclap Newman’s “Something in the Air,” and Roger McGuinn’s “Ballad of Easy Rider.”

Nitehawk Cinema kicks off Karen Black festival with EASY RIDER

Easy Rider, which also was named Best First Work at Cannes in 1969, is screening just past midnight on April 5 & 6 as part of Nitehawk Cinema’s “The Works” series focusing on otherworldly actress and goddess Karen Black, the sexy, cross-eyed star of such films as Nashville, The Great Gatsby, Invaders from Mars, and the unforgettable Trilogy of Terror. Sean Young, who starred with Black in 1998’s Men, will introduce the Friday-night show, and both screenings will include a pretaped Q&A with Black about Easy Rider. The Nitehawk mini-retrospective continues with Dan Curtis’s Burnt Offerings (April 12-13; beware the chauffeur), Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces (May 3-4), Alfred Hitchcock’s Family Plot (May 17-18), Jack Smight’s Airport 1975 (May 31 – June 1), and John Schlesinger’s The Day of the Locust (June 14-15).

SCOTLAND WEEK 2013

David Eustace’s captivating “Highland Heart” exhibit will be on view at Hudson Studios April 5-7 (© David Eustace)

SCOTLAND WEEK / TARTAN WEEK
Multiple venues
Through April 21
www.scotland.org
www.scotlandshop.com

The sixth annual Scotland Week, also known as Tartan Week, kicks into high gear this weekend, celebrating Scottish art and culture with a diverse group of events taking place all over the city. On Friday, former minesweeper and prison guard David Eustace will unveil a new collection of photographs, “Highland Heart,” stunning black-and-white images of the Western Islands, at Hudson Studios in Chelsea. On Saturday morning at 8:00, some ten thousand people are expected to take part in the 10K Scotland Run in Central Park, followed by the Kirkin o’ the Tartan and Pre-Parade Brunch at the Church of Our Saviour and the Tartan Day Parade, which will make its way up Sixth Ave. from Forty-Fifth to Fifty-Fifth Sts. with bagpipers, Scottish clans, music groups, Scottish terriers, and more. On Saturday night, the Caledonia Collective at Webster Hall will consist of Stanley Odd, Rachel Sermanni with Louis Abbott of Admiral Fallow, and Breabach. Stanley Odd will also share a bill with the View Saturday night at the Knitting Factory and Sunday night at Bowery Ballroom. On April 7, Alan Cumming begins a three-month Broadway run starring as the title character in the one-man National Theatre of Scotland production of Macbeth, set in a mental ward. On April 8, Scottish fashion will be on display at “From Scotland with Love: The Scottish Lion Meets the Asian Dragon,” a cocktail party and fashion show at Stage 48. On April 9, Ian Gow, curator of the National Trust for Scotland, will receive the Great Scot Award at the black-tie “Celebration of Scotland’s Treasures” dinner at the Metropolitan Club. On April 12, Ken Loach’s Cannes Jury Prize winner The Angels’ Share opens at Lincoln Plaza and the Landmark Sunshine. And on April 14, the Scottish Ensemble, a string orchestra highlighted by trumpeter Alison Balsom, will perform at Town Hall with a program that includes the U.S. premiere of James MacMillan’s “Seraph.” A h-uile la sona dhuibh ’s gun la idir dona dhuibh!

THE LIFE OF FILM — CELEBRATING A DECADE OF REVERSE SHOT: THE HEADLESS WOMAN

María Onetto is lost deep in thought through most of Lucrecia Martel’s Argentine drama

THE HEADLESS WOMAN (LA MUJER SIN CABEZA) (Lucrecia Martel, 2008)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Saturday, April 6, free with museum admission, 6:00
Series runs April 4-7
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.strandreleasing.com

Inspired by nightmares she has in which she commits murder, Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless Woman details a woman’s emotional and psychological reaction after having possibly killed someone. María Onetto gives a mesmerizingly cool, distant performance as Veronica, a middle-aged, upper-class wife and mother whose biggest worry appears to be the turtles that have infested the new pool built behind a veterinary office. But one afternoon, while out driving carelessly in her Mercedes along a twisting, barren road, she hits something. Not sure if it was a child, an adult, or an animal, she decides to continue on, telling no one what she has done. But when a poor, local boy goes missing, she begins to suspect that she might have killed him. An intriguing mix of Buñuel’s class-consciousness and Poe’s flair for suspense, The Headless Woman is an unusual kind of murder mystery. In Veronica, Argentine writer-director Martel (La Cienaga, The Holy Girl) has created a compelling protagonist/villain, played with expert calm and faraway eyes by Onetto.

The Headless Woman is screening April 6 at 6:00 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image series “The Life of Film: Celebrating a Decade of Reverse Shot,” featuring four days of screenings, Q&As, and a panel discussion paying tribute to the tenth anniversary of the quarterly online film magazine founded by editors Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert (who curated this series) and writers Erik Syngle and Neal Block. In issue thirty-two, Eric Hynes reviewed The Headless Woman, writing, “In the films of Lucrecia Martel you’re challenged to pay attention well before you’re ready, to play catch-up, figuring out who’s related to whom and what is relevant. But as with the protagonist’s subsequent disorientation, your heightened yet bewildered state isn’t a set-up or effect — it’s the point. Martel sharpens your senses — and celebrates and rewards them — while compelling you to distrust them.” The screening will be introduced by Chris Wisniewski, Reverse Shot contributor and Moving Image deputy director for education and visitor experience. The series runs April 4-7, also presenting Shane Carruth’s Primer (with the director present), a preview screening of Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder, Miguel Gomes’s The Face You Deserve, Douglas Gordon and Phillippe Parreno’s Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (introduced by Hynes and followed by a roundtable discussion), and “Deborah Stratman and Dani Leventhal: Avant-Garde Voices,” featuring Stratman’s O’er the Land and Leventhal’s Draft 9 and Shayne’s Rectangle (introduced by Genevieve Yue).

THE LIFE OF FILM — CELEBRATING A DECADE OF REVERSE SHOT: PRIMER

Shane Carruth’s PRIMER kicks off Reverse Shot series at Museum of the Moving Image

PRIMER (Shane Carruth, 2004)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Thursday, April 4, $20, 7:00
Series runs April 4-7
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
www.erbpfilm.com

Former engineer and first-time filmmaker Shane Carruth wrote, directed, edited, scored, and stars in Primer, an utterly confusing, confounding, and ultimately uninvolving tale of two engineers (Carruth and David Sullivan) who accidentally develop a machine that breaks through the time-space continuum and can create doubles of — well, it’s better not to get too specific, because we’re not really sure what it’s all about and what really happens. That can sometimes be a good thing, but not this time around, we’re afraid. Carruth, who made the film for a mere seven grand, is purposefully vague, but it’s to his own detriment, resulting in a story that plays more like an episode of a mediocre sci-fi series than the intriguing, unique, imaginative movie he wanted to make, even if it did win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Carruth wouldn’t make another film for nine years, the romantic thriller Upstream Color, which he wrote, directed, produced, and stars in and opens in New York City on April 5. Primer kicks off the Museum of the Moving Image series “The Life of Film: Celebrating a Decade of Reverse Shot” on April 4, with Carruth on hand to talk about his work. The festival consists of four days of screenings, Q&As, and a panel discussion paying tribute to the tenth anniversary of the quarterly online film magazine founded by editors Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert (who curated this series) and writers Erik Syngle and Neal Block. We might not have cared much for Primer, but Reverse Shot’s Matthew Plouffe had this to say about it in the autumn 2004 issue: “Irrespective of Shane Carruth’s heroic story or the film’s potential effect on American cinema, Primer ranks among the brightest beacons of uncompromised creative light to hit the silver screens of Utah in recent history. It’s hard to believe. The posh festival that has steadily spiraled into a mire of mediocrity over the last decade finally got it right. Shane Carruth deserves every accolade thrown his way, and if Primer signals what we’ve got to look forward to, his Sundance honors won’t be the last.”

BEN KATCHOR: HAND-DRYING IN AMERICA AND OTHER STORIES

“Cole Pepser’s Bedroom” is one of many marvelous Ben Katchor strips that combine unique, old-fashioned characters and a changing consumer culture amid urban environments (© 2013 by Ben Katchor)

HAND-DRYING IN AMERICA AND OTHER STORIES (Pantheon, March 2013, $29.95)
Monday, April 1, NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium, Parsons the New School, 2 West 13th St., Bark Room, 7:00
Saturday, April 6, MoCCA Arts Festival, 69th Regiment Armory, 68 Lexington Ave. at 26th St. festival admission $12-$15
Monday, April 15, Greenlight Bookstore, 686 Fulton St., Brooklyn, free, 7:30
www.katchor.com

In a March 2011 twi-ny talk, we asked Brooklyn-born cartoonist Ben Katchor whether he was afraid the physical book might be disappearing from the American landscape, and he responded, “Physical books will be around for a long time — I see them used as window and door props, and as structures to support laptop computers.” At that time, Katchor was promoting his first book in more than ten years, the graphic novel The Cardboard Valise, which came with a handle so you could carry it like a piece of luggage. For his latest book, Hand-Drying in America and Other Stories, Katchor has created an even larger, heavier hardcover without the handle, making it almost impossible to carry around, but it is no mere doorstop. Hand-Drying is a marvelous collection of more than 150 strips Katchor has drawn for Metropolis magazine, inventive and funny cartoons filled with the trademark old-fashioned characters, absurdist situations, and unusual city environments that Katchor has been detailing for several decades in such previous books as Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban Decay, The Jew of New York, and Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: The Beauty Supply District. In Hand-Drying, Katchor continues his exploration of disappearing elements of modern urban living, from architecture and design to advertising and consumer products — including books.

In the front endpaper, investigative reporter Josef Fuss researches the severe environmental costs involved in the publishing process: “Each book is a minor ecological disaster,” he says to himself. In “The Tragic History of the Oversized Magazine,” Katchor is referencing Hand-Drying itself, tracing the development of large-scale magazines, explaining, “Their destiny is linked to the Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, the porterhouse steak, the zoot suit and other material excesses of history.” In the last word bubble, a man holds a magazine that nearly matches his own size, proclaiming, “Wow, look at this spread!” Readers will be repeating those words over and over as they turn the pages of Hand-Drying, which features such other knockout tales as “Open House Season,” which follows people who are obsessed with visiting open houses even though they are not looking for a new apartment; “The Committee for Architectural Neglect,” in which a group of officials “see no reason for a building to relive its glorious past”; “2nd Thought Mail,” in which a company sets up a ten-day waiting period in case letter writers don’t want to send that missive after all (a fabulous take on that feeling one gets when instantly regretting sending an e-mail that can’t be recalled); and “Contiguous Control,” in which a man ends up in the hospital after refusing to use the remote control. “Who turns the pages of your books?” he asks his son.

But Katchor is no mere crank complaining of the failings of our modern, techno-driven, instant-gratification society, lamenting the passing of the days of getting up and walking to the television set to change the channel, friendly gas-station attendants who would engage customers in small talk while working the pump, and drying one’s hands with paper towels in rest rooms instead of having to use loud, abrasive hand-drying machines. Instead, he celebrates the unique and unusual in the past, present, and future, visualizing a fascinating societal underground that still exists in the nooks and crannies of our daily existence. In the back endpapers, freelance Chinese journalist Fallo Yank disputes Fuss’s findings, determining that “literary and coffee-table books account for an insignificant portion of the world’s print pollution,” that the real problem is the content of the books, including “a deluxe full-color edition of an esoteric literary comic strip.” Hand-Drying in America is no mere window or door prop but rather an endlessly entertaining and extremely funny and insightful look at human nature and our changing world as only Katchor can depict it. The self-deprecating cartoonist will be participating in a conversation with Gil Roth, host of “The Virtual Memories Show,” at the thirty-eighth meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium on April 1 at 7:30 at Parsons the New School, will be signing copies of his books at the Pantheon booth at the MoCCA Arts Festival on April 6 at the 69th Regiment Armory, and will take part in an illustrated discussion with writer Nicholas Dawidoff at the Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn on April 15 at 7:30.

HEARD•NY: NICK CAVE

Nick Cave’s “Heard•NY” transforms Vanderbilt Hall into a performance petting zoo (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Grand Central Terminal, Vanderbilt Hall
89 East 42nd St. between Lexington and Vanderbilt
Daily crossings at 11:00 and 2:00, tours at 3:30 through March 31
www.creativetime.org
heard•ny rehearsal slideshow
heard•ny performance slideshow

Artist Nick Cave has transformed Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall into a unique and wonderful petting zoo like none other. The Missouri-based Cave, who makes colorful, life-size Soundsuits out of found and recycled materials, has created a menagerie of exotic horses for “Heard•NY,” which continues as part of GCT’s centennial celebration through March 31. On each roped-in side of Vanderbilt Hall, Cave has placed fifteen horses on saw horses. Each day at 11:00 and 2:00, the saw horses are removed and student dancers from the Ailey School march into the area and get inside the horse suits, two dancers per animal. They then parade around the periphery of the rectangle, allowing onlookers to take photographs and to pet them, before commencing a dance choreographed by Cave and William Gill, set to music played by a harpist and a percussionist. The horses stomp their hooves, proudly lift their heads, kick out, and form trios, then meet at the center, where the dancer in the back of the animal separates from the front, forming a collection of multicolored cheerleaders, evoking psychedelic Cousin Itts, who spin around, fall to the ground, and then get back inside their respective horses and eventually return the Soundsuits to their saw horse, although they no longer look like costumes but living and breathing horses taking a break until the next performance. It’s a great deal of fun, a playful riff not only on the perpetually busy and crowded Grand Central Terminal — where so many people are always in a rush, never stopping to enjoy the wonders around them — but also the concept of zoos themselves, where animals are put on display for the enjoyment of humans. Show up about a half hour before showtime to get a good spot, because it fills up quickly and often reaches capacity; one of the four sides of each corral is reserved for children so kids don’t have to compete with adults for a better view. Each performance, which is free, takes about twenty to twenty-five minutes and is an absolute charmer not to be missed.

ROOM 237

A handful of obsessed theorists share their rather unique takes on THE SHINING in fun and fascinating ROOM 237 documentary

ROOM 237 (Rodney Ascher, 2012)
IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at Third St., 212-924-7771
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, 144 West 65th St. between Broadway, 212-757-2280
Opens Friday, March 29
www.room237movie.com

The next time you watch Stanley Kubrick’s cult classic horror flick, The Shining, you’re gonna want to put on a tinfoil hat while drinking your soda and munching on popcorn after seeing Rodney Ascher’s Room 237, an extremely entertaining study of obsession, the love of movies, and people with a little too much time on their hands. A marvelous exploration of how we watch and individually interpret movies, Room 237 allows a handful of wild theorists to deconstruct and reconstruct Kubrick’s widely examined film, based on Stephen King’s 1975 bestselling novel. From the sweeping opening helicopter shot to the final zoom on a black-and-white photograph, four men and one woman share their deeply researched insight into what virtually every moment of Kubrick’s frightening tale of a writer (Jack Nicholson) and his wife (Shelley Duvall) and son (Danny Lloyd) taking care of a Colorado mountain hotel during the off-season is really about. But these are not just plain nuts; among them is an award-winning journalist, an accomplished historian, a published playwright, and a musician and WFMU deejay. Ascher (The S from Hell) never shows the commentators, instead allowing them to verbally describe their theories while he plays the relevant clips, accompanied by brief shots from all of Kubrick’s films (Dr. Strangelove, Full Metal Jacket, Paths of Glory, A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, etc.) and other movies and television programs that cleverly relate to the storytelling. Jay Weidner believes that The Shining is Kubrick’s apology for having directed the faked Apollo 11 moon landing, Bill Blakemore thinks it’s about the genocide of the American Indians, Geoffrey Cocks is sure it’s about the Holocaust, and Juli Kearns finds it to be about the mythical Minotaur; Kearns also has generated a three-dimensional map of the Overlook Hotel to delve into the impossible spatial relationships perpetrated by Kubrick, always, she claims, with a very specific reason. Perhaps the most creative of the subjects is John Fell Ryan, who insists that the film was meant to be seen both forward and backward — at the same time. One of the “leading” Shining explorers, Kevin McLeod, aka “mstrmnd,” declined to appear in the film, but some of his views are included as well. While many of the theories will leave you scratching your head or laughing hysterically, you’re almost sure to start giving credence to a few, so beware; it’s a natural tendency of the human brain to try to detect patterns in things, and in this case the work has already been done for you. But one thing is certainly true: After watching Room 237, you’ll never be able to look at The Shining the same way again. Room 237 opens March 29 at the IFC Center and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, with Ascher and producer Tim Kirk going back and forth between the two venues on Friday and Saturday for various Q&As and introductions.