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

HAPPINESS IS . . . THE 400 BLOWS

Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) can’t seem to stay away from trouble in François Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS

CABARET CINEMA: THE 400 BLOWS (LES QUATRE CENTS COUPS) (François Truffaut, 1959)
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, October 26, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org

“They won’t be happy you’re missing school like this,” a man tells fourteen-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud as he’s auditioning for the part of Antoine Doinel in François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows. “It doesn’t matter, as long as I’m happy,” Léaud responds. Screening on October 26 as part of the Rubin Museum Cabaret Cinema series “Happiness Is . . . ,” where it will be introduced by Columbia professor and Truffaut expert Annette Insdorf, The 400 Blows marked the first of five films, including one short, in which Léaud played the iconic character, as audiences around the world followed his search for happiness. In The 400 Blows, Doinel is a twelve-year-old kid who loves Balzac, has never seen the ocean, and is always getting into trouble with his parents, who treat him more like a problem than a son. He is clearly very smart, but he does poorly in school, where he is harassed by his teacher (Guy Decomble). One day when he decides to play hooky, he catches his mother (Claire Maurier) kissing another man, and instead of telling his father (Albert Rémy), he runs away from home, moving in with his friend René (Patrick Auffay), setting off a series of events that lead to a whole lot more trouble and an unforgettable final shot. The 400 Blows is one of the most intelligent films ever made about adolescence, a tender, honest portrayal of a mischievous kid who just wants to be understood. Léaud gives a wonderfully nuanced performance that makes Antoine a uniquely believable and sympathetic character even when he is making some very bad choices. The film is also about escape of all kinds, beginning and ending with the camera racing away alongside Jean Constantin’s glorious score. The Adventures of Antoine Doinel series continues with 1962’s Antoine and Colette, 1968’s Stolen Kisses, 1970’s Bed and Board, and 1979’s Love on the Run, while “Happiness is . . .” continues through December 28 with such films as Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers, Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca, and George Cukor’s Camille, held in conjunction with the larger Rubin Museum program “Happy Talk.”

ROD STEWART

Barnes & Noble
555 Fifth Ave. at 46th St.
Tuesday, October 23, free, 5:30
212-697-3048
www.randomhouse.com
www.rodstewart.com

“Obviously I was a mistake,” rock legend Rod Stewart writes in the beginning of his brand-new tome, Rod: The Autobiography (Crown, October 23, 2012, $27). But it’s no mistake that Stewart is one of the greatest performers in rock-and-roll history, having released such hit albums as Gasoline Alley, Every Picture Tells a Story, Blondes Have More Fun, Tonight I’m Yours, It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook, and others over the course of a career that has spanned more than fifty years. In his book — which joins such other recent rock-star tell-alls as Keith Richards’s Life, Neil Young’s Waging Heavy Peace, and Pete Townshend’s Who I Am, Stewart shares tales of his youth, his friendships with the likes of Elton John and Ronnie Wood, his numerous sexual relationships, and the true story behind an ugly rumor that has followed him around for decades. “No one ever forgets their first view of Manhattan, rising into the sky ahead of them, nor their first drive up its concrete canyons,” he writes about his first trip to New York City, with Ron Wood. “Woody and I were in ecstasy – possibly even silenced momentarily, gawping at the scale of it all.” Rod the Mod has returned to New York City many times since then, selling out Madison Square Garden and other venues, and he will be back in town on October 23, making his only NYC literary appearance at 5:30 at the Fifth Ave. Barnes & Noble at 46th St., signing copies of Rod; there is a three-book maximum, and he will not be signing any other memorabilia. In addition, photography is not allowed once patrons approach the table, so you will not be able to take a posed picture with him. But how often do you get to be thisclose to the man behind “Maggie May,” “Hot Leg,” “Mandolin Wind,” “(I Know) I’m Losing You,” “Young Turks,” and “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?”

EGON SCHIELE’S WOMEN

Galerie St. Etienne
24 West 57th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Tuesday, October 23, free, 6:00 – 8:00
Exhibition runs October 23 – December 28 (Tuesday-Saturday), free
212-245-6734
www.gseart.com
www.randomhouse.de

Over the last several years, there has been a heightened interest in the always-popular and well-regarded Austrian artist Egon Schiele. In 2010, John Kelly gave the final performance of his award-winning theater piece Pass the Blutwurst, Bitte, which dealt with Schiele’s female muses, and one of the highlights of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival was Andrew Shea’s Portrait of Wally, a gripping documentary about the ownership of Schiele’s portrait of mistress Walburga “Wally” Neuzil. Now Schiele expert Jane Kallir, the codirector of Midtown’s Galerie St. Etienne, which boasts one of the largest collections of works by the artist, has written Egon Schiele’s Women, (Prestel, October 25, 2012, $80), a gorgeous examination of the women in Schiele’s life and on his canvases, placing his work in context of the history of Austrian art and evolving views on women’s freedom and sexuality. Kallir, who appears in Portrait of Wally, looks at Schiele’s relationship with his mother, his sister, various models, and his wife and sister-in-law. The book boasts more than 250 images, including dozens and dozens of splendid reproductions of paintings and drawings by Schiele (not limited to female subjects but also including glorious self-portraits and male figures) as well as works by Oskar Kokoschka, Gustave Klimt, Alfred Kubin, and Edvard Munch, archival photographs, a timeline, a bibliography, and an extensive index. In conjunction with the publication of the book, Galerie St. Etienne is opening the companion exhibit “Egon Schiele’s Women,” consisting of more than four dozen works by Schiele. “While Schiele, in his personal life, was hardly a feminist, in his art he freed women from the controlling male narrative that had heretofore shaped the interpretive discourse,” the exhibition essay explains. “His nudes, in particular, not only challenged the taboos of his time, but presaged the more fluid, open-ended approach to gender and sexuality that prevails today.” Kallir will be at the opening-night celebration of the exhibit, giving a gallery talk and signing copies of the book at 7:00. In addition, she will be at the American Jewish Historical Society on October 22 at 6:30 ($15), participating in the “Culture Brokers: Jews as Art Dealers and Collectors” panel discussion with Emily Bilski and Charles Dellheim.

HAPPINESS IS . . . 8½

Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is in a bit of a personal and professional crisis in Fellini masterpiece “8½”

CABARET CINEMA: 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th St. at Seventh Ave.
Friday, October 19, free with $7 bar minimum, 9:30
212-620-5000
www.rmanyc.org

“Your eminence, I am not happy,” Guido (Marcello Mastroianni) tells the cardinal (Tito Masini) halfway through Federico Fellini’s self-reflexive masterpiece 8½. “Why should you be happy?” the cardinal responds. “That is not your task in life. Who said we were put on this earth to be happy?” Well, film makes people happy, and it’s because of works such as 8½, which will be screening October 19 as part of the Rubin Museum Cabaret Cinema series “Happiness is . . .” and will be introduced by Mexican-born, New York-based cartoonist Felipe Galindo. Fellini’s Oscar-winning eighth-and-a-half movie is a sensational self-examination of film and fame, a hysterically funny, surreal story of a famous Italian auteur who finds his life and career in need of a major overhaul. Mastroianni is magnificent as Guido Anselmi, a man in a personal and professional crisis who has gone to a healing spa for some much-needed relaxation, but he doesn’t get any as he is continually harassed by producers, screenwriters, would-be actresses, and various other oddball hangers-on. He also has to deal both with his mistress, Carla (Sandra Milo), who is quite a handful, as well as his wife, Luisa (Anouk Aimée), who is losing patience with his lies. Trapped in a strange world of his own creation, Guido has dreams where he flies over claustrophobic traffic and makes out with his dead mother, and his next film involves a spaceship; it doesn’t take a psychiatrist to figure out the many inner demons that are haunting him. Marvelously shot by Gianni Di Venanzo in black-and-white, scored with a vast sense of humor by Nino Rota, and featuring some of the most amazing hats ever seen on film — costume designer Piero Gherardi won an Oscar for all the great dresses and chapeaux — 8½ is an endlessly fascinating and wildly entertaining exploration of the creative process and the bizarre world of filmmaking itself. And after seeing 8½, you’ll appreciate Woody Allen’s 1980 homage, Stardust Memories, a whole lot more. “Happiness is . . .” continues through December 28 with such other Allen favorites as Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers, Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca, and George Cukor’s Camille, held in conjunction with the larger Rubin Museum program “Happy Talk.”

YOGAWOMAN

YOGAWOMAN examines the empowering qualities of of yoga and its positive effects on the female life cycle

YOGAWOMAN (Kate Clare McIntyre & Saraswati Clere, 2011)
Angelika Film Center
18 West Houston St. at Mercer St.
Opens Friday, October 19
www.yogawoman.tv
www.angelikafilmcenter.com

Yoga has come a long way, baby, as shown in the award-winning documentary Yogawoman. Unfortunately, however, this eighty-four-minute look at the transition of the art and practice of yoga from a male-exclusive method of finding inner peace to a woman-dominated community is a self-congratulatory infomercial that basically preaches to the converted. Dryly narrated by yoga enthusiast Annette Bening, who sounds like she had something better to do, Yogawoman is a family affair, written and directed by Kate McIntyre Clere (A Hard Place, Gaining Ground) and her sister Saraswati Clere and produced and photographed by Kate’s husband, Michael McIntyre. The film portrays the yoga world — indeed, it’s an international affair, visiting Japan, Australia, India, Germany, Kenya, and the UK in addition to various cities in the US (primarily New York and San Francisco) — as a tight-knit collection of women who use yoga not only for physical exercise and easing the mind but to play a key role in the overall life cycle, having positive effects on menstruation, sexuality, pregnancy, eating habits, the aging process, and battling cancer. Among the parade of talking heads who speak while sitting in front of the same blue background are Seane Corn, Angela Farmer, Cyndi Lee, Tari Prinster, and Patricia Walden, superstars in the field who sing the praises of the ever-growing discipline, but it all comes off as New Agey and self-important. There’s no doubt that yoga is beneficial and empowering in so many ways, but Yogawoman sells it like it’s a magic elixir that will cure all of your — and this troubled world’s — ills. Yogawoman opens October 19 at the Angelika; the filmmakers and various women who appear in the movie will participate in Q&A sessions following the screenings at 7:00 on Friday and Saturday and 3:00 on Sunday.

DOOMSDAY FILM FESTIVAL & SYMPOSIUM

Hajime Sato’s GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL sees dark days ahead

92YTribeca
200 Hudson St. at Canal St.
October 19-21, $12
212-415-5500
www.92y.org
www.doomsdayfilmfest.com

Despite the endless proclamations by a Facebook friend of ours that the world was going to end on September 21, 2012, it seems that we’re still here. But that doesn’t mean the end won’t eventually come, though hopefully not as predicted by the works that make up the annual Doomsday Film Festival & Symposium, running at 92YTribeca October 19-21. The three-day gathering promises to “explore our collective fascination with the apocalypse in film, art, and culture,” beginning with a group art show curated by Jenny He that looks at the end of days, with works by Rachel Abrams, Caitlin Bates, Holly Kempf, Allicette Torres, and others. The festival opens Friday night at 7:30 with Aaron D. Guadamuz’s short Yuichi: The Beginning of the End and Hajime Sato’s 1968 low-budget extraterrestrial mélange Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell, followed by a panel discussion focusing on Japan and the apocalypse with Grady Hendrix, Travis Crawford, and Linda Hoaglund, moderated by Marc Walkow. (In addition, as part of 92YTribeca’s Friday Night Dinner series, Rabbi-in-Residence Dan Ain and historian Stéphane Gerson will discuss “Nostradamus and Prophecies of Doom” at 7:00, with wine, cocktails, and a meal prepared by chef Russell Moss.) At 10:00, John Boorman’s psychotic 1974 fantasy, Zardoz, starring a naked Sean Connery, will be preceded by trivia from copresenter Arrow in the Head. On Saturday at 6:00, James Cameron’s revolutionary The Terminator will be screened, followed by a panel examining artificial intelligence with Steven Levy, Dennis Shasha, Manoj Narang, and Molly Sauter, moderated by Malcolm Harris. At 9:00 the festival celebrates the tenth anniversary of Danny Boyle’s awesome 28 Days Later, with discounted tickets if you come dressed as a zombie. Sunday kicks off at 1:30 with Walon Green and Ed Spiegel’s Oscar-winning documentary The Hellstrom Chronicle, introduced by star Lawrence Pressman and followed by a panel discussion entitled “Prophecies of Science” as well as a live insect-handling demonstration by Margaret Stevens. At 4:00, ten shorts of fifteen minutes or less will precede Peter Watkins’s forty-eight minute BBC film The War Game, about a nuclear attack on Britain. At 5:30, Kim Rosenfield, Aaron Winslow, Trisha Low, Lanny Jordan, and Andy Sterling will read “Apocalyptic Poetry” in the art gallery. The Doomsday fest meets its own end Sunday night at 6:00 with Deborah Stratman’s These Blazeing Starrs! [Comets] leading into Geoff Murphy’s 1985 postapocalyptic tale The Quiet Earth, for those few survivors left out there.

ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN FILM FESTIVAL

DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO: REIMAGINING LINCOLN CENTER AND THE HIGH LINE looks at the transformation of a pair of New York City landmarks

ADFF NY 2012
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick St. at Laight St.
October 18-21, $14
212-759-9550
www.adfilmfest.com
www.tribecacinemas.com

Founded by architect Kyle Bergman in 2009, the Architecture & Design Film Festival includes screenings of works about architecture and design and panel discussions examining contemporary issues with an international collection of industry leaders. Taking place October 18-21 at Tribeca Cinemas, the 2012 edition consists of a dozen programs, beginning with opening night’s “The Vignellis,” featuring Kathy Brew and Roberto Guerra’s Design Is One: Lella and Massimo Vignelli, a documentary about the Italian designers, followed by a Q&A with the directors. Among the other highlights are “Opera,” a screening of Architect: A Chamber Opera in Six Scenes, Jenny Kallick’s film inspired by the work of Louis I. Kahn; “The Public Realm,” anchored by Muffie Dunn and Tom Piper’s Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line; and “The Creative Process,” which pairs Tim Cawley’s From Nothing, Something with Martin Glegg’s The Lighthouse. In addition to the Q&A sessions that follow most screenings, there will be four panels: “Conversation with Massimo Vignelli,” with Vignelli, Martin Pederson, and Michael Donovan; “In the Public Realm,” with Charles Renfro, Claire Weisz, Michael Parley, and Susan Stephens; “Architecture as Diplomat: Embassies and What They Communicate,” with Eric Kenue, Frances Halsband, Jane Loeffler, and Jord den Hollander; and “16 Acres +,” with Holly Leicht, Mark Ginsberg, Petra Todorovich, and Rick Bell.