The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is part of twentieth anniversary tribute to Reverse Shot at MoMI
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (David Fincher, 2008)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Friday, November 3, 6:30, and Sunday, November 5, 1:00
Series continues through November 26
718-777-6800 www.movingimage.us reverseshot.org
Museum of the Moving Image is honoring the twentieth anniversary of the film publication Reverse Shot, which has been its in-house journal since 2014, with a two-month retrospective of twenty-first-century works touted by what was originally a stapled zine.
Among the films that have already been screened in “Reverse Shot at 20: Selections from a Century” are Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar’s A Lion in the House, Joel Anderson’s Lake Mungo, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse, and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village. On November 3 and 5, MoMI will present David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which fits in well with the name of the journal, Reverse Shot, considering what happens to the title character.
Based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an unusual love story for the ages. As Benjamin (Brad Pitt) grows younger, everyone around him gets older, creating fascinating intersections among various characters, but primarily with Daisy Fuller (Cate Blanchett). It’s August 2005 in New Orleans, as Hurricane Katrina approaches. In her hospital room, an elderly, dying woman (an unrecognizable Blanchett) gives her daughter, Caroline (Julia Ormond), a diary that she begins reading out loud. It was written by a man named Benjamin Button, who was born an old man in 1918 and tells his life story as the years pass by and he ages backward, sort of a reverse Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman) in the great Little Big Man (Arthur Penn, 1970), with a bit of the overrated Forrest Gump (Robert Zemeckis, 1994) thrown in as well.
The film lags a bit as Benjamin and Daisy approach similar ages — actually, the closer they get to their actor selves — but the beginning is marvelous, with Fincher working magic as Pitt plays a tiny, withered old man, and the ending is heart-wrenching. Fincher (Fight Club,Zodiac) and screenwriter Eric Roth (Forrest Gump,Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) wisely choose not to turn Benjamin into a human oddity that confounds the medical profession; instead, he just goes about his life, trying to do the best he can with a positive outlook and a lust for living. Alexandre Desplat’s score is among the best of the year, supported by a soundtrack filled with New Orleans jazz. The cast also includes Tilda Swinton as a diplomat’s wife who takes a romantic interest in Benjamin, Jared Harris as the randy captain of a tugboat who teaches Benjamin about the sea (and booze and sex), Taraji P. Henson as Queenie, the woman who raises the baby Benjamin after he is abandoned by his father (Jason Flemyng), and Mahershala Ali as Queenie’s husband, Tizzy.
In Reverse Shot, Andrew Chan wrote, “The unexpected harmony of extravagant price tag and minor-key mood is just the most obvious reason this film stands as an anomaly in the landscape of contemporary Hollywood cinema. . . . This is a masterpiece through and through, and not only the best thing I’ve seen come out of Hollywood in years, but also a film that deserves to stand proudly beside the work of contemporary masters Terence Davies and Wong Kar-wai in its evocation of what it feels like to be caught in the middle of time as it endlessly, imperceptibly slips away.”
“Reverse Shot at 20: Selections from a Century” continues through November 26 with such other gems as Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, Claire Denis’s 35 Shots of Rum, and Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset / Before Midnight / Before Sunrise trilogy.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
Noah Baumbach’s White Noise opens NYFF60 on September 30
NYFF60
Alice Tully Hall, 1941 Broadway at 65th St.
Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th St. at Amsterdam Ave.
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center: Francesca Beale Theater, Howard Gilman Theater, Amphitheater, 144 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
September 30 – October 16
212-875-5601 www.filmlinc.org/nyff2022
Martin Scorsese, Tilda Swinton, Noah Baumbach, Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Paul Schrader, Sigourney Weaver, Joel Edgerton, Frederick Wiseman, Whoopi Goldberg, John Douglas Thompson, Claire Denis, Cate Blanchett, Nina Hoss, Kelly Reichardt, Luca Guadagnino, Chloë Sevigny, Mia Hansen-Løve, Léa Seydoux, Laura Poitras, James Ivory, Park Chan-wook, Jerzy Skolimowski, Elvis Mitchell, Gabrielle Union, Robert Downey Jr., Sarah Polley, Jeremy Pope, Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Judith Ivey, Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway — those are only some of the directors and actors who will be participating in Q&As and introductions at the sixtieth New York Film Festival, taking place at Lincoln Center from September 30 through October 16. Below is the full list of special guests, which feature award winners from around the world as well as up-and-coming filmmakers.
Friday, September 30
Main Slate Opening Night North American Premiere: White Noise (Noah Baumbach, 2022), Q&A with Noah Baumbach & cast, Alice Tully Hall, 6:00
Main Slate Opening Night North American Premiere: White Noise (Noah Baumbach, 2022), introduced by Noah Baumbach, Walter Reade Theater, 6:15
Main Slate Opening Night North American Premiere: White Noise (Noah Baumbach, 2022), introduced by Noah Baumbach, Alice Tully Hall, 9:30
Main Slate Opening Night North American Premiere: White Noise (Noah Baumbach, 2022), introduced by Noah Baumbach, Walter Reade Theater, 9:45
Saturday, October 1
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Corsage (Marie Kreutzer, 2022), Q&A with Marie Kreutzer and Vicky Krieps, 12:00
Currents U.S. Premiere: The Unstable Object II (Daniel Eisenberg, 2022), Q&A with Daniel Eisenberg, 12:15
Currents U.S. Premiere: Queens of the Qing Dynasty (Ashley McKenzie, 2022), Q&A with Ashley McKenzie, 12:30
Main Slate: Descendant (Margaret Brown, 2022), Q&A with Margaret Brown, 1:30
Main Slate North American Premiere: Master Gardener (Paul Schrader, 2022), Q&A with Paul Schrader, Sigourney Weaver, and Joel Edgerton, 3:00
Currents North American Premiere: The Dam (Ali Cherri, 2022), Q&A with Ali Cherri, 3:30
Main Slate North American Premiere: A Couple (Frederick Wiseman, 2022), Q&A with Frederick Wiseman, 4:30
Spotlight World Premiere: Till (Chinonye Chukwu, 2022), Q&A with Chinonye Chukwu, Danielle Deadwyler, and Whoopi Goldberg, 5:45
Revivals: Le Damier (Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda, 1996), new restoration, Q&A with Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda, 6:00
Revivals: Black God, White Devil (Glauber Rocha, 1964), new 4K restoration, introduced by Luiz Oliveira, 7:30
Main Slate: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022), Q&A with Ruben Östlund and Dolly de Leon, 9:00
Currents Opening Night U.S. Premiere: Will-o’-the-Wisp (João Pedro Rodrigues, 2022), Q&A with João Pedro Rodrigues, 9:15
Sunday, October 2
Spotlight World Premiere: Till (Chinonye Chukwu, 2022), Q&A with Chinonye Chukwu, Danielle Deadwyler, Jalyn Hall, John Douglas Thompson, Jayme Lawson, Tosin Cole, Keith Beauchamp, and Deborah Watts, 11:00 am
Revivals World Premiere: Drylongso (Cauleen Smith, 1998), 4K restoration, Q&A with Cauleen Smith, 12:45
Main Slate North American Premiere: A Couple (Frederick Wiseman, 2022), Q&A with Frederick Wiseman, 1:00
Main Slate: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund, 2022), Q&A with Ruben Östlund and Dolly de Leon, 2:15
Currents North American Premiere: Mutzenbacher (Ruth Beckermann, 2022), Q&A with Ruth Beckermann, 3:00
Main Slate North American Premiere: Stars at Noon (Claire Denis, 2022), Q&A with Claire Denis and Joe Alwyn, 5:45
Currents Opening Night U.S. Premiere: Will-o’-the-Wisp (João Pedro Rodrigues, 2022), Q&A with João Pedro Rodrigues, 5:45
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Corsage (Marie Kreutzer, 2022), Q&A with Marie Kreutzer and Vicky Krieps, 6:00
Currents U.S. Premiere: Queens of the Qing Dynasty (Ashley McKenzie, 2022), Q&A with Ashley McKenzie, 6:15
Main Slate: Descendant (Margaret Brown, 2022), Q&A with Margaret Brown, 8:30
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2022), Q&A with Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 9:00
Currents North American Premiere: The Dam (Ali Cherri, 2022), Q&A with Ali Cherri, 9:15
Monday, October 3
Main Slate: TÁR (Todd Field, 2022), Q&A with Todd Field, Cate Blanchett, Nina Hoss, Mark Strong, Sophie Kauer, and Hildur Guonadóttir, 5:30
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2022), Q&A with Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 6:15
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022), Q&A with Alice Diop, 8:30
Main Slate North American Premiere: Stars at Noon (Claire Denis, 2022), Q&A with Claire Denis and Joe Alwyn, 9:00
Tuesday, October 4
Main Slate North American Premiere: Scarlet (Pietro Marcello, 2022), Q&A with Pietro Marcello, 5:45
Main Slate North American Premiere: Stars at Noon (Claire Denis, 2022), introduced by Claire Denis, 6:00
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Saint Omer (Alice Diop, 2022), Q&A with Alice Diop, 6:15
Main Slate: TÁR (Todd Field, 2022), introduced by Todd Field, 8:30
Currents North American Premiere: Mutzenbacher (Ruth Beckermann, 2022), Q&A with Ruth Beckermann, 9:00
Revivals: No Fear No Die (Claire Denis, 1990), world premiere of 4K restoration, introduced by Claire Denis and Isaach De Bankole, 9:15
Wednesday, October 5
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Pacifiction (Albert Serra, 2022), Q&A with Albert Serra, 5:30
Spotlight U.S. Premiere: Exterior Night (Marco Bellocchio, 2022), introduced by Fabrizio Gifuni and Fausto Russo Alesi, 5:45
Revivals North American Premiere: The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, 1973), new 4K restoration, Q&A with Françoise Lebrun and Charles Gillibert, 6:15
Main Slate North American Premiere: Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt, 2022), Q&A with Kelly Reichardt and Hong Chau, 9:15
Thursday, October 6
Main Slate North American Premiere: Alcarràs (Carla Simón, 2022), Q&A with Carla Simón, 6:00
Main Slate North American Premiere: Scarlet (Pietro Marcello, 2022), Q&A with Pietro Marcello, 6:15
Main Slate North American Premiere: Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt, 2022), Q&A with Kelly Reichardt and Hong Chau, 6:15
Revivals North American Premiere: The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, 1973), new 4K restoration, introduced by Françoise Lebrun and Charles Gillibert, 6:30
Spotlight: Bones and All (Luca Guadagnino, 2022), Q&A with Luca Guadagnino, Taylor Russell, and Chloë Sevigny, 9:00
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Pacifiction (Albert Serra, 2022), Q&A with Albert Serra, 9:00
Friday, October 7
Currents Program 1: Field Trips, Q&As with Nicolás Pereda, Natalia Escobar, Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau, and Simon Velez, 1:15
Currents Program 2: Fault Lines, Q&As with Ellie Ga, 1:30
Currents Program 3: Action Figures, Q&As with Sara Cwynar, Diane Severin Nguyen, Fox Maxy, and Riccardo Giacconi, 3:45
Currents Program 4: Vital Signs, Q&As with Mary Helena Clark, Joshua Solondz, and Jordan Strafer, 4:00
Main Slate Centerpiece Selection: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras, 2022), Q&A with Laura Poitras, 6:00 & 9:15
Currents Program 5: After Utopia, Q&As with Meriem Bennani and Josh Kline, 6:15
Spotlight World Premiere: A Cooler Climate (James Ivory & Giles Gardner, 2022), Q&A with James Ivory and Giles Gardner, 6:30
Main Slate North American Premiere: Alcarràs (Carla Simón, 2022), Q&A with Carla Simón, 8:45
Léa Seydoux stars in Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning
Saturday, October 8
Main Slate: Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022), Q&A with Charlotte Wells, Paul Mescal, and Frankio Corio, 12:00
Currents Program 6: Inside Voices, Q&As with Kim Salac, Mackie Mallison, Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi, Courtney Stephens, Sheilah ReStack, and Angelo Madsen Minax, 12:00
Currents Program 1: Field Trips, Q&As with Nicolás Pereda, Natalia Escobar, Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau, and Simon Velez, 2:15
Currents Program 7: Ordinary Devotion, Q&As with Simon Liu, Alexandra Cuesta, and Pablo Mazzolo, 2:45
Currents Program 2: Fault Lines, Q&As with Ellie Ga, 4:30
Main Slate: One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2022), Q&A with Mia Hansen-Løve and Léa Seydoux, 6:15
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Enys Men (Mark Jenkin, 2022), Q&A with Mark Jenkin and Mary Woodvine, 6:30
Currents Program 8: Time Out of Mind, Q&A with Tiffany Sia, 7:00
Currents World Premiere: Slaughterhouses of Modernity (Heinz Emigholz, 2022), Q&A with Heinz Emigholz, 8:15
Currents: Rewind & Play (Alain Gomis, 2022), Q&A with Elisabeth Subrin and Alain Gomis, 9:00
Main Slate: Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook, 2022), Q&A with Park Chan-wook and Park Hae-il, 9:00
Sunday, October 9
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: No Bears (Jafar Panahi, 2022), introduced by by Mina Kavani, 12:00
Main Slate: One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2022), Q&A with Mia Hansen-Løve and Léa Seydoux, 12:00
Currents Program 7: Ordinary Devotion, Q&As with Simon Liu, Alexandra Cuesta, and Pablo Mazzolo, 1:00
Currents Program 5: After Utopia, Q&A with Josh Kline, 1:30
Main Slate: Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook, 2022), Q&A with Park Chan-wook and Park Hae-il, 2:45
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Unrest (Cyril Schäublin, 2022), Q&A with Cyril Schäublin, 3:00
Currents World Premiere: Slaughterhouses of Modernity (Heinz Emigholz, 2022), Q&A with Heinz Emigholz, 3:15
Currents Program 4: Vital Signs, Q&As with Mary Helena Clark, Joshua Solondz, and Jordan Strafer, 3:45
Spotlight World Premiere: Is That Black Enough for You?!? (Elvis Mitchell, 2022), Q&A with Elvis Mitchell, 5:30
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu, 2022), Q&A with Cristian Mungiu, 6:00
Currents Program 6: Inside Voices, Q&As with Kim Salac, Mackie Mallison, Thuy-Han Nguyen-Chi, Courtney Stephens, Sheilah ReStack, and Angelo Madsen Minax, 6:00
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Enys Men (Mark Jenkin, 2022), Q&A with Mark Jenkin and Mary Woodvine, 8:30
Currents U.S. Premiere: Dry Ground Burning (Joana Pimenta & Adirley Queirós, 2022), Q&A with Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós, 8:45
Main Slate: Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022), Q&A with Charlotte Wells and Paul Mescal, 9:00
Monday, October 10
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu, 2022), Q&A with Cristian Mungiu, 12:00
Spotlight North American Premiere: The Super 8 Years (Annie Ernaux and David Ernaux-Briot, 2022), Q&A with Annie Ernaux and David Ernaux-Briot, 12:30
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Unrest (Cyril Schäublin, 2022), Q&A with Cyril Schäublin, 1:00
Currents North American Premiere: Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann, 2022), Q&A with Helena Wittmann, 2:45
Spotlight: “Sr.” (Chris Smith, 2022), Q&A with Chris Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, and Kevin Ford, 3:00
Currents Program 9: New York Shorts, Q&As with Jamil McGinnis, Sarah Friedland, Charlotte Ercoli, Alex Ashe, and Lloyd Lee Choi, 3:15
Spotlight: Women Talking (Sarah Polley, 2022), Q&A with Sarah Polley, Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Judith Ivey, and Sheila McCarthy, 6:15
Currents Program 3: Action Figures, Q&As with Sara Cwynar, Diane Severin Nguyen, Fox Maxy, and Riccardo Giacconi, 6:30
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Stonewalling (Huang Ji, Ryuji Otsuka, 2022), Q&A with Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka, 8:15
Currents U.S. Premiere: Dry Ground Burning (Joana Pimenta & Adirley Queirós, 2022), Q&A with Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós, 8:30
Currents: Rewind & Play (Alain Gomis, 2022), Q&A with Elisabeth Subrin and Alain Gomis, 8:45
Main Slate: The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg, 2022), Q&A with Joanna Hogg and Tilda Swinton, 9:00
Chris Smith’s “Sr.” explores the life and times of Robert Downey Sr.
Tuesday, October 11
Spotlight: “Sr.” (Chris Smith, 2022), Q&A with Chris Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey, and Kevin Ford, 3:00
Currents North American Premiere: Tales of the Purple House (Abbas Fahdel, 2022), Q&A with Abbas Fahdel, 5:15
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Stonewalling (Huang Ji, Ryuji Otsuka, 2022), Q&A with Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka, 5:30
Main Slate: The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg, 2022), Q&A with Joanna Hogg and Tilda Swinton, 6:15
Main Slate: All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen, 2022), Q&A with Shaunak Sen, 6:30
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022), Q&A with Jerzy Skolimowski, 9:00
Spotlight North American Premiere: The Super 8 Years (Annie Ernaux and David Ernaux-Briot, 2022), Q&A with Annie Ernaux and David Ernaux-Briot, 9:00
Main Slate North American Premiere: Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella, 2022), Q&A with Laura Citarella, 9:00
Currents North American Premiere: Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann, 2022), Q&A with Helena Wittmann, 9:15
Wednesday, October 12
Main Slate NYFF 60th Anniversary Celebration: Armageddon Time (James Gray, 2022), Q&A with James Gray, Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway, Banks Repeta, and Jaylin Webb, 6:00
Currents: Remote (Mika Rottenberg & Mahyad Tousi, 2022), Q&A with Mika Rottenberg and Mahyad Tousi, 6:15
Currents Program 9: New York Shorts, Q&As with Jamil McGinnis, Sarah Friedland, Charlotte Ercoli, Alex Ashe, and Lloyd Lee Choi, 6:30
Spotlight World Premiere: Personality Crisis: One Night Only (Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, 2022), Q&A with David Tedeschi and Martin Scorsese, 9:00
Main Slate: All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen, 2022), Q&A with Shaunak Sen, 9:00
Currents North American Premiere: The Adventures of Gigi the Law (Alessandro Comodin, 2022), Q&A with Alessandro Comodin, 9:15
Thursday, October 13
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: No Bears (Jafar Panahi, 2022), introduced by by Mina Kavani, 3:15
Spotlight World Premiere: She Said (Maria Schrader, 2022), Q&A with Maria Schrader, Carey Mulligan, Zoe Kazan, Jodi Kantor, and Megan Twohey, 6:00
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: Return to Seoul (Davy Chou, 2022), Q&A with Davy Chou and Park Ji-Min, 6:15
Currents North American Premiere: The Adventures of Gigi the Law (Alessandro Comodin, 2022), Q&A with Alessandro Comodin, 6:15
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: EO (Jerzy Skolimowski, 2022), Q&A with Jerzy Skolimowski, 6:45
Currents: Remote (Mika Rottenberg & Mahyad Tousi, 2022), Q&A with Mika Rottenberg and Mahyad Tousi, 9:00
Main Slate NYFF 60th Anniversary Celebration: Armageddon Time (James Gray, 2022), Q&A with James Gray and Jeremy Strong, 9:00
Currents: Three Tidy Tigers Tied a Tie Tighter (Gustavo Vinagre, 2022), Q&A with Gustavo Vinagre, 9:15
Friday, October 14
Currents: Three Tidy Tigers Tied a Tie Tighter (Gustavo Vinagre, 2022), Q&A with Gustavo Vinagre, 3:45
Main Slate NYFF 60th Anniversary Celebration: Armageddon Time (James Gray, 2022), introduced by James Gray, 6:00
Spotlight World Premiere: Personality Crisis: One Night Only (Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, 2022), Q&A with David Tedeschi, 9:00
Main Slate Closing Night Selection U.S. Premiere: The Inspection (Elegance Bratton, 2022), Q&A with Elegance Bratton, Jeremy Pope, Gabrielle Union, and Raúl Castillo, 6:00 & 9:00
Main Slate U.S. Premiere: No Bears (Jafar Panahi, 2022), introduced by Mina Kavani, 8:45
Who: Cate Blanchett, Jeanne Donovan Fisher, Zadie Smith, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Julie Anne Stanzak, Hope Boykin, St. Vincent, DJ Eli Escobar What:BAM Virtual Gala Where:BAM website When: Wednesday, May 13, free (donations accepted), 8:00 Why: BAM’s annual gala cannot be held in person this year in Brooklyn, so it will instead take place virtually, and everyone is invited; it’s free to watch live, although donations are accepted, with 10% of the proceeds going to the Brooklyn Hospital Center. The 2020 honorees are two-time Oscar winner and Tony nominee Cate Blanchett, producer, investor, and philanthropist Jeanne Donovan Fisher, and award-winning novelist Zadie Smith. Paying tribute to the trio are Grammy winners Brooklyn Youth Chorus (who will sing a Philip Glass composition dedicated to Fisher), Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch’s Julie Anne Stanzak (who will dance a solo that will be filmed by Nathalie Larquet in tribute to Blanchett), Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Hope Boykin (who will present a short film for Smith), St. Vincent (whose appearance can only be seen live; it will not be rebroadcast), and DJ Eli Escobar (who will host a living room dance party), all of whom have previously performed at BAM. “Moving to an online, virtual format gives BAM an exciting opportunity to open its gala experience to a wider audience, pay tribute to our amazing honorees in new ways, and gather the arts community in a challenging time. We are excited to share this unique experience as part of our current digital Love from BAM programming,” BAM president Katy Clark said in a statement. The gala also marks the beginning of BAM’s annual online art auction.
Tickets are still available for the sixty-second annual Drama Desk Awards, honoring the best of theater June 4 at the Town Hall. Founded in 1949, the Drama Desk (of which I am a voting member) does not differentiate between Broadway, off Broadway, and off off Broadway; all shows that meet the minimum requirements are eligible. Thus, splashy, celebrity-driven productions can find themselves nominated against experimental shows that took place in an East Village gymnasium or a military armory. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be plenty of star power at the awards presentation. Among the nominees this year are Daniel Craig (Othello), Cate Blanchett (The Present,) Amy Ryan (Love, Love, Love), David Hyde Pierce (Hello, Dolly!), Laura Linney (The Little Foxes), Kevin Kline (Present Laughter), Cynthia Nixon (The Little Foxes), Nathan Lane (The Front Page), Bobby Cannavale (The Hairy Ape), and Bette Midler (Hello, Dolly!). Up for Outstanding Musical are Anastasia, The Band’s Visit, Come from Away, Hadestown, and The Lightning Thief, while vying for Outstanding Play are If I Forget,Indecent, A Life, Oslo, and Sweat. The Outstanding Revival of a Play nominees are The Front Page, The Hairy Ape, Jitney, The Little Foxes, “Master Harold” . . . and the Boys, and Picnic, while battling it out for Outstanding Revival of a Musical are Falsettos, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sweet Charity, Tick, Tick . . . BOOM!, and Hello, Dolly! The awards will be hosted again by Michael Urie (Ugly Betty, Buyer & Cellar), who is currently starring in the Red Bull Theater production of The Government Inspector, and will feature stripped-down, intimate performances from some nominated shows. Tickets start at $64 for the event; however, the $325 package, which gets you into the after-party, where you can mingle with the nominees, winners, and other stars, is sold out.
Richard (Brad Pitt) gets some bad news in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel
WEEKEND CLASSICS: BABEL (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2006)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
Nay 19-21, 11:00 am
212-924-7771 www.ifccenter.com
Fearing that the people of the world, who all spoke the same language, were capable of anything after building a tower that reached to the heavens, the Old Testament God confused their languages and scattered them all over the earth. The inability of people to communicate with one another is at the center of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s fascinating, compelling Babel. The plot follows three stories that slowly intertwine. On vacation in Morocco, Susan (Cate Blanchett) is the victim of a random gunshot fired by a small boy (Boubker Ait El Caid), sending her husband, Richard (Brad Pitt), into a frenzy to try to save her life. Meanwhile, their housekeeper, Amelia (Adriana Barraza), who is looking after their children, has to decide what to do with them on the day of her son’s wedding in Mexico, turning to her crazy nephew Santiago (Gael García Bernal) for help. And in Tokyo, Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi) is a deaf-mute teenager who desperately wants to fall in love, but all the boys she meets — and her father (the great Kôji Yakusho, from The Eel, Cure, and Shall We Dance?) — don’t take the time to listen to and understand her. Despite a couple of minor wrong turns, Iñárritu recovers to make Babel a whirlwind of a movie, laying bear the tragic consequences that can occur when people refuse to simply communicate, even in the most basic of ways.
The film, the finale in the unofficial Death Trilogy written by Guillermo Arriaga (preceded by Amores Perros and 21 Grams), received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay (Guillermo Arriaga), and Best Supporting Actress (both Barraza and Kikuchi). It was part of the triple play of fabulous films by Mexican directors in 2006, along with Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (nominated for six Oscars, including Best Foreign Language Film) and Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men (three Oscar nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay), all three of whom are among the world’s best filmmakers more than ten years later; Iñárritu’s films have earned three Best Picture nominations and two Best Foreign Language nods (Amores Perros, Biutiful), winning for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance); he has been named Best Director twice, for Birdman and The Revenant. A 35mm print of Babel is screening May 19-21 at eleven o’clock in the morning in the IFC Center series “Weekend Classics: Border Crossings,” which continues Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings through July 2 with such other films as John Sayles’s Lone Star, the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men, and Gregory Nava’s El Norte.
Cate Blanchett plays thirteen roles in twelve scenarios in Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto
MANIFESTO (Julian Rosefeldt, 2017)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St. between Sixth Ave. & Varick St.
Opens Wednesday, May 10
212-727-8110 filmforum.org www.facebook.com
Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto previously manifested as a captivating thirteen-channel installation in the Park Avenue Armory’s massive Wade Thompson Drill Hall, where visitors could walk among thirteen enormous screens, experiencing the work in whatever order they preferred, watching all 130 minutes or cherry picking individual scenes. Each screen (except for the prologue) showed a specific ten-and-a-half-minute scenario, running concurrently, in which Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett played a different character (in one she played two), her dialogue consisting almost exclusively of quotes from more than fifty manifestos by such artists and thinkers as Dziga Vertov, Claes Oldenburg, André Breton, Yvonne Rainer, Lars von Trier, Adrian Piper, Wassily Kandinsky, Guillaume Apollinaire, Lucio Fontana, Werner Herzog, and Marx and Engels. The stunning visuals, featuring spectacular indoor and outdoor architecture gorgeously photographed by Christoph Krauss, distracted positively from much of the theoretical mush, formal language that is not easy to turn into a film. Now writer-director Rosefeldt and editor Bobby Good have chopped Manifesto into a disappointing ninety-four-minute movie shown on a single screen, cutting back and forth among the scenarios, sacrificing the meditative rhythm of the long, individual scenes, each of which began with a lovely, peaceful establishing shot, and unfortunately highlighting snippets of pompous intellectual meanderings, eliminating the undercurrent of humor that made the installation worth watching in full.
Even Blanchett’s tour-de-force performance, playing such characters as a homeless man (Situationism), a funeral speaker (Dadaism), a financial broker (Futurism), a choreographer (Fluxus / Merz / Performance), a news reader and a reporter (Conceptual Art / Minimalism), and a teacher (Film), gets lost in the transition and now feels like more of a gimmick. In addition, in the installation, about two-thirds of the way through each scene all the characters face the camera in unison and spout different philosophical musings in a robotic monotone, creating a choral cacophony that resounded through the cavernous space, dominated by giant close-ups of Blanchett everywhere; nothing like that happens in the shortened film. Kudos still go out to costume designer Bina Daigeler, makeup magician Morag Ross, hair stylist Massimo Gattabrusi, and production designer Erwin Prib, but Rosefeldt (Trilogy of Failure, Deep Gold, The Ship of Fools) and Good have done a disservice to what was a grand work of art that itself was a grand statement about the critical importance of art. “Originality is nonexistent,” Blanchett says as a teacher, quoting Jim Jarmusch. “I am writing a manifesto because I have nothing to say,” she narrates in the prologue, quoting Philippe Soupault. The original Manifesto installation had plenty to say; the single-screen theatrical version, however, does not.
Barrymore Theatre
243 West 47th St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Tuesday – Sunday (and some Mondays) through March 19, $59 – $159 thepresentbroadway.com
The Present brings us quite a gift, the Broadway debut of Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett, who is absolutely captivating in an uneven black comedy that can go from penetrating to tiresome in the blink of an eye. “An eclectic mix,” Yegor (David Downer) says about the guests at Anna’s (Blanchett) explosive fortieth birthday party, but he also could be speaking about the play itself. Adapted for the Sydney Theatre Company by Andrew Upton from Anton Chekhov’s first major play, sometimes known as Platonov, which remained unperformed in Chekhov’s lifetime, The Present is a three-hour look at lust, the aging aristocracy, personal and professional failure, and fear of death. Upton, who is married to Blanchett, transports the story to 1990s Russia, where the Clash and Joy Division dominate the soundtrack. Anna is considering remarrying following the death of her beloved husband, a much older man called the General, at least in part to maintain control of her late husband’s vast holdings. Among those interested in Anna, either as a bride, a one-night stand, or a business partner are Nikolai (Toby Schmitz), a doctor and Anna’s stepbrother, who has brought hot young student Maria (Anna Bamford) as his date; the practical Yegor, an older businessman who has come with his bland son, Dimitri (Brandon McClelland); Kirill (Eamon Farren), a snarky DJ who is the son of retired lawyer Alexi (Martin Jacobs); and Mikhail Platonov (Richard Roxburgh), the General’s best friend who is married to Sasha (Susan Prior), the daughter of retired colonel Ivan (Marshall Napier) and the sister of Nikolai. Also at the party are Sergei (Chris Ryan), Anna’s stepson, who is married to Sophia (Jacqueline McKenzie), and former KGB operative Osip (Andrew Buchanan). “Birthdays are always lively. Balancing the past and the present is tricky at the best of times,” Yegor pronounces. “But that’s Russia these days, isn’t it, Alexi?” Alexi responds, “Russia? I couldn’t tell you.” Anna holds court as her guests drink heavily, argue over politics and socioeconomic conditions, and flirt with one another, risking their friendships, marriages, and reputations in one misguided night of debauchery. “It’s so hard to do what you really, really desperately want in life,” Anna says. “It’s so much easier to do shit you don’t care either way about.”
Chekhov’s play has previously been adapted by the likes of Michael Frayn, Lev Dodin, Trevor Griffiths, and David Hare, with such actors as Rex Harrison, James McArdle, and Stephen Rea playing Mikhail Platonov. Roxburgh (Rake, Hacksaw Ridge), who has been performing with Blanchett for more than twenty years — the duo has played Trigorin and Nina in The Seagull, Vanya and Yelena in Uncle Vanya, and Hamlet and Ophelia in Hamlet — is dynamic when he and Blanchett are together onstage, but it’s difficult to understand why all the other women are so enamored of him. Upton (The Maids, The Cherry Orchard) has made Mikhail, a disgruntled, disappointed schoolteacher who wanted to be a famous writer, and Anna much older than in Chekhov’s original, which works well for the parts of the play dealing with aging and death but leaves much to be desired regarding sexual chemistry and several far-fetched plot twists. The smoke-filled scene in which various women state their love for Mikhail is quite a sight but doesn’t make narrative sense. And while some elements of the anarchic narrative are exciting, particularly those involving Anna’s revolutionary spirit, the table-dancing scene is a bit ludicrous. The play is sort of Chekhov light, with aspects of Don Juan and A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy tossed in. Director John Crowley (Brooklyn, A Behanding in Spokane) can’t gain control of the overall chaos, although many individual scenes crackle and, figuratively and literally, explode. Over the course of the too-long three-hour show, you can’t take your eyes off two-time Oscar winner Blanchett (Blue Jasmine, Hedda Gabler), who wears three awesome outfits by Alice Babidge, who also designed the sets; even when Blanchett is in the background, her every movement is mesmerizing, lit beautifully by Nick Schlieper. When she is offstage, the play suffers, but when she is front and center, armed and dangerous, downing drinks, trying to nail down her future, The Present is a rather fine offering.
Fearing that the people of the world, who all spoke the same language, were capable of anything after building a tower that reached to the heavens, the Old Testament God confused their languages and scattered them all over the earth. The inability of people to communicate with one another is at the center of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s fascinating, compelling Babel. The plot follows three stories that slowly intertwine. On vacation in Morocco, Susan (Cate Blanchett) is the victim of a random gunshot fired by a small boy (Boubker Ait El Caid), sending her husband, Richard (Brad Pitt), into a frenzy to try to save her life. Meanwhile, their housekeeper, Amelia (Adriana Barraza), who is looking after their children, has to decide what to do with them on the day of her son’s wedding in Mexico, turning to her crazy nephew Santiago (Gael García Bernal) for help. And in Tokyo, Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi) is a deaf-mute teenager who desperately wants to fall in love, but all the boys she meets — and her father (the great Kôji Yakusho, from The Eel, Cure, and Shall We Dance?) — don’t take the time to listen to and understand her. Despite a couple of minor wrong turns, Iñárritu recovers to make Babel a whirlwind of a movie, laying bear the tragic consequences that can occur when people refuse to simply communicate, even in the most basic of ways.
Julian Rosefeldt’s 
