Jennie Livingston’s PARIS IS BURNING is part of MoMA celebration of Film Forum’s fortieth anniversary
40 YEARS OF DOCUMENTARY PREMIERES AT FILM FORUM
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
February 3-20
Tickets: $10, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
One of the most important, influential, and beloved independent cinema houses in the country, Film Forum has been presenting feature-length narratives, repertory series, and new documentaries since 1970. In 1972, Karen Cooper took over as director, helping Film Forum become the place to go for the best in international cinema. In honor of Film Forum’s fortieth anniversary, Cooper has curated an exciting retrospective of nonfiction works that premiered at the three-screen art house, which has been located on West Houston St. for two decades. The series includes such seminal documentaries as Nathaniel Kahn’s MY ARCHITECT, Bruce Weber’s LET’S GET LOST, Rudy Burckhardt’s UNDER THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE, Agnès Varda’s THE GLEANERS AND I, Terry Zwigoff’s CRUMB, Kevin Rafferty’s THE ATOMIC CAFÉ, D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus’s THE WAR ROOM, and Jennie Livingston’s PARIS IS BURNING in addition to films by Werner Herzog, Frederick Wiseman, Mosco Boucault, Paul Cox, and others. On February 5 at 7:00, Cooper and George Griffin will introduce short films from Serious Business Company, including Griffin’s VIEWMASTER, Bruce Conner’s TAKE THE 5:10 TO DREAMLAND, Anita Thacher’s HOMAGE TO MAGRITTE, Scott Bartlett’s 1970, and Karen and David Crommie’s THE LIFE AND DEATH OF FRIDA KAHLO AS TOLD TO DAVID AND KAREN CROMMIE. This MoMA series is a marvelous way to celebrate one of the city’s shining jewels and, for those of you who have never been to Film Forum, to discover what the rest of us already know.
Toshiro Mifune is a lone samurai on the road following the end of the Tokugawa dynasty in Akira Kurosawa’s unforgettable masterpiece. Mifune comes to a town with two warring factions and plays each one off the other as a hired hand. Neo’s battles with myriad Agent Smiths are nothing compared to Yojimbo’s magnificent swordfights against growing bands of warriors that include one man with a gun. Try watching this film and not think of several Clint Eastwood Westerns as well as HIGH NOON.
In this YOJIMBO-like tale, Toshiro Mifune shows up in a small town looking for food and fast money and takes up with a rag-tag group of wimps who don’t trust him when he says he will help them against the powerful ruling gang. Funnier than most Kurosawa samurai epics, the film is unfortunately brought down a notch by a bizarre soundtrack that ranges from melodramatic claptrap to a jazzy big-city score.
Akira Kurosawa’s powerful psychological drama begins with a jazzy score over shots of a bustling Japanese city, people anxiously hurrying through as a Theremin joins the fray. But this is no Hollywood film noir or low-budget frightfest; Kurosawa’s daring film is about the end of old Japanese society as the threat of nuclear destruction hovers over everyone. A completely unrecognizable Toshiro Mifune stars as Nakajima, an iron foundry owner who wants to move his large family — including his two mistresses — to Brazil, which he believes to be the only safe place on the planet where he can survive the H bomb. His immediate family, concerned more about the old man’s money than anything else, takes him to court to have him declared incompetent; there he meets a dentist (the always excellent Takashi Shimura) who also mediates such problems — and fears that Nakajima might be the sanest one of all.
When two famous people are caught together at a hotel in the mountains, a scandal breaks out as a lurid gossip magazine prints their picture and makes up a sordid romance that is not true. With their reputations tainted, they consider suing the publication, but they run into problems with their ragtag lawyer, who has a bit of a gambling problem. Akira Kurosawa regular Toshirô Mifune stars as Ichiro Aoye, a well-known painter who likes smoking pipes and riding his flashy motorcycle. Yoshiko Yamaguchi is Miyaka Saijo, a timid pop singer who is terrified of the unwanted publicity. And Takashi Shimura is Hiruta, the struggling lawyer devoted to his young daughter, who is dying of TB. The first half of the movie is involving right from the roaring opening-titles sequence, with good characterization and an alluring story line. Unfortunately, the film bogs down in the second half, especially during the hard-to-believe courtroom scenes, the only ones of Kurosawa’s career. And the Christmas bit is tired and cliché-ridden, even if might have been unique at the time for a film made in postwar Japan. But Kurosawa’s attack on the media is still valid today, even if he did fill it with sappy melodrama.