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BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL: LETTER TO A MAN

Mikhail Baryshnikov plays Vaslav Nijinsky in Robert Wilsons LETTER TO A MAN at BAM (photo by Lucie Jansch)

Mikhail Baryshnikov brings Vaslav Nijinsky’s diaries to life in Robert Wilson’s LETTER TO A MAN at BAM (photo by Lucie Jansch)

BAM Harvey
651 Fulton St.
October 15-30, $35-$130
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

In March, Mikhail Baryshnikov starred in the one-man show Brodsky/Baryshnikov at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, a stirring presentation based on the writings of his friend and fellow Riga native Joseph Brodsky. Now Misha is reteaming with stage impresario and BAM regular Robert Wilson on another one-person show, Letter to a Man, in which Baryshnikov portrays Vaslav Nijinsky, taking the audience on a surreal tour through the legendary Russian dancer’s diaries as he battled mental illness. Baryshnikov was last at BAM in 2014 in Wilson’s The Old Woman with Willem Dafoe, while the Waco-born Wilson, who specializes in wildly inventive audiovisual spectacles, has been putting on shows at BAM since The Life & Times of Sigmund Freud in 1969; he’s staged Einstein on the Beach, The Civil Wars, The Black Rider, Woyczeck, and others there since then. Part of BAM’s 2016 Next Wave Festival, Letter to a Man is directed and designed by Wilson, with text by Christian Dumais-Lvowski, dramaturgy by Darryl Pinckney, music by Hal Willner (with snippets from Tom Waits, Arvo Pärt, Henry Mancini, and Alexander Mosolov), movement collaboration by Lucinda Childs, costumes by Jacques Reynaud, lighting by A. J. Weissbard, sound design by Nick Sagar and Ella Wahlström, and video projections by Tomek Jeziorski. The show runs October 15-30; on October 24, the free program “Inside Nijinsky’s Diaries” will take place at NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, featuring Paul Giamatti reading from the diaries, followed by a panel discussion with Pinckney, Joan Acocella, and Larry Wolff, moderated by Jennifer Homans.

DON’T BLINK — ROBERT FRANK

Robert Frank takes a unique look at his life and career in documentary made by his longtime editor

DON’T BLINK — ROBERT FRANK (Laura Israel, 2015)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Opens Wednesday, July 13
212-727-8110
www.dontblinkrobertfrank.com
filmforum.org

“I hate these fucking interviews,” innovative, influential, ornery, and iconoclastic photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank says while preparing to be interviewed in 1984; the scene is shown in Laura Israel’s new documentary, Don’t Blink — Robert Frank. “I’d like to walk out of the fucking frame,” he adds, then does just that. But in Don’t Blink, Frank finds himself walking once more into the frame as Israel, his longtime film editor, attempts to get him to open up about his life and career. Born in Zurich in 1924, Frank immigrated to the United States in 1947, became a fashion photographer, and had his artistic breakthrough in 1958 with the publication of the controversial photo book The Americans, which captured people unawares from all over the country, using no captions, just image, to get his point across. (In 2009, “The Americans”) was installed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in addition to a gallery show of related photographs at Pace/McGill.) In the film, Frank does talk about his past and present, discussing his time with such Beats as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Peter Orlovsky, which he displayed in the 1959 film Pull My Daisy, narrated by an improvising Kerouac and codirected by Alfred Leslie; touching on the tragic early deaths of his son and daughter; sharing details about his parents, including his father, whose hobby was photography; hanging out with his wife, fellow artist June Leaf; and delving into such influences as Walker Evans and his creative process, which is not exactly complex. “Usually the first picture is the best one. Make sure they’re smiling, say cheese,” Frank says with a laugh, then adds, “The main thing is get it over, quick.” Israel takes that advice to heart, trying to get what she can out of Frank before he changes his mind; at first he didn’t want to participate in the film at all, but once he went with it, he also made sure to playfully battle with Israel over who was really in control.

Robert Frank has fun with some of his old films in DON’T BLINK

Israel (Windfall) does not tell Frank’s story chronologically but instead relies on a kind of thematic wandering through his life, intercutting old lectures, interviews, home movies, and photographs with clips from such Frank films as Conversations in Vermont, About Me: A Musical, Energy and How to Get It, Candy Mountain, One Hour, and Paper Route. Israel spends the most time on Cocksucker Blues, an unreleased work about the Rolling Stones on tour in 1972 (and about which Mick Jagger told Frank, “It’s a fucking good film, Robert, but if it shows in America we’ll never be allowed in the country again”), and Me and My Brother, which focuses on Julius Orlovsky, Peter Orlovsky’s brother, who suddenly awakened from a catatonic state and had some fascinating things to say. Just as Frank’s films went back and forth between color and black-and-white and avoided conventional storytelling methods, Israel does the same with Don’t Blink, using offbeat angles, also switching between color and black-and-white, and incorporating other deft touches that lend insight to Frank, who is now ninety-one and still has disheveled hair, and his work, especially when he’s taking Polaroids and scratching and painting on the back of the pictures. (Alex Bingham served as both editor and art director, while the cinematography is by Lisa Rinzler.) The film’s fierce soundtrack meshes well with Frank’s independent streak, with songs by the Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan, the Mekons, New Order, the Kills, Yo La Tengo, Patti Smith, Johnny Thunders, the White Stripes, and Tom Waits, many of whom Israel has made music videos for. Perhaps at the heart of Frank’s methodology is what he calls “spontaneous intuition,” something that works for both life and art and helps propel Israel’s warmhearted but never worshipful documentary; their camaraderie is evident in nearly every frame. Don’t Blink — Robert Frank opens July 13 at Film Forum, with Israel participating in Q&As following the 8:00 screening on July 13 with author Nicholas Dawidoff, after the 8:00 screening on July 15 with Bingham, Rinzler, and producer Melinda Shopsin, and at the 4:15 show on July 17 with Ed Lachman, the award-winning DP who has shot several Todd Haynes films and is credited with additional camera on Don’t Blink. And as a bonus, Film Forum will be showing the rarely screened Cocksucker Blues at 9:50 on July 20 and 21. (Don’t Blink also serves as excellent preparation for the upcoming BAMcinématek survey “The Films of Robert Frank,” which consists of twenty-five works by Frank screened on Thursday nights August 4 through September 22.)

FAREWELL, CEDAR LAKE

Matthew Rich leads the final Cedar Lake revolution at BAM in MY GENERATION (photo by Juliet Cervantes)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Peter Jay Sharp Building
230 Lafayette Ave.
June 3-6, $20-$55
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
cedarlakedance.com

It was hard not to be stirred when, during Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet’s final week ever, in the world premiere of My Generation, longtime company member Matthew Rich grooved to the front of BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House stage and lip synced to Atom™’s loud, industrial remix of the Who’s 1965 revolutionary classic, defiantly mouthing, “People try to put us d-down / Just because we g-g-get around / Things they do look awful c-c-cold / I hope I die before I get old,” followed by a false ending, as the curtain came down and then rose up again and the piece continued. This past March, it was announced that the Chelsea-based company, which began in 2003 financed solely by Walmart heiress Nancy Laurie — earning it both envy and jealousy from other dance organizations that have to struggle for money — would be shutting its doors because Laurie was removing her funding. Cedar Lake is at BAM June 3–6 for its farewell performances, and on Friday night they dazzled the loyal, dedicated crowd, which hooted and hollered regularly during My Generation, a dynamic, energetic work, choreographed by Richard Siegal, that shows off the dancers’ sheer athleticism (with nods to Alvin Ailey, Karole Armitage, Ronald K. Brown, and others). Bernhard Willhelm’s colorful costumes might be silly and frilly, but that didn’t detract from some jaw-dropping movement, especially by Ebony Williams, who towered over everyone while en pointe, then lifted her muscular legs impossibly toward the sky, and Rich, who gyrated with exhilarating abandon.

Crystal Pite’s TEN DUETS ON A THEME OF RESCUE is centerpiece of Cedar Lake farewell at BAM (photo by Juliet Cervantes)

Things calmed down considerably with the evening’s middle section, one of the company’s signature works, Crystal Pite’s lovely, meditative Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue, a series of pas de deux performed within a semicircle of fifteen Klieg lights on movable poles and three spots above. Joaquim de Santana, Vânia Doutel Vaz, Joseph Kudra, Navarra Novy-Williams, and Rich take turns on the otherwise black and smoky stage, coming together to instrumental music from Cliff Martinez’s soundtrack for Steven Soderbergh’s remake of Solaris. If anything, Ten Duets is too short at less than twenty minutes, which perhaps only adds to its poignant intimacy — as does its title, which takes on new meaning since the company itself could not be rescued. The evening concluded with the New York premiere of Johan Inger’s Rain Dogs, a Pina Bausch–inspired piece of dance theater in which Bond, Concepcion, Santana, Doutel Vaz, Novy-Williams, Guillaume Quéau, Rich, Ida Saki, and Jin Young Won, wearing subtle, everyday clothing (that changes fabulously midway through), glide, slide, writhe, and line up to such Tom Waits songs as “Make It Rain,” “Dirt in the Ground,” “Hoist That Rag,” and “The Piano Has Been Drinking.” The work, which contains playful humor, whispering to the audience, and clever, inventive set pieces built around old radios, tape recorders, and speakers, was particularly bittersweet given that the Howard Gilman Opera House has been the New York home of Tanztheater Wuppertal for more than thirty years, and now not only is Bausch herself gone, having passed away in 2009, but this week we have to say goodbye to the immensely talented Cedar Lake, who on Saturday night will take its final bow and just f-f-fade away after presenting Jiří Kylián’s Indigo Rose, Ten Duets, and Jo Strømgren’s Necessity, Again.

CEDAR LAKE CONTEMPORARY BALLET FAREWELL PERFORMANCES

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Peter Jay Sharp Building
230 Lafayette Ave.
June 3-6, $20-$55
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
cedarlakedance.com

For a dozen years, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet has been one of the most innovative and entertaining American dance companies, an immensely talented troupe collaborating with an impressive collection of international choreographers. So it will be more than a little bittersweet when Cedar Lake comes to BAM this week for its final farewell performances, as it was announced earlier this year that the Chelsea-based group was closing its doors for good when its primary donor, Walmart heiress Nancy Laurie, decided to pull the plug on her contributions. Under the leadership of artistic director Alexandra Damiani, Cedar Lake will be at the Howard Gilman Opera House June 3-6, presenting two programs of company favorites and new works. Program A (June 3 & 5) consists of 2008’s Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue, choreographed by Crystal Pite, with costumes by Junghyun Georgia Lee and music from Cliff Martinez’s soundtrack for Steven Soderbergh’s remake of Solaris; the New York premiere of Rain Dogs, with choreography, sets, and costumes by Johan Inger and music by Tom Waits; and the world premiere of My Generation, choreographed by Richard Siegal, with costumes by Bernhard Willhelm and music by Atom™. Program B (June 4 & 6) includes Ten Duets as well, in addition to 2013’s Indigo Rose, with choreography and décor by Jiří Kylián, costumes by Joke Vissar, and music by Robert Ashley, François Couperin, John Cage, and J. S. Bach, and 2012’s Necessity, Again, choreographed by Jo Strømgren, with costumes by Lee, music by Charles Aznavour, text by Jacques Derrida, and additional music by Bergmund Skaslien. It’s worth mentioning each member of this versatile, virtuosic company, several of whom have been with Cedar Lake for quite some time: Jon Bond, Nickemil Concepcion, Navarra Novy-Williams, Matthew Rich, Joaquim de Santana, Vânia Doutel Vaz, Ebony Williams, Rachelle Scott, Ida Saki, Jin Young Won, Joseph Kudra, Guillaume Quéau, Madeline Wong, Raymond Pinto, and apprentices Daphne Fernberger and Patrick Coker.

PERMANENT VACATION — THE FILMS OF JIM JARMUSCH: COFFEE AND CIGARETTES

Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan join Jim Jarmusch in COFFEE & CIGARETTES

COFFEE & CIGARETTES (Jim Jarmusch, 2003)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Thursday, April 10, 1:15 & 9:00
Series runs through April 10
212-875-5050
www.filmlinc.com

Jim Jarmusch’s entertaining, offbeat, and often frustrating Coffee & Cigarettes consists of eleven vignettes, filmed over the course of more than fifteen years, that pair actors at bars, diners, and the like, drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes, and talking about drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. Although the actors use their real names, they are put in fictional situations. While Steven Wright and Roberto Benigni are a hoot, Alex Descas and Isaach de Bankolé are annoying. Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan make the best team, while Iggy Pop and Tom Waits should have been better. So should GZA, RZA, and Bill Murray. Jack White and Meg White, despite a liking for Tesla, show they can’t act. Cate Blanchett with Cate Blanchett is okay but not as good as the riotous team of Joe Rigano and Vinny Vella. The film is a must-see for Jarmusch fans and those who need a nicotine/java jolt. All others beware. Coffee & Cigarettes is screening February 10 with The Garage Tapes, three shorts starring Waits, as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “Permanent Vacation: The Films of Jim Jarmusch,” a tribute to the eclectic writer-director upon the occasion of the release of his latest work, Only Lovers Left Alive. The festival continues through April 10 with all of his feature films, which include such gems as Dead Man, Down by Law, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Stranger than Paradise, Mystery Train, and Night on Earth.

VIDEO OF THE DAY: “SLOW BLUES” BY ALBERT CUMMINGS

On Monday night, February 10, City Winery is hosting a night of the blues, with two great coheadliners. Blues legend John Hammond, son of the Columbia Records executive who signed Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen and organized the “From Spirituals to Swing” concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938, will be celebrating the release of his new live album, Timeless (Palmetto, January 2014). Recorded at Chan’s in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, the disc pays tribute to his fifty-year career with such tracks as Jimmy Rodgers’s “Going Away Baby,” Lightnin’ Hopkins’s “Last Night,” Skip James’s “Hard Times,” Tom Waits’s “No One Can Forgive Me But My Baby,” and Hammond’s own “Heartache Blues.” Sharing the bill is Massachusetts-born singer-songwriter Albert Cummings, who was on the bluegrass trail until he discovered Stevie Ray Vaughan, turning to the blues when he was twenty-seven. An electrifying guitarist with a strong voice, Cummings has examined his life and let his six-string rip on 2002’s From the Heart, 2004’s True to Yourself, 2006’s Working Man, 2008’s live Feel So Good, and his most recent disc, 2012’s No Regrets, several of which feature Vaughan’s Double Trouble. Cummings will be opening with a full set at City Winery, so be sure to get there early; you might also want to order a specially produced bottle of Albert Cummings Zinfandel, which is described as “a fruit-driven, zesty Zinfandel from Lodi, CA. Red fruit with hints of spice & smoke, powerful and youthful, with an abundance of fresh red cherry, plum, and blackberry characteristics. Palate is big and boisterous, with red fruit offset by bright mouth feel.” That description fits Cummings as well, an engaging shredder with a unique approach to the blues.

ART SEEN: THE COOL SCHOOL

THE COOL SCHOOL takes a look at the influential L.A. art scene of the 1950s and 1960s

THE COOL SCHOOL (Morgan Neville, 2007)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
Sunday, June 23, 11:15 am
718-384-3980
www.nitehawkcinema.com

While postwar modern art was exploding in New York in the 1950s, a small, close-knit group of artists were coming together in Los Angeles, exploring abstract expressionism in a tiny gallery called Ferus. Mixing archival footage with new interviews — shot in black and white to maintain the old-time, DIY feel — director Morgan Neville delves into the fascinating world of the L.A. art scene as seen through the Ferus Gallery, which was founded in 1957 by Walter Hopps, a medical-school dropout who looked and acted like a Fed, and assemblage artist Ed Kienholz. “The work was really special,” notes Dennis Hopper, enjoying a cigar with Dean Stockwell. “And there [were] a lot of really, really gifted artists that really have to be looked at again.” Among those artists were Wallace Berman, Ed Moses, Ed Ruscha, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John Baldessari, and Larry Bell. (All of them participate in the documentary except for Berman, who died in 1976.) In addition to featuring up-and-coming West Coast painters, sculptors, and conceptual artists, Ferus also hosted a Marcel Duchamp retrospective as well as early shows by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, and other East Coast favorites. For nearly ten years, Hopps, Kienholz, and crafty businessman Irwin Blum kept Ferus going until various personality clashes led to its demise. The film includes an engaging roundtable from 2004 in which Neville brought many of the artists together to discuss what Ferus meant to them — and the art world in general. Behind a jazzy score, Neville also speaks with collectors, curators, and critics, putting it all into perspective. The Cool School, narrated by actor and photographer Jeff Bridges, is a fun-filled trip through a heretofore little-known part of postwar American art. The film is screening June 23 at 11:15 am as part of the Nitehawk Cinema’s monthly series “Art Seen” along with Paul McCarthy’s The Black and White Tapes, artist works by Kelly Kleinschrodt and Alexa Garrity, and Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman’s brilliant video bio A Brief History of John Baldessari, narrated by Tom Waits. The series continues July 20-21 with Neil Berkeley’s Beauty Is Embarrassing.