Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder prepare for quite a flop in THE PRODUCERS
THE PRODUCERS (Mel Brooks, 1968)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Sunday, September 2, 2:00 & 6:50
Series runs through September 17
212-415-5500
www.bam.org
No way around it; this is one funny movie. Written and directed by Mel Brooks (who won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay), The Producers stars Zero Mostel as Max Bialystock, a once great Broadway producer now relegated to wooing old ladies for their checkbooks. Gene Wilder earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor as Leo Bloom, a by-the-book accountant who figures out that it could be possible to make more money from a bomb than a hit. And the bomb they turn to is the extraordinary Springtime for Hitler, featuring a great turn by Kenneth Mars as a neo-Nazi. Brooks, Mostel, Wilder, Mars, and the rest of the crazy cast — which also includes Dick Shawn, Lee Meredith, Estelle Winwood, Christopher Hewett, Renee Taylor, Barney Martin, Bill Macy, and William Hickey — don’t just play it for laughs but for giant guffaws and jaw-dropping disbelief in this riotous romp that was turned into a very good but overrated Broadway musical and a terrible film version of the show, both starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, neither of whom can fill Mostel and Wilder’s shoes. The Producers is screening September 2 in the BAMcinématek series “American Gagsters: Great Comedy Teams,” which runs through September 17 and comprises some fifty films, including such other Brooks classics as Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein on September 3, followed by a fab bunch of hysterical Steve Martin and Woody Allen movies.
Jia Zhangke’s fourth film (following Pickpocket, Platform, and Unknown Pleasures) is set in a Beijing theme park called the World, where people come to see miniature versions of major international cities and landmarks, including Paris, New York, London, and Tokyo, the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids, the World Trade Center, Big Ben, and the Eiffel Tower. The luminous Zhao Tao stars as Tao, a park dancer dating security guard Taisheng (Chen Taisheng). She becomes friendly with Anna, a Russian woman who has come to the park to make money so she can reunite with her daughter. However, dreams don’t always come true in this microcosm of urbanization. As Tao questions her relationship with Taisheng, he starts seeing Qun (Wang Yiqun), a fashion designer who makes knock-offs and is trying to return to her husband, who lives in Belleville. Meanwhile, Xiaowei (Jing Jue) is trapped in an abusive relationship with Niu (Jiang Zhongwei) that threatens to explode. The World is a charming little film, not looking to make any grand statements, just concentrating on the problems of ordinary people all over the globe who are struggling to survive financially, emotionally, and romantically. The World, which was shown at the 2004 New York Film Festival and was followed by such other fine Zhangke works as Still Life, Useless, and 24 City, is screening at the Walter Reade Theater as part of the ongoing series “50 Years of the New York Film Festival,” which continues with such NYFF vets as Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Jafar Panahi’s Offside, Carlos Reygadas’s Silent Light, and Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. Individual tickets for the fiftieth anniversary of the New York Film Festival, which runs September 28 through October 14, go on sale to the general public on September 9.
In 2002-2003, directors Andrew Lau and Alan Mak crafted a marvelous gangster trilogy that is nothing short of the Hong Kong version of The Godfather. The first two parts are being presented at a special tenth anniversary screening July 6 as part of the New York Asian Film Festival at Lincoln Center, with actor Will Yun Lee on hand to participate in a panel about the film and the video game Sleeping Dogs. In the first film, Yan (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Ming (Andy Lau) are both cops with deadly secrets, one a mole in the police department, the other deep undercover in a powerful gang. We learn a little bit about their past, but most of the film takes place in the present, as both the good guys and the bad guys try to find out who’s on which side. Eric Tsang is awesome as Sam, Wo Fat with a different sense of humor. Much of the film is played out marvelously on cell phones, which is actually more exciting than it sounds. The ending is a gem. The only drawback is that the subtitles move past in a flash and are very small, problems that are corrected in the two sequels. The film was a huge hit, earning numerous Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Tony Leung); Martin Scorsese scored a huge hit with his outstanding remake, The Departed, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson.