There’s always something going on in New York, of course. Even now, I’m updating the entry on Film Comment Selects and Alain Resnais‘s Je t’aime, je t’aime (1968) screens through tomorrow at Film Forum. Before moving on to other events happening right now or very soon, I want to make note of a couple of others that have just happened at BAM simply because the writing about them is so strong. You need to see Andy Battaglia‘s piece for the Paris Review Daily on Matthew Barney’s River of Fundament; and for the past couple of weeks, n+1 has been running something like a dossier on the series Vengeance is Hers. Introduced by Dayna Tortorici‘s interview with curators Thomas Beard and Nellie Killian, the collection includes:
- Miriam Bale on Colin Higgins’s Nine to Five (1980).
- Moira Donegan on William Wyler‘s The Heiress (1949).
- Lizzie Feidelson on Pasolini‘s Medea (1969) with Maria Callas.
- Sarah Nicole Prickett on Stephanie Rothman’s Terminal Island (1973).
- Fariha Roísín on Jack Hill’s Coffy (1973).
- Namara Smith on Preston Sturges’s The Lady Eve (1941).
- Emily Wang on Chantal Akerman‘s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975).
- And Daniel Wenger on Chor Yuen’s Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972).
For more on Vengeance is Hers, see Nick Pinkerton at Artforum.
“With New York, New York (1977) and The Wiz (1978), Scorsese and Lumet, respectively—making the first and only movie musicals of their respective careers—would use the genre as a lens through which to present lively, fantastical, and critical takes on the city both men called home.” Ashley Clark for Moving Image Source. The Wiz has already screened at part of Reverse Shot and the Museum of the Moving Image’s See It Big! series, but you can catch New York, New York on February 28.
Richard Hilliard’s The Lonely Sex (1959) screens tonight as part of the Anthology series Beyond Cassavetes: Lost Legends of the New York Film World (1945-1970). Henry Stewart at the L: “Presaging Psycho‘s concerns, this tawdry and tempers-flared early-indie spotlights psychosexual anguish in the fleet story of a man who expresses his deviant desires in voyeurism, tormented longing, and fits of violence.” And the Russ Meyer & Roger Ebert series is on through Sunday.
On Saturday, Alex Waterman introduces a screening of Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives (1983) at Light Industry.
Also on Saturday, but at Maysles Cinema: “One Night Stand is a funny, intimate, behind-the-scenes journey from the blank page to the live stage, as top Broadway and Hollywood writers, actors, and directors produce four original short musicals, all within 24 hours.”
Documentary Fortnight 2014, MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media, is on through February 28.
Wavemakers by Caroline Martel, National Film Board of Canada
San Francisco. In October, Jonathan Marlow spoke with Caroline Martel about Wavemakers (aka Le chant des ondes) and Phantom of the Operator (2004), and tomorrow, he’ll be introducing a screening of Wavemakers at the Exploratorium. Martel will be there, and Geneviève Grenier will present a special demonstration of the rare and ethereal instrument the film’s about, the ondes Martenot.
This weekend, “City Arts & Lectures will pay tribute to the late actor and director, Philip Seymour Hoffman, with free screenings of nine films.”
Los Angeles. On Sunday, the Filmforum presents Song and Dance: Documentary Explorations by Tuni Chatterji and Satyajit Ray at the Egyptian.
London. “Derek Jarman died 20 years ago today,” writes John Coulthart at the top of an entry gathering links to several related pieces, including Philip Hoare‘s in the Independent, wherein he writes that “as fantastical and extraordinary as his films are, it is Jarman’s life, and what he has come to represent, which has become almost more important.”
In the Guardian, Dalya Alberge reports that “a previously unseen film by Derek Jarman has come to light, shot inside a gay nightclub in east London, and will be premiered next month. At 78 minutes in length, the film is unedited, experimental footage that the avant garde director shot in 1984 at Benjy’s, a former nightclub in Mile End to a soundtrack of, among other artists, Frankie Goes to Hollywood.” Will You Dance with Me? premieres on March 22 at BFI Southbank, where the largest season of Jarman’s work ever mounted, Queer Pagan Punk, is currently unreeling.
John Wyver reports on Early Modern Jarman, a symposium that took place at King’s College a couple of weeks ago as part of the ongoing celebration of the life and work, Jarman 2014.
Omar Kholeif for Art Agenda: “The cornerstone of Isaac Julien’s new exhibition in London is PLAYTIME (2014), a seven-screen, high-definition video installation that features well-known actors James Franco, Maggie Cheung, and Mercedes Cabral, as well as Swiss auctioneer Simon de Pury. Set across three continents, the work follows a suite of characters—the Artist, the Hedge Fund Manager, the Auctioneer, the House Worker, the Art Dealer, and the Reporter—who each occupy distinct chapters. Introducing an episodic structure into the piece are Julien’s choice of locations—the cities of London, Reykjavik, and Dubai—which function allegorically; they were all selected because, it is argued, they are somehow uniquely defined by their relationship to capital.” Through March 1.
Paris. Also for Art Agenda, Mara Hoberman writes about the Tacita Dean exhibition on view at Marian Goodman’s gallery. The centerpiece is the 35mm film JG, named after J.G. Ballard and focusing on their mutual interest in the work of artist Robert Smithson.
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