a matter of life and death
nobody will speak of us when we're dead
cold water / l'eau froide
jazz on a summer's day
l'amour fou
why has bodhi-dharmaleft for the east?
romeo and juliet
flirtation / liebelei
a life apart
south
and life goes on
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A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
Michael Powell, U.K., 1946; 104m
A dashing young WWII airman (David Niven) chats up, then bares his soul
to a beautiful radio operator (Kim Hunter) even as his planes dives to
earth. It's not quite clear where precisely Niven comes down, because
Michael Powell's movie takes a turn from Technicolor wartime melodrama
into a meditation on the worth of a life and the righteousness of a
death, as they're weighed in a chilly, monochrome Heaven and in an
operating room where surgeons work to save Niven's damaged brain. No
comfy allegory here; Powell's gem is made of harder - and more valuable
- stuff. With Raymond Massey, Roger Livesey, Robert Coote, Marius
Goring, and Richard Attenborough.
Originally screened at the WRT in February of 1993.
Wed Jan 2: 1:30 & 6:20
KISS ME DEADLY
Robert Aldrich, USA, 1955; 105m
Aldrich's unquestioned masterpiece, KISS ME DEADLY, charts a Fifties
film noir world cracking along moral fault lines and skewed camera
angles. Pushed by a doomed girl in a trenchcoat, but mostly by
self-interest, Mike Hammer, Mickey Spillane's grubbily amoral private
eye, falls into quest for The Great Whatsis, no Holy Grail to save
mankind but a Pandora's Box hissing with apocalyptic energy. On the way,
this darkside Galahad takes us into society's best places and dives, as
he crosses paths with archetypal dregs and fascinatingly unglamorized
noir succubi. McCarthyism, Cold War nuclear gamesmanship, a vengeful
God's modern-day version of the Flood - see all this in KISS ME DEADLY,
but mostly you will remember the searing shots and sounds of a rather
nasty little world coming to an end.
Originally screened at the WRT in March of 1994.
Wed Jan 2: 4 & 8:30
NOBODY WILL SPEAK OF US WHEN WE'RE DEAD / NADIE HABLARA DE NOSOTRAS CUANDO HAYAMOS MUERTO
Agustín Díaz Yanes, Spain, 1995; 97m
Winner of several awards at the 1995 San Sebastian Film Festival
(including Best Actress for Victoria Abril), DEAD marks an
extraordinarily impressive debut for its director. A prostitute, Gloria
Duque (Abril), witnesses a drug bust gone lethally bad; barely escaping,
she abandons Mexico for her native Spain. Fearful that she could testify
against them, the drug lords send one of their minions, Guzman, to
silence her. Abril is simply sensational, powerfully incarnating a woman
struggling desperately to regain some control over her life.
Originally screened at the WRT in December of 1995.
Thurs Jan 3: 1, 5 & 9
COLD WATER / L'EAU FROIDE
Olivier Assayas, France, 1994; 92m
It's 1972, and troubled working-class Christine (Virginie Ledoyen) is
committed to a mental institution by her father after a shoplifting
escapade with her middle-class boyfriend Gilles (Cyprien Fouquet), a
rebellious 16-year-old in over his head. Escape, reunion and
tentative/desperate flight ensue. By way of songs by Leonard Cohen,
Alice Cooper, Roxy Music, Dylan and Creedence Clearwater Revival, the
film's unforgettable centerpiece is an apocalyptic all-night party at an
abandoned country house that definitively captures the anarchic,
half-mad rapture of youth. Shot with a raw, loose naturalism,
COLD WATER is by turns mournful and exhilarating, tender and harsh in its
demonstration of how the stakes and ultimate consequences of teenage
turmoil differ when it originates not just in adolescent rebellion but
in psychic necessity.
Originally screened at the WRT in April of 1996.
Thurs Jan 3: 3:15 & 7:15; Fri Jan 4: 5
JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY
Bert Stern, 1958; 82m
Brand-new 35mm color print struck from original
negative!
Bert Stern stood at the forefront of New York's photographic elite when
he made JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY, his first - and unfortunately, his only
- foray into filmmaking. Stern's still images have long since become the
stuff of art anthologies and gallery exhibitions, and his single movie
remains a classic to which few music festival documentaries can hold a
candle. This witty, insightful film gives us the Newport Jazz Festival
as it was celebrated in 1958, by a joyous, interracial crowd of
passionate jazz enthusiasts. Not only does Stern offer us performances
by artists of the highest caliber - many now gone - but he also frames
the faces of an audience from the Eisenhower era, as yet unmarked by
coming socio-political storms. As superb film art, musical event and
fascinating time capsule, JAZZ ON A SUMMER'S DAY is not to be missed!
Featuring: Louis Armstrong, Mahalia Jackson, Chuck Berry, Dinah
Washington, Thelonious Monk, Gerry Mulligan, Jimmy Giuffre, Anita O'Day,
Jack Teagarden, Chico Hamilton, Sonny Stitt, George Shearing, and Big
Maybelle.
Originally screened at the WRT in July of 1997.
Fri Jan 4: 1 & 9; Sat Jan 5: 10
GOODBYE SOUTH, GOODBYE
Hou Hsiao-hsien, Japan/Taiwan, 1996; 116m
Two small-time hoods try to set up a gambling den, but the competition
is too stiff. Should they head to Taiwan's "Wild West" - Shanghai, part
of a new China that might be receptive to their brand of business? Or
move further south, away from the power of the gangs that dominate their
world? One of cinema's most striking visual stylists, Hou Hsiao-hsien
(The Puppet Master, Good Men, Good Women) gives this tale of dashed
dreams a powerful historical resonance that links his characters to the
wholesale transformation of a society's values.
Originally screened at the WRT in October of 1999.
Fri Jan 4: 2:45 & 6:45
L'AMOUR FOU
Jacques Rivette, France, 1968; 256m
In his definitive study The New Wave, James Monaco calls L'AMOUR FOU
"Rivette's most easily accessible film and perhaps his most powerful."
The four-hour film chronicles the disintegration of a marriage, that of
theater director Jean-Pierre Kalfon and actress Bulle Ogier. But instead
of the private scenes that would dominate a conventional telling of such
a story, Rivette concentrates on the characters' professional milieu,
and the bare stage on which Kalfon's company is rehearsing for a
production of Racine's Andromaque. The levels of reality and immediacy
are further compounded by the additional presence of a documentary crew
filming the company's activity; Rivette intercuts his footage with
theirs, and leaves it to the viewer to determine which is the grittier,
"truer" record of public and private events. One of the landmark
achievements of the French New Wave.
Originally screened at the WRT in July of 1994.
Sat Jan 5: 5
WHY HAS BODHI-DHARMA LEFT FOR THE EAST?
(Brand-new 35mm print)
Bae Yong-Kyan, Korea, 1989; 135m
In the heart of the Korean mountains live three generations of monks: an
old Zen master, a young apprentice, and an orphan adopted by the aging
priest. Each perceives reality differently, and each makes his own
necessary journey to revelation. The octogenarian knows that his soul
will soon leave his body, while his student clings to mundane worries
about family and society. When the child accidentally kills a bird, he
comes to see life, death, and suffering as facets of one experience. A
meditation upon Zen Buddhist realities and mysteries, the recurring
motifs of fire, wind, and water emphasize the eternal cycles of birth,
death, and regeneration with a marvelous sense of visual poetry. Rhim
Hye-Kyung notes that there is "no room in this film for the superfluous,
only a mathematical precision of dramaturgies - of story, light, sound,
music. The overwhelming scenic beauty is indeed the contemplative; but
unlike Ozu, where tranquility implies a sadness at the transitory nature
of human existence, Bae's film is a vivid and affirmative engagement in
the recognition of this reality."
Originally screened at the WRT in March of 1994.
Sun Jan 6: 1:30; Tue Jan 8: 1
ROMEO AND JULIET
Paul Czinner, USA, 1965; 126m
It's not a stretch to call Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn the most
sublime of all dance partners and Sergei Prokofiev the most gifted
20th-century ballet composer. And so it goes without saying that the
1966 film version of the Royal Ballet production of Prokofiev's Romeo
and Juliet featuring Nureyev and Fonteyn as the star-crossed lovers is
an absolute must-see for anyone who cares a whit about the art. Director
Paul Czinner has made all the right moves, alternating between full
shots of the performers with long shots that accentuate how Kenneth
MacMillan's fastidious choreography is inexorably linked to the
characters, their story, the elaborate sets, and the viewer. Nicholas
Georgiadis's costumes are sumptuous without being overdone, the
supporting dancers and ensemble are as exquisite as the leads, and John
Lanchbery conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House with just the
right mixture of joviality and tragedy that Prokofiev's classic score
needs but doesn't always receive. - Kevin Filipski
Originally screened at the WRT in June of 2000.
Sun Jan 6: 4:15; Thurs Jan 10: 2:50
FLIRTATION / LIEBELEI
Max Ophüls, Germany, 1932; 88m
In turn-of-the-century Vienna, a young officer (Wolfgang Liebeneiner)
and the daughter of a violinist (Magda Schneider) fall in love and seem
to be destined for happiness. Then, a duel over a married woman puts the
lovers in jeopardy. Adapted from the play by Arthur Schnitzler, and
Ophüls' last German film before exile, Liebelei is a romantic excursion
into desire's unexpected detours. The young director's first success
shows that, from the start, he reveled in the way music and the moving
camera could celebrate the birth and demise of love. Ophüls' memorable
star was Romy Schneider's mother.
Originally screened at the WRT in July of 1999.
Sun Jan 6: 6:45; Thurs Jan 10: 1
A LIFE APART
Menachem Daum & Oren Rudavsky, narrated by Leonard Nimoy & Sarah Jessica
Parker, USA, 1996; 90m
The theme of this unusual film is "observing the observant," and it
offers a rare exploration of the complexities of Hasidic life. Those who
adhere to and those who stray from the life offered by Hasidic Orthodoxy
share their stories in this provocative account of Jewish religious life
in America. In presenting a history of Hasidic arrival and survival in
America, A LIFE APART opens a window into an insular world rarely seen
by outsiders.
Originally screened at the WRT in July of 1997.
Sun Jan 6: 8:30; Tue Jan 8: 3:45;
Thurs Jan 10: 5:15
SOUTH: ERNEST SHACKLETON AND THE ENDURANCE ADVENTURE
Frank Hurley, Antarctica,1919; 88m
Shot in 1919, this is one of the more extraordinary experiences you
might have at the movies this year. Reason one: the images of snowy and
stormy expanses and the members of Ernest Shackleton's expedition
fighting the elements to survive after they were trapped by pack ice are
like nothing else you'll see on any other movie screen. Reason two:
there's more drama in this documentary than in most works of fiction.
Reason three: the British Film Institute's restoration of the original
version of the film, tinted and toned, is breathtakingly beautiful.
Reason four: the musical accompaniment is by the Alloy Orchestra. Get
your tickets early.
The silent film program at the Walter Reade Theater is made possible
through the
generosity of The Ira M. Resnick Foundation.
Admission: non-members: $15; members: $12; children 12 and under: $8
Originally screened at the WRT in August of 2000.
Mon Jan 7: 6:30 & 9
AND LIFE GOES ON / VA ZENDEGI EDAMEH DARAD
Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1992; 91m
After the earthquake that devastated northern Iran in 1990, a filmmaker
and his son try to drive to the village of Koker, located in the heart
of the devastated area. Searching for two youths who played in his film
Where Is My Friend's House?, the director runs into all sorts of
difficulties as he shows stills from Kiarostami's film in hopes of
someone identifying the lost boys. At last, the artist comes to
understand that life - like the movies - reels splendidly on. . . .
Originally screened at the WRT in April of 1996.
Wed Jan 9: 1:30 & 6:15
DESTINY / EL-MASSIF
Youssef Chahine, Egypt, 1997; 135m
Muslim Andalusia, in the 12th century: Abu ibn Rushd, the great
philosopher known throughout Christian Europe as Averroës, inspires his
many young followers of all faiths to study the teachings of the
classical Greek philosophers. Yet there are those who condemn all such
speculation, seeing this kind of intellectual exploration and adventure
as an assault on religious orthodoxy. Awarded a special prize at Cannes
for his remarkable and incredibly courageous body of work, director
Youssef Chahine has created in DESTINY a deeply felt, exuberant
historical fresco with profound implications for today - and spiced it
all with a few rousing musical numbers.
Originally screened at the WRT in October of 1998.
Wed Jan 9: 3:30 & 8:15
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