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Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg) at Lincoln Square. Having seen this immediately after
Great World of Sound, I arrived during the first trailer and the place was utterly packed. I thought I was going to have to sit directly underneath the screen, but realized even standing at the back would be better. I eventually headed up to the balcony to sit pretty far to the right.
At least on first viewing, this was my favorite Cronenberg movie. I suppose some knowledge of what to expect helped during the gruesome violence, which was not out of place for a director so focused on the body--and its deformation. Appropriate then that the story centers around the infant child (viewed at a very early, gooey stage) of a dead mother and a graphically bloody birth.
I like how Cronenberg leaves so much unfinished here; it's makes for a very rich experience to walk away with so many mysteries unsolved, still running around in your head.
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Helvetica (Gary Hustwit) at the IFC Center. My melatonin levels must skyrocket at about 6:15 pm because invariably when I see a movie after work I'm tempted to catnap for about ten minutes at roughly that time, popping awake afterward and feeling wide awake until 1 am or whenever I fall asleep. I had a particularly acute case of this last Monday when I saw
Helvetica, which is really too bad because I liked it quite a bit. Specifically I liked the feeling I had upon leaving the theater, of my senses being a little sharper for the time spent gaining insight into the design of the world around me.
Note: I've managed for some reason to see each of the three films Gary Hustwit has released theatrically as a producer or director, including as well the Wilco documentary,
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, and
Moog. It just strikes me as an interesting coincidence.
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Brother, Can You Spare Some Time (Ernie Gehr) at MoMA. This was a collection of four silent pieces, collectively a sort of "city symphony," shot in the 1970s but not shown until recently, when Gehr transferred them from 16mm to digital video. The locations include Essex Street Market, a lunch counter, the subway, and a time-lapsed fire escape. The first three provided interesting glimpses into a different version of New York City, most strikingly for me the heavily graffiti'd (inside and out) subway cars.
Gehr also helped organize the
Panoramas of the Moving Image exhibit, full of magic lantern images and kaleidoscopic projections, currently on display outside the MoMA theaters.
John Schott showed us Gehr's "Serene Velocity," a series of intercut
static shots of hallway at various distances from the end, at the Walker Art Center for an avant-garde cinema class at Carleton. This was a more coherent experience, though perhaps not quite as memorable. MoMA is showing more of his stuff through next March.
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My Brother's Wedding (Charles Burnett) at the IFC Center. I'm not sure what to think. The performances seemed nowhere near the level of those in
Killer of Sheep. I'm not sure what I'd think seeing these for the first time in reverse order.
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Adam's Rib (George Cukor) at MoMA. I think I'm just going to avoid Katharine Hepburn from now on. Maybe it's just the particular films I've seen, but the characters she plays (clueless about her elevated social standing and why people resent her for it) seem rather loathsome to me. There were a lot of funny moments, though absolutely none of them involved David Wayne, who plays the awful pianist/songwriter who lives next door.
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Labels: Film, Lists
