Museum of Modern Arts, New York has announced their September screening schedule.Monday, September 7:
4:00 Romeo + Juliet 1996.
USA. Directed by Baz Luhrmann. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes.
This time, the star-crossed lovers find themselves in the midst of a
gangland battle when the rival Capulets and Montagues face off.
Luhrmann remained faithful to Shakespeare’s language, but he updated
the setting to modern-day “Verona Beach” and included a soundtrack
replete with classic rock, punk, and opera. 120 min. Part of the Recent
Film Acquisitions: Continuum film exhibition
4:30 Amarcord 1973.
Italy/France. Directed by Federico Fellini. Screenplay by Fellini,
Tonino Guerra. With Pupella Maggio, Magali Noël, Armando Brancia,
Ciccio Ingrassia. “After nearly a decade of descending into the
phantasmagorical murk, Federico Fellini re-emerged with this wistful
autobiographical dreamplay about his memories of growing up in an
Italian coastal village in the fascist 1930s. The movie is nostalgia
raised to the level of poetry. What lends it added poignance is that
Amarcord, with its indelible folk images (who could forget the peacock
in the snow?) and its sentimental evocation of small-town life, now
summons our own nostalgia for an era when art filmmakers could be
unblushing populists” (Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly). NYFCC
Best Picture, 1974 In Italian; English subtitles. 125 min. Part of the
Critical Favorites: The New York Film Critics Circle at 75 film
exhibition
7:00 The New World 2005.
USA. Written and directed by Terrence Malick. With Q’orianka Kilcher,
Christian Bale. Two worlds collide when seventeenth-century English
settlers inhabit Native American land in what would become Virginia.
The film focuses on the relationship between Captain John Smith and
Pocahontas, a young girl who acts as a bridge between the two
societies—and ultimately loses her place in both. 138 min. Part of the
Recent Film Acquisitions: Continuum film exhibition
8:00 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile
) 2007. Romania. Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu. With Anamaria
Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov, Alex Potocean. “Set two years
before the bloody downfall of the Ceausescu regime, Mungiu’s brilliant,
suspenseful exemplar of the new Romanian cinema tracks the ordeal, by
turns harrowing and surreal, of a college student’s efforts to
negotiate her best friend’s black-market abortion and that of the
abortion itself. Graced by superb performances and quietly stunning
camera work, Mungiu’s portrait of female friendship and oppression
becomes a window on a corrupt, brutalized society approaching total
collapse” (Karen Durbin, Elle). NYFCC Best Foreign Film, 2008 In
Romanian; English subtitles. 113 min. Part of the Critical Favorites:
The New York Film Critics Circle at 75 film exhibition
Wednesday, September 9:
1:30 Pre-Cinema – Origins of the Motion Picture 1956. USA. Produced by the United States Naval Photographic Center. 21 min.
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer 1975. USA. Directed by Thom Anderson. 60 min. Part of the An Auteurist History of Film exhibition
4:00 All About Eve 1950.
USA. Written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. With Bette Davis,
Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm. “Mankiewicz’s quintessential
backstager revived Davis’s career and gave Thelma Ritter and Marilyn
Monroe two of their earliest plum supporting roles. Almost sixty years
after its release, All About Eve remains one of the most quotable
movies ever made: Filled with venomous barbs about ego, ambition,
fame—and that nastiest of all species, the critic—the film says as much
about what it means to be a star as to be a fan” (Melissa Anderson, The
Village Voice). NYFCC Best Picture, 1950. 138 min. Part of the Critical
Favorites: The New York Film Critics Circle at 75 film exhibition
5:00 Elevated 2009.
USA. Directed by Doug Aitken, Guy Maddin, Bill Morrison, Matt Mullican,
William Wegman. Approx. 100 min. MoMA Premiere: Elevated
7:00 Moulin Rouge!
2001. USA. Directed by Baz Luhrmann. With Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor.
This glorious and wholly original reworking of the musical explores the
love affair between Satine, a courtesan, and Christian, a penniless
poet. Enter the Duke, a venal man whose riches rock Satine’s
unadulterated belief in true love. Again, Luhrmann uses contemporary
music to punctuate moments of great passion, exaggerated comedy, and
diabolical evil. Drawing on his background in opera production,
Luhrmann employed a visual and narrative technique he calls The Red
Curtain, bracketing the film within a theatrical setting. 127 min. Part
of the Recent Film Acquisitions: Continuum film exhibition
8:00 Elevated
2009. USA. Directed by Doug Aitken, Guy Maddin, Bill Morrison, Matt
Mullican, William Wegman. Approx. 100 min. MoMA Premiere: Elevated
Thursday, September 10:
1:30 Pre-Cinema – Origins of the Motion Picture 1956. USA. Produced by the United States Naval Photographic Center. 21 min.
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer 1975. USA. Directed by Thom Anderson. 60 min. Part of the An Auteurist History of Film exhibition
4:00 A Swedish Love Story (En kärlekshistoria )
1970. Sweden. Directed by Roy Andersson. With Ann-Sofie Kylin, Rolf
Sohlman, Anita Lindblom. Andersson’s first feature, his thesis film at
the Swedish Film Institute, was a great critical and popular success in
his home country. With the gorgeous Swedish summer as a backdrop, the
film portrays the pure love that arises between the daughter of a
refrigerator salesman and the son of a car mechanic, offering a glimpse
into the lives and homes of the people of the Swedish Social Democracy
during its heyday. Andersson’s debut is a typically stirring mélange of
comedy and melancholy, the quotidian and the absurd. In Swedish;
English subtitles. 119 min.
4:30 Les Diaboliques 1955.
France. Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. Screenplay by Clouzot,
Jérôme Géronimi, René Masson, Frédéric Grendel. With Simone Signoret,
Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel. “Les Diaboliques is to
bathtubs what Hitchcock’s Psycho is to showers. Clouzot’s
black-and-white chiller unfolds in a boys’ boarding school in rural
France, where the tyrannical headmaster is marked for murder in an
intricate plot hatched by his wife (Véra Clouzot, the director’s wife)
and mistress (Signoret). Suspense builds slowly as we come to realize
that nothing is as it seems at first. The 1996 Hollywood remake is best
forgotten” (V. A. Musetto, The New York Post). NYFCC Best Foreign Film,
1955. In French; English subtitles. 110 min. Part of the Critical
Favorites: The New York Film Critics Circle at 75 film exhibition
7:00 Songs from the Second Floor (Sånger från andra våningen )
2000. Sweden/Norway/Denmark. Directed by Roy Andersson. With Lars
Nordh, Stefan Larsson, Bengt C. W. Carlsson, Torbjörn Fahlström. In a
glorious return from his prolonged hiatus from filmmaking following the
1975 flop Giliap, Andersson won the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes for this
magnificent third feature. Consisting of sixty vignettes, all produced
by his own studio, the film takes the audience on a journey through a
post-industrial, post-religious society in a seemingly constant state
of purgatory—a society Andersson alternately blesses and rebukes. In
Swedish; English subtitles. 98 min. Part of the Filmmaker in Focus: Roy
Andersson film exhibition
8:00 My Uncle (Mon Oncle)
1958. France/Italy. Directed by Jacques Tati. Screenplay by Tati,
Jacques Lagrange, Jean L’Hôte. With Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola, Alain
Becourt, Adrienne Servanti. “Once a comic icon to rival Chaplin,
Jacques Tati has been increasingly overlooked in recent decades. And
yet his films, which chronicle the tug-of-war between nature and
technology, have never been more relevant. In 1958’s Oscar-winning Mon
Oncle, Tati’s everyman alter ego, Monsieur Hulot, navigates a
dehumanized modernity in which stark suburban mansions isolate
inhabitants obsessed by gadgetry. How prescient was Tati’s vision?
Answer that question the next time you bypass the bookstore for your
Kindle, or Twitter instead of talking” (Elizabeth Weitzman, New York
Daily News). NYFCC Best Foreign Film, 1958. In French; English
subtitles. 120 min. Part of the Critical Favorites: The New York Film
Critics Circle at 75 film exhibition
Friday, September 11:
1:30 Pre-Cinema – Origins of the Motion Picture 1956. USA. Produced by the United States Naval Photographic Center. 21 min.
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer 1975. USA. Directed by Thom Anderson. 60 min. Part of the An Auteurist History of Film exhibition
4:00 Student Films – Visiting One’s Son (Besöka sin son )
1967. Sweden. Directed by Roy Andersson. With Maud Backéus, Lars
Karlsteen, Kajsa Wilund, Peter Egge. Over the course of a meal, the
father of two adult children has an increasingly difficult time keeping
his opinions to himself and hiding his disapproval of his son’s
lifestyle—not to mention his mustache! In Swedish; English subtitles. 9
min.
To Fetch a Bike (Hämta en cykel
) 1968. Sweden. Directed by Roy Andersson. With Pierre Bené, Monica
Lööf. Even in this early short, Andersson proved to be a master at
portraying the drama of the quotidian. A minimalistic study of waking
up on the wrong side of the bed, To Fetch a Bike shows two young lovers
getting ready for a new day. Before the boyfriend can head to work, he
must first fetch his bike from the attic with the help of his genuinely
grumpy, monosyllabic girlfriend. In Swedish; English subtitles. 17 min.
Lördagen den 5.10
(Saturday October 5) 1969. Sweden. Directed by Roy Andersson. With Rose
Lagercrantz, Bernt Hedberg. Andersson captures the essence of an
easy-breezy weekend shared by two working-class lovers. Bernt meets his
sweet-as-pie girlfriend, Marianne, as she finishes her shift at the
bakery, and takes her to visit friends on the outskirts of town. The
girls horse around, the guys prepare the garden for winter, and
everyone goes for a brisk walk, leaving poor Marianne in bed with a
cold the following day. In Swedish; English subtitles. 48 min. Part of
the Filmmaker in Focus: Roy Andersson film exhibition
4:30 Wall-E
2008. USA. Directed by Andrew Stanton. Screenplay by Stanton, Jim
Reardon. With Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard.
“There’s never been anything in animation like the first forty minutes
of Wall-E, a magical juxtaposition of a joyous song from Hello, Dolly!
with a vision of a barren earth whose sole inhabitant—besides a
cockroach—is a little trash-compacting robot that can’t stop building
skyscrapers of garbage. And the latter section of the film, a satire of
rampant consumerism dressed up as genial comedy, redoubles the daring
of this Pixar masterpiece” (Joseph Morgenstern, The Wall Street
Journal). NYFCC Best Animated Film, 2008. 97 min. Part of the Critical
Favorites: The New York Film Critics Circle at 75 film exhibition
7:00 Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly (Babi buta yang ingin terbang
) 2008. Indonesia. Directed by Edwin. With Ladya Cheryl, Pong Harjatmo,
Carlo Genta. In a departure from the short films for which he is
celebrated, Edwin brings his prodigious talent for episodic,
kaleidoscopic storytelling to this compelling feature film. In a series
of minimal, slightly surreal tales, characters loosely linked by their
minority status as Chinese-Indonesians are set within a contemporary
urban Indonesia beset by social and racial tension. Past and present
are jumbled, and events are vaguely symbolic and doubtlessly—albeit
obscurely—connected to the violent political events playing out on TV.
In this expertly crafted universe, the one constant, bizarrely enough,
is Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You”—sung by each of
the characters at different points in the film. In Indonesian; English
subtitles. 77 min.
Dajang Soembi, the Woman Who Was Married to a Dog (Dajang Soembi, perempoean jang dikawini andjing)
2004. Indonesia. Directed by Edwin. Following the examples of silent
cinema, Indonesian filmmaker Edwin uses expressionistic sets
reminiscent of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and plot overtones of
Oedipus Rex to retell an Indonesian folk tale about a beautiful but
dull-witted princess who marries a dog. In Indonesian; English
subtitles. 7 min. Part of the ContemporAsian film exhibition
8:00 Gilliap
1975. Sweden. Directed by Roy Andersson. With Thommy Berggren, Mona
Seilitz, Wille Andréason. Giliap, the new waiter at the gloomy Hotel
Busarewski, unknowingly initiates a peculiar love triangle when he
falls in love with a beautiful waitress who may or may not already be
involved with a curious Captain Hook–like character known as The Count.
Andersson describes the film as his fabulous flop: three years in the
making, it went over budget and bombed at the box office, rendering
Andersson persona non grata of the Swedish film industry for
twenty-five years. However misunderstood it was in his home country,
the film was praised abroad and makes a beautiful, if perplexing,
epilogue to A Swedish Love Story. In Swedish; English subtitles. 137
min. Part of the Filmmaker in Focus: Roy Andersson film exhibition
Saturday, September 12:
1:30 Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly (Babi
buta yang ingin terbang ) 2008. Indonesia. Directed by Edwin. With
Ladya Cheryl, Pong Harjatmo, Carlo Genta. In a departure from the short
films for which he is celebrated, Edwin brings his prodigious talent
for episodic, kaleidoscopic storytelling to this compelling feature
film. In a series of minimal, slightly surreal tales, characters
loosely linked by their minority status as Chinese-Indonesians are set
within a contemporary urban Indonesia beset by social and racial
tension. Past and present are jumbled, and events are vaguely symbolic
and doubtlessly—albeit obscurely—connected to the violent political
events playing out on TV. In this expertly crafted universe, the one
constant, bizarrely enough, is Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I
Love You”—sung by each of the characters at different points in the
film. In Indonesian; English subtitles. 77 min.
Dajang Soembi, the Woman Who Was Married to a Dog (Dajang Soembi, perempoean jang dikawini andjing)
2004. Indonesia. Directed by Edwin. Following the examples of silent
cinema, Indonesian filmmaker Edwin uses expressionistic sets
reminiscent of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and plot overtones of
Oedipus Rex to retell an Indonesian folk tale about a beautiful but
dull-witted princess who marries a dog. In Indonesian; English
subtitles. 7 min. Part of the ContemporAsian film exhibition
2:00 All About Eve 1950.
USA. Written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. With Bette Davis,
Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm. “Mankiewicz’s quintessential
backstager revived Davis’s career and gave Thelma Ritter and Marilyn
Monroe two of their earliest plum supporting roles. Almost sixty years
after its release, All About Eve remains one of the most quotable
movies ever made: Filled with venomous barbs about ego, ambition,
fame—and that nastiest of all species, the critic—the film says as much
about what it means to be a star as to be a fan” (Melissa Anderson, The
Village Voice). NYFCC Best Picture, 1950. 138 min. Part of the Critical
Favorites: The New York Film Critics Circle at 75 film exhibition
4:00 Short Films and Commercials – World of Glory Härlig är jorden 1991.
Sweden. Directed by Roy Andersson. With Klas-Gösta Olsson, Lennart
Björklund, Christer Christensen. The opening scene of World of Glory is
hard to forget, as Andersson reconstructs a brutal forerunner of the
gas chamber: vans in which gas from the motor was piped into the
storage compartment. As with Something Happened, Andersson explores the
tragedies of recent history, where the most inhumane of events are
portrayed with the most humane of approaches. In Swedish; English
subtitles. 14 min.
Something Happened (Någonting
har hänt ) 1987. Sweden. Directed by Roy Andersson. With Klas-Gösta
Olsson, Anne Tubin, Lennart Björklund. Commissioned by the Swedish
National Board of Health and Welfare as an educational film on AIDS for
Swedish schools, Something Happened was rejected for being too dark for
the Board’s tastes. First and foremost a biting critique of Western
society’s response to the disease—largely focusing on fruitless efforts
to place blame on someone, somewhere—the film is also surprisingly
funny, as Andersson finds unexpected humor in the paralyzing apathy
that follows crises. In Swedish; English subtitles. 24 min.
A
Program of Selected Commercials Sweden. Directed by Roy Andersson. In
Swedish; English subtitles. 30 min. Part of the Filmmaker in Focus: Roy
Andersson film exhibition
5:00 Amarcord 1973.
Italy/France. Directed by Federico Fellini. Screenplay by Fellini,
Tonino Guerra. With Pupella Maggio, Magali Noël, Armando Brancia,
Ciccio Ingrassia. “After nearly a decade of descending into the
phantasmagorical murk, Federico Fellini re-emerged with this wistful
autobiographical dreamplay about his memories of growing up in an
Italian coastal village in the fascist 1930s. The movie is nostalgia
raised to the level of poetry. What lends it added poignance is that
Amarcord, with its indelible folk images (who could forget the peacock
in the snow?) and its sentimental evocation of small-town life, now
summons our own nostalgia for an era when art filmmakers could be
unblushing populists” (Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly). NYFCC
Best Picture, 1974 In Italian; English subtitles. 125 min. Part of the
Critical Favorites: The New York Film Critics Circle at 75 film
exhibition
6:30 Tomorrow’s Another Day (Det är en Dag Imorgen Också
) 2009. Swden. Directed by Johan Carlsson, Pehr Arte. Shot during the
making of You, the Living, Carlsson and Arte’s compelling documentary
illustrates the unique working environment and collaborative spirit
that characterizes a Roy Andersson film. Members of “The Team” in
various capacities for over twenty years, the filmmakers had intimate
access to all involved. Their understanding of the working energies of
Studio 24 and of the synergy between Andersson and his young
collaborators placed them in the ideal position to illuminate the inner
workings of the director’s creative process. In Swedish; English
subtitles. 60 min. Part of the Filmmaker in Focus: Roy Andersson film
exhibition
8:00 A Clockwork Orange 1971.
Great Britain. Written and directed by Stanley Kubrick. With Malcolm
McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke. “A notorious
1971 movie based on a scandalous 1962 book, Kubrick’s A Clockwork
Orange went its own way in explicating the violent abandon of Alex
(McDowell) and his vicious droogs, who beat, rape, and rob their way
across a moonscaped London to the strains of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
(and “Singin’ in the Rain”). Although his film was condemned for its
futuristic/nihilistic view of humanity-to-be, and long banned in
Britain for a copycat assault, Kubrick’s argument was an aesthetic one:
Alex, a derailed aesthete at heart, was really a victim of bad taste.
It’s the visual gag in what remains an alarming movie” (John Anderson,
Newsday/Variety). NYFCC Best Picture, 1971. 137 min. Part of the
Critical Favorites: The New York Film Critics Circle at 75 film
exhibition
You, the Living (Du levande)
2007. Sweden/Germany/France/ Denmark/Norway. Directed by Roy Andersson.
With Jessika Lundberg, Elisabeth Helander, Björn Englund, Leif Larsson.
The soft oompahs of the tuba (in a score composed by Benny Andersson of
ABBA) provide the perfect background music for the numb, maladroit
characters in You, the Living, as if to soothe their quiet despair. One
woman claims that no one understands her to the muffled protests of her
lover and her mother, while a young groupie is in constant search for
her boyfriend at a bar that’s seemingly always about to close. As in
Andersson’s short films and Songs from the Second Floor, references to
human catastrophe and horrible wrongdoings abound; look out for the
tablecloth trick that goes terribly awry! In Swedish; English
subtitles. 93 min. Part of the Filmmaker in Focus: Roy Andersson film
exhibition
Sunday, September 13:
2:00 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 saptamâni si 2 zile )
2007. Romania. Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu. With Anamaria
Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov, Alex Potocean. “Set two years
before the bloody downfall of the Ceausescu regime, Mungiu’s brilliant,
suspenseful exemplar of the new Romanian cinema tracks the ordeal, by
turns harrowing and surreal, of a college student’s efforts to
negotiate her best friend’s black-market abortion and that of the
abortion itself. Graced by superb performances and quietly stunning
camera work, Mungiu’s portrait of female friendship and oppression
becomes a window on a corrupt, brutalized society approaching total
collapse” (Karen Durbin, Elle). NYFCC Best Foreign Film, 2008 In
Romanian; English subtitles. 113 min. Part of the Critical Favorites:
The New York Film Critics Circle at 75 film exhibition
2:30 A Swedish Love Story (En kärlekshistoria )
1970. Sweden. Directed by Roy Andersson. With Ann-Sofie Kylin, Rolf
Sohlman, Anita Lindblom. Andersson’s first feature, his thesis film at
the Swedish Film Institute, was a great critical and popular success in
his home country. With the gorgeous Swedish summer as a backdrop, the
film portrays the pure love that arises between the daughter of a
refrigerator salesman and the son of a car mechanic, offering a glimpse
into the lives and homes of the people of the Swedish Social Democracy
during its heyday. Andersson’s debut is a typically stirring mélange of
comedy and melancholy, the quotidian and the absurd. In Swedish;
English subtitles. 119 min. Part of the Filmmaker in Focus: Roy
Andersson film exhibition
5:00 Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly (Babi buta yang ingin terbang )
2008. Indonesia. Directed by Edwin. With Ladya Cheryl, Pong Harjatmo,
Carlo Genta. In a departure from the short films for which he is
celebrated, Edwin brings his prodigious talent for episodic,
kaleidoscopic storytelling to this compelling feature film. In a series
of minimal, slightly surreal tales, characters loosely linked by their
minority status as Chinese-Indonesians are set within a contemporary
urban Indonesia beset by social and racial tension. Past and present
are jumbled, and events are vaguely symbolic and doubtlessly—albeit
obscurely—connected to the violent political events playing out on TV.
In this expertly crafted universe, the one constant, bizarrely enough,
is Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You”—sung by each of
the characters at different points in the film. In Indonesian; English
subtitles. 77 min.
Dajang Soembi, the Woman Who Was Married to a Dog (Dajang Soembi, perempoean jang dikawini andjing)
2004. Indonesia. Directed by Edwin. Following the examples of silent
cinema, Indonesian filmmaker Edwin uses expressionistic sets
reminiscent of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and plot overtones of
Oedipus Rex to retell an Indonesian folk tale about a beautiful but
dull-witted princess who marries a dog. In Indonesian; English
subtitles. 7 min. Part of the ContemporAsian film exhibition
5:30 Adalen Riots (Ådalen ’31
) 1969. Sweden. Written and directed by Bo Widerber. With Peter
Schildt, Kerstin Tidelius, Roland Hedlund. Right before Andersson made
his own debut feature, he worked as assistant director to Bo Widerberg
on this film, which is based on the notorious 1931 strikes in a small
town in northern Sweden during which five workers were killed by the
military. Widerberg’s realistic depiction of class conflict and his
ability to situate people within a distinct environment would carry
over into Andersson’s own work. Adalen Riots was awarded the Grand Jury
Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and received an Oscar nomination. In
Swedish; English subtitles. 113 min. Part of the Filmmaker in Focus:
Roy Andersson film exhibition
Monday, September 14:
4:00 Gilliap 1975.
Sweden. Directed by Roy Andersson. With Thommy Berggren, Mona Seilitz,
Wille Andréason. Giliap, the new waiter at the gloomy Hotel Busarewski,
unknowingly initiates a peculiar love triangle when he falls in love
with a beautiful waitress who may or may not already be involved with a
curious Captain Hook–like character known as The Count. Andersson
describes the film as his fabulous flop: three years in the making, it
went over budget and bombed at the box office, rendering Andersson
persona non grata of the Swedish film industry for twenty-five years.
However misunderstood it was in his home country, the film was praised
abroad and makes a beautiful, if perplexing, epilogue to A Swedish Love
Story. In Swedish; English subtitles. 137 min. Part of the Filmmaker in
Focus: Roy Andersson film exhibition
4:30 Hannah and Her Sisters 1986.
USA. Written and directed by Woody Allen. With Allen, Michael Caine,
Mia Farrow, Carrie Fisher. “Released in a year of filming dangerously
(Blue Velvet, River’s Edge), Allen’s career-high romantic roundelay
achieves the bold by, paradoxically, hewing within the boundaries. The
setup is Chekhovian, even conventional: A trio of urbanite sisters is
psychologically transformed by middle age, marriage, and personal need.
And still, the drama that Allen mines, from his strongest ensemble cast
to date and a vivid New York City, yields a grace that’s close to
mysterious” (Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York). NYFCC Best Picture,
1986. 106 min. Part of the Critical Favorites: The New York Film
Critics Circle at 75 film exhibition
7:00 Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly (Babi buta yang ingin terbang
) 2008. Indonesia. Directed by Edwin. With Ladya Cheryl, Pong Harjatmo,
Carlo Genta. In a departure from the short films for which he is
celebrated, Edwin brings his prodigious talent for episodic,
kaleidoscopic storytelling to this compelling feature film. In a series
of minimal, slightly surreal tales, characters loosely linked by their
minority status as Chinese-Indonesians are set within a contemporary
urban Indonesia beset by social and racial tension. Past and present
are jumbled, and events are vaguely symbolic and doubtlessly—albeit
obscurely—connected to the violent political events playing out on TV.
In this expertly crafted universe, the one constant, bizarrely enough,
is Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You”—sung by each of
the characters at different points in the film. In Indonesian; English
subtitles. 77 min.
Dajang Soembi, the Woman Who Was Married to a Dog (Dajang Soembi, perempoean jang dikawini andjing)
2004. Indonesia. Directed by Edwin. Following the examples of silent
cinema, Indonesian filmmaker Edwin uses expressionistic sets
reminiscent of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and plot overtones of
Oedipus Rex to retell an Indonesian folk tale about a beautiful but
dull-witted princess who marries a dog. In Indonesian; English
subtitles. 7 min. Part of the ContemporAsian film exhibition
8:00 You, the Living (Du levande)
2007. Sweden/Germany/France/ Denmark/Norway. Directed by Roy Andersson.
With Jessika Lundberg, Elisabeth Helander, Björn Englund, Leif Larsson.
The soft oompahs of the tuba (in a score composed by Benny Andersson of
ABBA) provide the perfect background music for the numb, maladroit
characters in You, the Living, as if to soothe their quiet despair. One
woman claims that no one understands her to the muffled protests of her
lover and her mother, while a young groupie is in constant search for
her boyfriend at a bar that’s seemingly always about to close. As in
Andersson’s short films and Songs from the Second Floor, references to
human catastrophe and horrible wrongdoings abound; look out for the
tablecloth trick that goes terribly awry! In Swedish; English
subtitles. 93 min. Part of the Filmmaker in Focus: Roy Andersson film
exhibition
Public Information: The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, New York, NY 10019
Hours: Films are screened Wednesday-Monday. For screening schedules, please visit www.moma.org.
Film
Admission: $10 adults; $8 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D. $6
full-time students with current I.D. (For admittance to film programs
only.) The price of a film ticket may be applied toward the price of a
Museum admission ticket when a film ticket stub is presented at the
Lobby Information Desk within 30 days of the date on the stub (does not
apply during Target Free Friday Nights, 4:00–8:00 p.m.). Admission is
free for Museum members and for Museum ticketholders.
http://www.moma.org/visit_moma/admissions.html#filmtickets
http://www.moma.org/calendar/film_screenings.php