Films etc.

Earlier this week I finally saw Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a documentary that’s been showing in NYC since early March. I had intended to see it before now, but other films always got in the way. For instance, I saw Battleship before seeing this, a film that’s about nothing and means even less. What can I say? In any event, Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a really great film about 85 year-old Jiro Ono, who manages Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat sushi-only restaurant located in a Tokyo subway station. Which might not sound like much, but Jiro is thought by many to be the greatest sushi chef in the world, and his restaurant has 3-star Michelin status. Reservations need to be made at least a month in advance. Foodies come from around the world  just to get one of the ten seats at the counter. A whole world is packed into the film’s 82-minute running time. We learn about Jiro’s approach to life, work, and preparing the best sushi possible. He believes he can always improve; this is what he strives for daily, and he passes this work ethic on to his apprentices in the sushi bar. The film, a first feature directed by David Gelb, is a true pleasure to experience. The soundtrack (music by Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Bach, Max Richter, and a lot of Philip Glass), and the way it’s utilized, along with frequent slow-motion in close-ups of the sushi preparation, play a big part in the effect the film has. (Jiro Dreams of Sushi will be released on DVD on July 24, 2012.)

What’s interesting to me is that I don’t eat fish, cooked or raw, but I was completely captivated by Jiro Dreams of Sushi, mainly by the presence of Jiro himself. This has me thinking about what makes a great documentary, and for me it’s almost always when there’s a strong central character at the heart of it. Yes, I like films that tackle big subjects, such as An Inconvenient Truth and Fahrenheit 9/11, but when the focus is on someone like New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham, Formula One race driver Ayrton Senna, or Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash, it’s more human, more personal, and I can get engaged on an emotional level.

Sometimes I go in knowing virtually nothing about the person the film is about, or what they do. It’s pretty cool when I can come out of the theater having learned something new, and feeling better for having seen the film. That definitely happened last year with Senna, a British film about Brazilian race-car champion Ayrton Senna. I don’t follow Formula One racing, don’t know much about it, and had never heard of Senna. But this didn’t matter, because Senna himself is so charismatic, so alive, a great driver, a national hero in Brazil, and so young, really, that even though I knew going in that the film was leading toward his death, I was hoping it wouldn’t happen. I got very caught up in his story. The film consists almost entirely of existing footage, put together in a way that feels very immediate.  (Senna is available on DVD, Amazon Instant View, and streaming from Netflix.)

Gerhard Richter Painting is another example of my knowing basically nothing going in. I’d never heard of Gerhard Richter before, which says more about my own unawareness than anything else, as I’ve since learned that he’s quite famous in the art world. The film, directed by Corinna Belz, lives up to it title as we watch Richter painting for long stretches. This might sound boring (like watching paint dry, so to speak), but believe me, it’s not. Richter is a fascinating personality, someone who speaks very articulately about what he does. For him, painting is a process of discovery. As he says, the painting tells him when it’s finished. (A DVD release is not yet scheduled, as far I can find; the film is still in theaters.)

Pina, Wim Wenders’ extraordinary film about choreographer Pina Bausch and her dance company also took me to a place I hadn’t been before. When I think of dance, my points of reference have been Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Broadway musical numbers, and maybe ballet. Modern dance has been a bit beyond me; I’ve never understood it. Pina really turned my head around. There is a lot of performance in this film, performance staged specifically for the film in locales outside a theater where they wouldn’t otherwise take place. Wenders shot it in 3D, and it’s one of the best uses of that format I’ve seen to date. Bausch died during the film’s preparation, but she’s still the central character, present in archival footage, the interviews with her collaborators and dancers in the company, and in the performances themselves. The effect of the dances is hypnotic, exciting, dynamic, and at times deeply strange and unsettling. In other words, definitely worth seeing. (Pina is currently available on Amazon Instant View; I can’t find any other sources at this time.)

There were three documentaries released last year that I absolutely loved. All three are excellent examples of having a strong central character, someone you come to care about and would like to know. The first is Buck, directed by Cindy Meehl, about real-life “horse whisperer” Buck Brannaman. His life and work are extraordinary. He treats horses with the greatest respect, the same way he deals with the people in his life. He seems to come from a place of such patient calm and understanding that he’s almost too good to be true. (Buck is available on DVD, Amazon Instant View, and streaming via Netflix.)

Bill Cunningham New York, directed by Richard Press, profiles photographer Bill Cunningham, noted for his “On the Street” and “Evening Hours” spreads in the New York Times Style section. Eccentric and immensely likable, Cunningham at age 83 gets around the city on a bicycle, and still shoots 35mm film, which he has developed at a small photo shop down the block. In addition to his candid photos of celebrities at events, he’s noted for his ability to spot styles and trends via his street photography. There’s an interview near the end, in which he’s asked about, among other things, his religious views and his relationships, which is quite moving. (Bill Cunningham New York is available on DVD, Amazon Instant View, and streaming via Netflix.)

Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey, directed by Constance Marks, focuses on Kevin Clash, the puppeteer behind Elmo on Sesame Street, and how he came to realize a childhood dream. As a boy in Baltimore he began building his own puppets and putting on shows for friends. He then got work on a local television station, which led to time on the Captain Kangaroo series, where Muppet designer Kermit Love noticed him, and Kevin’s dream of working for Jim Henson finally came true. One of the film’s strongest moments is near the end when Kevin is on the phone encouraging a young, aspiring puppeteer, inviting her to come to New York to visit the studio, which she does. It’s always inspiring to me to see someone who’s “made it” pass his or her knowledge on to someone younger. Kevin Clash is a teacher and an inspiration in the strongest sense. (Being Elmo is available on DVD, Amazon Instant View, and streaming via Netflix.)

Finally, to wrap up this little survey of recent documentaries I’ve liked, I want to mention one I enjoyed immensely, Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, directed by Alex Stapleton. I saw this last fall at the New York Film Festival, with Roger Corman in attendance for a Q&A with the director after the screening. I hadn’t known he would be there, and was startled when I nearly ran into him head on as I was rushing out to get popcorn before the film started. Quite a kick. It’s hard to believe he’s now 86, as he appears youthfully vibrant, with his mellifluous voice intact, and he’s still working today, producing TV movies for the SyFy Channel.  His career as a writer/director/producer of low-budget genre films kicked off in the mid-1950s with such titles as Swamp Women, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, and The Wasp Woman.

I vividly remember his series of films based (very loosely) on the works of Edgar Allen Poe, which began with House of Usher in 1960, a film in color and wide screen that got a lot of attention at the time for Corman and American-International Pictures. A film of his that has a legitimate claim to “seriousness” is The Intruder (1962), starring a very young William Shatner (before he’d acquired many of his mannerisms) as an outside agitator stirring up racial hatred in a Southern town on the eve of integration in the high school. Corman has said that this is the only film of his to ever lose money.

He has been enormously influential as a producer and mentor to new talent. Some of the directors and writers who got their starts with Roger Corman include Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard Jonathan Demme, James Cameron, and John Sayles, as well as actors Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper and Robert De Niro, among others. Many of these are interviewed in Corman’s World, including Jack Nicholson in an amazing segment, appearing totally open, candid, and relaxed. The film is also a treasure trove of clips for those of us who grew up with Corman’s films, and an eye-opener for those who didn’t. (Corman’s World is available on DVD and Amazon Instant View.)

Below is a clip of Corman at the New York Film Festival screening of the documentary, introducing the film with the director,  and the Q&A following.

I realize I haven’t talked much about these documentaries as films. While I think that the subject of a documentary is the most important element — everything comes from that — it’s obviously necessary that the film be well made if it’s going to have much impact. Suffice it to say that all of these films are definitely well made, and artfully so. – Ted Hicks

Sunday, May 6. First Position at the Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center. Director/Producer: Bess Kargman. This award-winning documentary, which follows six young ballet dancers as they prepare for the final round of the Youth America Grand Prix dance competition, intends to be inspiring, and it is. It’s impossible not to get involved with these young people. They come from vastly different backgrounds, and range in age from 10 to 17. The filmmakers followed them for a year, in their homes and rehearsal studios in locales around the globe. There are tears and set-backs, as you would expect, and the final competition at City Center in New York is a nail-biter, but it all pays off in the end. A DVD release is expected in the fall, and it’s available now on Video on Demand, if you can’t see it in a theater.

Monday, May 7. Climates (2006) at the Walter Reade Theater. Director/Writer: Nuri Bilge Ceylon (Distant – 2002, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia – 2011). I first saw this at the NY Film Festival in 2006, and was really knocked out by it. Climates was being shown last week as part of a Turkish film series at the Walter Reade Theater, so I thought I’d see it again. It holds up well. The film opens with Isa, a college professor, and his girlfriend, Bahar, who works on a television series, on vacation at the sea shore. From the start it’s obvious their relationship is in trouble. They break up on the way back to Istanbul, and the film follows Isa as he attempts to get back together with Bahar. Ceylon favors long takes, entire scenes shot with single-camera set-ups. The pacing is deliberate, though I didn’t find it slow. Ceylon is one of a number of very interesting Turkish directors working today. Besides Ceylon’s films, I especially like those of Fatih Akin. I’ve seen three of his films, Head-On (2004), The Edge of Heaven (2007), and Soul Kitchen (2009), each of them excellent. They have a different kind of energy — punchier, faster — than Ceylon’s, which are more cerebral. Climates is available on home video through Amazon Instant Video and Netflix.

Tuesday, May 8. Bernie at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. Director/Co-Writer: Richard Linklater. Jack Black can be too much for me at times, but he’s great as the title character in this film, which is based on a true story set in Carthage, Texas in the mid-1990s. Bernie Tiede is an assistant funeral director, and the best-loved man in town, always helping others in every way possible. He befriends recently widowed Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine, very convincing as possibly the most-hated woman in town) and becomes her close companion before shooting her four times in the back, then stuffing her body in a food freezer in the garage, where she was found nine months later. Matthew McConaughy plays Danny Buck Davidson, the DA who brings Bernie to trial. His performance seemed a bit exaggerated at first, but didn’t bother me later on (McConaughy was terrific in last year’s Lincoln Lawyer). Interviews with actual residents of Carthage commenting on the story are interspersed throughout, comprising approximately 40% of the running time. The mixture of documentary with dramatized events has an unusual effect. What is this we’re seeing, really? I found the movie fascinating.

Thursday, May 10. Polisse at the Broadway Screening Room. Director/Co-Writer: Maïween (full name: Maïween LeBesco). This film (the title is a child’s spelling of “police”) focuses on the Child Protection Unit (CPU) of the Paris police department. Since the CPU investigates cases of children who’ve been abused sexually, physically, and emotionally, the experience of the film is intense, to say the least. There are no extended car chases, no shootouts; it’s not that kind of cop movie. The members of the CPU, male and female, form a close-knit family. We see them at work, at meals, after hours in bars and at parties, and sometimes at each others’ throats. The film really takes you through all this. We get to know these people, empathize with them and care about them. Polisse might sound like a downer, but it wasn’t for me. I’m exhilarated by filmmaking like this, that pushes me back in my seat and really gets my attention. ** Polisse opens on Friday, May 18 in New York.  UPDATE: Polisse will be available via Video on Demand starting May 25. Also, here’s a link to an interview with the director about the film: http://www.tribecafilm.com/news-features/Polisse_Maiwenn.html#.T7QArL_R2oA 

Friday, May 11. Dark Shadows at AMC Loews 84th Street. Director: Tim Burton. As a big fan of the original Dark Shadows TV series, as well as Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, I obviously had no choice but to see this new version. I was apprehensive, though, since the trailers indicated a jokey, campy approach. As laughable as the series could sometimes be — shot live on tape with no retakes, with every miscue, shaky tombstone, and exposed mic boom preserved for posterity — the intentions were still serious. But I always trust Tim Burton to bring something special to the party, especially in his films with Johnny Depp. Theirs is one of the great director/actor collaborations. Okay, so how was this one? I liked the first half quite a lot, and Johnny Depp is great throughout. But after a promising set up, the story lets down badly, becomes rushed and chaotic. That said, there’s still a lot to like. After being turned into a vampire and chained in a coffin for 200 years, Depp’s Barnabas Collins is released to find himself in 1972. This undead-stranger-in-a-strange-land premise is probably the most interesting thing about Dark Shadows, and Burton uses the period for all it’s worth. I just wish it had been a better movie overall.

Saturday, May 12. Grand Illusion (1937) at Film Forum. Director: Jean Renoir. One of my all-time favorite films, and one of the greatest films ever made. Seriously. The print being shown was made from a digital 4K restoration of the original nitrate negative, long thought lost, but which had been in a film archive in Moscow since 1945. The negative was used for the previous restoration in 1997, which was excellent, but this one is even better. Grand Illusion follows three French flyers (Jean Gabin, Marcel Dalio, Pierre Fresnay) in World War I through their captivity and attempts to escape from German prison camps. Erich von Stroheim plays the commandant of their final prison, a castle in the mountains. The performances are excellent. The anti-war message never hits you over the head, but is implicit in the humanity that permeates the film. There’s little I can say about Grand Illusion that hasn’t already been said. You’ve probably seen it at least once, so you already know how good it is. If you haven’t seen it, it’s showing at Film Forum through May 24, and is also available on DVD. I envy anyone seeing this film for the first time. – Ted Hicks

Monday, April 30. The Raven at AMC Loews 84th Street. Directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta, 2006). Not so good. John Cusack is credible as Edgar Allan Poe spending the last several days of his life trying to track down a serial killer who is using Poe’s stories as inspiration. Cusack is a very good actor, and I would like to have seen him as Poe in a better movie. This one is all over the place. I saw it a week ago, and I can’t even remember what the killer’s motivation was. Brendan Gleeson is good as the antagonistic father of Poe’s love interest, as is Luke Evans as a Baltimore policeman employing some pre-CSI forensic methods, and there is some interesting atmosphere from time to time. But that’s not enough, I’m afraid.

Wednesday, May 2. Bonjour Tristesse (1958)at Film Forum. Directed by Otto Preminger. Didn’t like it as much as the first time I saw it, but it’s still a very interesting film. Starring Jean Seberg (a very strong presence in her second film role) and David Niven as her playboy father, with Deborah Kerr as the woman who threatens to upset their free-living life style on the French Riviera. This is a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) restoration, so the picture is clean and crisp to an almost surreal degree. Showing at Film Forum in NYC through Thursday, May 10. Also showing on TCM on Sunday, June 17 @ 10:00 am EST.

Thursday, May 3. I Wish at the Broadway Screening Room. Director/Writer: Hirozaki Kore-eda, 2011. This Japanese film is wonderful. Koichi, 12 years-old, lives with his divorced mother and grandparents, while his younger brother Ryu lives with their father many miles away. Koichi’s efforts to see his brother and reunite his parents motivate the story. I liked the film from the start, but it really kicked in for me at about the half-way mark, and then I was totally with it. An active volcano, a new bullet-train line, and the kindness of strangers play important parts along the way. I Wish opens this Friday, May 11 in New York and Los Angeles. The performances are amazing. I can’t recommend it enough.

Friday, May 4. The Avengers at AMC Loews 84th Street. Director/Co-Writer: Joss Whedon. It’s a little unwieldy at times, but I basically loved it. Joss Whedon was the main draw for me, as I’m a big fan of his TV work,  especially Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He’s great with dialogue and messing with genre expectations in very inventive ways. The strongest parts of The Avengers — more so than the action set-pieces — are when this mismatched group of superheroes, and the egos and anxieties they bring with them, are just standing around talking. Whedon can take what would be otherwise preposterous situations and make them believable through dialogue and real emotions. Okay, I know we’ve been overrun by too many comic book superhero movies with increasingly elaborate special effects, but this one is definitely several cuts above the rest. See it, and add to the $200 million dollars it’s already taken in this weekend. P.S. The end credits go on for a very long time, and you’ll want to leave before they’re over (as I nearly did). But try to hang in all the way through, because there’s a really great scene tagged on at the end. Trust me, it’s worth it.

Saturday, May 5. Marnie (1964) at the IFC Center. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Didn’t like it when I saw it in ’58, and seeing it again has done nothing to change my mind. Hitchcock has made some truly great films (Vertigo, Shadow of a Doubt, and Psycho, to name but three), but I think Marnie fails badly. Seeing Sean Connery in the midst of his James Bond career has its interest, but the psychology of the film is simplistic and heavy-handed. Not to mention Hitchcock’s penchant for obviously painted backdrops and rear-projection during scenes of people driving in cars and horseback riding. I know this was a common practice in the past, but its really distracting in this film. On the plus side, the digital projection makes it look like it’s brand new. That’s not enough reason to see it, though. But if you must, the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria is showing it on the big screen on Saturday, May 12 @ 2:00 pm.

****************************************************************************************

Well, three good films out of five isn’t a bad average. See you next time. – Ted Hicks

If you saw The Station Agent when it was released in 2003, you know how special it is. This was Writer-Director Tom McCarthy’s first feature. He has followed up with two strong films since, The Visitor (2008) and Win Win (2011), writing and directing both, as well as having a story credit for the great Disney/Pixar animated feature Up (2009). I remember how surprised I was when I found out that he was the same Tom McCarthy I’d been seeing as an actor in many films, such as Good Night and Good Luck, Syriana, Flags of Our Fathers, The Lovely Bones, and especially the HBO series The Wire in it’s fifth and final season. This was also the film that gave Peter Dinklage what’s been described as his breakout role. His performance received many award nominations and wins, as did the film itself. He’s currently in the excellent HBO series Game of Thrones, where his character, Tyrion Lannister, has emerged as the star of the show, as well as winning him an Emmy and Golden Globe for the first season.

The Station Agent is a beautiful study of three people, each alone and alienated in his or her own way, whose paths cross in a lazy, wayward town in New Jersey where little seems to happen. Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage), is a dwarf with a love of trains who has inherited a deserted railway station in Newfoundland, NJ from his employer at a model train shop in Hoboken.

Fin says little, is monosyllabic when he does, and is only too happy to keep to himself. Olivia Harris (Patricia Clarkson) is an artist – a painter – living alone in a large house, mourning the accidental death of her young son and the break-up of her marriage. Joe Oramas (a terrific Bobby Cannavale) is a young Cuban guy from New York who is running his father’s donut & coffee van while the father recovers from an illness.

It’s Joe who gets the ball rolling as he tries to connect with Olivia, who buys coffee from him every day, and newcomer Fin, who is living in the nearby abandoned station. They both initially resist Joe’s motor-mouth personality.

Also figuring into the story are Cleo (Raven Goodwin), a young black girl who gets to know Fin and eventually breaks down his resistance to talking about trains when she persuades him to speak to her high school class, and Emily (Michelle Williams), the pretty town librarian who becomes Fin’s friend, and maybe his girlfriend.

The story is driven by character rather than plot. Scenes seems to drift from one to the next in a very quiet, understated way. It’s all very simple and spare, but I found the effect to be quite powerful. The character of Fin, and the performance of Peter Dinklage, solidly anchor the film. His face reveals little emotion, particularly at first, but we read it in his eyes. His life-long frustration at being defined by his dwarfism in most people’s eyes is obvious, but what’s great here is that none of the main characters mention it at all; it’s a non-issue for them.

Fin is a gentle, dignified, and decent man, and there’s something heroic about him, though he starts off wrapped pretty tight. The film touches on what I think is a very universal human need and desire to connect with other people. This is present throughout the film, the subtext of nearly every scene, and is occasionally felt in raw and heartbreaking moments. That said, The Station Agent avoids the sentimentality that could have been brought out by less subtle and creative filmmakers. There is drama and conflict, but it feels real and uncontrived, and things are not necessarily resolved or otherwise neatly wrapped up in a Hollywood feel-good way at the end. Though I certainly did “feel good” when it was over, a feeling I think was honestly earned by the film.

The values of friendship, respect, loyalty and love, are presented here in a very powerful way. The positive difference these characters make in each other’s lives, by reaching out, even if initially rebuffed, has an almost spiritual quality.

The following trailer conveys the tone of the film pretty well.

The Station Agent is available via Neflix and for sale at Amazon.com for the ridiculously low price of $6.99. If you haven’t seen it, you probably should. If you have, see it again. – Ted Hicks