Films etc.

In 1982 Tim Burton had been working as a conceptual artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios for about two years. Samples of his work at the time already reflected a uniqueness, a fairy-tale strangeness. This was recognized by Tom Wilhite, Disney Head of Development, who gave him $60,000 to make Vincent, a 5-minute stop-motion short based on a poem Burton had written in the style of Dr. Seuss, his favorite children’s book author. In fact, he’d originally intended Vincent to be a children’s book.

Burton says he was given the money to make the film under the studio radar as a stop-motion “test.” He worked on Vincent for two months with Disney animator Rich Heinrichs and stop-motion animator Steven Chiodo. Vincent is narrated by Vincent Price, one of Burton’s childhood idols. This was the beginning of a friendship lasting until Price died in 1993. Burton: “We sent Vincent Price the storyboards and asked him to do the narration, and he was incredible… It’s a scary proposition meeting someone who helped you through childhood, who had that effect on you, especially when you’re sending them something that’s showing that impact in a kind of cheesy, children’s book kind of way. But he was so great.”

Shot in black & white in a style reminiscent of German Expressionist films, Vincent concern a boy, Vincent Malloy, who emulates Vincent Price and is obsessed with the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The film alternates between Vincent’s reality as a little boy and his imagined life inside Poe’s tales.

Burton: “They (Disney) wanted it to have a more upbeat ending, but I never saw it as being downbeat in any way. It’s funny, I think it’s more uplifting if things are left to your imagination. I always saw those tacked-on happy endings as psychotic in a way.”

Vincent was shown at film festivals in London, Chicago, and Seattle, winning two awards in Chicago and the Critic’s Prize at the Annecy Film Festival in France. It was released theatrically for two weeks in a single Los Angeles theater with the feature Tex, a teen drama with Matt Dillon, directed by Tim Hunter. Burton says Disney was pleased with the film, but didn’t really know what to do with it.

In 1984, with a much larger budget of nearly $1 million dollars, Burton made Frankenweenie, a 25-minute life-action film inspired by James Whale’s classic Frankenstein (1931), written by Lenny Ripp from a story by Burton (a new Frankenweenie was released earlier this year in an expanded, feature-length stop-motion version in 3D). The “weenie” of Frankenweenie is a snappy bull terrier named Sparky, who gets run over by a car while chasing a ball thrown by his master, young Victor Frankenstein. This breaks Victor’s heart, who manages to bring Sparky back to life, albeit with much stitching and bolts in Sparky’s neck.

The film takes place in Southern California suburbia, much like the setting of one of Burton’s strongest films,  Edward Scissorhands (1990). Per Burton, “Growing up watching those horror movies, for some reason, I was able to make direct links, emotionally, between that whole Gothic/Frankenstein/Edgar Allan Poe thing and growing up in suburbia. Frankenweenie was just another outgrowth of that.”

Frankenweenie was initially intended to play with the re-release of Pinocchio, but was shelved by Disney, apparently freaked out that it had received a PG rating instead of a G rating. It received a limited release in England, and was made available on video prior to the release of Burton’s Batman Returns in 1992.

I was aware of Frankenweenie, had probably read about it in a film magazine, but don’t recall when or where I first saw it, though I remember liking it a lot. I was looking forward to the longer feature version this year, but was disappointed when I finally saw it. The new film is incredibly well made, filled with very clever detail, and fun to look at, but there’s something lacking for me. I’m not sure why I didn’t like it more, but it just didn’t capture my imagination the way my favorite Burton films have, such as Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Ed Wood.

Here are Vincent and the original live-action Frankenweenie together.

To give you some contrast, here’s a trailer for the new feature-length, stop-motion Frankenweenie.

I feel a strong connection to Tim Burton’s way of seeing the world. His love of horror and science-fiction films when he was growing up matches my own from the earliest age I can remember. His films reflect a childlike spirit, wonderfully twisted at times and refreshingly morbid (Corpse Bride, anyone?). Even the films that don’t work have moments of unique strangeness and originality that make them worth seeing. He definitely got my attention with his first feature, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (1985), which seemed quite magical to me. Burton’s sensibility was perfectly matched with that of Paul Reubens, aka Pee Wee Herman. It’s hard to imagine two people more attuned to each other.

From November 2009 to April 2010, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City held a retrospective of Tim Burton’s work, including early illustrations, paintings, artifacts, bizarre props, as well as screenings of his films. This show was incredibly popular, drawing the third-highest attendence of any exhibition in MoMA’s history.  Nonetheless, I managed to miss it, despite repeated plans to go. Here’s an interview done with Burton at the time, which includes examples of his amazing drawings.

Finally, in the spirit of name dropping, here’s my Tim Burton story. In 1999 I was working for a subtitling company here in the city. The wife of a co-worker was reviewing films for a radio show in Pennsylvania. She asked me to attend a pre-release screening of Burton’s new film, Sleepy Hollow, and cover for her at a press junket that Sunday morning at a hotel on Park Avenue, recording the Q&A with Burton and the cast. I was thrilled to do this, though fearful I’d somehow screw up the recording (I didn’t). The way these things work is that there are different rooms set up for the various media; i.e. television, print, radio, and whatever else. Burton and the cast would go from room to room one at a time to sit at the head of a table and be asked basically the same questions they’d just been asked in the previous room. It was quite exciting to be seated two chairs away from Christina Ricci (porcelain skin!), Johnny Depp, Michel Gambon, and finally Tim Burton. I hadn’t intended to say anything, but couldn’t keep my mouth shut and asked a few questions. I remember asking Burton what it was like for him having the Hammer Films star, Christopher Lee (Dracula himself) in the film. Unfortunately, I remember my question, but not his answer. Okay, maybe not that great a story, but it was a thrill to be part of a different world for even a couple of hours. – Ted Hicks

The quotes I’ve used are from a very informative book of Tim Burton interviews, Burton on Burton, edited by Mark Salisbury, with a foreward by frequent Burton collaborator, Johnny Depp. The 2nd revised edition, published in 2006 by Faber & Faber, covers Burton’s films through Corpse Bride. His films are available via Netflix and Amazon.

Wreck-It Ralph– Friday, November 2 at AMC Loews Lincoln Square. Director: Rich Moore. Writers: Jennifer Lee & Phil Johnston. This terrific feature from Walt Disney Animation Studios is easily my favorite animated film so far this year. I saw it at a mid-morning showing on opening day that was packed, mostly with kids. This many kids in an audience usually makes me apprehensive. It reminds me of Saturday matinees when I was growing up, which were usually pretty chaotic, lots of chatter and running around. Even then I mainly just wanted to watch the movie (nerd alert!). But soon after Wreck-It Ralph began there was barely a peep. Everyone seemed transfixed, young and old alike. A sure sign that a film is really working is when it completely captures the attention of the audience.

I was disappointed to varying degrees earlier this year with Paranorman, Frankenweenie, Hotel Transylvania, and Brave. Wreck-It Ralph is a much stronger film. All of its pieces fit together in a thoroughly enjoyable way. Like most of the best animated films, there’s a sense of wonder, of discovery, inventiveness, and emotional content that feels real. Animated films that do this for me include The Iron Giant (1999 – greatly underrated), Spirited Away (2001), The Incredibles (2004), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), How to Train Your Dragon (2010), Toy Story 3 (2010), and almost anything from Aardman Animations, going back to Creature Comforts and the thoroughly bonkers Wallace & Gromit shorts.

Here’s a trailer for Wreck-It Ralph. It’s an international version, which is a bit different from others I’ve seen. It conveys a good sense of the film.

Ralph is the antagonist in a video game called “Fixit-Felix, Jr.”, one of many games in an arcade. The premise is that, as with the characters in the Toy Story films who come to life when humans aren’t around, the characters in these games all have lives in a cyberspace reality inside the games. Ralph is a classic outsider, tired of his “bad guy” status and the isolation he feels because of that. Wreck-It Ralph tells the story of his struggle to become a “hero” in his world, to find acceptance. Along the way he meets his counterpart, another outsider named Venelope von Schweetz, who lives in a game called “Sugar Rush.” Here’s a clip of their first meeting.

Ralph is voiced by John C. Reilly and Vanelope by Sarah Silverman. They both bring a lot to the party, creating an emotional reality that goes a long way in helping us become invested in their characters. Here’s a clip of Sarah Silverman talking about her character.

Fixit-Felix, Jr., the hero of his game, is voiced by Jack McBrayer, best known for his role as Kenneth on the Tina Fey TV seriee 30 Rock. Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun, the lead character in a high-tech military/sci-fi game called “Hero’s Duty,” who reluctantly joins Ralph in his quest, is voiced by Jane Lynch. I was a bit put off by her the few times I’ve watched Glee, but she’s perfect here.

The bottom line is that Wreck-It Ralph is an incredibly engaging, clever and inventive film from start to finish. It made me feel really good. You won’t be bored.

As a bonus, there’s a really great 7-minute black & white animated short called Paper Man that plays before Wreck-It Ralph. A young man, an office worker buried in paperwork, chances to meet a pretty young woman on a subway platform, who boards a train and leaves before he can say anything. The rest of the short concerns his efforts to get her attention with paper airplanes after he sees her through an open window in a office across the street from where he works. I tried to find a clip, but had no luck. Here’s a still I found which conveys the look of this wonderful, touching little film.

The Bay– Friday, November 2 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. Director: Barry Levinson. Writer: Michael Wallach. This is a very effective little horror film, or eco-horror, to be more precise, as it concerns parasitic isopods mutated by various toxic spills in Chesapeake Bay that terrorize a small, ocean-front community by eating their way of their victims after they’ve infected them. This takes place over the course of a Fourth of July celebration filled with tourists, more fresh meat for these ghastly crustaceans sporting seven pairs of leg. Pretty grim, and they actually exist. The Bay has antecedents in sci-films of the 50s such as Them! (giant ants!), Tarantula (giant spider!), and many others. Atom bomb testing was frequently the culprit in those films. The Bay updates the scenario with environmental issues and the fear of viral contagion. It’s also yet another film presented as a patched-together documentary in the currently trendy “found footage” style. I guess we have the success of The Blair Witch Project to thank (or blame) for this trend. This can be a lazy way to tell a story, and it usually turns me off before I even see the film. But I have to say, it works very well here, just as it did in Chronicle earlier this year. Like any tool, it all depends how you use it.

One of the most interesting aspects of The Bay is that it was made by Barry Levinson, an Academy Award winning director. He kicked off his career most famously with Diner in 1982, followed by The Natural (1984), Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Rain Man (1988), and recently You Don’t Know Jack (2010), an HBO movie with Al Pacino as Jack Kervorkian. These are just a few of his films. The point is, he’s a very good director and these are very good films, but most of them mainstream studio productions. That he would make a film like The Bay seems almost an anomaly (or maybe a mid-life crisis). Whatever the reason, it’s rather exciting that old-school directors are willing to tackle edgy material in new ways. William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) certainly did this with Bug in 2006, a corrosive, truly disturbing psychological horror film with Ashley Judd and the always fascinating Michael Shannon, tightly wound and freaked out as only he can be. Friedkin was less successful with Killer Joe earlier this year, adapted from a play by Tracy Letts (as was Bug), but you certainly can’t say he’s taking the easy out at this stage of his career. It’s like Levinson and Friedkin are reinventing themselves for a new marketplace, and producing some very interesting stuff in the process.

This film may not be everyone’s taste (and would be pretty uninteresting if it was), but if you like this kind of thing, which I definitely do, it’s pretty good. The Bay can be streamed from Amazon Instant Video for $3.99. Bug, which I strongly recommend, is also available via Amazon Instant Video for $1.99 and Netflix streaming or DVD.

Flight – Saturday, November 3 at AMC Loews Lincoln Square. Director: Robert Zemeckis. Writer: John Gatins. This is a very strong film about addiction and powerlessness. Lest that put you off, it’s also a gripping story, a kind of thriller, with a great performance by Denzel Washington and a return to live-action filmmaking by Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Cast Away). Flight had my complete attention from beginning to end.

Washington plays Whip Whitaker, an alcoholic commercial airline pilot who successfully crash lands a damaged aircraft with only 6 fatalities (4 passengers and 2 crew members) out of 104 passengers (or “souls,” as they’re referred to by a flight attendant when she reports “104 souls on board” at the beginning of the flight). This sequence, which we return to several times over the course of the film, is extremely harrowing, at least as frightening as the plane crashes in Zemeckis’ Cast Away (2000) and Peter Weir’s Fearless (1993). Whip is initially hailed as a hero for managing the seemingly impossible feat of bringing this plane down without killing everyone on board. But the audience already knows that he was boozing the night before with one of the flight attendants and snorted coke just to get on his feet in time for his 9:00am flight. His hero status suddenly changes, and Whip finds out with a jolt that he’s now the subject of an investigation to determine if he was drunk during the flight, which could send him to prison. Whip’s adamant denial of his alcoholism, to himself and others, and how this plays out, forms the crux of the film.

Denzel Washington’s performance is the backbone of the film, but all the performances are strong. These include Bruce Greenwood as the airline union rep who has been friends with Whip for years; Don Cheadle as his lawyer; Kelly Reilly (a new face to me) as a recovering addict Whip becomes involved with; Melissa Leo as the lead NTSB investigator; and John Goodman as Whip’s drug supplier. Goodman’s performance may be a little over the top, blustery and out-sized, but it fits the character. He’s very effective and entertaining in his two scenes.

A performance that deserves special mention is that of James Badge Dale in a single scene as a cancer patient Whip encounters during his stay in the hospital after the crash. It’s night, and Whip has gone to a stairwell to smoke a cigarette. This is where he first meets Kelly Reilly’s character, Nicole, who’s also there for a smoke. They’re joined by Dale’s character (“Gaunt Young Man” in the credits),  a very outgoing and engaging guy who apparently hasn’t got long to live. This struck me as a key scene in the film, though I don’t quite know how to say why that is. It just felt like it. In a very funny spiel, Dale talks about death and the preciousness of life. You sense it’s bravado, but there’s something so appealing and life-affirming about this kid who’s going to die that it’s rather heartbreaking. James Badge Dale has been good in everything I’ve seen him in (24, The Pacific, and the grossly underrated Rubicon, all on TV), but he really scores in this one scene.

The music track also deserves mention. Some might think the song choices (which include “Feelin’ Alright”/Joe Cocker, “With a Little Help from My Friends”/Beatles, “Ain’t No Sunshine”/Bill Withers, and “Gimme Shelter”/Rolling Stones) are a bit too obvious for the scenes they accompany, but for the most part I think they work. And besides, they’re all really great songs. I especially liked the use of “Gimme Shelter” and the Cowboy Junkies’ cover of “Sweet Jane”. The instance that rather calls attention to itself is having the Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” introduce John Goodman not once, but twice. It’s like, okay, we get it. But I wasn’t bothered all that much.

Everything pays off, is delivered in full, during the climactic NTSB hearing near the end of Flight. Sometimes there’s a scene, a moment in a film, that’s almost overwhelming, that makes me feel like the distance between myself and the screen has collapsed. In that moment I’m completely vulnerable to what the film is giving out. This scene, and the next two that close the film, really laid me out, which felt great. This might be a great film. Time will tell on that score, but for now Flight is one of the best films I’ve seen this year, and that’s good enough for me.  – Ted Hicks

The Bourne Legacy – Friday, August 10 at AMC Loews 84th Street. Director/Co-Writer: Tony Gilroy. I’m a big fan of the Bourne films, especially the second and third directed by Paul Greengrass. I find them immensely watchable, repeatedly so. The immediate challenge for this fourth installment was doing a Bourne film without Jason Bourne. Despite the fact that Greengrass and actor Matt Damon weren’t involved, I had reasonably high expectations. Tony Gilroy had written (or co-written) the first three Bournes, which was a good sign, plus he’d also written and directed the excellent Michael Clayton (2007), though the physical scale of that film was much smaller, to say the least. Another hook for me, though, was Jeremy Renner in the lead role. He was terrific in The Hurt Locker (2008), and I looked forward to seeing him in this.

So did I like it or not? Mostly yes, but with reservations. I can definitely recommend it to those who have followed the Bourne films, or just like this type of film in general. It’s very well made, though I think it needed a stronger ending. There is at least one really great action sequence, and several more that are very good, though overall not quite up to the level of those in the earlier films. There’s also a workplace shooting that’s pretty disturbing, maybe a little too real, given what we hear about too often in the real world. Renner is perfect for the film, though it will be interesting to see if he can play other kinds of roles, characters who aren’t so professional, tough and confident, and capable of violence. What was lacking for me was the emotional depth and vulnerability that Matt Damon brought to the films. His Jason Bourne starts out by not knowing who or what he is. His goal throughout the first three films, regardless of whatever else is happening, is to unravel that mystery and find out who’s responsible for what’s been done to him. The pain and sense of loss that Bourne feels is heightened by the empathy Matt Damon makes us feel for the character.

In the Damon films, each death is personal. We don’t have that, for the most part, in the new film. Aaron Cross, Renner’s character, doesn’t have Bourne’s identity issues. He knows exactly who and what he is, and understands the training he underwent to get there. That this mainly comes down to drugs (one pill makes him smarter, another makes him stronger) is a little disappointing and somewhat old hat; i.e. The X-Files’ super soldiers, among others. But okay, I can go with it. What he doesn’t understand at the outset is the level of duplicity of those controlling him. Aaron Cross’ main problem here is one of not-so-simple survival. He spends most of the film on the run from government forces (headed by Edward Norton, ruthless and dead-eyed) trying to kill him. Cross is aided in this effort by Rachel Weitz, an excellent actress who brings a lot to the film. The bottom line is I liked The Bourne Legacy, despite my objections, and could see it again.

Hope Springs – Saturday, August 11 at AMC Loews Lincoln Square. Director: David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada – 2006). This film is mainly counter-programming for a somewhat older audience who wants to see something other than superheroes, car chases, and stuff blowing up over and over in slow-motion. And let’s face it, the real draw here is seeing Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones in a movie together (just as it was seeing Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson et al in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, another instance of a really great cast in a so-so film). Meryl and Tommy Lee play a couple, Kay and Arnold, whose marriage, after 31 years, is in a rut, to put it mildly. At least Kay definitely sees it that way, though Arnold doesn’t have a clue. Kay, in desperation, books a trip to Hope Springs, Maine for sessions with a couples therapist, Dr. Feld. Arnold doesn’t want anything to do with this whatsoever, but goes along in the end; otherwise there wouldn’t be a movie.

The issue of how to revive a marriage of many years that has fallen out of intimacy and into deadly routine is an important one, but this is a talky, talky movie. Steve Carell plays Dr. Feld, who doesn’t get out of his office chair once, though he is apparently on his feet in scenes we see during the closing credits. This role is a real change of pace for Carell. I imagine the main attraction for him was the same as for most of us in the audience: Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. Arnold is also quite a different character for Jones; it’s interesting and fun to see him in a part like this. Streep and Jones are both such pros, and plainly enjoyed working together. The ending is never really in doubt, but they keep it interesting along the way. I just wish it was a better movie.

Cosmopolis – Friday, August 17 at the Walter Reade Theater. Director/Writer: David Cronenberg. Starting with his science fiction/horror films, David Cronenberg has had my complete attention. These early films include They Come from Within (1975), Rabid (1977), The Brood (1979), Scanners (1981), and the awesome Videodrome (1983), all very original and disturbing with their icky body-horror concerns. I don’t think anyone else at the time (or since) was doing this kind of thing with the same level of skill and vision. The Dead Zone (1983), is, for my money, the best film version of a Stephen King novel to date, while The Fly (1986) is a remake that totally blows away the original 1958 film. He was also the ideal director to tackle William Burrough’s novel Naked Lunch, long considered unfilmable, which he did in 1991.

Even when he’s veered away from more fantastical storylines, as he has with A History of Violence (2005), Eastern Promises (2007), A Dangerous Method (2011), and now Cosmopolis, Cronenberg’s films give off a sense of strangeness, of unpredictable and different ways of seeing the world. I know of no other director, with the possible exception of David Lynch, who can create a sense of dread from something as ordinary as a slow track-in on a cast-iron tub in an empty loft slowly filling with water from a dripping faucet (Spider, 2002).

Of the new films I’ve seen in the last several weeks, Cosmopolis is definitely the most interesting, the most engaging, the one that’s stayed in my head the most. Though set in something like the present, it feels like science fiction. I haven’t read Don Delilo’s novel, so I can’t speak to how much of the tone comes from that, but the title alone certainly has a sci-fi vibe. The film takes place largely inside the white stretch limo of Eric Packer (Robert Pattinson, excellent in a role that has him in virtually every scene), a young financial wizard. His main goal as the day begins is to cross Manhattan to get a haircut, while trying to deal with the probable loss of millions of dollars due to a risky gamble involving Chinese currency, the mechanics of which I couldn’t begin to understand, and don’t think I was supposed to. The level of financial techno-speak in this film will make your head spin, but in a cool way. During the slow crawl across town, Eric takes multiple meetings in the limo with his financial advisers, has sex a couple of times, is warned of a “credible” threat on his life, and watches as protesters (some dressed as rats) fill the streets, rock and spray paint his limo as he inches by, and on and on.

The limo is a self-contained sarcophagus, claustrophobic yet expansive, with shiny dark surfaces, leather and chrome, numerous computer screens glowing in the cool light. It suggests a submarine, a tomb, a rocket ship. Events take on an increasingly surrealistic feel as the day progresses. Eric projects a flat affect throughout, is tightly wrapped, bored, looking for something new, and seemingly amused by some private joke as he moves closer and closer to something much more than a haircut. – Ted Hicks

Here’s the trailer, followed by very interesting interviews with David Cronenberg and Robert Pattinson:

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