MARK BORCHARDT & MIKE SCHANK/IMAGE COURTESY: AMERICAN MOVIE
CAST of the COVEN/IMAGE COURTESY: AMERICAN MOVIE
SARAH PRICE & CHRIS SMITH/IMAGE COURTESY: AMERICAN MOVIE
JOHN RIEPENHOFF, of the MILWAUKEE INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR CREW – aka – the people who brought you the DARK FAIR !! – wrote to tell us he is in town with one of his friends, and a fellow Milwaukean – who turns out to be filmmaker CHRIS SMITH – who happens to be having a ‘mid career survey/retrospective’ at MoMA this weekend, and the release of his newest film, ‘The Pool’ at the Film Forum next week…
JAN ALBERT – our artlovers’ movie maven – reports:
“Go SEE MoMA’S weekend retrospective of Chris Smith’s collected works:
‘CHRIS SMITH – An American Original’.
I’ve seen SMITH’S ‘AMERICAN MOVIE’ and ‘HOME MOVIE’. They are both quirky fun and compulsively watchable. The first, ‘AMERICAN MOVIE’, (which won the GRAND JURY PRIZE for DOCUMENTARY 1999 SUNDANCE), follows a young filmmaker as he maxes out his credit cards and convinces family members and friends to put their money behind his dream of directing ‘COVEN’, a horror film that will make them all a fortune.
In ‘HOME MOVIE’, five Americans allow Smith into their unusual private worlds. These dreamers have channelled all of their creativity into their living spaces – a tree house in Hawaii, a house boat on the Mississippi, an underground missile silo converted into a family abode, and a home amusement park for a couple’s dozens of cats! They are all highly eccentric, passionate and, represent the best of America, in my humble opinion – kind of a bizarro-world Martha Stewart Living Segment !
I haven’t seen ‘THE YES MEN’, but it sounds priceless, and ‘AMERICAN JOB’ also sounds promising (see MoMA description).
On Monday, Sept 1, MoMA is premiering Smith’s latest feature, ‘THE POOL’ , 2 days before it starts its run at the Film Forum. It’s also about a small man with big dreams, but this time the dreamer is a young guy in Goa, India. It is a deceptively simple but deeply stirring story with a charming twist just when you thought it was over.
I can’t think of a better way to spend Labor Day.”
more info, see: CHRIS SMITH – An American Original/MoMA !!
~CHRIS SMITH/in NYC !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 30th, 2008, 12:13pm
‘ARTIFICIAL WORLD’ curated by NATALIE PURKEY & HALEY O’CONNOR
opens to-nite – SAT AUG 23 – 7-10 pm – with a performance by BEN FINO-RADIN
the show runs: AUG 23 – SEPT 6, 2008
MOUNTAIN FOLD – 55 FIFTH AVENUE – 18th FLOOR – NYC
gallery hours: TUES thru SATURDAY 1-7pm/or by appointment
the show features work by: MASARU AIKAWA, MAT BRINKMAN, JOSEPH BUZZELL, BEN FINO-RADIN, AKI GOTO & TETSUNORI TAWARAYA – 7 Japanese and American artists “whose work touches on ideas of made-up, artificial, or simulated worlds. Thru pure ecstatic imagination, distortion, duplication, or simulation, they each evoke a sometimes lucid, sometimes monstrous sub-reality. All diverge at a point between humor and sober reflection. The work ranges from installation, drawing, painting, sculpture and performance.” (press release)
more info, see: mountain fold
MAT BRINKMAN – SILKSCREEN
MAT BRINKMAN – SILKSCREEN
JOSEPH BUZZELL
JOSEPH BUZZELL
AKI GOTO
MOUNTAIN FOLD
~ARTIFICIAL WORLD at MOUNTAINFOLD/opening to-nite |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 23rd, 2008, 2:10pm
THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM presents: FREE MUSIC FRIDAYS !!
and that means: tomorrow !! FRIDAY AUGUST 22, 2008 from 5:30-8 PM !!
its a great deal – you get to explore all 5 floors of the museum for FREE, grab a drink in the cafe and enjoy live music in the museum’s ‘stunning’ atrium. this is especially notable – as the current
featured exhibit is – ‘DARGERism: Contemporary Artists and Henry Darger’ !!
in fact, New York City’s AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM is “home to the single largest repository of works by HENRY DARGER” – probably one of the best & certainly, the most notorious outsider artist of the past century, Henry Darger (1892-1973). sure to be some very fascinating works by him.
get more info on the exhibit: ‘DARGERism’ !!
above, ‘AT SUNBEAM CREEK. ARE WITH LITTLE GIRL REFUGEES AGAIN IN PERIL FROM FOREST FIRES. BUT ESCAPE THIS ALSO, BUT HALF NAKED AND IN BURNED RAGS ….. ‘
HENRY DARGER (1892-1973), CHICAGO, MID TWENTIETH CENTURY
Watercolor, pencil, carbon tracing, and collage on pieced paper. 19 x 70-1/2 in.
PHOTO BY JAMES PRINZ/COURTESY: AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM
detail, above image
detail, above image
detail, above image
. . . one of the featured contemporary artists – in ‘DARGERism’ – is none other than our very FAVE !! photographer – JUSTINE KURLAND – !!
above, from ‘DARGERism: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS AND HENRY DARGER’
‘BATTLEFIELD’ – JUSTINE KURLAND, (b. 1969), NEW YORK
Color Photograph, 2001, 30 x 40 in.
IMAGE COURTESY/AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM/PHOTO COURTESY: Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York
. . . and in fact, something more – to really look FORWARD to, THE AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM is following up with what looks to be a really interesting – upcoming exhibition, also drawn from their extensive Henry Darger collection:
‘UP CLOSE: HENRY DARGER’ – will run OCT 7, 2008 – JUNE 2009.
according to the museum’s website – “The American Folk Art Museum will devote an intimate gallery on the fourth floor to rotating exhibitions focusing on a single theme. The first of these will showcase eight of the nearly three hundred watercolors Henry Darger created to illustrate his 15,000-page manuscript The Story of the Vivian Girls, in what is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. VOLUME 6 of that epic will also be on display.”
. . . back to tomorrow, FRIDAY AUGUST 22, 2008 – the live folk music will be performed by:
DAPHNE DARLING at 5:30PM – she seems to hail from TORONTO – see: DAPHNE DARLING
and, ARLON BENNETT at 6:30 – a local talent – see: ARLON BENNETT
AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM – 45 West 53rd St. (bet 5th & 6th Avenues) – NYC
AMERICAN FOLK ART MUSEUM
~HENRY DARGER/FREE MUSIC FRIDAY/The American Folk Art Museum |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 21st, 2008, 12:58pm
‘A Member of the Wedding’ – ‘a curatorial project by Susanne M. Winterling’
JULY 18 – AUGUST 29, 2008
DANIEL REICH GALLERY – 537 West 23d rd ST – CHELSEA – NYC
note: gallery is on summer hours – MON-FRI 11am-6pm
talking about BERLIN !! ……
BERLIN-based SUSANNE M. WINTERLING has presented a curatorial project featuring the work of guest artists – who range from bases as diverse as Canada to Norway. The project … “attempts to conjure the social networks .. in which artworks are created” – sorry, no disrespect – but, what’s that all about – ? – certainly don’t see it in the work, as presented. ” ‘A Member of the Wedding’ assembles artworks possessing an enigmatic silence, which upon closer inspection yield specific stories and dramas” (press release) – comes a little closer to the truth – but, to my mind – really reflects the soul & mind of the curator herself – projected upon – the individual artists – she has gathered together. In fact, none of these artists can hold a candle to MS. WINTERLING’S own work – and, I personally would much rather see one work of hers – than this entire assemblage. A cruel comparison: Paulette Phillips ‘Homewrecker’ screened here – pales in all ways – thematically & visually – to – MS. WINTERLING’S own videos. An even crueller comparison: NADIRA HUSAIN’S clay pot, titled ‘La Bouche dans la Tasse’ – to any little thing ceramic by Sterling Ruby !!
That being said – the show is presented in the gallery with skill – and offers a nice mental stroll or respite from the summer’s heat and drama. With special mention to KAUCYILA BROOKE, ENDRE AALRUST and DAG NORDBRENDAN – for the best pieces – which just happen to be photographic & archival in medium & nature.
. . . for a better foot-forward-substance-ready BERLIN product – recently presented to the New York City stage – thank Daniel Reich – for offering up the following 2 shows, and check them, out !!
see: BIRGIT MEGERLE/FEB 10 2007
and, see: SUSANNE M. WINTERLING’S debut solo NYC show – of last summer, ‘i’ll be your mirror but i will dissolve’ – AUG 13, 2007
oh no, come to think of it – I hope she didn’t mean that literally !!! SUSANNE – come back !!
DANIEL REICH and SUSANNE M. WINTERLING at the opening of Susanne’s curatorial project –
‘A Member of the Wedding’, which took place on July 22nd, 2008
the show runs through AUGUST 29th, 2008
SUSANNE M. WINTERLING – “baby, come back … to me”
SUSANNE M. WINTERLING – curates – ‘A Member of the Wedding’ – a cornerstone piece: ‘The Boy Mechanic/Cologne’ by KAUCYILA BROOKE
center: KAUCYILA BROOKE, ‘The Boy Mechanic’, 2008, poster
black & white photos by ENDRE AALRUST
ENDRE AALRUST also showed a sculptural piece – ‘Untitled (Martha Stewart)’, 2006
head by ENDRE AALRUST
NADIRA HUSAIN, ‘La Bouche dans la Tasse’, 2008, ceramic
frame from: ‘Homewrecker’, by PAULETTE PHILLIPS
PAULETTE PHILLIPS’ ‘Homewrecker’ took on a more interesting life – when it accidentally screened on the passing guests !!
PAULETTE PHILLIPS – relates that their initial, and all (?) correspondence was via Internet solely.
approaching – a more interesting piece by PAULETTE PHILLIPS, ‘Untitled (ghost)’, 2004, chiffon, magnet, bracket, transformer and metal bracket.
close-up, ‘Untitled (ghost)’ by PAULETTE PHILLIPS
a really intriguing photo by DAG NORDBRENDEN, ‘Legend in My Living Room #1’ , 2006, c-print. of all the artists presented here – I’d like to see more of his work !!
young designer, MARGUERITE MacPHAIL, recently graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design, GEORGIA. on the wall, the photo by DAG NORDBRENDEN
from left: CARLOS PARREIRA, MARGUERITE MacPHAIL, and BRENDAN LYNCH – young art fans at the opening. guess we have to take this opportunity – to say farewell – and, all the best – to CARLOS, who has worked at the Daniel Reich Gallery for awhile now, as he has returned to his home base, Portugal. we already miss you.
AMIR MOGHARABI and, TERESA SAPLYS. Teresa is currently an intern at COHAN AND LESLIE GALLERY. AMIR MOGHARABI is the founding editor of a new art journal – FARIMANI !!
– a collection of works by artists, critical theorists, and musicians – which had its debut launch this past MARCH 1, 2008 at PRINTED MATTER. “Showcasing a diverse selection of work from artists, musicians and theorists, FARIMANI assumes the design of a book, while attempting to align its contents with the architecture of a curated space..” – PRINTED MATTER press release.
AMIR MOGHARABI lives and works in BROOKLYN – and is currently enrolled in the Critical Studies graduate program in Columbia University’s Art History department. He is already known for his art essays – most recently – his musings on the SEAN RASPET exhibit, ‘The Ones We Work For’, DANIEL REICH GALLERY, 2008.
FARIMANI is published by HA HA PRESS, the 1st & current issue is 224 pages, and retails for $25. It is available at PRINTED MATTER, and at the DANIEL REICH GALLERY, as well as other venues. check out, the website !!
see: FARIMANI !!
… artwork by SEAN RASPET. cruising FARIMANI, edited by AMIR MOGHARABI
. . . more pix from the SUSANNE M. WINTERLING opening post this week – including pix of – AMY GARTRELL & PATERSON BECKWITH !!
DANIEL REICH GALLERY
~SUSANNE M. WINTERLING/curates |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 20th, 2008, 9:08am
PAUL H-O & CINDY SHERMAN/still from the movie/’Guest of Cindy Sherman’/image courtesy: Filmlike Films
NYC’S PAUL H-O and TOM DONAHUE announce A One Night Only !! L.A. screening of their brilliant, intimate & very entertaining documentary – ‘Guest of Cindy Sherman’
to-nite !! – FRI AUGUST 15, 2008 at 9:30 PM !! – at the L.A. Center Studio
as part of the 1st DOWNTOWN FILM FESTIVAL – LOS ANGELES – AUGUST 13-17, 2008 !!
see more info: on the film & festival (aka DFFLA) !!
. . . . from the FILMLIKE FILMS press release:
” A Feature Documentrary – ‘Guest of Cindy Sherman’ is a humorous hellraiser of pre-reality TV show of the 90’s colliding into the absolutely fabulous world of the 21st century New York gallery system. Filmed over the course of 15 years, ‘Guest of Cindy Sherman’ includes interviews with a veritable who’s who of the art and entertainment world including Roberta Smith, Ingrid Sischy, John Waters, Robert Longo, Carol Kane, David Furnish, Danny DeVito, Molly Ringwold, Eric Fischl, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Julian Schnabel, Calvin Tomkins, Dodie Kazanjian, David Ross, Walter Robinson, Jerry Saltz, Laurie Simmons, and Cindy Sherman, etc. It’s a real art world romance as fun, glamorous, and pathologicaly self-absorbed as the one you suspect exists.”
artlovers’ film essayist – JAN ALBERT – wrote a great post on the film – when it recently premiered at the NYC – TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL, this past Spring 2008 !!
check it out !! and read it again, even if you read it before: ‘Guest of Cindy Sherman’
~’Guest of Cindy Sherman’ hits L.A. to-nite !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 15th, 2008, 12:39pm
artwork by ROMAN KLONEK/image courtesy: McCAIG-WELLES & ROSENTHAL
. . . this seems to be the guy who does that pretty awful SOY-JOY commercial on T.V.
the work actually looks better in the gallery format: on paper – and- digitally animated on the web. maybe, probably!! – the executives at SOY JOY – just dumbed him down.
in fact, artists, & graphic designers in particular, should check out his website – its operational underpinnings & spare, but striking images – are right on point.
here’s the first ‘welcome mat’ screen:
arwork by ROMAN KLONEK/courtesy klonek.de
and, here’s the hot button to access the site and set that screen free & kicking !!!
check out: klonek.de !!
the show opens to-nite in: surprise surprise/NOT !! – B-R-O-O-K-L-Y-N !!
“Hobnobbing Zmirkies” – A Collection of Works by ROMAN KLONEK
opening reception – to-nite !! – FRI – AUGUST 15 – 7-10pm
the show runs: AUGUST 15 – SEPTEMBER 8th, 2008
McCAIG-WELLES & ROSENTHAL GALLERY – 129 ROEBLING ST – BROOKLYN
ROMAN KLONEK appears to have an international reputation, and is based in Dusseldorf, GERMANY. here’s some info from the press release – that isn’t up on the gallery website, yet ?
” … In the 1970’s the Kloneks moved from Poland to Germany, where he quickly became addicted to comics and cartoons. In the 1990’s he studied Graphic Arts in Dusseldorf and earned his diploma with 12 huge woodcut printings that showed the inner-workings of the human brain.
In 2001 he founded the Gallery Revolver with friends in Dusseldorf/Flingern, bought a printing press and started a never ending range of woodcut printings. Roman Klonek likes to draw heroes, mostly half animal/half human, in hair-raising situations. You may ask: How could this have happened? For heavens sake, how will this move on?
You will see snapshots full of adventure … captured by one of the oldest graphic techniques. Woodcut printing is based on the principle of a stamp. The reduced forms remind you of the first days of comics and cartoons …
McCAIG-WELLES & ROSENTHAL
~”Hobnobbing Zmirkies”/ROMAN KLONEK/opens to-nite/McCAIG-WELLES |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 15th, 2008, 11:58am
. . . this town doesn’t stop for nobody – no more !! used to be, it’d be dead quiet in Summer, and then, for a while – at least dead quiet in August – but its like – its just revved up and keeps on going right thru the FALL.
. . . this show was not a “summer” show, (i.e. usually a more casual gallery round-up of the usual suspects), this opening was so electric and beyond the charts – that it just made me laugh at the New York Post’s recent statement – that the new SEPT 2008 VOGUE says Berlin is the art capital of the world !! yeah, right. I see this is artloversnewyork you’re checking for the latest edge on the scene – not EICH BIN BERLIN .. whatever.
I’ve been gone exactly 10 days – in the dead middle of August – and I come back to one missed gigantic rooftop blow-out at Redemption Center & immediately step into this – a super cool super edged opening with one of my favorite super-quiet-in-person guys – finally putting himself & his wares – up for public viewing – and he comes up – blow-out baby. brainiac. no words left to describe his 2 friends from A.R.E. Weapons – who played as t.v. baby at the opening. fast, furious, but mostly musicality to the 10th degree. kinda like, LOU REED on speed. (has that been said a million times, before). BERLIN: take your Techno and crawl away !! or at least tell VOGUE, to stick to reporting on dresses..
ok. ok. I’m going have to take a look at the article when it comes out. I guess. before I really start trashing it . . . or, at least conjecturing who PAID for it !!!
though for sure, they just got a big infusion of US of A cash over, there – when the OLAFUR ELIASSON crew, which works out of a Berlin home-based studio – scored 15 MILLION big bucks off the NYC scene – courtesy of the PUBLIC ART FUND – for those measly little scaffold-jerried Hudson River waterfalls. ok.ok. there is something cool about their jerry rigged-ness – but overall, if you ask any typical in-the-street New Yorker, their opinion – they’ll say there are a little bit better than those awful orange gates in central park – and anybody on the scene – at least that I cross paths with – will say: they are pretty underwhelming, in terms of what one might have expected – and the price tag was pretty damn annoying, if not completely suspicious.
WHAT THE HELL!! – Zora gets the last word.
(“Oh well, whatever goes over the Devil’s back, is got to come under his belly. Sometime or ruther, Sykes, like everybody else, is gointer reap his sowing.” – ZORA NEALE HURSTON – from ‘SWEAT’, in her collected short stories, published as: ‘SPUNK’.)
plus, we keep hearing how: the rents in Berlin are really cheap. though we categorically have never heard yet – that the art coming out of there – was collectively – any good. though, a thought to be (maybe) considered: – two of my most fave artists went there – like 5 years ago, and never came back – !! – DELIA GONZALES and GAVIN R. RUSSOM – They used to put on these amazing, tech & myth installations at DANIEL REICH – totally inventive, beautiful, visually pure shows. cutting edge thought & product – through and through – which brings me back to the show at hand. PATRICK GRIFFIN’S debut showing at the journal Gallery.
. . if, you missed this opening – ‘COUNT THY BUTTONS’ – you missed something really intense & special. maybe, you’d better, ‘COUNT THY BLESSINGS’.
(as in .. maybe you don’t have enough, art ones, anyways – if, you weren’t there !!)
‘COUNT THY BUTTONS’ – was/is possibly the best show/opening of the FALL 2008 season – just so dynamic & brain power-fueled – it jumped ahead of the pack and burst out of the gate, first !! – by about 2 weeks !!
here’s some pix from the opening – more to post – later this week in the PHOTO REPORT.
PATRICK GRIFFIN and KATHY GRAYSON at the opening of ‘Count Thy Buttons’.
LEIF RITCHEY – who scored some ‘ink’ – in this summer’s The New York Times Magazine (July 8, 2008) – article on – CocoRosie !!
super slicked back – and, lookin’ good – ERIK FOSS of Lit Bar & Fuse Gallery – who’s been surfing the waters off Long Island (Montauk !!)
BRAIN and MATT of t.v. baby !! ‘COUNT THY BLESSINGS’, indeed !! – you can’t hear them anyway else – except live, and pretty rare at that. go on, spike that art.
‘COUNT THY BUTTONS’ + the t.v. baby music – caught the whole range of life – in split seconds !! just like the BOBO show caught the vibe of Pixar’s ‘WALL-E’ – this burst of fierce brilliance – encapsulated in words, music & ‘dot.com’ format buttons – the whole range of 21st Century folklore – that is, LIFE !! as we are living it – now, in the exact moment. also known as – the cutting edge.
except this time, instead of cinematic props, as in ‘WALL-E’ – literary/folklore respects to NORA NEALE HURSTON – whose books are exploding my summer existence… to try and explain a world of thought – in a nutshell.
after the set – the musician and the artist.
also at the opening: photog CLAYTON PATTERSON. there’s a feature article on CLAYTON, as well as RZA & GAVIN BROWN !! in the newest ‘the journal’ art magazine – ENTRY 23 – !! just about to launch.
NYC documentary filmmakers: DAN LEVIN, at left, and BEN SOLOMON, flank CLAYTON PATTERSON at the PATRICK GRIFFIN ‘Count Thy Blessings’ opening. In fact – their brand new documentary, on CLAYTON PATTERSON, titled: ‘CAPTURED’ (2008) – will be featured as the first movie of the first night of the brand new FILM series at the NEW MUSEUM !!
the debut screening will take place – this upcoming FRIDAY, AUG 22, 2008 at 7:30PM – followed by a Q & A with the film’s Directors, and is part of the New Museum’s ‘Art on the Bowery’ program.
for more info, see: NEW MUSEUM/events !!
the journal’s MICHAEL NEVIN, at the opening of ‘COUNT THY BUTTONS’ – MICHAEL GRIFFIN. NY F*CKING CITY !!
see: MORE !! PIX !! FROM THE OPENING !!
the journal
~the PATRICK GRIFFIN opening/the journal |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 15th, 2008, 11:56am
AUGUST 8 – SEPTEMBER 11, 2008
THE FRENCH CRIME WAVE – FILM NOIR & THRILLERS, 1937-2000
FILM FORUM
Film Review
August 15, 2008 by JAN ALBERT
ALAIN DELON in PURPLE NOON, 1969, Rene Clement
ROMY SCHNEIDER and ALAIN DELON in LA PISCINE, 1969, Rene Clement
TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI, 1954, Jacques Becker
CLASSE TOUS RISQUES, 1960, Claude Sautet
COUP DE TORCHON, 1981, Bertrand Tavernier
JEANNE MOREAU in ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS, 1957, Louis Malle
PLUNGE INTO AN UNDERWORLD OF FLICS AND FLAMBEURS at FILM FORUM’S FRENCH CRIME WAVE SERIES
What with the dollar floating in the gutter, this wasn’t the ete to jete to gay Parie, but you will feel like you’ve been there and back if you pass the dog days of summer at The Film Forum. A series of double features to die for, THE FRENCH CRIME WAVE, will entertain you without stop from now until September 11th.
If you’ve never seen heist classics like Touchez Pas Au Grisbi or Bob Le Flambeur (a tour of card games and casinos with a Parisian high roller), pronounced by Jim Hoberman as “the birth of cinematic cool”, you can enjoy them as a ‘two for 1 price treat’ – this very weekend.
I, myself, am psyched to finally catch up with films whose very titles have thrilled me for years; Pepe le Moko, Goupi Mains Rouges, Quai de Orfevres, The Sicilian Clan, and Georges Franju’s horror/thriller, Eyes Without a Face, as well as taking in little gems I’ve never heard of: the violent end of bad, bad sex kitten, (Brigitte Bardot), in La Veritie, Jean Pierre Melville’s Le Doulous (The Squealer) with Jean Paul Belmondo, Un Flic avec Catherine Denueve, and Jeanne Moreau in Elevator to the Gallows, 24-year-old director Louis Malle’s debut with a Miles Davis score!
These films will introduce you to a memorable bunch of pickpockets, burglars, mob molls, low lifes, and other lawbreakers, played by iconic French stars like Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuve, former wrestler turned movie star, Lino Ventura, Jeanne Moreau, Louis Jouvet, and Sami Frey. Directors like Jacques Becker, Jean-Pierre Melville and Rene Clement may have found their inspiration in the work of American or British crime writers like Jim Thompson and Ruth Rendell, but this series of French films takes their dark little tales to heart and delivers the goods with a ‘what the hell’ style and cynicism that American movies rarely capture. The Grifters (w/ Annette Bening, Angelica Huston, and John Cusack), directed by Stephen Frears, is a rare exception that got it right, but U.S. remakes of flicks like Mississippi Mermaid, Breathless, or Diabolique (all the originals are included in this festival) completely miss the boat. Humphrey Bogart is about the only American film star I can think of who approximates the fatalistic attitude the French embody so convincingly.
Take 1949’s rarely screened Riptide (Un si jolie petite plage), showing Monday, August 19th. The film follows a seriously sensitive murderer, played by Gerard Philipe (they had faces then!), back to the scene of his sad childhood, an atmospheric beachside bar that lets rooms to lonely travelers.
The almost constant rain that falls from the first frame is a backdrop to the heavy duty symbolism of shutters banging in the swinging light of a single bulb and a group of little girls (led by a nun!), saying the rosary as they pass our hero on the street. The closely observed routine of the bar, the appearance of a sinister stranger, the furtive weekly coupling of a teenage orphan and the aging wife of a regular customer, which reminds the doomed visitor of the famous actress who led him astray as a youth, all combine with the world weary dialogue; you can’t change anything, to touch the heart of this filmgoer, on the way to the inescapable conclusion that life is ‘really a mess’.
Riptide ends with an incongruous scrawl before the credits reminding us gullible viewers that this is just a story and that in real life most orphans and wards of the state go on to lead fine lives and contribute to French culture in an exemplary manner!
There are other don’t miss masterpieces like Wages of Fear, Casque D’or (with the stunning Simone Signoret), and Class Tous Risques, where tough guy, Lino Ventura, shows superb screen chemistry with a very young Jean Paul Belmondo (in only his 2nd film role).
Speaking of Jean Paul and Jean Luc: you can see two Goddard films for the price of one admission – Pierrot le Fou (no fewer than two of my former flames counted this as their all time favorite film) and Mississippi Mermaid on August 22-23rd, and Breathless is paired with Band of Outsiders, on August 31 and Sept 1st.
Other treasures include the late great Bertrand Tavernier’s moody film noir adaptations, Coup de Torchon (August 25th), and The Clockmaker, with the always marvelously rumpled Philippe Noiret (August 26th).
Even the misfires are amusing, (Gangster Lino Ventura in Les Tontons Flingeurs does not adapt to comedy quite as readily as Robert DeNiro did in Analyse This.) Essentially, if you like your crime with a French accent, you cannot go wrong.
There is a great website for THE FRENCH CRIME WAVE, filled with in-depth background articles on the films and their stars, film trailers to watch online, and entertaining curiosities like a podcast from fashion maven, Agnes B, on her film education via Breathless, all at:
FILM FORUM/THE FRENCH CRIME WAVE
~The French Crime Wave/FILM FORUM |
Posted in Movie Reviews | By Jan Albert | August 15th, 2008, 6:11am
just in !!
PATRICK GRIFFIN – ‘Count Thy Buttons’ – opens to-nite !! THURS AUG 14/6-9pm
with SPECIAL PERFORMANCE by members of A R E Weapons at 7 pm !!
the show will run: AUG 14 – SEPT 2, 2008,
but, you want to catch the opening, if you can – its gonna rock – this is ..
KATHY GRAYSON’S BOYFRIEND !!!!!! whom, we all adore !!!!
at the journal Gallery – 168 North 1st St. – WILLIAMSBURG – BROOKLYN
gallery hours: WED-SUN 12pm-6pm
ARTWORK BY PATRICK GRIFFIN/ALL PHOTOS BY & COURTESY OF: KATHY GRAYSON
more info, see: the journal
~don’t blink – it’s to-nite !! PATRICK GRIFFIN at the journal Gallery |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 14th, 2008, 3:25pm
THE REDEMPTION CENTER had an all day rooftop sculpture show/BBQ !! on SUNDAY AUGUST 10th, 2008 !!
… with over 20 artists, including hometown fave JUSTIN SAMSON; DREW GILLESPIE, NICK PAYNE & PHIL COTE of PHILLY-BASED BOBO; & some of their crew, notably LIZZIE FINCH & LINDSAY BEEBE !! … and with over 8,000 sq. ft. of rooftop space to party on, BYOB and beer sold there, too – starting at noon and going on all night !! it was sure to have been a blast !! One Big summer time rooftop PAR-TAY !!
WHAT THE HELL !! (that’s an in-joke dedicated to NORA DEMENUS, NYU grad/CLASS of 2008 !! congrats !!)
. . . you can’t blink in this town. without missing something. it’s true what they say: this town never sleeps .. & it certainly never stops !!
~don’t blink !! you missed it !! REDEMPTION CENTER SCULPTURE SHOW/BBQ |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | August 14th, 2008, 2:23pm
