by Tony Dayoub
Day 1 - 1:17 pm - I arrived into LaGuardia half an hour late, picked up my bags at baggage claim, where a locust-like group of hustlers start trying to convince me why I should skip the taxi line and pay more to share their cab with another passenger. SCAMMERS!!! Welcome to New York... I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!!
1:24 pm - My much cooler cab driver, Fariq, drove me into the city through scenic Spanish Harlem. I'm staying in the Upper East side, at lovely Amy Coward's apartment (thank you so much), with a nice view of Roosevelt Island. I order a Ham sandwich from
Hot and Crusty (1201 Second Ave, 212-753-2614), which is delivered to my door (did I tell you how much I miss this place?), and off to work it is.
3:46 pm - Right about the time I finished sending a lot of you readers my promotional email, I realized I hadn't showered, and I was going to have to take the 4 train down to Tribeca to catch the first film, Curtis Harrington's restored Night Tide
(1961), which starts at 5pm. Did I tell you how much I hate New York?
4:33 pm -Made it to the platform, just as the train arrived, so I hop in. I have a few minutes to relax and get my bearings, except... I'm on the wrong train, the W headed towards Whitehall.
4:56 pm - Jumped off at Canal St. and walked through Chinatown for 45 minutes (now I know what my wife must have felt like the first time she was in Little Havana) trying to find the small screening room at Pace University.
5:41 pm - Boy, am I late. Luckily, I only missed the short film preceding the feature (or unluckily, some would say, as this was Harrington's little seen early experimental film, Picnic). But what a wonderful surprise. Last minute arrangements were made to have a Q&A with Night Tide's lead actor, Dennis Hopper. 72 years old, and the man still emanates cool as he assuredly strolls down to the podium to speak.
Night Tide is about a young sailor (Hopper) on liberty in Venice Beach, California. He meets a young lady named Mora who works as an amusement park "mermaid," sitting in a tank that appears to be full of water, wearing a fish tail. But with two former boyfriends now dead, she may actually be a mythological siren, luring men to their demise with her beauty and feminine wiles. The surreal film is interesting in its collision of the film noir genre with a touch of the horror genre. Hopper's performance appears improvised, and demonstrates some of the ability to carry a movie that allowed him to go on to a legendary career. The Academy-restored print was bright and clean, and apparently had just been brought over from the lab.
As if the movie wasn't odd enough, someone had accidentally transposed the second and third reels, leading to some unintended surreal, and humorous, moments.
Some interesting points Hopper spoke of:
- This was Harrington's first feature film, and it was a non-union film, preventing it from being shown in theaters for close to 3 years.
- Hopper had been released from his contract with Warner Bros. where he had already been in movies such as Rebel Without a Cause
, Giant
, and Gunfight at the OK Corral
.
- This was Dennis Hopper's first lead role.
- Hopper was and is a strong supporter of nascent filmmakers, having supported not only Harrington, but notable underground filmmakers Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger.
- Luana Anders, who costars, was later cast by Hopper as Peter Fonda's girlfriend in his own directorial debut, Easy Rider
. She also wrote some things for Francis Coppola and appeared in his first studio film, The Rain People.
- Among Hopper's performing influences were Marlon Brando and James Dean, but this performance was influenced greatly by Montgomery Clift's acting.
7:36 pm - Stopped by
Nobu Tribeca (105 Hudson St, 212-219-0500) where I ate some of the best and freshest sushi I had in a long time (Atlanta being quite a ways inland, it is not really known for its fresh fish). I highly recommend the Tiraditos, delicate thinly-sliced whitefish with a pinhead-size drop of spicy red chile sauce and cilantro leaves. There is also the Yellowtail sashimi with a slice of jalapeño on top. If raw food is not your thing, try the miso-glazed black
cod, or the beef tenderloin in teriyaki sauce, which was prepared perfectly at the medium temperature I asked for, and served with a variety of mushrooms on the side. The service was excellent too, as I was in a hurry to catch my next film, and made it out in less than an hour.
9:00 pm - Four short films, directed by Isabella Rossellini for the Sundance Channel, showing the mating habits of insects, are shown before the feature,
Toby Dammit. The films, called
Green Porno, were meant to be shown on cell phones, but I can't see how they'll be tossed away like that. They are educational, strange, and some of the funniest viral video out there. All 8 videos will be available at
http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno?go=watch and on all Helio mobile devices on May 5th.
Toby Dammit is a short film that was originally part of a troika of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations released as
Spirits of the Dead
. This one, based on Poe's
Never Bet the Devil Your Head, was directed by Federico Fellini, and stars Terence Stamp. It was just restored by the film's original cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno in conjunction with the Cineteca Nazionale de Italia for the Ornella Muti Network. Ornella Muti is an Italian actress best known stateside for playing Princess Aura in
Flash Gordon
(1980). But she is also one of the leading contributors to film restoration in Italy. What we saw last night was essentially a sneak preview, as
Toby Dammit is actually the opening film of the 2008 Taormina Film Fest in Sicily.
The film was Rotunno's first with Fellini, but he went on to become the cinematographer on all of his subsequent films. It's easy to see why, with the restoration finished. The film's color and contrast is brilliant, and well-defined. This is one of my favorite movies, and I owned the original DVD by Image, which was atrocious, just because I liked it so much. When Janus Films (the people behind the Criterion Collection) released a much improved version, I quickly ran out to purchase it. But it looks like I may have to do it one more time (no plans for a DVD yet) because this restoration borders on the revelatory. And what a movie to choose to restore.
Terence Stamp, a powerful British actor in the 1960's (now know primarily for his campy General Zod in
Superman
and
Superman II
), plays an alcoholic actor on a downward spiral. He keeps encountering the devil as he declines further and further, personified as a strange white-haired little girl bouncing a ball. The movie captures an uncomfortable feeling of suspension in time that I've never seen done to such great effect as I have here. If you have the opportunity, seek this one out once it becomes available, or just rent the current version on Netflix.
By Green Porno, I don’t mean the kind of porno that donates its mattresses and left over lumber to Habitat for Humanity after filming is done. I’m referring to the short films on the Sundance Channel, directed by the lovely, graceful and godly Isabella Rossellini doing ungodly, ungraceful things like dry-humping a praying mantis. In each short film, Isabella dresses up like insects and then very visually acts out how they reproduce. The look of the sets is purposely low-tech, with hand-made backgrounds in which you are allowed to see the strings that make things move. The films all begin with Isabella looking directly at the camera and saying something like “If I were a bumblebee…” or “If I were a common house fly.” My favorite intro, and also, possibly my new motto: “If I were a firefly I would light up my ass at night, and look for a mate.”
In the eight short films that make up the first season, Isabella does (literally) a common house fly, a bumblebee, dragonfly, earth worm, firefly, spider and a snail. As a snail, Isabella twists herself into a shell... her anus ending up right above her face. The whole time, I'm wondering, "What in the world is Isabella Rossellini doing dressed like a snail? And, oh my God, now her snail poop is coming out of her snail anus, and falling on her GORGEOUS, DELICATE, ANGELIC, ISABELLA FACE!!!"
The only thing crazier than watching insects “get busy” via large papier-mâché penises and vaginas by way of puppetry is watching ISABELLA ROSSELLINI dressed like these animals getting busy with other animals. In an interview, Isabella says that she is finally doing what she has wanted to do ever since she was a little girl. She says she has always dreamt of making short films, and also of making films about animals. Somehow, I doubt that this is what little Isabella had in mind... even growing up in Italy. And that’s because this isn’t just about insects having sex, it’s how they have kinky sex. Who knew? And who knew these stories were so tragic - the bumblebee loses his penis during sex, and then bleeds to death - or so funny? The praying mantis get his head eaten by the female during sex which, of course, does not deter his progress.
Now, there’s a new season of Green Porno. This time Isabella takes kinky animal sex under the sea. Aesthetically, the six new short films are still hand-crafty beautiful, and they are still super-educational (FYI, whales have a six-foot-long penis).
So apparently there are many ways to tell an animal’s story, and not all of them require the narration of James Earl Jones. For example, if you are Disney and you're making Earth you spend big bucks waiting for weeks in the freezing cold with high-tech equipment - in the hopes that what you believed was a polar bear den would indeed be that - praying that a mama would arise from hibernation with her new cubs. Or in the case of Green Porno you can put on an arts and crafts party and create some wacked-out shit. Don’t get me wrong... Earth is gorgeous, with its aerials of beautiful creatures as they migrate over thousands of miles, and blah, blah, blah... where’s the KINKY ANIMAL SEX!?
Surprisingly, both Earth and Green Porno do connect you to these creatures, and help you see the importance of your role in their preservation. They just use completely different techniques. Earth makes you feel guilty. I wanted to beat myself up for being born; flying in planes; driving so much; making the ice melt; and now, the poor polar bear is struggling and starving because of me. I’m so sorry polar bear! I wish you could fit in my New York apartment. I really do. I would care for you, polar bear, and I would share my iced lattes with you.
Green Porno doesn’t make you feel sad for these creatures. Heck, in these films they are getting more action than you. earth was meant for the big screen, while Green Porno was meant for the smallest, i.e. the third screen: your computer, your iPhone. On that tiny screen, Isabella takes on one creature at a time, tells their story, and in doing that, she brings them up to our size. Actually, to her size. Isabella-size.
James Gray's Two Lovers begins with a man jumping off a Brighton Beach pier, hoping to drown, yet ultimately too fearful to go through with it. Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix) is a nice-guy schlub who's moved back in with his Jewish parents (Isabella Rossellini, Moni Moshonov). Arriving home, drenched from head to toe, his worried mother doesn't seem too surprised at her son's condition. He's attempted suicide at least one other time, we'll learn later, and is on medication to combat his depression. His fiancee had left him after a genetic test indicated that any offspring of theirs would likely suffer a debilitating disease and die after one year.
Soon, he meets two women. One is Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), daughter of a dry cleaner who plans on merging his company with that of Leonard's dad. She is a sensible woman from a good Jewish family that Leonard's parents hope will get him out of his funk. He also meets a neighbor, Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), a charmingly neurotic beauty that he finds himself instantly attracted to. The apartment she stays at is right across the courtyard from his window, and is provided to her by her married lover (Elias Koteas) who comes to see her when visiting his mother.
The plot could easily form the basis for a typical romantic comedy were it not in the hands of Gray (We Own the Night), with Sandra playing the vanilla girl who stands in the way of Leonard's pursuit of his dream girl, Michelle. But Gray treats the proceedings with seriousness and sympathy for all of his characters, especially Leonard. In this, his third collaboration with Phoenix (The Yards), Gray seems to be maturing somewhat. Like in his previous films, Gray confounds expectations he has deliberately encouraged, leading us up to the predictable conclusion and then turning away with subtlety to provide a more realistic alternative. So when Leonard's mom is shown to be a nosy old biddy, for instance, it's not to imply that she is domineering and may be at the root of his problems with women. It is to demonstrate how fragile he is after his suicide attempts, the implication being that his mom feels she may have failed him once and is unwilling to do so again.
Leaving behind the melodrama of his earlier crime pictures, Gray also hones in on another strength evident in his earlier films, the ability to elicit outstanding performances of great emotional depth. It's a real shame that Phoenix is leaving acting behind to pursue a rap career. Supposedly his "last" performance, this is perhaps the most touching performance of his career. As Leonard, Phoenix reveals the lonely soul of a man abandoned by love who still reaches out for someone to save him. Phoenix uses his best features, his hooded eyes, to great effect here, alternately lifting and lowering his gaze as if to unveil and shroud his wounded heart to at least the viewer, if to no one else. And strangely enough, a goofy rap on his first outing with Michelle instantly endears him to her and us, the viewers, as well.
Gray underscores the allure that Michelle holds for Leonard in some interesting ways. When they trade cell numbers in order for her to be able to start texting him, it immediately characterizes their relationship with touches of modernity, secrecy and excitement, a way out for Leonard from the path of tradition he feels locked into in Brighton Beach. Gray usually frames Paltrow (Iron Man) in a blur, both figuratively and literally. The first time Michelle and Leonard go out, he euphorically gets caught up in her Ecstasy-induced haze as they party in a club, the whirl of dancing people and colored lights surrounding them. The picture above demonstrates how only Michelle is in focus when he is with her. But this shot is from early on in the film, and as he (and we) get to know her, the frame's background begins to sharpen.
Sandra, on the other hand, represents his roots, and perhaps painfully reminds him of the woman who left him. Gray often depicts her within the context of family, i.e., her brother's bar mitzvah; cancelling a date because of her father's birthday; a New Year's party at Leonard's parents' home. She often prefers coming to see him in person, rather than calling him on the phone. Even her gift of winter gloves to Leonard is a sensible, though unexciting one. As seen in the picture above, Sandra is a natural beauty, dressing conservatively, and wearing little makeup. Gray often shoots Shaw (The Hills Have Eyes) with a wide-angle lens, tying her character into the background, rooting her in Leonard's world. The director, an aspiring painter in his youth, gives Leonard and Sandra's world his typical chiaroscuro lighting, accentuating the contrast between the safety and stability of Sandra's world in Brooklyn, and the glitzy wonder of Michelle's Manhattan life.
This upcoming Valentine's Day, if you've had your fill of comedy, but still ache for romance in your cinema, Two Lovers is a great movie to watch.
Two Lovers opens in limited release February 13, 2009.
5:41 pm - Boy, am I late. Luckily, I only missed the short film preceding the feature (or unluckily, some would say, as this was Harrington's little seen early experimental film, Picnic). But what a wonderful surprise. Last minute arrangements were made to have a Q&A with Night Tide's lead actor, Dennis Hopper. 72 years old, and the man still emanates cool as he assuredly strolls down to the podium to speak.
cod, or the beef tenderloin in teriyaki sauce, which was prepared perfectly at the medium temperature I asked for, and served with a variety of mushrooms on the side. The service was excellent too, as I was in a hurry to catch my next film, and made it out in less than an hour.