Month: September 2013

LFM Reviews Fifi Howls from Happiness @ The New York Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Given his darkly surreal imagery and his penchant for destroying his own work, there is definitely something Kafkaesque about the late Iranian expatriate artist Bahman Mohasses. For years he had removed himself from the world. Yet, he was ready, perhaps even eager to talk when Mitra Farahani tracked him down for her documentary profile, Fifi Howls from Happiness, which screens during the 51st New York Film Festival.

Mohassess is clearly out of step with the current Islamist regime in Iran. It seems his large scale nude statues were not compatible with the post-Revolutionary standards of “decency.” He also happened to be gay, but in a defiantly politically incorrect way (marriage was not exactly a priority for him). However, his first extended period of self-imposed exile began shortly after the Shah’s ascendency.

Eventually, Mohassess returned to his homeland, where the Shah’s wife became one of his leading patrons. A far cry from a fundamentalist, Mohassess still gave the Islamic Revolution a fair chance, but eventually tired of the gauche scene. Before he left, Mohassess destroyed a significant portion of his oeuvre, taking only a few pieces with him (most notably including the painting that supplies the title of Farahani’s film).

On one hand, Mohassess’s actions echo the existential self-negation of a Dostoyevsky character, yet at other times one suspects it is all a calculated attempt to create mystique. It almost seems like Mohassess has been waiting for someone like Farahani to take his bait. Regardless, she develops a considerable rapport with the artist, but never sounds nauseatingly fawning.

From "Fifi Howls from Happiness."

While not quite deleted from Iranian history books, Mohassess’s place in the nation’s collective consciousness is decidedly ambiguous, which makes Fifi a valuable cinematic record. Clearly, there are still Mohassess collectors, like Rokni and Ramin Haerizadeh, prominent Iranian artist-brothers working in Dubai. Through Farahani, they visit Mohassess to commission what may or may not be his last great artistic statement.

Since Fifi is almost entirely shot in Mohassess’s residential hotel, the film is visually somewhat static. Still, it is fascinating to see the stills of his work, accompanied by his artist commentary, especially considering most of said pieces no longer survive. Farahani cleverly incorporates her subject’s unsolicited directorial advice, ironically following it to the letter. Her extended allusions to Balzac’s The Unknown Masterpiece and Visconti’s The Leopard also add literary flair.

Indeed, Farahani earns great credit for working with and around Fifi’s inherent limitations. Mohassess is a difficult subject, who never sounds like he is really “for” anything or anyone, not even himself. Yet, Farahani does him justice, convincing the audience he is an odd character to visit, but one well worth saving from the memory hole. Recommended for connoisseurs of art documentaries and Mohassess’s work, Fifi Howls from Happiness screens tomorrow (9/28) and Tuesday (10/1) at the Gilman Theater as part of the Motion Portraits section of the 2013 NYFF.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on September 27th, 2013 at 3:12pm.

LFM Reviews Afternoon of a Faun—Tanaquil le Clercq @ The New York Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. She changed the way George Balanchine thought about ballerinas. Essentially, that means she changed ballet. Tanaquil Le Clercq’s life took a unfortunate turn worthy of her tragic characters, but she would have a third act. Nancy Buirski surveys her entire life and art in Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil le Clercq, which screens during the 51st New York Film Festival.

A cosmopolitan prodigy, Le Clercq was discovered by Balanchine while she was a difficult student at School of American Ballet. According to her friends, the legendary choreographer first encountering her sulking about the halls after her teacher ejected her from class. Her sophisticated looks certainly caught his eye. Although her height and long limbs were unusual for dancers at that time, Balanchine started tailoring his ballets to her strengths. Soon she was his featured dancer and wife. Then disaster struck.

Ironically, Le Clercq had danced in a special polio-themed March of Dimes fundraiser performance shortly before she was stricken with the disease herself. She would never dance or even walk again. However, she would eventually re-emerge as a teacher at Dance Theatre of Harlem. As for her relationship with Balanchine—it was complicated.

Frankly, it would have been easy for Buirski to cast Balanchine in a villainous light, but Faun is rather remarkable for its evenhanded and forgiving treatment of the dance titan. Taking its lead from Le Clercq’s closest friends, Faun gives him credit for supporting her when she most needed help and eventually re-starting some sort of intimate relationship with his former muse. It was indeed complicated, but maybe not so much for Jerome Robbins, her fair weather ambiguously romantic friend.

From "Afternoon of a Faun—Tanaquil le Clercq."

Buirski’s sympathetic depiction of Balanchine reflects the humane spirit of film as a whole. While it is eventually destined for American Masters, the elegant and often elegiac dance footage elevates its cinematic-ness. Buirski calls on a relatively small cast of talking heads, but they each clearly knew Le Clercq very well. Perhaps most moving are the remembrances of Jacques d’Amboise, Le Clercq’s partner for many of her defining performances.

Viewers will be surprised at the emotional punch Faun packs. Granted, Buirski follows the tried-and-true documentary filmmaking approach, but she marshals all her elements with considerable style and understanding. The participation of co-producer Ric Burns and project advisor Martin Scorsese should further reassure film snobs. A satisfying viewing experience, Afternoon of a Faun is recommended for dance connoisseurs and anyone with a taste for cultural documentaries. It screens this coming Monday (9/30) at the Walter Reade, as well as the 11th and 13th, as part of the Motion Portraits section of the 2013 NYFF.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on September 27th, 2013 at 3:09pm.

LFM Reviews The Spy: Undercover Operation

From "The Spy: Undercover Operation."

By Joe Bendel. Sure, they get to kill people, but spies are still civil servants. The hours are long and there is frequent travel, but they are still paid according to their government grade. Agent Kim Chul-soo’s wife does not realize he is out saving the country. She only knows he is not around very much, with little to show for it. However, she will find herself in the middle of his latest assignment when an enemy operative targets her in Lee Seung-jun’s The Spy: Undercover Operation, which opens today in Queens, New York.

The latest round of six-party talks is fast approaching. Once again, re-unification seems to be just around the corner, until a high-ranking North Korean official’s plane is blasted out of the sky by a stinger missile. His daughter, Baek Sul-hee, decides to defect to the South to expose the international conspiracy responsible. She also happens to be a nuclear scientist, making her a very valuable commodity. Kim and his sidekick-like department head Jin will manage the operation, but the normally reliable operative will be uncharacteristically distracted by his fraying marriage.

Frankly, the North Koreans are the least of their worries. The Chinese, American, and Japanese intelligence services are all circling around Baek. However, a mysterious freelancer named Ryan represents the gravest threat. Sort of the male model version of Javier Bardem’s Raul Silva in Skyfall, Ryan has been putting the moves on Kim’s unsuspecting wife AhnYeong-hui for nefarious purposes. This rather annoys Kim, for multiple reasons.

Essentially, The Spy incorporates elements of Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Athena: Goddess of War, adding a liberal dose of broad, henpecked humor. Helmed by last minute stand-in Lee Seung-jun (the assistant director on Quick), it boasts several nicely executed action scenes, but the jealous husband gags are strictly sitcom stuff.

If the Korean film industry is serious about expanding their share of the American market, The Spy is a rather perverse choice to export, given its anti-American inclinations. It is hard to imagine a film whose hero deliberately shoots CIA agents dead is likely to break out at the American box office, especially since fans of the action and rom-com genres tend to be more heartland, whereas the audience for provocative art-house films like Kim Ki-duk’s Pieta will not be interested, regardless. Perhaps American actor Daniel Henney (best known for the previous Wolverine film) was considered crossover friendly, but he is hardly a household name.

From "The Spy: Undercover Operation."

Henney makes a decent villain as Ryan, but prestige screen-thesps Sul Kyung-gu and Moon So-ri look distinctly uncomfortable with the mugging and pratfalls required of Kim and Ahn, respectively. Somehow, though, Han Ye-ri’s Baek is a figure of intelligence, seriousness, and resourcefulness. Conversely, Ko Chang-seok (another Quick alumnus) is right at home with Jin’s rubber-faced reaction shots.

There is some impressive stunt work in The Spy, but it is hamstrung by its dubious humor and geopolitical analysis. Not likely to have a long run, diehard Henney fans (if they’re out there) should see it this weekend, but go in with low expectations when The Spy: Operation Undercover opens today (9/27) at the AMC Bay Terrace in Flushing.

LFM GRADE: C-

Posted on September 27th, 2013 at 3:05pm.

A Voice from Theresienstadt: LFM Reviews The Last of the Unjust @ The New York Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. He was a figurehead in a Potemkin village. Set up as a “model ghetto” to deceive the International Red Cross and the unaligned world at large, Theresienstadt hid its brutality from public view, but it was there just the same. Benjamin Murmelstein had the dubious distinction of being appointed the third and final President of Theresienstadt’s Jewish Council, or the “Elder of the Jews,” as the National Socialists dubbed them. A resourceful or perhaps expedient leader (depending on one’s point of view), Murmelstein remained a figure of controversy throughout his life. Shoah director Claude Lanzmann returns to the hours of interview footage he shot with Murmelstein in 1975 for his documentary profile, The Last of the Unjust, which screens during the 51st New York Film Festival.

When Murmelstein was appointed as the Elder of Theresienstadt, he did not have much say in the matter. With no practical authority, Murmelstein did his best with his powers of persuasion, going toe-to-toe with an often manically demonic Eichmann—a far cry from what Arendt made him out to be. Murmelstein estimates he saved over one hundred twenty thousand lives during the war years by arranging mass emigration to what is now Israel. On the other hand, the seventy-hour work weeks he instituted, in hopes of making the Theresienstadt prisoners too valuable to be “deported east,” was a double-edged sword.

In his lengthy discussions with Lanzmann, Murmelstein is both his best and worst character witness, but he steadily wins the documentarian over, at least to some extent. Unquestionably, his testimony and Lanzmann’s supplemental evidence will help viewers understand the precariousness of his position. Clearly, Lanzmann hopes viewers will speculate how they might respond if placed in similar circumstances.

From "The Last of the Unjust."

Is Murmelstein worthy of an in-depth biographical treatment? Without reservation, the answer is yes. Nonetheless, at 218 minutes, the Spartan Unjust is a demanding viewing experience. Even Lanzmann’s towering Shoah, with its considerably wider scope, is better digested in installments.

Unjust is rich with insight and offers more than a few eye-opening scoops. However, Lanzmann makes the film longer and therefore more arduous than necessary by frequently including multiple accounts of incidents with little appreciable variation. There is a personal quality to this film, which tested his editorial sensibilities. Lanzmann admits right from the top that Murmelstein’s story has haunted him for years. Indeed, the contrast between Lanzmann in 1975, still quite the dashing figure at age fifty, and the gray-haired documentary statesman of today heightens the film’s keen sense of history. Recommended for those who are prepared for its intellectual and aesthetic rigors, The Last of the Unjust screens Sunday (9/29) at Alice Tully Hall as an official selection of the 2013 New York Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on September 25th, 2013 at 3:58pm.

LFM Reviews The Wind Rises @ The New York Film Festival

By Joe Bendel. Jiro Horikoshi is a Studio Ghibli character Tony Stark would approve of. He was the engineer responsible for designing Imperial Japan’s Model Zero fighters, but he was a dreamer rather than an ideologue. At least, that is how Hayao Miyazaki re-imagined Horikoshi’s private persona in his fictionalized manga, which he has now adapted as his final film as a director. Spanning decades of Japan’s tumultuous pre-war history, Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises is also a deeply personal film that screens as a main slate selection of the 51st New York Film Festival.

As a young student, Horikoshi yearns to fly, but he realizes his spectacles make it nearly impossible for him to become a pilot. Borrowing an aviation magazine from an encouraging teacher opens up a new path for the earnest lad. Through its pages he learns of Italian aircraft designer Gianni Caproni, who becomes his inspiration. Setting his sights on an engineering career, Horikoshi regularly meets Caproni in his dreams and reveries, where they share their mutual passion for flight.

Circumstances of history will conspire to make Horikoshi’s life eventful. His first day as a university student is marked by the catastrophic earthquake of 1923, which will resonate profoundly with contemporary viewers. Yet, out of that tragedy, Hirokoshi meets and temporarily loses the great love of his life.

Despite his intelligence, Japan’s stagnant economy offers few opportunities for Horikoshi when he graduates. He joins Mitsubishi at a time when the company appears to be on its last legs. Gambling its future on military contracts, the company sends Horikoshi to Germany, hoping he can help them reverse-engineer whatever the Junkers will let him see. Of course, he will be able to raise their game substantially.

From "The Wind Rises."

In no way, shape, or manner does Miyazaki justify Japan’s militarist era, but he has still taken flak from both sides of the divide over Wind. Frankly, it presents a gentle but firm critique of the Imperial war machine. At one point, Horikoshi is even forced into hiding, designing the military’s fighter planes while he evades the government’s thought police. Indeed, such is a common experience for the best and the brightest living under oppressive regimes. Yet, Miyazaki is just as interested in Horikoshi’s grandly tragic romance with Naoko, a beautiful artist sadly suffering from tuberculosis. Horikoshi makes a number of choices throughout the film, every one of which the audience can well understand.

Given its elegiac vibe, Wind makes a fitting summation film for Miyazaki. Covering the immediate pre-war decades, it compliments and engages in a wistful dialogue with Gorō Miyazaki’s post-war coming of age tale From Up on Poppy Hill (co-written by the elder Miyazaki). One can also see and hear echoes of master filmmakers past, such as Ozu and Fellini, throughout the film. Any cinema scholar surveying Miyazaki’s work will have to deal with it at length, but it still happens to be a genuinely touching film.

After watching Wind, viewers will hope the real Horikoshi was a lot like Miyazaki’s (and the same goes for Caproni). Miyazaki seriously examines the dilemmas faced by his protagonist while telling a lyrical love story. Visually, the quality of Studio Ghibli’s animation remains undiminished, but the clean lines of Horikoshi’s planes and the blue open skies lend themselves to simpler images than some of his richly detailed classics. Regardless, The Wind Rises is an unusually accomplished film that transcends the animation genre. Highly recommended for all ages and interests, it screens this Saturday (9/28) and next Friday (10/4) at Alice Tully Hall (stand-by only), as part of the 2013 NYFF.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on September 24th, 2013 at 1:42pm.

LFM Reviews The Wedding Palace

By Joe Bendel. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. You’ve got a big ethnic family and perhaps a wedding. Wait, there’s also a curse. Frankly, Jason Kim might be better off with a gruesome death than the women his mother tries to fix him up with. However, hope might be arriving from Korea in Christine Yoo’s The Wedding Palace, which opens this Friday in New York.

Thanks to the scandalous behavior of a bridegroom hundreds of years again, a painful fate befalls all the men in Kim’s family who are not married before they turn thirty. At least, so he has always been told. He is twenty-nine and his fiancée, Jinnie Park, just jilted him at the altar. It is embarrassing for Kim, especially since his parents are convinced he is now doomed.

Even when traveling to Seoul on business, Kim cannot escape his mother’s Hail Mary blind dates. Yet, one particularly miserable attempt in a karaoke club brings Kim face-to-face with Song Na-young, a very attractive colleague who can sing like an angel. Despite their halting start, the two commence a passionate, long distance love affair. Soon he Skypes the question and she accepts. Yet as soon as she lands in L.A., he discovers something about her that will provide him and his family the opportunity to act like first-rate jackasses. Will true love rebound? Should the stunning Song even allow him a second chance? Have you seen a romantic comedy before?

From "The Wedding Palace."

Palace might be formulaic, but most red-blooded viewers will fall head over handlebars for Song during their karaoke sequence. Old Boy star Kang Hye-jung sounds about as comfortable with English as most of us would performing Shakespeare translated into Esperanto, but she has presence—that “it” factor.

As Kim, co-producer Brian Tee (the corrupt prosecutor in The Wolverine) makes a likable enough straight man and a convincing heel. Mad-TV’s Bobby Lee contributes a few laughs and a good measure of energy as Kim’s best friend Kevin. Unfortunately, Margaret Cho is not any funnier in her cameo as a shaman than she ever has been before. Perhaps more frustrating, Joy Osmanski, who was so charming in Dave Boyle’s White on Rice, is largely wasted in the thankless role of Park.

For an indie rom-com, Palace is quite a nicely put together package, featuring some handsome cinematography (most notable during the Korean scenes) and an upbeat score composed by David Benoit. Even though we have more or less seen it all before, Kang makes it hard not to like. Pleasant but predictable, The Wedding Palace is recommended as a date movie for committed couples when it opens this Friday (9/27) in New York at the AMC Empire.

LFM GRADE: B-/C+

Posted on September 24th, 2013 at 1:36pm.