Day: November 17, 2014

FLAMENCO trailer from Dada Films on Vimeo.

By Joe Bendel. Carlos Saura is sort of like the Busby Berkeley of flamenco and other traditional Iberian musical forms, except he stages musical numbers with Spartan elegance. There will be no talking whatsoever, just singing, dancing, and playing in his latest intimate musical performance film. Saura follows up his 1995 art house hit Flamenco with the aptly titled Flamenco, Flamenco, which opens this Friday in New York.

Saura will not even cheapen his visually gorgeous film with a lot of inter-titles identifying the many accomplished musicians making up his all-star flamenco ensembles. In a way, that is unfortunate for them, because their performances would make converts out of any non-fan who just happened to wander into Flamenco-squared. Indeed, the Flamenco choreography framed by Saura and revered cinematographer Vittorio Storaro is particularly cinematic, emphasizing the dancers’ long vertical lines and their whirling garments.

There is no question Saura is one of the best filmmakers in the world when it comes to capturing dance on film. He also has an intuitive sense of how to best use the inherent tension of flamenco percussion. Although flamenco costuming is traditionally rather modest, several of the younger singers and dancer convey quite a bit of passion through their performances. However, when María Bala steps forward for her solo, the audience is transported to the Andalusian caves.

In terms of quality, Flamenco, Flamenco is remarkably consistent, but there are still notable standouts. Surprisingly, one of the best is a two piano duet for Dorantes and Diego Amador. They both have spectacular technique, but what really distinguishes “Cartagenera y Bulerías” is just the sheer contagious fun they are having playing together.

This time around, Saura’s approach will be somewhat controversial for purists, because he includes several younger, fusionistic performers, such as Rocío Molina. However, when she dances “Garrotín” with a cigarillo clenched in her lips, she looks like she could have been Bizet’s inspiration for Carmen. Yet perhaps the most striking choreography comes on the sacred-themed “Holy Week,” which also stretches our conceptions of flamenco in a different way.

Shot entirely within the Seville Pavilion for 1992 Expo, F-F has a real sense of flowing space, accentuated by Storaro’s swooping camera that often matches the dancers’ dramatic moves. At times, Saura uses gallery motifs for his backdrops, but he often just employs warm primary colors to set-off the performers. Aside from his previous films (such as Tango and Fados), the most logical comparative would be Trueba’s Calle 54, which is high praise indeed. A rich feast for eyes and ears alike, Flamenco, Flamenco is highly recommended for general audiences, whether they think they like flamenco or not, when it opens this Friday (11/21) in New York at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on November 17th, 2014 at 7:48pm.

By Joe Bendel. Being the subject of documentaries runs in the Vreeland family. Celebrated Vogue editor Diana Vreeland’s career was chronicled in her own doc, Diana Vreeland: the Eye has to Travel and she logically played a part in films by Bruce Weber and about Bert Stern. Through her influence, her photographer grandson Nicholas apprenticed with Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, but instead of following in her footsteps, he charted his own course as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Vreeland’s life and complicated relationship to the worldly discipline of photography are explored in Guido Santi & Tina Mascara’s Monk with a Camera, which opens this Friday in New York.

Typically, young men of Vreeland’s background either become playboys or elite public servants, like his ambassador father. He was well along his way to the former, considerably aided by his precocious talent for photography. Meeting models was never a problem for him, but a chance introduction to Khyongla Rato Rinpoche changed his life.  Through the spiritual instruction of his lifelong teacher, Vreeland found the meaning he had been seeking.

Although the Tibetan exile initially discouraged him from taking robes, Vreeland’s calling would not be denied. It helped when his cameras were stolen, thereby eliminating such distracting influences. However, his brother gave him a replacement as a going away gift, should inspiration later strike him. Years later, necessity would serve that function while spearheading a relatively ambitious fundraising drive to expand the growing Rato Monastery, his teacher’s former home. As a Vreeland, he still had plenty of well-healed contacts, but the financial crisis threw a spanner in the works. However, sales of his striking photographs successfully covered the sudden shortfalls. Such resourcefulness even impressed His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

There are plenty of lessons to learn from Vreeland’s story, starting with the obvious inclusiveness of Tibetan Buddhism. While he might have engendered understandable skepticism when formally beginning his journey, clearly no racial resentment or class warfare prejudices hampered his acceptance in the cloistered community. It also suggests art can serve sacred causes as well as worldly desires. Indeed, his work shows a keenly humane eye for the bustling hardscrabble life around the monastery and throughout India.

For a film so focused on the spiritual life, Camera is surprisingly lively. Santi and Mascara captured some highly significant milestones, but also incorporate plenty of quietly telling moments. Despite their vows, Vreeland and his colleagues are still very definitely engaged in the business of life. It is just a terrible shame that they cannot practice their religion in its traditional spiritual seat. Indeed, Camera is rather timely in a way, following the recent APEC summit, where our current lame duck apparently had nothing to say about the state of the Tibetan occupation, once again. Recommended for spiritual seekers and photography bugs alike, Monk with a Camera opens this Friday (11/21) at the Lincoln Center.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on November 17th, 2014 at 7:59pm.

KASAMAYAKI Trailer from YUKI KOKUBO on Vimeo.

By Joe Bendel. Katsuji and Shigeko Kokubo are a lot like the Shinoharas in Cutie and the Boxer, except they gave up their ambitions of conquering the American art world and returned to Japan. When they did, somehow they left their twelve year old daughter Yuki behind. If you are wondering how that worked, their grown filmmaker daughter will ask them directly when she documents her post 3/11 return to Japan in Kasamayaki, which screened during this year’s DOC NYC.

A stone’s throw from Fukushima, Kasama is a traditional rural artist colony, particularly known for its kasama-yaki style of pottery. At its finest, it approaches the sort of elegant and deceptively simple work the Ippodo Gallery often showcases. In recent years, the Kokubos largely support themselves through their pottery, but Katsuji had dreamed of making it as a painter.

Just what arrangements they made for their daughter when they slunk out of New York are never really explained. There is some vague talk about not wanting to take her out of school, but her mother clearly does not want to discuss it—and her father is just as obviously the junior partner when it comes to family decisions.

Frankly, Kasamayaki is a somewhat odd film, because it is outwardly quite placid and meditative, but there is a lot of emotional turmoil brewing below the surface. At times, the very act of filmmaking appears to be a deliberate strategy to keep Kokubo’s parents at arm’s length. However, those eager for some heartwarming Hallmark moments will at least get a bit of paternal rapprochement. There are also cats and dogs lazing all around the Kokubos’ converted farmhouse, which is always a plus for that audience.

Kasamayaki is much more about intimate family drama than documenting the realities of post-earthquake Fukushima, but there are a few telling time capsule moments, as when Kokubo’s father checks out one of the Geiger counters provided by the local government. Yet, despite it all, Kasama still looks like a lovely place to visit when seen through her lens.

Although small in scope, it is strangely absorbing, following in the tradition of intensely personal Japanese documentaries, represented by films like Mami Sunada’s Death of a Japanese Salesman and Yang Yonghi’s Dear Pyongyang. Recommended for those who appreciate Japanese pottery and the vérité aesthetic, Kasamyaki screened as part of DOC NYC 2014.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on November 17th, 2014 at 7:46pm.