The
Museum of Modern Art's Department of Film and Media presents work from
French film pioneer Louis Feuillade, film studio Miramax, video artist
Donigan Cumming, and more.
112 Years of Cinema (through September)
MoMA's journey through film history continues. Programs include:
Notorious.
1946. USA. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Screenplay by Ben Hecht. With
Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains. Set in the world of espionage
and persistent Nazi sympathy in South America, this Hitchcock classic
perfectly captures postwar paranoia. Wed., Feb. 2, 7:30; Sat., Feb. 5,
2:00
The Straight Story.
1999. USA/France. Directed by David Lynch. With Richard Farnsworth,
Sissy Spacek, Harry Dean Stanton. Seventy-three-year-old Alvin Straight
travels from Iowa to Wisconsin on his riding mower to visit the ailing
brother with whom he hasn't spoken in over a decade. Fri., Feb. 4,
8:00; Mon., Feb. 7, 6:00
Le Mépris (Contempt). 1963. France/Italy. Directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Screenplay by Godard, based on Alberto Moravia's novel Il Disprezzo.
With Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance. Bardot's languid
performance makes this often comical Godard film a must-see. In French,
English subtitles. Sat., Feb. 5, 5:00; Sat., Feb. 12, 2:00
The Killing.
1956. USA. Written and directed by Stanley Kubrick. Dialogue by Jim
Thompson. Kubrick's first critical success is a tour-de-force of
hardboiled writing, noirish design, and no-nonsense acting. Sun., Feb.
6, 2:00; Mon., Feb. 14, 6:00
Premieres (through January 31)
MoMA's festival of world, U.S., and New York City premieres continues. Programs include:
Bico.
2004. Portugal. Directed by Aki Kaurismaki. A lovely, ultrashort
history of the inhabitants of a mountain village in northern Portugal.
5 min.
La Cicatrice intérieure (The Inner Scar).
1972. France. Written and directed by Philippe Garrel. With Nico,
Garrel, Pierre Clémenti. With songs by Nico. A beautiful digital
restoration by the Cinémathèque française, this essentially
nonnarrative film is as much about dramatic landscape as it is about
the disconnect between intimates. 60 min.
Sat., Jan. 29, 6:30; Mon., Jan. 31, 7:30
The Girl from Monday.
2005. USA. Written and directed by Hal Hartley. Hartley's new film is a
stylized account of consumerism, free love, and terrorist paranoia in
the information age. Sun., Jan. 30, 5:00 (introduced by Hartley)
Sundance at MoMA: The Immortal.
2004. Nicaragua/Spain. Directed by Mercedes Moncada. Music by Diamanda
Galas. Developed at Sundance Documentary Lab and partly funded through
Sundance Documentary Fund, Moncada's film investigates post-civil war
Nicaragua and its current environment of religious manipulation, male
chauvinism, and poverty. Mon., Jan. 31, 6:30 (introduced by Moncada)
Sundance at MoMA: Me and You and Everyone We Know.
2004. USA. Written and directed by Miranda July. With John Hawkes,
July. Developed through the Sundance Feature Film Lab and financed
jointly by IFC Films and Film Four, this film concerns adults and
children trying to figure out how to touch each other both physically
and emotionally. Mon., Jan. 31, 8:30 (introduced by July)
Louis Feuillade: A Sampling of a Master (February 6-June)
French
filmmaker Feuillade (1874-1925) was a pioneer of narrative film who
wrote and directed approximately 800 shorts, features, and serials in
his eighteen-year career. The exhibition opens in February with four
programs of shorts and feature films, and continues through June with
four serials, shown one per month.
Seven comedies written and directed by Louis Feuillade
Program
silent, with piano accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. French intertitles,
simultaneous English translation. Sun., Feb. 6, 2:30; Thurs., Feb. 16,
8:30
Four melodramas written and directed by Louis Feuillade
Program
silent, with piano accompaniment by Stuart Oderman. French intertitles,
simultaneous English translation. Sun., Feb. 6, 4:30; Thurs., Feb. 10,
8:15
Miramax: 25 Years (January 1 through summer 2005)
A
retrospective of fifty significant films that Miramax and its division,
Dimension, produced and distributed over the past quarter-century. In
addition to Paris Is Burning, My Left Foot, Jackie Brown, and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, programs include:
Chunghing Samlam (Chungking Express).
1994. Hong Kong. Written and directed by Wong Kar-wai. Largely shot
with a handheld camera by his longtime cinematographer Christopher
Doyle, Chungking Express is a lively two-part film about love and crime in the big city. Sat., Jan. 29, 5:00; Sun., Jan. 30, 5:00
Ju Dou.
1990. China/Japan. Directed by Zhang Yimou, Yang Fengliang. Zhang began
his career as a cameraman. In this lush, sensual melodrama, his
enthusiasm for the gorgeous image, dramatic frame, and rhythm of
narrative enticement is harnessed to a story of passion, betrayal, and
death set in the Chinese countryside during the 1920s.
Sat., Feb. 5, 8:15; Wed., Feb. 16, 8:00
MediaScope: Donigan Cumming (Montreal) (February 7)
Cumming
uses video, photography, and mixed-media installation to challenge
conventions of representation. Society's outcasts have been the
artist's principal theme since his 1986 photographic cycle Reality and
Motive in Documentary Photography. Premiering are some of Cummings's
recent videos, including Locke's Way (2003) and Cold Harbor (2003), shown with documentation of his latest work with encaustic collage.
Mon., Feb. 7, 8:00
