Paul Verhoeven and Robocop (1987) at Lincoln Center's Total Verhoeven

Lincoln Center is in the midst of a retrospective of all Paul Verhoeven’s films. While he is doing interviews and introductions connected to the films the only full Q&A was going to be with Robocop. Wanting to hear the man speak at length I got tickets and went with Hubert.

Introducing the film Verhoeven called it biblical (he would later explain that the death and resurrection of Murphy was based on Christ, with his minimal dialog mirror Jesus’s similar lack of talk when he returned). He also said that he didn’t want to do the film, not finishing the script the first time through. He only would pick up the film because his wife insisted.

Really seeing the movie for the first time in a decade it’s surprising how little has dated. Yes the technology has shifted- we don’t have tube TVs anymore and the computer images are light years behind what we have now, but otherwise the film is still very much of the moment. While part of the reason for the film not dating is that it is cultural touchstone, the film for the most part plays well now. In an age of computer enhancement the practical effects are shocking. There is a visceralness to the blood and gore. While I really noted how many problems there are with the plot it moves like the wind so you don’t have to time to think about it.

After the film Verhoeven sat down with Dennis Lim and spoke for about 35 minutes. Strangely the film was focused on Robcop. I would have thought it would have wandered all over the place. It didn’t. Only Starship Troopers, which played after, was really discussed about it’s fascist politics in connection with Robocop’s bleak outlook. (and somehow in there Verhoeven threw in the statement that Jesus wasn’t a fascist)

Much of the rest of the talk was focused on shooting Dallas (he wanted to have the lights of one building in the film but the film wasn’t lit during the entire shoot), the suit (which he said as Rob Bottin’s idea) and the script (which he said was all there and he didn’t change). Verhoeven said that the film worked because he had the right people around him and that he gets the credit for the work of others. The only thing he said he did was edit the TV stuff into the film instead of having it on TV screens and bringing a sense of humor to it.

I’m sure that Verhoeven had said all of this before but it was nice to be there and see and hear him tell the stories.

When it was done Hubert and I ducked into a reception for Verhoeven held by the Film Society. While Hubert and I talked to each other Verhoeven talked with a bunch of fans signing autographs and taking pictures. Casper Van Dien (who is much smaller than I thought a Tarzan would be) acted as a ringmaster shuttling people toward the director. It was a joy to watch the man truly engage with the fans who approached him. The connection and the intensity he showed was something special and on a genuine level few celebrities ever manage. After a bit Verhoeven and Van Dein went into do the intro to Starship Troopers. Van Dein returned a few moments later to bark out that we were all invited to go see the intro. Hubert and I waited in the gallery- hoping that when Verhoeven returned we’d get a minute with the man, but when he returned he got scooped up by friends and stayed off in a corner.

Needing to get home on a school night Hubert and I ducked out and headed home.

Total Verhoeven at Lincoln Center with the director in attendance November 15 and 16

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces Total Verhoeven, a complete retrospective of the fearless director’s work, on the occasion of the U.S. release of new film Elle (NYFF54), November 9-23.

Verhoeven will appear in person for the retrospective, participating in Q&As after screenings of RoboCop on November 15 and his second Dutch feature, Turkish Delight, on November 16. Additionally, he will introduce Starship Troopers on November 15 and Showgirls on November 16.

Tickets will go on sale Thursday, October 27 and are $14; $11 for students and seniors (62+); and $9 for members. Tickets for the sneak preview of Elle are $18; $13 for members. See more and save with 3+ film discount package (Elle excluded) and $125 All Access Pass (Elle included).

I don't think I need to say more than that other than go buy tickets.

All films screening at Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street)

Elle
Paul Verhoeven, France/Germany, 2016, 131m
French with English subtitles
Paul Verhoeven’s first feature in a decade—and his first in French—ranks among his most incendiary, improbable concoctions: a wry, almost-screwball comedy of manners about a woman who responds to a rape by refusing the mantle of victimhood. As the film opens, Parisian heroine Michèle (a brilliant Isabelle Huppert) is brutally violated in her kitchen by a hooded intruder. Rather than report the crime, Michèle, the CEO of a video game company and daughter of a notorious mass murderer, calmly sweeps up the mess and proceeds to engage her assailant in a dangerous game of domination and submission in which her motivations remain a constant source of mystery, humor, and tension. A Sony Pictures Classics release. An NYFF54 selection.
Wednesday, November 9, 6:30pm

Basic Instinct
Paul Verhoeven, USA/France, 1992, 35mm, 128m
Verhoeven’s sleek, sexually daring thriller is Vertigo for the 1990s. Michael Douglas is the troubled police detective seduced into a series of cat-and-mouse mind games by Sharon Stone’s Catherine Tramell, a cool, Hitchcock-blonde crime novelist with a penchant for sleeping with murderers and who may or may not be one herself. Throughout, Verhoeven revels in the story’s ambiguity, creating a world in which sex is both unbelievably hot and charged with menace, and nearly everyone is guilty of something. Even the ending is a tease.
Wednesday, November 9, 9:15pm
Tuesday, November 15, 3:45pm
Saturday, November 19, 6:45pm

Black Book / Zwartboek
Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands, 2006, 35mm, 145m
English, Dutch, German, and Hebrew with English subtitles
Working in the Netherlands again after two decades in Hollywood, Verhoeven seized the opportunity to make an unusually complex World War II thriller. After her family is gunned down by the SS, a Jewish singer (Carice van Houten) goes undercover as a spy for the Dutch resistance, risking everything when she becomes romantically involved with a Nazi officer (Sebastian Koch). Shifting loyalties, double crosses, and Mata Hari-esque sexual intrigue abound, but what’s most striking is Verhoeven’s characteristic ambivalence: as in so many of his films he creates a finely shaded world in which everyone must make tough moral compromises to survive.
Monday, November 14, 3:00pm
Friday, November 18, 6:15pm

Business Is Business / Wat zien ik
Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands, 1971, 35mm, 90m
English-dubbed version
Verhoeven’s first feature is unmistakably his: outrageous, satiric, erotic, and gleefully unrespectable. It’s a chaotic comic portrait of two enterprising prostitutes (Ronnie Bierman and Sylvia de Leur) looking for love in between rendezvous with clients. (Their specialty: role-playing everything from chickens to corpses for their kinky customers.) A goofy, groovy tour through the red light district of swinging ‘70s Amsterdam, Business Is Business may be the most high-spirited, relatively untroubled film of Verhoeven’s career thus far, but it’s also the first iteration of one of his key themes: we do what we must to survive.
Thursday, November 10, 7:00pm
Sunday, November 13, 6:30pm

The 4th Man / De vierde man
Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands, 1983, 35mm, 102m
Dutch with English subtitles
While most of Verhoeven’s works can be read as subversive genre exercises, the last Dutch film he made before decamping for Hollywood plays like a feverish satire of a Serious European Art Film. Haunted by surreal visions of death and violence, a Catholic, alcoholic, bisexual writer (Jeroen Krabbé) is seduced by and shacks up with a suspiciously thrice-widowed beauty salon owner (Renée Soutendijk)—but he really has eyes for her sexy, would-be boyfriend (Thom Hoffman). One of the director’s most outlandish and inspired films is an alternately funny and freaky hothouse blend of oneiric symbolism, homoeroticism, religious iconography, and witchcraft.
Thursday, November 10, 9:15pm
Sunday, November 13, 4:15pm

Flesh+Blood
Paul Verhoeven, USA/Spain/Netherlands, 1985, 35mm, 126m
Though it was Verhoeven’s first English-language film, Flesh+Blood is in many ways an extension of his Dutch work: it’s shot by regular cinematographer Jan de Bont, stars frequent leading man Rutger Hauer, and is marked by the director’s typically thorny sensibility. Italy, 1501: after they’re swindled by a nobleman, a band of mercenaries headed by the savage Martin (Hauer) get their revenge by kidnapping his son’s young bride-to-be (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Worlds removed from the chivalrous romance of Hollywood legends, this is a muddy, bloody, brutal vision of the Middle Ages, with a rapist-kidnapper antihero at its center. Little wonder it was met with indifference by American audiences unprepared for Verhoeven’s uncompromising worldview.
Saturday, November 12, 1:30pm
Sunday, November 20, 3:30pm

Hollow Man
Paul Verhoeven, USA/Germany, 2000, 35mm, 112m
Verhoeven’s last Hollywood film to date is this underrated, twisted take on The Invisible Man. Kevin Bacon is an egomaniac scientist who makes himself the human guinea pig in a top-secret, government-funded invisibility experiment—but this newly acquired “power” unleashes his inner homicidal maniac. Verhoeven makes inventive use of state-of-the-art special effects (ever wondered what an invisible man looks like underwater?) in this satisfyingly pulpy thriller, which is, “like his other films, the work of a macabre moralist who's fascinated by the shape of our worst impulses” (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader).
Friday, November 18, 9:15pm
Sunday, November 20, 8:30pm

Katie Tippel / Keetje Tippel
Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands, 1975, 35mm, 107m
Dutch with English subtitles
One of Verhoeven’s most visually beautiful films depicts both the squalor and opulence of 19th-century Europe. Born into extreme poverty, Katie (Turkish Delight’s Monique van de Ven)—something like the great-grandmother of Showgirls’ ruthless Nomi—must rely on her tenacity to get ahead, as she goes from prostitute to artist’s model to fine lady in turn-of-the-century Amsterdam. Verhoeven twists this earthy, up-from-the-gutter tale—based on the memoirs of Dutch realist writer Neel Doff—into an indictment of capitalist exploitation.
Sunday, November 13, 8:30pm
Wednesday, November 16, 4:00pm

RoboCop
Paul Verhoeven, USA, 1987, 101m
Verhoeven demonstrated his ability to deliver both genre thrills and serious social commentary in this prescient and disturbing look at the rise of the corporate police state. In a dystopian, futuristic Detroit, a nefarious mega-conglomerate unveils the latest in crime-fighting technology: part cyborg, part revivified corpse of a police officer (Peter Weller) slain in the line of duty, RoboCop at first seems a surefire success—until he rebels against his programming. This sci-fi pulp masterpiece is packed with both inventive filmmaking—a grimy, cyberpunk look; satiric news broadcasts; chilling point-of-view shots—and provocative ideas about corporate takeover, the militarization of the police force, and the relationship between man and machine. 4K restoration of the uncut version!
Friday, November 11, 7:00pm
Tuesday, November 15, 6:30pm (Q&A with Paul Verhoeven)
Thursday, November 17, 4:00pm
Tuesday, November 22, 9:30pm

Showgirls
Paul Verhoeven, USA/France, 1995, 35mm, 131m
Unbound by musty notions of “good taste,” Showgirls goes further than any other film of the 1990s in its orgiastic depiction of consumerism, crass spectacle, and the dark side of the American Dream. Elizabeth Berkley (in a tour-de-force of hysterical excess) stars as Nomi, a tough-as-nails drifter with a go-it-alone attitude and a murky past, who arrives in Las Vegas and sets about trampling on everyone around her—including Gina Gershon’s evil-seductive nightclub diva—as she fights her way up from stripper in a sleazy club to star showgirl. With its deliciously overripe dialogue and nigh-unhinged performances, Showgirls is both a delirious star-is-born satire and a terrifying vision of capitalism’s corruption of the soul.
Friday, November 11, 4:15pm
Saturday, November 12, 9:00pm
Wednesday, November 16, 9:15pm (Introduction by Paul Verhoeven)
Friday, November 18, 3:30pm

Soldier of Orange / Soldaat van Oranje
Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands, 1977, 35mm, 150m
English, German, and Dutch with English subtitles
This bracing World War II epic was the film that brought Verhoeven to Hollywood’s attention. It follows a group of college friends through the Nazi occupation of Holland, as two (Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbé) becomes heroes of the resistance movement, while another (Derek de Lint) turns traitor. As usual, Verhoeven’s moral ambiguity and skewed sensibility keep things complicated: far from a patriotic flag-waver, Soldier of Orange is as knotty, subversive, and gonzo as war movies get (witness the hero performing a homoerotic tango), while demonstrating Verhoeven’s ability to balance action with involving human drama.
Tuesday, November 22, 6:30pm
Wednesday, November 23, 3:00pm

Spetters
Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands, 1980, 35mm, 120m
Dutch with English subtitles
Something of a male-driven precursor to Showgirls: as he would do in that film fifteen years later, Verhoeven takes a lurid soap opera premise, subverts it with deadly dark humor, and dials up the emotional intensity to create a funhouse-mirror reflection of a sick society. Playing like a biker exploitation film as directed by Cassavetes, Spetters is a sexually charged psychodrama that charts the coming-of-age of three blue-collar, motocross-obsessed young men. Hopped up on testosterone, the boys live to race their dirt bikes and dream of one day becoming as famous as the world champion, Gerrit Witkamp (Rutger Hauer)—but fate has other things in store. Homosexuality, religion, suicide, misogyny, and empty-headed macho posturing are all addressed with an unflinching frankness and a razor-sharp satiric edge.
Thursday, November 10, 4:30pm
Saturday, November 12, 4:00pm

Starship Troopers
Paul Verhoeven, USA, 1997, 129m
Part comic book–style action adventure, part scathing satire of the military-industrial complex, Starship Troopers is one of the most subversive artistic acts ever perpetrated with a $100 million budget. Welcome to the 24th century, where fresh-faced, idealistic teens are encouraged to join up and become “citizens” by enlisting in the intergalactic army. They’ll grow up, see the universe, and, oh yeah, be slaughtered by the thousands as they battle giant, mutant insects threatening to wipe out mankind. Abetted by seamless special effects and impressively gory CGI carnage, Verhoeven delivers both a thrilling science fiction spectacle and a devastating takedown of jingoistic militarism.
Friday, November 11, 9:00pm
Tuesday, November 15, 9:15pm (Introduction by Paul Verhoeven)
Saturday, November 19, 9:30pm

Total Recall
Paul Verhoeven, USA, 1990, 113m
2084: Arnold Schwarzenegger is construction worker Douglas Quaid, whose virtual reality vacation to Mars turns into the ultimate head-trip when he discovers that his entire life (including wife Sharon Stone) is a sham based on implanted memories. Jetting off to the real Red Planet to find out the truth, he finds himself on the run through a grungy, capitalist dystopia populated by proletarian mutants. Verhoeven’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s short story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” is like RoboCop played at hyper-speed, with its themes of corporate control, memory, and identity delivered in an even faster, funnier, and (thanks to Rob Bottin’s impressively icky makeup effects) gorier package.
Saturday, November 12, 6:30pm
Saturday, November 19, 2:00pm

Tricked / Steekspel
Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands, 2012, 55m
English and Dutch with English subtitles
In a daring online experiment, over 400 people contributed to a crowd-sourced script that resulted in what Verhoeven describes as “my 14½, like Fellini's 8½.” It’s a darkly comic family farce in which a Dutch husband and father’s fiftieth birthday celebration is dampened when his ex-flame shows up pregnant with his baby. Meanwhile, he’s got a pervy son, alcoholic daughter, and two business partners planning to push him out of his company to contend with. The exquisite corpse–style writing process results in an hour jam-packed with plot twists, all held together by Verhoeven’s tongue-in-cheek, un-self-serious approach.
Sunday, November 20, 2:00pm
Tuesday, November 22, 5:00pm

Turkish Delight / Turks fruit
Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands, 1973, 35mm, 108m
English and Dutch with English subtitles
Named the Best Dutch Film of the Century by the Netherlands Film Festival, Verhoeven’s hugely successful, Academy Award–nominated sophomore feature opens with a giallo-style jolt, develops into a kinky, blackly comic sexploitation romp, and finally blossoms into an alternately sweet and perverse romance. In the first of his many collaborations with Verhoeven, Rutger Hauer stars as a temperamental sculptor who hitches a ride with a free-spirited young woman (Monique van de Ven). In short order they hook up on the side of the road, get married, and settle into a life of round-the-clock lovemaking in his art-strewn studio—but, alas, nothing lasts forever.
Sunday, November 13, 2:00pm
Wednesday, November 16, 6:30pm (Q&A with Paul Verhoeven)

Shorts Program (TRT: 112m)
Each made by Verhoeven before his first feature, these five short films center around youth and school life, and provide a glimpse into the director’s early fascinations with female dominance, technology, and war.
Saturday, November 19, 4:30pm
Sunday, November 20, 6:00pm

A Lizard Too Much / Eén Hagedis te veel
Paul Verhoeven, 1960, Netherlands, 32m
Dutch with English subtitles
In Verhoeven’s first film, an artist’s wife has an affair with one of her students, who has a mistress of his own.

Nothing Special / Niets Bijzonders
Paul Verhoeven, 1961, Netherlands, 9m
Dutch with English subtitles
This improvised short involves a man sitting in a bar, considering his relationship with his girlfriend as he watches a different woman nearby.

Let’s Have a Party / Feest!
Paul Verhoeven, 1963, Netherlands, 28m
Dutch with English subtitles
A shy student falls in love with a girl from another class. After he works up the courage to ask her to the school dance, something unexpected happens.

The Royal Dutch Marine Corps / Het Korps Mariniers
Paul Verhoeven, 1965, Netherlands, 23m
Dutch with English subtitles
Made while Verhoeven was in the military, this propaganda film follows various exercises carried out by the Royal Dutch Marine Corps.

The Wrestler / De Worstelaar
Paul Verhoeven, 1971, Netherlands, 20m
Dutch with English subtitles
A concerned father follows his son and the boy’s lover—the wife of a wrestler—in an attempt to end the relationship before the wrestler finds out.

James Brown:The Hardest Working Man in Show Business at the FIlm Society of Lincoln Center

This weekend Lincoln Center is going to be running a series of films dedicated to some of James Brown’s cinematic efforts. It’s an eclectic bunch of films that largely seem to have nothing in common other than Brown’s appearances or input. It’s also, largely a good collection of films.

Three of the films have Brown cameos as he appears to sing a song before splitting.

SKI PARTY has Brown showing up in what was an attempt to do start a Beach Blanket series on the ski slopes. Brown shows up long enough to sing I Feel Good. And because Hollywood wanted to appeal to everyone Leslie Gore also pops in. It’s an amusing trifle, but nothing special.

ROCKY IV has Rocky battling Dolph Lungren in the evil Soviet Union. An amusing piece of jingoistic fluff the film has Brown parachute in for a quick Living in America before getting the hell out of Dodge. It’s a disposable Rocky film, funny for all the wrong reasons, but in the right frame of mind it’s amusing.

If you’ve never seen THE BLUES BROTHERS you should get to Lincoln Center for this. This overblown, overdone film from John Landis is a amusing as all hell. Its full of great blues and soul singers including James Brown as a preacher. It’s funny, it’s thrilling and it has great music. It also needs to be seen big so you can really appreciate how freaking nuts they were when they made the film.

The series includes three interesting documentaries with Brown performances all are must sees.

The T.A.M.I. SHOW is a filmed record of concert that was supposed to be the start of some awards show. It was a one off, but the film, recently restored is a record of a time and place where Leslie Gore, James Brown, The Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, The Supremes and others could all share a single stage for a night. While the performances are up and down, the over effect is sure to put a smile on the face of any music lover.

WHEN WE WERE KINGS and SOUL POWER are two films that cover the events surrounding the Rumble in the Jungle, fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire in 1974. The idea was to have the fight and a huge concert at the same time, but things happened and the time went off. While many people went to the fight (recounted in KINGS) less people ended up going to see the concert (SOUL POWER is the record). While Brown floats through KINGS he’s fully shown in his glory in SOUL. If you’ve never seen the films you should, both are excellent, and the chance to see them together is a huge plus.

The last film in the series is BLACK CAESAR. An exploitation film from 1973 it’s the story of a kid from the ghetto who rises up through the ranks of the underworld to become a kingpin. One of the more socially active films of the Blaxploitation cycle the film is actually pretty good even if it occasionally wears it’s heart on it’s sleeve. James Brown’s contribution to the film are a number of songs to the score

For more information and tickets check the website.

As it prepares to hit US screens Friday my thoughts on Snowpiercer on the big screen

About a month ago I was invited to see SNOWPIERCER on the big screen. As many of you know I saw the film back a few months ago on a French import DVD (My original piece can be found here) As much as I liked the film I wanted to see it not only big, but subtitled in English since part of the film in in Korean and what is said, especially toward the end of the film is vital to understanding the movie.

I’ve now seen it big and subtitled in English and I think the film is even more impressive then I first thought.

For those who don’t know the film is the story takes place on a world that has been frozen. A plan to stop global warming has frozen the world. The only ones alive are those on a miles long train that circles the globe once a year. A group of people in the tail section of the train are tired of feeling like cattle and they stage a revolt and begin to make their way to the front of the train.

The film kind of a two part film. The first half of the film is a kind of straight forward action film with the tailenders fighting their way forward and the second half is what happens once they get toward the fancier front of the train. While the film maintains a certain level of action, it also becomes more thoughtful.

Actually the point that the tailenders cross into the garden section the film kind of goes into a Wizard of Oz mode with the film making a switch much like the 1939 film when Dorothy wakes up in Oz.

My initial thoughts on the film was that it was a brilliant mess. Pieces of the film, pretty much all but one of the action set pieces, being true action classics. I originally found the film a bit odd in its gyrations, especially its decent into allegory in the final half. I was giddy with delight at the prospect of something as wild and heady getting a major release and I was horrified that the Weinsteins, the films English language distributor attempting to chop 25 minutes out of it (I purchased the French DVD because I feared the full version would not get a US release)

Seeing the film again I’m less split on the film, it is a masterpiece of science fiction despite its flaws.

Before I wax poetic I should probably answer the question What are the flaws?

First off the idea of the train that runs around the world is a bit daft. Yea it’s a cool idea but it’s not really a practical one. It’s a minor conceit and you have to go with it because the whole film is set on it, but ultimately it makes little sense if you (over) think about it.(For those who are curious the trains speed would  average 50 mph in its travels)

The other problem with the film is the shoot-out between cars. One of train owner Wilfred’s men has gone round the bend and he begins to have a shoot-out with Chris Evan when the train is going around a bend. He shoots across out a window and across an open space to another train car. It looks cool, but it makes no sense-even with the bad guy as completely nuts as he is.

To be honest this is a film that needs to be seen more than once. To really appreciate what it’s aiming at you need to know who everyone is and know what some people are doing (say looking out a window at something in the snow-why is that key? You don’t know until you get to the end). While the questions you have early on are answered at the end, knowing the answers when you see the film again changes your perception of things. It adds a resonance that is missing the first time through. More importantly what you think may be random or off handed actions or a flub, turns out not to be. The bumps smooth out.

When I went into the screening room to see the film this last time I took a seat literally next to the door out. My feeling was that I had seen the film and that once I got a taste of it on the big screen I could bolt. What actually happened was sitting in the theater I fell into the film deeper than before. Any preconceived notions were gone (The story of the film’s road to release is legendary) and armed with knowledge of later developments of the plot I could see things as the really are. Being a second time passenger familiar with the workings of the train things made sense and the film suddenly felt deeper and more complete. I could feel the toll taken on the group of rebels and I could feel their pain more.

I went from I’ll stay for a little bit, to hanging in to the bitter end. I went for thinking the film is a glorious mess to the film is a brilliant masterpiece. Its truly great film of great intelligence that takes a step or two away from the pack and becomes something that’s going to be debated and enjoyed for years to come.

Go see the film ASAP- and then go see it again.

The film screens tonight as the Centerpiece of the Brooklyn Academy of Music's BAMcinema Fest with the director in attendance. Tickets at the BAMcinema Fest website. 

There is a special screening with director Bong Joon-ho tomorrow night at Lincoln Center. Tickets and information can be had by going here.

The regular theatrical run starts Friday)

For Your Considerastion The Oscar Hopefuls at Lincoln Center

Starting Friday The Film Society of Lincoln Center is running a series highlighting the contenders for the Oscars for Best Documentary and Best Foreign Language Film. As with last year’s series this is a great way to see films that may end up taking home the gold statue or at the very least ending up as one of the final nominations.

Over the past year plus we at Unseen have managed to see a good number of the films being screened and in order to help you decide what to see I now present our reviews for the films in the series:

Documentaries December 20 to 26
The Act of Killing
Blackfish
Crash Reel
Cutie and the Boxer
Dirty Wars
Stories we Tell
Tim's Vermeer

For details on all the films in the series and tickets go here

Foreign Language Films December 27 to January 2
The Grand Master- The Original Cut and The American Cut
Lines of Wellington
Neighboring Sounds

For details on all the films in this series and tickets go here.

Nightcap 12/15/13 upcoming.....

Mondocurry's bag

An off week doesn't give me much to discuss. I've posted any reviews I had floating around.  I'm in the midst of holiday nonsense and trying to work ahead on Chinese New Year and our Zatoichi project.  I'm also picking up an odd movie here and there but I'm not sure what will get reviewed. Short of getting a fist full of screeners I'm not going to be able to catch up with all of the major films I've missed. I do have some films slated to be seen for 2014 waiting to be seen, but nothing I can report on now. I am at work on my year end lists...

Right now the best I can do is report on some up coming film events:

GKIDS (aka the releasing arm of The New York International Children's Film Festival is celebrating 5 years of releases with screenings at the IFC Center. Reviews of everything except Elinor's Secret and TAles of the Night can be found here at Unseen. For tickets go here

In addition to the two big up coming festivals, Dance on Film and The Jewish Film Festival  Lincoln Center has a few good things coming up:

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: OSCAR HOPEFULS DECEMBER 20 - JANUARY 2, 2014 Two-week series gives audiences a chance to discover, and rediscover, acclaimed and noteworthy foreign film selections and all 15 documentary contenders shortlisted for this year’s Academy Awards®

IN NO GREAT HURRY:13 LESSONS IN LIFE WITH SAUL LEITER Opens on Friday, January 3, 2014. I saw this at DOC NYC and I liked it. I never reviewed it then except in passing. If I can manage it I'll get one up before the film starts. Its worth seeing.

CELINE AND JESSE FOREVER January 3-9 Film series celebrates Richard Linklater’s beloved trilogy with screenings of BEFORE SUNRISE, BEFORE SUNSET and BEFORE MIDNIGHT, as well as Linklater’s WAKING LIFE

A 21 retrospective of Polish films will start February 5th with stopss in 30 cities in the US and Canada. Details will follow.

For details on all of these check the Film Society Website.
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Coming from Rufus and Grady of the New York Asian Film Festival- Totally 80's Movie Freak Out on January 18- six secret movies in an all day marathon at New York's Anthology Archives. I have no idea what they have planned but I trust their programming skill completely so I'll be there.
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And now links
Half hour until curtain
50 years of Dr Who in 5 Minutes
Worst movie lines of 2013
The moon and earth in orbit around each other.

Werner Herzog: Parables of Folly and Madness starts Friday at Lincoln Center

Herzog with Klaus Kinski the master of folly and madness himself

Friday at Lincoln Center starts Werner Herzog: Parables of Folly and Madness.

This is a now increasingly rare chance to see some of Herzog’s films on a big screen in 35mm. While all the films are good the real treats are the screenings of Aguirre and Fitzcaraldo, two huge epic films which gain much by seeing them BIG. The series runs Friday through next Thursday, but you’ll want to camp out on Saturday and especially Sunday when you can overdose on the mania.

For full details, including a multi film discount, go here.

Best Laid plans yet again- and early Sunday nightcap

What is it they say about the best laid plans?

My plan of having a few weeks to get my real life in order kind of got blown away when I offered the chance to do some reviews for films playing at Fantasia. I jumped at the chance and I’ve been having a blast watching a whole bunch of films I never expected to be able to see. I’ve been averaging about 3 films a night- which as you can see has resulted in a flood of reviews. As of right now I have stuff programmed to the end of the festival on the 7th. I also have about 17 additional titles to try and cover. I have no idea how many I’m going to get to- but keep reading because more reviews will be coming. You may want to book mark the Fantasia tag so you can jump straight to our coverage. Additionally keep in mind that we banged out reviews of 25 films that played elsewhere so check the pre-festival post for a list of those films and a link to out reviews.
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Ultimate Christian Wrestling is still trying to get enough money to finish it and I’m looking to get a t-shirt. Please give what you can to their Kickstarter campaign. Details here.
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Tuesday at the KCS thay are running their next music film TURN IT UP TO ELEVEN 2: WILD DAYS details are here.
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Speaking of K-pop and music Lincoln Center is running their Sound +Vision series which has some really good music documentaries playing

Additional at the end of the week the Film Society is starting their David Bowie series. Its full of the films in which he starred in, which means it’s a treat with films like THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, ZIGGY STARDUST and MERRY CHRISTMAS MR LAWRENCE. They are also showing two new to the US films from the BBC, The first is an hour long adaption of Bertolt Brecht’s BAAL (Yes it’s an hour not two as the promo material says) in which Bowie proves just how good an actor he is. The second is CRACKED ACTOR a documentary shot during the Diamond Dogs tour in LA. It’s a time capsule to a time when Bowie was on the edge of imploding. Filled with great music it’s a must see for fans. I’ll have reviews of both midweek, until then get your tickets here.

And now as is usual some links to round out this post, most thanks to our crack researcher Randi:
Fold shirts in 2 seconds
Moebius  Tron Art
The Original Sky Captain short
Abandoned places
Tex Avery Model Sheets
Luminous Lint (photograph archive)
Mickey's Service Station
Dear Mr Watterson
Time Stretched Dr Who Theme
A Japanese Horror prank
Bully Can't Drive 55
An early David Lynch Interview
4 Minutes of Superman B Roll footage
The Unforgiven remake trailer

Monkey:Journey to the West at the Lincoln Center Festival

Last night I went to see MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST at Lincoln Center. This is a huge spectacular adaption of the classic story that was put together by director Chen Shi Zheng, Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett the last two are probably better known for their collaboration on the rock group Gorillaz. The show premiered back in 2007 at the Manchester International Festival festival and has played in several other cities since then.

A mix of theater, animation, dance, Peking Opera, circus and oh wow, the show boasts a huge cast of performers and characters that you usually don’t see on a New York stage, even in Broadway's mega productions.

The show tells the story of the Monkey King, who was born of a stone egg, he was too busy having fun until he realized he was going to die. Set on a quest to find immortality he ran afoul of the gods and the great Buddha who imprisoned him until he was released in order to protect a monk tasked with getting some sacred texts. The source novel is a massive story that has been the source of inspiration in world culture ever since it was written. It’s so massive a story that most artists only seek to tell a small portion of the story when using the characters (even the Shaw Brothers multi film retelling of the story only touched on the highlights of the tale). Here the story is reduced down to nine scenes covering high points of the story:

Scene 1 covers the birth of the monkey king and the realization that he was going to die. A monk names him the Monkey with the realization of emptiness.

Scene 2:  Crystal Palace of the Eastern Sea- The monkey king under the sea where he gets his staff and armor

Scene 3 is the Monkey's invasion of the kingdom of heaven and the peach banquet

Scene 4 is Monkey's battle of wits with the Great Buddha that results in his imprisonment

Scene 5 covers Monkey’s release and meeting up with the monk and the other pilgrims

Scene 6 is The battle with the White Skeleton Demon which results in Monkey being banished when his friends think he’s killed humans

Scene 7 covers the spider women who try to eat the pilgrims but are defeated by a returning Monkey

Scene 8 -is the encounter with Princess Iron Fan

Scene 9 Paradise is where the pilgrims are rewarded for their good deeds.

The telling is kept simple giving the bare minimum to get the story across. (More detail is given in the notes in the Playbill and in the program book which was for sale)

My reaction to the show was largely Oh WOW.

As a spectacle the show is amazing with its wild flying fights, hands of god, giant statues, amazing costumes and acrobatics. It’s really really cool to look at. And trust me you may have seen pictures (here are a good selection of images from the Facebook page) but you still haven’t seen some of the visual delights in the show.

The music is less Eastern sounding then something that Phillip Glass cooked up when he was doing the music for Kundun.

The show is, for the most part a magical theatrical experience, but it’s not perfect.

For me the problems from the show come from three areas.

First the show is in Mandarin with super titles. While under normal circumstances this would be fine, here the show was billed as family event. I saw the show heavily advertised in places like Time Out New York Kids and other family friendly places. I'm good with that but the trouble is that unless a kid can read English or speak Mandarin the dialog, which does move things along, is going to be lost. Additionally some of the Buddhist philosophy that’s mixed is a bit heavy for kids (and some adults)

The second problem is that the breezy reduction of the story. While the reduction down to a series of nine or ten sequences allows for some truly spectacular set pieces, any the detail of what is really going on is lost. How did we get from place to place? Who are these people really?We don't know- we are never told who the horse is. Not a lot is explained and to be perfectly honest had I not been diving into the films based on the story recently (some of the Shaw Brothers films, the original Chinese animated feature Princess Iron Fan and the restored Monkey King:Uproar in Heaven) I would have felt adrift.

Third some of the stunts and acrobatics gets a little tiring. Yes the plate spinning is cool but it goes on and on and on to the point that it seems like the secret of enlightenment is to spin multiple plates at once. Actually some of the repetition makes the show feel like it’s stuck in the mud.

None of the problems are terminal either separately or together, but the do manage to make what should have been a truly great show across the board into a very good show with great moments.

Definitely recommended for the great moments.

Time with The Not So Drunken Master-Some Thoughts on Jackie Chan's New York Appearances

Author Ric Meyers at Lincoln Center waits for Jackie Chan

Monday and Tuesday was Jackie Chan overload as Jackie returned to New York for a series of public appearances. I'm told this was first in perhaps a decade, maybe more.

Monday he was at Lincoln Center where he was given the Star Asia Life Time Achievement Award by the guys who run the New York Asian Film Festival. After getting the Award he sat down with Grady Hendrix (in a kick ass pink suit) to talk before screening a new version of his Chinese Zodiac.

Grady Hendrix introduces Jackie

Tuesday there was a press conference at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in the morning and  in the evening Jackie was at the Asia Society where he spoke briefly before a screening of his Drunken Master 2. (I was told that he then was rushed off to a big gala that was being held in his honor).

It was a whirlwind of fans, films and Jackie Chan.

Grady interviews Jackie

In trying to write up this piece I tried to figure out what to do. I could talk about the films, how Chinese Zodiac in it’s new form is better than the previously released Asian version thanks to with sped up action and some cut scenes which gave it more cohesion but a bit less sense; or I could talk about how the Drunken Master 2 is so much better big and in its unaltered form (see my piece on the changes here).

I think not.

I could relate exactly what happened at each event, about what was said, about the man who took the stage to ask Jackie to try and help stop violence in wake of the bombing in Boston, and I could relate again the stories he told, of the new projects mentioned -A Jackie Chan stage musical is coming and a music project with people in LA.  But the videos of his appearances are out there if you look (The Asia Society talk is at their website and I've seen The Lincoln Center Q&A on You Tube)

I could do any number of things but I won’t.

Instead I’d like to talk about Jackie the man and what he means to so many people and how that revealed itself over the two days in New York.

I don’t really know that much about Jackie Chan the man. I haven't made a deep study of his biography. Mostly I just watch his films. That maybe sacrilege to some but it still doesn't make him any less cool

I do know that watching him interact with his fans and the people presenting him over the last few days, I felt I was getting a sense of the man behind the myths and the stories.

Jackie takes in the assembled press corps

I mean I watched as he would stand behind the curtain and be quiet until introduced and then bound on to stage very much a man in the on position. I know he’s a man who has told some stories so many times that they come out of his mouth with an easy that suggests he’s said them a few more times than the three I heard them. I’ve seen that he’s a man who wants to connect with his audience but is being pushed and pulled by his handlers past them (He made an effort to try and sign Dr Stan Glick’s book despite being told he had to go). He is also a man very much capable of taking care of himself in a hairy situation, as was revealed when a man stepped out of the audience and on to the stage of the Walter Reade Theater to talk to him. Jackie deflected the people who wanted to keep the man from Jackie  in order to listen to what the man had to say. It was a scary moment, but watching it again on video it has become one of the most powerful memories I’ll have of Jackie. It was amazing since with a wave, a gesture and a straightening up of his posture it became clear that no matter what happened or what was happening Jackie Chan was very much in control-more so than it may seem when he’s being prodded by the handlers. It was a clear human, person to person statement that Jackie Chan is very much the man we see what we see on screen.

And it’s the man that we see on screen that we all are attracted to.

There is something about Jackie Chan that turns us all into bouncing six year olds. Watching a Jackie Chan movie, even after you’ve seen it a dozen times or more, there is still a sense of genuine of wonder. You watch his movies and you have no idea how the hell he’s done what he’s done. It's Jackie and that’s all. There is nothing but the man. The movie magic is Jackie Chan, it’s not computers or camera tricks it’s one man doing the craziest things you’ve ever seen (clearly his mother never told him to be careful)

I love the man and his movies…

…and so do lots of other people especially the guys from Subway Cinema who brought Jackie here. Watching the Subway Cinema guys, Samuel, Goran, Grady, Rufus, Ted and everyone else over the last few days was like watching a bunch of kids who were just dropped at Disneyland and told to go crazy. Never have I seen such wide smiles on so many adults in my life. There was this sense in watching them that they were still in disbelief that they really had gotten Jackie Chan to New York. They all wanted to seem to turn to each other and say “We got Jackie Chan to New York! How Cool is that!?!"

It was way cool, and they did great by film fans in New York.

I kind of know what they were going through since I was staggering around Manhattan for two days in an orbit around Jackie Chan myself. I was there as a fan, and occasionally as a reporter.

Jackie in motion

The fan part of me just wanted to scream Hey that's JACKIE FREAKING CHAN!!!. It was a glorious thing to see a man you’ve admired for almost 40 years walking in front of you. It was even more special when I could drag my brother, after two tries, to see his favorite film star ever.

Yea, my brother Joe is the mad Jackie Chan fan. Joe, who from when he was 9 or 10, was going out and tracking down Jackie Chan stuff. He had me getting copies of Chan films mail order from Video Search of Miami and elsewhere. He had friends getting films from Chinatown for him. From him I went from being a fan to being more than a fan.

Ultimately its just super cool to take your brother to see some one's always loved.

While I’ve been to more than a few press conferences, and I’ve gone to my share of press screenings watching the press corps go gaga around Jackie was a great deal of fun. While I pride myself on being able to connect to the six year old in me (sometimes to the point that people think I'm nuts), many of the press are often too cool for school and try to remain above it. However watching many of them try to get close to Jackie was amusing. Trust me on this this wasn’t that these people were trying to get the shot this was people trying to get as close to their idol as humanly possible because he's Jackie Freakin Chan. And I’m serious in this feeling since I spoke with several other members of the press and I heard several conversations and it was clear everyone was there because it was Jackie and no one else.

One of the best things was just being in the audience at Lincoln Center and the Asia Society  with other fans. I bought my tickets and was there as fan. I was there like everyone else because we wanted to see Jackie. I wanted the right to lose my cool and bounce and not have to be worry about covering things up because it wasn't professional. If I never wrote a word or took a picture it didn’t matter I was there to see Jackie.  Seeing Jackie was all that mattered

Jackie points

Sitting in rooms of like-minded people was great. Sure I was there with Mondo, Mr C, Chocko, Shigeko, Hubert and Earl, but I was also there with a couple of hundred others as well. Talking to everyone and listening to everyone’s Jackie stories was a great deal of fun. The game of When did you discover Jackie Chan went impromptu around every room, the Walter Reade, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office offices and the Asia Society. It was so prevalent that La Frances Hui. from the Asia Society made a reference to it in her opening remarks stating that asking her about Jackie is like asking her to remember her first playground experience. It couldn’t be done, he was always there.

Always there?

Always somewhere, Always on the screen be it large or small but not always in New York. Jackie is only rarely in New York which is why is appearance on Monday and Tuesday was so special to so many..

Jackie signs

And because he comes so rarely the two days and three appearances of Jackie Chan in New York will always have a special place in my heart. What started out as just going to see a favorite actor and some of his movies turned into something else. It became something more since we got to see that this man we admire is, in some ways, all that we thought and hoped- a really cool guy.

I want to thank the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office helping to arrange the trip, The Film Society and the Asia Society for hosting the screening and mostly I want to thank the mad brains behind Subway Cinema- Goran, Samuel, Grady, Rufus, Ted and everyone else for being crazy enough to have started and continued the New York Asian Film Festival so they could share grand moments like these with the rest of the the world.

Jackie speaks while some of  the Subway Cinema crew look on

Two pictures from An Evening with Jackie Chan over at Tumblr

I posted the first two pictures from last night's Evening with Jackie Chan. A full report on it, the press conference and the Asia Society appearence will be coming. For now here are two pictures- one of the instant Jackie got the Star Asia Award and the other when he sat down with Grady Hendrix (he's the one in pink) to talk about his career.  The pictures can be found here.

Jackie Chan at Lincoln Center and The Asian Society

The Film Society of Lincoln Center
& New York Asian Film Festival
AND
Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office New York
in association with Asia Society announce

THE JACKIE CHAN EXPERIENCE

Jackie Chan in person on June 10 and 11 including presentation
of the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award
and
Jackie Chan Retrospective
(June 23-27)


New York, NY, May 13, 2013-The Film Society of Lincoln Center and New York Asian Film Festival announced the details today for a rare series of appearances by international film icon, Jackie Chan on June 10 and 11, followed by the largest retrospective of his films ever held in North America (June 23-27).

On the occasion of the release of Chan’s 101st film, CHINESE ZODIAC (2012), the Film Society of Lincoln Center and New York Asian Film Festival will honor Jackie Chan, the director, and celebrate his 40-year-career in film. During that time, Chan has re-invented how action is filmed, with innovations in editing, choreography, and story-telling influencing filmmakers at home in Hong Kong, and overseas in Hollywood.

Chan belongs to a list of motion picture titans that includes Charlie Chaplin, Jacques Tati, and Buster Keaton. Each of these artists controlled every aspect of their movies - from the conception, to the filming, to the editing. Each of them created a unique genre based around their onscreen persona, and each of them made movies that weren’t so much filmed stories as total cinematic experiences.

With that in mind, the New York Asian Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York will host An Evening with Jackie Chan and present him with the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award on Monday, June 10, followed by an onstage Q&A, and a special premiere screening of his newest film, Chinese Zodiac. A press conference with the film legend will take place on Tuesday, June 11

The events at Lincoln Center are made possible thanks to the generous support of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in New York, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year with three-week long tribute to creativity in Hong Kong cinema (including Jackie Chan Retrospective and the Hong Kong films selections at the 12th New York Asian Film Festival). We are deeply grateful for their vision and dedication.

Separately, Jackie Chan will have a second appearance at a special screening supported by the Asia Society at its auditorium, on the evening of June 11.

Additional support is provided by The Kitano Hotel, YesAsia.com, Fortune Star, American Genre Film Archive (www.americangenrefilm.com), Warner Brothers, and Manhattan Portage.

AN EVENING WITH JACKIE CHAN
INCLUDES A PREMIERE SCREENING OF CHINESE ZODIAC AND PRESENTATION OF THE NYAFF STAR ASIA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD AT THE FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER
Walter Reade Theater (165 West 65th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway)
A screening of Jackie Chan’s 101st movie, his massive blockbuster, Chinese Zodiac, in a newly edited 107 minute version he’s prepared for North America. Setting box-office records when it was released in China, the screening will be preceded by the presentation of the New York Asian Film Festival's Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award and an onstage Q&A with Jackie Chan.
Monday, June 10 at 7:30PM

A NIGHT WITH JACKIE CHAN AT ASIA SOCIETY
Asia Society (725 Park Avenue, between East 70th and East 71st Streets)
Screening of DRUNKEN MASTER 2 preceded by an onstage Q&A with Jackie Chan.
Tuesday, June 11 at 6:30PM
THE JACKIE CHAN RETROSPECTIVE
(June 23-27)

All screenings will take place at the Film Society of Lincoln Center (West 65th Street between Amsterdam and Broadway). Visit Filmlinc.com for more information.

ARMOUR OF GOD (1986) 97min digital projection
Director: Jackie Chan
Country: Hong Kong
After doing a serious police drama set in Hong Kong, Jackie Chan had the urge to do something lighthearted and international, and so ARMOUR OF GOD was born. A two-fisted, three-footed, ten-knuckled adventure flick, Chan does Indiana Jones, playing a pop star turned treasure hunter Asian Hawk, who takes on a Euro-cult of psychotic monks in an effort to rescue an old friend’s kidnapped girlfriend. It’s a heady blend of his signature style and exploitation trends (including a beat-down by a bevy of blaxploitation beauties), in which Jackie took a life-threatening fall while performing a stunt that halted production for months and required emergency surgery. To this day, he still bears the hole in his head. But that’s all right: this movie was worth it.

ARMOUR OF GOD 2: OPERATION CONDOR (1991) 106min digital projection
Director: Jackie Chan
Country: Hong Kong
One of Hong Kong’s great out-of-control productions, AOG2 went way over budget and way over schedule as Chan and company hopped around the globe indulging Chan’s desire to top himself. Which he does. The result is the biggest and most complex Jackie Chan movie to date, with Asian Hawk’s quest for a cache of Nazi gold resulting in a succession of gigantic setpieces and intricate action, including one of cinema’s great car chases, the destruction of an entire hotel, and a final battle in a wind tunnel. This is the kind of movie that has you goggle-eyed from start to finish.

CHINESE ZODIAC (2012) 107min digital projection
Director: Jackie Chan
Country: Hong Kong
In his 101st movie, Chan resurrects his treasure-hunting Asian Hawk character from the Armour of God franchise and delivers an action spectacle that has broken box-office records in China. Reported to be his final “large-scale action picture” CZ kicks off with Chan being hired to steal 12 antique bronze sculptures, representing the animals of the Chinese zodiac, and repatriate them to China. Like a Saturday afternoon matinee, this colorful, kinetic flick is a live action cartoon for grown-ups, offering manic action scenes, hidden islands, pirate gangs, and funky gadgets galore. Cut down by about 20 minutes by Chan himself for the North American market (trust us, you’re not missing ANYTHING), this is the king of the pop-and-lock saying goodbye to the blockbuster movies that made him famous in funtacular style.

CITY HUNTER (1993) 105min 35mm
Director: Wong Jing
Country: Hong Kong
Directed by Hong Kong’s King of the Box Office, Wong Jing, CITY HUNTER is packed with insane action and ridiculous comedy. The disappearance of a newspaper tycoon’s daughter brings Chan’s easygoing private sleuth and his lovelorn sidekick (Joey Wang) onboard a luxury cruise liner that soon becomes the target of a gang of hostage-taking terrorists. Wong spins this DIE HARD-on-a-boat scenario into a series of outrageous set-pieces, including a deadly card game and a self-referential movie-theater brawl that finds Chan imitating the moves of an onscreen Bruce Lee. Eventually, it goes so far over the top that you can’t even see the top anymore, climaxing with the legendary STREET FIGHTER tribute beat down between Chan and Gary Daniels.

DRUNKEN MASTER 2 (1994) 102min 35mm
Director: Lau Kar-leung & Jackie Chan
Country: Hong Kong
Filmed at the peak of Chan’s prime, sixteen years after his breakout turn in Drunken Master, this transcendent pairing of classic Shaw Brothers director Lau Kar-leung and Jackie Chan resulted in what many claim to be the greatest martial arts film ever made. In this take on the legend of Wong Fei-hung, Chan shares the screen with the great Ti Lung and also Anita Mui, who almost steals the show as his motor-mouthed stepmother. The plot revolves around Fei-hung’s attempts to foil a foreign syndicate trafficking in ancient Chinese artifacts, but the film’s jaw-dropping kung-fu sequences need little explanation. Lush, opulent, and made with no consideration for budget or schedule, it took three months just to shoot the final action scene.

LITTLE BIG SOLDIER (2010) 95min digital projection
Director: Ding Sheng
Country: Hong Kong
The best Jackie Chan movie since 1994’s Drunken Master 2, this is the film in which Chan finally proves he’s a real actor, not just an action star. At 56 he can’t do the death-defying stunts anymore, so in LBS he trades super-sized spectacle for small-scale combat and his best script ever (it took 20 years of development to reach the screen). Set in ancient China, it centers on a farmer (Chan) who’s drafted into the army and winds up accidentally capturing the enemy general. If he can get his unwilling captive back home he’ll earn his freedom, the only catch being that he’s thousands of miles from safety. It’s a heartbreaking and hilarious escapade, and Chan’s camera-ready charisma has never been put to better use.

MIRACLES (aka MR. CANTON & LADY ROSE) (1989) 127min digital projection
Director: Jackie Chan
Country: Hong Kong
If you ask Jackie Chan which movie he’s most proud of directing, he always names this shimmering 1920s gangster fantasia, a remake of Frank Capra’s Lady for a Day set in a storybook Hong Kong that recalls like Damon Runyon’s New York. Chan plays a nice-guy country bumpkin who inherits the top crime king position from a dying mafia boss. With the fast feet, quick quips, and sudden reversals of Hollywood’s great screwball comedies, it also features a diva turn by pop star Anita Mui, Hong Kong’s answer to Madonna, except she can actually act.

POLICE STORY (1985) 101min 35mm
Director: Jackie Chan
Country: Hong Kong
Jackie’s first contemporary cop thriller, in which he played a hot-tempered inspector framed for murder by a vengeful drug lord, proved that he was willing to pull out all the stops—from carrying out a bit of slapstick with two telephones to trashing an entire shopping mall. A breathless adrenaline rush full of twisted bumpers and broken ribs, and with what might be a record-high ratio of broken glass per minute, POLICE STORY is viewed by many as Chan’s greatest achievement and a milestone in the Hong Kong canon. Premiering in the U.S. at the 1987 New York Film Festival, it’s been much imitated, but nothing beats the original.

POLICE STORY 2 (1988) 101min 35mm
Director: Jackie Chan
Country: Hong Kong
As dark and sobering as POLICE STORY 1 was light and playful, this sequel is all about the consequences of action. Chan begins the film demoted to traffic duty after his mall-destroying misadventures in Part One. He finds himself unable to protect his girlfriend (Maggie Cheung) from danger, he can’t track down the bad guys to fight them, and his archenemies are more interested in their cancer treatments than in revenge. The spectacular stunts and killer set-pieces are still there—including a climactic duel with a deaf-mute bomber set in a fireworks-laced warehouse—but POLICE STORY 2 feels more like a deconstruction of the cop thriller than anything else Chan’s ever made.

POLICE STORY 3: SUPERCOP (1992) 95min 35mm
Director: Stanley Tong
Country: Hong Kong
Teaming up with Stanley Tong, one of his most reliable collaborators, Jackie turned in this stunning capper to his Police Story trilogy and re-launched the career of Michelle Yeoh in the process. In this installment, intrepid cop Ka-Kui goes undercover with a dangerous drug lord—a set-up that finds Chan breaking a henchman out of prison, posing with an invented family, and finally dangling from a moving helicopter. The action shifts from Hong Kong to Thailand to Malaysia, culminating in a climax spanning rooftop, sky and train that ranks as one of Chan’s finest extended set-pieces. The film was released in the US in a dubbed, recut version titled simply SUPERCOP, featuring a pow-wow, no-holes-barred theme song by the seminal New Wave rock band Devo.

PROJECT A (1983) 101min 35mm
Director: Jackie Chan
Country: Hong Kong
A team-up with his Chinese opera school brothers Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, this cops-versus-pirates actioner was the movie that transformed Jackie from a martial arts star into a director of transcendent physical comedy. One of the first action movies to be set in colonial Hong Kong, PROJECT A is the first of Jackie’s films to be spiced with outrageous stunts, including a jaw-dropping bicycle chase and a 50-foot fall from a clock tower (inspired by Harold Lloyd’s hour-hand dangle in SAFETY LAST!) that was so terrifying it took Jackie three days to work up the courage to attempt it.

PROJECT A 2 (1987) 101min 35mm
Director: Jackie Chan
Country: Hong Kong
A meticulously crafted Swiss watch of mistaken identities, espionage, and colonial intrigue, PROJECT A 2 may be Jackie’s greatest accomplishment as a filmmaker. Chan keeps four separate subplots whirling through the air with the greatest of ease, while leaving time not just for intense action and groundbreaking stunts, but for some extraordinary non-action filmmaking. No comedy director has ever topped the intricacy of the famous nine-minute scene set in a two-room apartment that takes the conventions of French farce and turns them up to 11.

SNAKE IN THE EAGLE’S SHADOW (1978) 98min 35mm
Director: Yuen Wo-ping
Country: Hong Kong
This is where it all began. Chan teamed with director Yuen Wo-ping (later to serve as action director on CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) for this kung fu comedy about a bullied young man working as a janitor at a martial arts school who learns to fight back against his tormentors using a kung fu technique known as “Snake’s Fist”. Soon, the novice starts to develop a strategy of his own—fittingly, since SNAKE IN THE EAGLE’S SHADOW also found Chan himself arriving at what would become his inimitable, career-defining style. The film became Jackie’s first box-office hit, and the first movie to introduce the world to his innovative brand of action-comedy.
(NOTE: dubbed in Mandarin with English subtitles projected live during the screenings)

THE YOUNG MASTER (1980) 106min 35mm
Director: Jackie Chan
Country: Hong Kong
Jackie’s directorial debut was the idea showcase for his martial arts prowess and that of his co-stars—among them his “little brother” from Chinese opera school, Yuen Biao, who appears here alongside Jackie for the first time, and Korean super-kicker Hwang In-Shik. Opening on a high-stakes lion dance competition and closing on a ferocious showdown between Chan and Hwang, THE YOUNG MASTER found Jackie exploring the thin line between kung fu as performance and as life-or-death combat. His first movie for Golden Harvest, the studio which would become his home for the next 20 years, it’s arguably his greatest pure martial arts film.
PUBLIC SCREENING SCHEDULE

SUNDAY, JUNE 23
12.30pm SNAKE IN THE EAGLE’S SHADOW (1978) 98min
2.45pm THE YOUNG MASTER (1980) 106min
8.00pm DRUNKEN MASTER 2 (1994) 102min

MONDAY, JUNE 24
1.15 pm MIRACLES (1989) 127min
4.00pm POLICE STORY (1985) 101min
6.15pm ARMOUR OF GOD (1986) 97min
8.30pm ARMOUR OF GOD 2 (1991) 106min

TUESDAY, JUNE 25
1.30pm CITY HUNTER (1993) 105min
3.45pm MIRACLES (1989) 127min
6.30pm PROJECT A (1983) 101min
8.45pm PROJECT A 2 (1987) 101min

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26
2.15pm THE YOUNG MASTER (1980) 106min
4.30pm LITTLE BIG SOLDIER (2010) 95min
9.15pm CITY HUNTER (1993) 105min

THURSDAY, JUNE 27
2.00pm DRUNKEN MASTER 2 (1994) 102min
4.15pm POLICE STORY (1985) 101min
6.30pm POLICE STORY 2 (1988) 101min
8.45pm POLICE STORY 3: SUPERCOP (1992) 95min

Pam Grier Grindhouse Triple Feature: BLACK MAMA WHITE MAMA, FOXY BROWN, THE BIG BIRD CAGE

Last Friday I spent most of the day sitting in the darkness watching Pam Grier kick ass and take names in three of her classic action films from the 1970's.  How strange it was to be sitting in Lincoln Center watching films that four decades earlier would have been playing 23 blocks south on 42nd Street. I doubt very highly that back in 1973 that either Pam Grier thought she's be honored with a retrospective of her work, nor would Lincoln Center have imagined it would have been holding one.

BLACK MAMA WHITE MAMA (1973)
Eddie Romero directed women in prison film is, as is often said, a female version of the Defiant Ones set in the jungle. the plot has white revolutionary revolutionary Karen Brent chained to black gangster's girl Lee Daniels in a jungle prison. Brent needs to get out so she can get her friends some guns, while Daniels needs to get out to get the money she stole from her "boyfriend" so she can leave the country. When an attempt to break the pair out goes wrong, the girls do get away but they are chained together with police the police and the bad guys after them.

Sleazy grindhouse fair plays more like it was an early film in the jungle prison film cycle rather than the last one (at least as far as Grier was concerned). An ever escalating film that goes from prison film, to escape drama to road comedy (the girls end up dressed as nuns), to buddy film, to straight on action film with a teary ending. Its a low budget B movie that gives it's audience exactly what it came for, T&A and lots of violence.

I had a blast, and as with all of the films reviewed here, it was a very different experience seeing them projected on a BIG screen as opposed to seeing them on TV. It's also very different seeing the films with an audience who was really there for the films and willing to go along with the films flaws.

FOXY BROWN (1974)
The film which gave the Lincoln Center series its name, has Grier as Foxy looking to get revenge on Miss Katherine and Steve after they kill her boyfriend a government agent who had tried and failed to bring the pair down (they bribed the grand jury).

Solid grindhouse action film is best taken on it's own terms. Yes, I love the film, but the film is so silly at times, it drifts into camp (Katherine's lustful glances), that it's clear that everyone was in on the joke.  Silliness or not the film is a violent sexy film where Grier asserts herself as a no nonsense, take no prisoners kind of woman. Its a performance and a role that very much helped put Grier into the pantheon of iconic actresses. (Think about it, if Grier had walked away from acting after her run of 1970's exploitation films we'd still be talking about her today simply because she changed how women were perceived)

Its a minor classic.

THE BIG BIRD CAGE (1972)
Pam Grier and Sid Haig, perfect together...

Let me try and explain this simply- an actress (Anitra Ford) is tossed in prison after being carried off by revolutionaries Sid Haig and Pam Grier. While in prison Ford suffers torture and humiliation while trying to talk her way out. Meanwhile figuring the best way to spread the revolution would be to get some women involved, Sid and Pam set in motion to break out the prisoners. While the warden goes crazy an escape is planned.

This is a silly film.  It starts over the top and just keeps going with weird twist upon sleazy twist upon WTF were they thinking twist. It's violent and "sexy" (well it has naked chicks) and just aims for the lowest common denominator...and yet it some how manages to rise above it all and turn into something gloriously loopy.

Seeing the film projected for the first time (They used Jack Hill's personal print which is a longer than release version) was a blast. This was the film where I first noticed Pam Grier (I'm guessing it was a re-release which promoted her being in it) so it was nice to finally get to see the movie my parents wouldn't let me see in the movies in the movies (I have seen the film several times on TV, cable and DVD).

Its a minor classic film that rightly helped Grier become the person she is today.

After the film Pam Grier came out and did a brief Q&A. It was supposed to be longer but they didn't take into account the longer running time. Chocko recorded it and part one is here and part two is here.

Pam Grier at Lincoln Center in image and video

In lieu of a review, today I thought I'd just post some pictures of Pam Grier at Lincoln Center. The first pictures are from the Q&A that followed The Big Bird Cage. The full  Q&A was shot by Chocko and can be found here: Part 1 and Part 2 (You can't get better since he was sitting right in front Ms Grier)

Chocko went to several of the screenings which I did not attend and recorded their Q&A's. Here is the one for Greased Lightning which was moderated by John Wildman who is head of PR for the Film Society. John worked with Ms Grier during the Jackie Brown press tour and knows what questions to ask.... Part One is here and Part Two is here

Lastly a few pictures from the Conversation with Pam Grier that was held yesterday at Lincoln Center. No one was allowed to record the talk but photos were allowed.(I was told the talk would be available for viewing soon). To say that the talk was a blast is an understatement. Ms Grier spoke the entire time about auditioning for Fort Apache The Bronx, how she got started, put a horse in a Jag, and Fellini & fried chicken. It was only an hour but she could have gone on, and we in the audience would have listened, for many more. (Apologies if the picture quality isn't great, my camera did not like the lighting in the amphitheater at all which is why there aren't more pictures.)

Waiting for Ms Grier to arrive

Lady takes the stage

Staggering to the Fort Apache audition

Hey it was a long way from the hotel to the theater...

Thanks to Chocko for the video, MrC for reminding me what was mentioned and Mondocurry for not killing me at breakfast so I could make the talk yesterday afternoon. (And thanks to Mondo's I-Pod for one hell of a game of hide and seek)

Reviews will return tomorrow with a look at the Pam Grier Grindhouse Triple Feature that started off the whole series.