Another season of NewScreen came to a glamorous (and dare I say “cheesy”?) end tonight
The Young Girls of Rochefort. Season Finale. Thursday, June 4th.
Category Archives: Movies
Payday. NewScreen takes it to the bank.
In his review for The New York Times, Peter Schjeldahl calls Payday “a brilliant, nasty little chrome‐plated razor blade of a movie.” I couldn’t say it better in so few words, so let’s leave it there.
Knowing that some of my most stalwart NewScreen attendees would be unable to attend tonight for one reason or another, I really didn’t know what to expect, but hey… the show must go on, right? Each sounding of the buzzer, however, marked the arrival of another pleasantly surprising guest, and, before we knew it, we had a great crew installed, complete with the first watermelon of the season (thank you Vera!), some of which found its way into yummy martinis.
And then… the movie. It had been several years since I had last seen it, and I’d forgotten much of it. What a ride!
The Duke of Burgundy. No Man’s Land.
Folks often ask how I curate NewScreen. In truth, I stumbled upon this one by happy accident. As the credits rolled tonight, my guests realized that the entire cast of this beautiful movie was female. I suppose if you count the namesake Duke of Burgundy butterfly, there was indeed a male, but that’s a stretch. We don’t count butterflies here. Not yet, anyway.
Another great night.
Sound of Falling. Falling in love with a movie.
I finally saw this at the IFC in October, with my friend Bob. Director Schilinski, and DP Gamper had a quick Q&A before having to dash off to catch a flight, to appear at the European film awards the following night. After the credits finished rolling, I said to Bob, “Well… I guess I won’t be showing this one at NewScreen.” thinking it might be too deep for a fun Thursday night. Still, I couldn’t get it out of my head. It’s a stunningly beautiful film, and watching it for the second time tonight, I felt even more connected to it. There is a spiritual transference between these four generations of women that has entered my consciousness by osmosis. I almost understand. Perhaps one more viewing will lift me over the edge.
In any case, there was more than enough short term beauty to charm our audience tonight.
The Consequences of Love cements its place at NewScreen. Get it?
Paulo Sorrentino is a director with a well-known (though sometimes not well-liked) flair for style in movie-making. In my opinion, this is his best. Stylish, yes, but also thrilling, surprising, and sexy.
Another great NewScreen tonight. Spilt popcorn and all.
Best in Show. Tick celebrates his 8th birthday.
We moved NewScreen to a Wednesday this week, as Tick’s birthday fell on the 29th. Of course he was excited to see all those dogs on screen, but most excited by his present from Conchi and Alvaro, some kind of a birdy-ducky toy, with a particularly appealing squeak. Sadly, the toy did not survive the surgical precision of a Jack Russell Terrier.
Best in Show was great to see one more time, and we even had some people watching it for the first time!
Colours of Time. A crowd pleaser.
“It all comes to a wacky climax when our present-day claimants have an Ayahuasca psychoactive experience, which sends them back in time to encounter these historical culture icons in person at an exhibition, resulting in Victor Hugo making improper advances towards Céline. It’s the kind of French movie for which you’ll need a sweet tooth, but it’s tasty.” Peter Bradshaw for The Guardian
Well… not exactly a crowd here tonight, but we were all pleased to see this. It was uncharacteristically light, feel-good fare for NewScreen, and maybe a bit hard to sell. No matter. It was a great night, and I didn’t start the round of applause as the credits rolled. I did, however, join in!
Knife in the Water still cuts through.
As Kim Newman (Empire) writes: “Having attracted international attention in the early ’60s with cruelly absurdist short films (Two Men and a Wardrobe, The Fat and the Lean) about isolated characters clashing as they struggle through empty landscapes, Polanski’s first feature elaborates on the theme but with added depth of characterization. Indeed Knife in the Water is so well-written and acted you don’t notice until very late how artificial and stylized the whole set-up is.”
Knife in the Water drew a full house tonight, and we were all delighted. Is it still ok for us to love this movie? Polanski is on the “cancelled” list, in exile in Europe, having escaped prosecution in the US for feeding Quaalude to a 13-year old girl in a California swimming pool. Not cool. However, let’s remember that Knife was made under communist rule, by a very young Polanski. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.
My Summer of Love. A Blunt introduction.
Emily, that is, making a rather striking debut. Is this the beginning of a Polish directors mini-series? I don’t know… it’s tempting though.
Polish born director, Pawel Pawlikowski started making documentaries for British Television, after post graduate studies at Oxford. He claims that film making is not a career. It’s just something he does. Well Mr. P… thanks for doing this, and Ida, another of my favorites, destined to come back to our silvery screen in the future.
The Chronology of Water. Stewart hits the ground swimming.
To quote IndieWire’s David Ehrlich once more:
“There isn’t a single millisecond of this movie that doesn’t bristle with the raw energy of an artist who’s found the permission she needed to put her whole being into every frame, messy and shattered as that might be.”
He nailed it with that one sentence, and yes, it was messy and shattered… at times difficult to watch (we had one walk-out tonight), but Kristen Stewart’s astounding debut was marked by powerful in-your-face cinematography and moored by Imogen Poots’ tremendous performance – her career-to-date best IMHO – and, for that matter, just a great cast all around. Jim Belushi as Ken Kesey FFS! I can’t help but wonder whether Stewart was “helping out” some actor friends. If so, they didn’t let her down!