It’s hard to believe that Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Les Diaboliques is 67 years old! The re-mastered Criterion release looked great on our screen tonight. We had a nice turnout for this creepy delight… some folks returned for the first time since Parasite! It felt like old times, and we managed to not think about the war for a minute.
Keeping it French, our short this week was Justine Vuylsteker’s somewhat erotic graduation film, Fish Don’t Need Sex.
My choice of tonight’s feature was rather polarizing. Some of you wouldn’t even consider watching another (supposed) biopic about Lady Di, and/or the Royal Family, for various reasons political and otherwise (one person loved The Crown so much, that they weren’t eager to see the royals portrayed by actors that they were unfamiliar with in their roles). Still others can’t bear to watch Kristen Stewart at all, and were recently appalled by her Oscar nomination for Spencer.
I beg to differ! This trippy movie was never meant to be an accurate account of Diana’s life, rather a dark portrayal of a woman imprisoned in a loveless marriage, on the verge of cracking up completely. Personally, I believe this fictional account was full of non-fiction. Of course, there were some purely fantastical elements thrown in to spice up this twisted dish, but the “dish” came out of the oven cooked to perfection. Stewart did an amazing job, albeit the same job she always does. This time she had something more to sink her lovely teeth into.
A point of trivia for you movie lovers: have you noticed that Neon seems to have become the new A24? Almost everything good that I see these days is a Neon release.
As Putin’s murderous onslaught rages on, we repeated short intro: a rousing video performance of the anti war Disenchantment, by the Ukrainian metal band, Ignea. Planning to attend the I Stand with Ukraine rally in Times Square on Saturday, rocking this two-sided sign. Bigly.
Just a few hours before tonight’s screening, Russia invaded the sovereign nation of Ukraine, using the preposterous pretext of keeping the peace in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Unfortunately, many Russians have no easy access to real news, and have swallowed Putin’s lies whole. There but for the grace of god go we. Think “Fox News” and now “Truth Social”.
Our crew of four managed to find some solace in each others’ company though, and occasionally rise above the pervading sense of doom . Although it wasn’t always easy to concentrate on the movie, when we could, we were moved to laughter and tears.
As a tribute to our friends in Ukraine, our short intro featured a rousing video performance of the anti war Disenchantment, by the Ukrainian metal band, Ignea
A very small group of us were mesmerized (once again, in my case) by Jane Campion’s masterpiece tonight. Benedict Cumberbatch transformed himself brilliantly and convincingly from a British gentleman to a rough-edged, toxicly masculine 1920’s American cowboy. Well, he’s rather more complicated than that, as is the movie itself. If you’re interested in dissecting The Power of the Dog more deeply, I suggest that you watch Lucas Blue’s thorough explanation on YouTube.
My dog, Tick, a Jack Russell Terrier, watches movies earnestly with us… I’ve never seen anything quite like it. He pays very close attention and takes exception to animals being on the screen, particularly horses. You can imagine how much he didn’t like The Power of the Dog… unless maybe he finds pleasure in “protecting” us from them. In any case, he gets used to the idea that these big critters are going to be sharing our space for a few hours, and finds himself a friendly lap to settle down in.
Our short opening feature was Maestro directed by Illogic… It’s so great to be back.
Tonight marked the return of NewScreen after 1 year, 10 months and 27 days of Covid-19 shutdown. Our small group of fully-vaxxed folks practiced sensible mingling, while enjoying a beautiful movie and great cocktails, etc. The sense of magic was palpable.
Who knows where the road ahead will take us, but in the meantime, we’re so happy to be here, and provide this small Thursday night oasis. Hopefully it won’t turn out to be a mirage.
Our short this week featured the British band, Wet Leg, performing their zany, tongue-in-cheek Chaise Longue. Wonderful.
I hope I’m wrong about this, but our Friday night showing was possibly the last NewScreen of the year, due to the coronavirus pandemic. There were four of us, so social distancing wasn’t an issue… well maybe it was at the bar, but precautions were taken and hands were well washed.
We settled into our sofas, probably only 5 feet apart, and enjoyed Amodóvar’s best film in years, and then returned to the bar to demolish half a loaf of freshly baked banana bread. Tradition is important, specially in tough times.
Our short feature was In Pursuit of Ghosts, by Max Cooper and Tim Hodge – a mesmerizing loop of an Eadweard Muybridge human motion study, with added graphics.
NewScreen Tuesday nights continue to attract nice sized groups (although a few of you have gone AWOL, it seems…) so the plan is to stick with this new night for a while.
“Women in charge” emerged as the theme for tonight’s program. Not only because the protagonist in Woman at War (wonderfully portrayed by Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) was a take-no-prisoners, environmental activist force to be reckoned with, but our short feature had already set the scene: Be a Lady They Said, directed by Paul McLean, and narrated by Cynthia Nixon, lays out a whole gamut of mixed signals that have been directed at women since, well, forever. The viral video has provoked a screaming match on line. Taken down, put back up, etc. Thought provoking stuff.
On the most mundane of notes (not really!), the banana-ripening time was perfect this week! Not a crumb survived. Hashtag yummyloaf ))
Our first ever Tuesday night screening was a smashing success. Who knew? The experiment will continue. The biggest issue? I need to adjust my banana buying schedule, in order to have some nice ripe ones ready to bake into a loaf on a Tuesday… we only had a bit of leftover bread tonight. First world problems!
Mark Jenkin’s Bait is an eerily strange mixture of old and new. The old: 16mm black and white film, shot on a Bolex camera with sound (and a bit too much distress, in my opinion) added later. The [not so] new: The conflict between the locals and the gentrifying townies and their Airbnb guests. The protagonist, Martin, is a fisherman with no boat since a disagreement with his brother, who has gone over to the other side, seemingly, and has repurposed the boat to run daytrips for tourists.
“How was the drive?” asks one weekender of another. “Awful! Seven Hours.” “Same. Nevermind. We’re here now.” Kind of sums it up. Bait is a quirky must-see.
Speaking of quirky, we started our evening in the same vein, with Facing It, directed by Sam Gainsborough. Brilliant
Our Valentine’s eve special feature brought in a good audience tonight. Eighteenth century lesbian love in Brittany… pretty racy. Apparently, the portrait-painting technique was ill-researched and not realistic. Not being a painter, I was unaware of this, so for me – not a deal-breaker. I thought Portrait of a Lady on Fire was richly beautiful, and deeply touching. Hard not to shed a few tears. Céline Sciamma is on fire herself.
Our hysterical animated short was Bad History – Putin by FrameBreed.
“My heart is cold. My moves are bold. Never get old. I save the world.”
Russia’s official submission to the 2019 Oscars, 27 year old (then – now 28) director Kantemir Balagov’s Beanpole (Dylda) left our audience in a state of ecstatic shock tonight. For a few, the memory of propaganda surrounding the “great patriotic war” was uncomfortably close to home, but for those of us lucky enough to be peeking through this window for the first time, or perhaps looking through the same window with a different perspective, this tableau of beautiful bleakness was a gorgeous treat, with outstanding performances by Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina. I’m already looking forward to watching it again with some dinner guests (you know who you are). Thank you to my lovely friend Anastasia Komarova for suggesting (insisting, even) that I see this ))
Tonight’s short feature was Le Silence de la rue, directed by Marie Opron. Also beautiful.
And, yes… of course there was banana bread!