The Worst Person in the World? Clearly his name is Vladimir.

Love and Life, Movies, Strange Stuff
Fly, flag, fly.

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”.

Run, Julia, run.

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

The Power of the Dog. One critic barks out.

Movies, NewScreen Stuff
What’re you hiding, Phil?

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.

The Macaluso Sisters. And… we’re baaaack!

Movies, NewScreen Stuff
Girls just wanna have fun?

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.

Pain and Glory. Make that a double, please.

Love and Life, Movies, NewScreen Stuff

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.

Woman at War. Be a lady, they said.

Trailers

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 ))

Bait. A good catch is netted on a Tuesday night!

Movies, Strange Stuff

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

Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Painted with love.

Movies, NewScreen Stuff

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.”

Beanpole. A “tall” tale, deeply-rooted in uncomfortable truths.

Love and Life, Movies, NewScreen Stuff

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!

 

Atlantics. A sound decision to hold over.

Movies, NewScreen Stuff

It’s been a minute since we had to hold over a beautiful film for an encore screening, but this one deserved as second look (albeit a first listen, for those of you in the know, lol). Not at all an uncut gem, Mati Diop’s Atlantique, surpassed expectations, and even administered another dose of sexy un-deadness. (Where was this shot again? Zombia? Sorry… can’t resist a good pun, or even a terrible one, for that matter.)

Each week started with a gorgeous short. The first was Shot by Sasha by some entity that chooses to call themselves Realbakirov, and the second was Le Silence de la rue by Marie Opron. I must admit that I sometimes feel bad about not including the title sequences and credits in the shorts shown at NewScreen, but ultimately I think it’s better to let the short speak for itself, and not let the credits distract from moving the program forward. You can always find the info here.

One Cut of the Dead. A Russian doll of a Zombie flick.

Movies, NewScreen Stuff

Having seen Shin’ichirô Ueda’s One Cut of the Dead just a few days earlier, It was difficult for me to not laugh at events that looked like one thing, but which would turn out to be altogether different when revealed later. Our audience thought I was over-reacting, and being something of a cheerleader. I had to apologize, but they figured it out later.

This hysterical film within a film (within a film?) joyride was made for an astoundingly low $25,000, and has gone on to gross $30.5 million worldwide!

Due to a technical glitch, I found myself scrambling to find an opener last minute, so I hit the replay button and showed Anna Mantzara’s Enough – her first year film from London’s Royal College of Art. It was great to see again.