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Home , Bulle Ogier, Duelle, Filming Othello, Frank Finlay, Hurlevent, Jacques Rivette

Film Program Winter 2007 National Gallery of Art, Washington

Winter Series film

Béla Tarr

Cinedance in America

Filming

Jacques Rivette on the Streets of

Art Films and Events

Absolute Wilson

How to Survive the 1940s

The Spirit of Places (Films en Vue) Jasper Johns: A Compilation

John Cage and Elliott Carter 20 Sat March 2:00 : Khadak 21 Sun 3 Sat 5:00 Event: Premiere: Absolute Wilson 2:30 Event: Women and Film—A Legacy in Print Manufactured Landscapes 4 Sun Fri 26 4:30 Event: The Rape of Europa Norman McLaren Restored 1:00 Jacques Rivette: 27 Sat 2:30 Jacques Rivette: L’Amour fou 10 Sat The Open Road — England 2:00 Event: Jasper Johns: A Compilation in the 1920s 28 Sun 4:30 Jacques Rivette: Paris Belongs to Us 11 Sun 4:30 Cinedance in America: Reaching Beyond Quay Brothers: The Piano the Stage Tuner of Earthquakes February 17 Sat The Rape of Europa 12:30 Cinedance in America: 1894 – 1938: 3 Sat First Steps and New Directions 2:00 Jacques Rivette: Out One: Spectre 3:00 Event: Manufactured Landscapes; The Spirit of Places The Spirit of Places 4 Sun 4:00 Jacques Rivette: 18 Sun Women and Film — A Legacy 4:00 Béla Tarr: Damnation in Print 9 Fri 12:30 Event: How to Survive the 1940s 24 Sat 1:00 Music and Film: John Cage and 10 Sat January Elliott Carter 1:00 Event: How to Survive the 1940s 4:30 Event: Khadak 3:00 Jacques Rivette: Jacques Rivette, The 5 Fri Night Watchman; , le patron 25 Sun 12:00 : ’s 4:00 Béla Tarr: Werckmeister Harmonies Othello 11 Sun 3:00 Filming Othello: ’ Othello 4:00 Jacques Rivette: 6 Sat 31 Sat 12:30 Filming Othello: Laurence Olivier’s 1:00 Cinedance in America: 1939 – 1962: 17 Sat Othello Classic Works of Avant-Garde Cinedance 12:00 Event: The Open Road — England in the 3:30 Filming Othello: Orson Welles’ Othello 2:30 Cinedance in America: 1965 – 2002: 1920s The Postmodernist Explosion 7 Sun 2:00 Jacques Rivette: The Gang of Four 4:30 Event: Norman McLaren Restored 18 Sun 4:30 Event: The Open Road — England in the Films are shown in original format in the 1920s auditorium of the National Gallery’s East 12 Fri Building at 4th Street and Constitution 1:00 Jacques Rivette: Celine and Julie Go Avenue nw. Seating is on a first-come basis. Boating 24 Sat To ensure a seat, please plan to arrive at 13 Sat 3:30 Jacques Rivette: The Story of Marie and least ten minutes before showtime. Julien 2:30 Filming Othello: O Programs are subject to change. 14 Sun 25 Sun For current information, visit our Web site: 4:30 Jacques Rivette: Celine and Julie Go 4:00 Event: Quay Brothers: The Piano Tuner of www.nga.gov/programs/film.htm or call Boating Earthquakes (202) 842-6799.

film

National Gallery of Art, Washington Art, of Gallery National

Winter 2007 Winter Program Film

National Gallery of Art Fourth Street and Non-Profit Org. Constitution Avenue nw U.S. Postage Paid Washington, dc Washington, DC Permit # 9712 Mailing address 2000b South Club Drive Landover, md 20785 www.nga.gov

Films are shown in the East Building Auditorium

Cover image from Out One: Spectre (Photofest)

Film Program Winter 2007 Art Films and Events and middle-of-the-road destinations, includ- Discussion with The Rape of Europa author ing South Devon, Cardiff, Plymouth, , Lynn Nicholas and co-producer of the film Blackpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and John and Rescuing Da Vinci author Robert M. Edsel Norman McLaren Restored o’ Groats, among others. The result is a series follows the screening. Premiere of new 35 mm prints of twenty-six “color postcards,” all of which January 7 at 4:30 were screened weekly in Britain’s neighbor- Jasper Johns: A Compilation Brilliant Scottish-born Canadian animator hood cinemas during the 1920s. (Claude March 10 at 2:00 Norman McLaren (1914 – 1987) perfected Friese-Greene, 1926, 35 mm, 65 minutes) many of the techniques that became the In conjunction with the exhibition Jasper standard of animation art. Often imitated, Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955 – 1965, this The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes McLaren’s work during the 1930s and 1940s diverse collection of short works has two par- also The Street of Crocodiles for the National Film Board of Canada allel themes. The first includes documentary Washington premiere and Britain’s GPO film unit was legendary. footage of Jasper Johns working with friends February 25 at 4:00 Eleven of his classic short films — including and collaborators John Cage and Merce Cun- Begone Dull Care (1949), Neighbours (1952), The bizarre mind’s eye of twin brothers ningham, and the second features experi- A Chairy Tale (1957), Pas de deux (1968), Syn- Timothy and Stephen Quay churned out this mental shorts by and Alfred chromy (1971), Blinkity Blank (1955), and Hen curious nineteenth-century tale of a mad doc- Leslie, contemporaries of Johns who shared Hop (1942) — have now been restored by the tor named Droz, his beautiful opera singer many of his artistic concerns. The program National Film Board of Canada to their origi- prisoner, and a naïve piano tuner who lands includes Crises, with members of the Merce nal 35 mm format. Viewed in these spectacu- on the doctor’s odd island retreat ostensibly Cunningham Dance Company (Helen Priest lar new prints, McLaren’s films demonstrate to mend a collection of automated music Rogers, 1961, 16 mm silent, 22 minutes); cinema’s close affinity with painting and machines — incredible stop-motion creations Walkaround Time (Charles Atlas, James Klosty, music — a concept that was one of this artist’s housed in huge boxes. With its remarkable and Michael Norborg, produced by the Cun- main preoccupations. (total running time color tableaux and exotic, ethereal imagery, ningham Dance Foundation, 1968 – 1973, 16 85 minutes) The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes — the second mm, 67 minutes); Marcel Duchamp and John feature from the American-born brothers Cage (John Cage and Shigeko Kubota with who in the 1980s revived the tradition of sur- Marcel Duchamp, 1972, Beta SP, 28 minutes); Absolute Wilson realist Eastern European animation — was Last Clean Shirt (Alfred Leslie, dialogue by Washington premiere inspired by Jules Verne’s The Carpathian Castle. Frank O’Hara, 1964, 16 mm, 39 minutes); and Filmmaker Katharina Otto-Bernstein (Stephen and Timothy Quay, 2005, 35 mm, 99 Anticipation of the Night (Stan Brakhage, 1958, in person minutes) 16 mm, 40 minutes). January 21 at 5:00 A new 35mm print of the Quay Brothers’ The Washington premiere of a new docu­ early animated short The Street of Crocodiles, Manufactured Landscapes mentary on the life, times, and uncommon filled with their trademark visual poetry, pre- also The Spirit of Places (L’Esprit des lieux) career of theatrical genius Robert Wilson cedes the feature. (1986, 35 mm, 20 minutes) is introduced and discussed by director Washington premieres Katharina Otto-Bernstein. Wilson’s March 17 at 3:00 Women and Film — A Legacy in Print mammoth opera Einstein on the Beach (a The beautiful yet frightening large-format Lecture and screening celebrated 1970s collaboration with Philip photographs of comprise March 3 at 2:30 Glass) and his visually stunning Deafman a catalogue of manmade horrors: strip mines, Glance were among the legendary avant-garde Seat: Women’s Writings on the First oil tankers, dumps, factories, and massive theatrical works of the twentieth century. Fifty Years of Cinema is a new compendium of piles of post-industrial debris. Manufactured Wilson collaborators from Jessye Norman women’s writings assembled from journals, Landscapes follows the Toronto-based Bur- to David Byrne, critics and friends such as newspapers, and other ephemera. Contribu- tynsky to China, where he travels around the , and members of his family tors range from Virginia Woolf to Colette country documenting its economic boom. participate in the project. Wilson himself to Lillian Gish to assorted poets, activists, The artist visits factory floors over a half-mile noted, “I’ve never talked so much about my and social reformers. Red Velvet Seat’s editor, long, colossal urban renewal sites, and the personal life.” (Katharina Otto-Bernstein, film historian Antonia Lant, will discuss notorious Three Gorges Dam, a project that 2006, 35 mm, 90 minutes) these writings, providing both context and displaced over a million people. The film perspective. Following the discussion, three not only illustrates this environmental devas- films showing an extraordinary range of tation in a deliberately discomforting way, How to Survive the 1940s female talent will be screened in preserved but it also challenges viewers, who find February 9 at 12:30, February 10 at 1:00 35 mm prints: Alice Guy-Blaché’s Matrimony’s themselves both captivated by the beauty British postwar public-information Speed Limit (1913, 14 minutes); Unmasked (1917, of the photographs and unnerved by their films — short government-sponsored works 11 minutes), featuring Grace Cunard, the subject matter. (, 2006, intended to “put a war-weary nation back multitalented queen of the serials; and Dirty 35 mm, 90 minutes) on its feet” — are prized today more for their Gertie from Harlem USA (1946, 65 minutes), Québécois filmmaker Catherine Martin’s unintended humor and clever handling of an independent feature based on Somerset The Spirit of Places embraces a noble concept: content than for their obvious historical value. Maugham’s Rain starring Francine Everett, thirty-five years after Hungarian-born pho- From the singular comedy of the treasury- the pioneering African American actor who tographer Gabor Szilasi first documented the sponsored Pool of Contentment (1946) to the refused to play stereotypical roles. An infor- Charlevoix region of Quebec, he returned to flashback structure ofAnother Case of Poisoning mal book signing follows the program. (total this rural society to again photograph the (1949) to the inventive mix of live action and running time 110 minutes) same people and places. Martin accompanies animation in Your Children’s Meals (1947), this him on this journey as he reminisces with compilation of six films offers a rare chance his subjects. What she finds is refreshing, The Rape of Europa to see beautifully crafted “industrial shorts” surprising, and sad. The people of the region Lynn Nicholas and Robert M. Edsel in person from the pre-television era. (National Film have managed to hang on to their rural life- March 4 at 4:30 and Television Archive, , style and connection to the land even as they 1946 – 1950, 35 mm, 85 minutes) Author Lynn Nicholas introduces this screen- acknowledge that their way of life is doomed. ing of the new high-definition film based Gabor’s new set of photographs closely on her book The Rape of Europa: The Fate of resembles the old — an irony that would not The Open Road — England in the 1920s Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the exist in much of North America. (Catherine February 17 at 12:00, February 18 at 4:30 Second World War, which chronicles the calcu- Martin, 2006, 35 mm, French with subtitles, A unique color portrait of Britain in the 1920s, lated theft and destruction — and miraculous 84 minutes) Shown in association with the Envi- The Open Road was shot by Claude Friese- survival — of countless important works of ronmental Film Festival

Greene, a leading European cinematographer art. With a “cast” that includes who experimented with an early color process and Hermann Goering on the one hand and to record his journeys through out-of-the-way Gertrude Stein and Marc Chagall on the other, The Rape of Europa cuts a mesmeric path through this horrific period. (Bonni Cohen and Richard Berge, high definition video, 2005, 120 minutes) Khadak Derek Jacóbi’s charged Cassio — are among Jacques Rivette on the Washington premiere the most eloquent ever filmed. (Stuart Burge, March 24 at 4:30 1965, 165 minutes) Streets of Paris

A family of nomadic herders on the hard- One of the founders of the French New frozen steppes of Mongolia is forced by the Othello Wave — arguably the most influential film government to relocate to a town. An epic tale also Filming Othello (January 6 only) movement of the mid-twentieth century — of one nomad whose fate is to become the January 5 at 3:00, January 6 at 3:30 Parisian Jacques Rivette (b. 1928) has local shaman, Khadak reveals its mysteries Orson Welles’ poetic Othello spins the play remained a believer in that movement’s ideal: slowly and blends fact and fiction seamlessly. into a probing study of the Moor’s demise, spontaneity with a soupçon of élan. The fact Mongolia’s radiant beauty shines not only focusing on the interaction between Othello that Rivette’s actors often improvise their through the landscape, but also through its (Welles) and (Michéal MacLiammoir). own dialogue gives his films freshness and textiles, poetry, and native sounds. “Motivat- With deft editing, the film lays bare their vitality — a real feat considering that most ing the film,” said director Jessica Wood- twisted emotions. Filming mostly outdoors of them are three or more hours in length. worth, “are the economic and political mani- with pounding winds and screeching gulls as Perhaps Rivette’s innovation, however, was festations of the transition from socialism backdrop, “Welles never made a more coher- discovering a way to blur the boundaries to capitalism — but also the more evasive and ent or beautiful film,” wrote Charles Hing- between reality and illusion — a Pirandellian intangible spiritual ones.” (Jessica Wood- ham in his study of the director. “The lucid, theatrical touch that continues to enchant. worth and Peter Brosens, 2006, 35 mm, Mon- vibrant style was seldom so perfectly wedded Besides his brilliant L’Histoire de Marie et golian with subtitles, 104 minutes) Shown in to its subject.” (Orson Welles, 1948 – 1952, Julien, a 2003 film never officially released association with the Environmental Film Festival 35 mm, 91 minutes) in America, the series consists mainly of In Filming Othello, Welles himself relates important early works that established his the history of his protracted project, which he reputation, including new 35 mm prints of began in 1948 with no money or crew. Seven two masterpieces: Celine and Julie Go Boating cities, three Desdemonas, four Iagos, three (1974) and Paris Belongs to Us (1961). The pro- Filming Othello Cassios, and four years later, Othello won the gram is presented through the cooperation Golden Palm at the . of the British Film Institute, the Museum of Sir Laurence Olivier’s portrayal of Othello (Orson Welles, 1977, 80 minutes) Unconfirmed the Moving Image, New York, and La Maison is the first of three distinctly different and Francaise, Washington, DC, where three diverging interpretations of Shakespeare’s additional works by Rivette will be shown in troubled and tragic Moor. The series is pre- O late February. sented in conjunction with the exhibition January 13 at 2:30 The Artist’s Vision: Romantic Traditions in Britain, Tim Blake Nelson and screenwriter Brad which includes Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Celine and Julie Go Boating Kaaya move Othello’s action to the locker drawing ’s Death-Song. (Céline et Julie vont en bateau) room of an American high-school gym as January 12 at 1:00, January 14 at 4:30 Othello becomes Odin (Mekhi Phifer), a Othello superstar basketball player and the school’s With a nod to , Jorge Luis Borge, January 5 at 12:00, January 6 at 12:30 only African American, and Iago becomes and Georges Méliès, Jacques Rivette spins teammate Hugo (Josh Hartnett), naturally an intricate yarn that makes abundant use of Reviled by American critics in the racially jealous of Odin’s fame. When Hugo concocts magic, memory, reverie, and romps through tense 1960s, Laurence Olivier’s blackface a scheme that forces Odin to mistrust girl- the pleasant neighborhoods of Paris. Seem- portrayal of the Moor of Venice was auda- friend Desi (Julia Stiles), the plot thickens. ingly about an accidental encounter between cious, openly theatrical, and a replication Although hampered on initial release by the two young women, a nightclub magician of his performance on the London stage — sad similarities to school tragedies of the (), and a librarian (Dominique even the film’s sets and props had been recy- day, O succeeds in capturing the spirit of Labourier), the film’s labyrinthine plot is as cled from that production. As critics today Shakespeare’s play. (Tim Blake Nelson, 2001, entertaining as it is packed with ideas — pro- generally allow, this Othello is true to the soul 35 mm, 95 minutes) vocative, expansive, and profound. A new of Shakespeare’s problematic play. All of the 35 mm print restores the film’s original color performances — Frank Finlay’s rash Iago, and quality. (1974, 35 mm, French with sub- Maggie Smith’s edgy Desdemona, and titles, 195 minutes)

La Belle Noiseuse January 20 at 2:00 An aging painter () whose career is withering finds a new muse (Emmanuelle Beart) to pose for him. Rivette’s film is essentially an exploration of the creative process, documenting not only the relationship between model and artist, but also the development of preliminary sketches, charcoals, and watercolor washes as they evolve into a final work. At times the film- maker simply peers over the artist’s shoulder and gazes with extended camera takes — a delicate feat that only the most confident would attempt. Loosely based on Honoré de Balzac’s The Hidden Masterpiece, La Belle Noiseuse is itself a masterpiece, four hours in duration. (1991, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 240 minutes with intermission)

Paris Belongs to Us (Paris nous appartient) preceded by Fool’s Mate (Le coup du berger) January 26 at 1:00, January 28 at 4:30 A student in late Paris is ensnared in sinister events as a result of a production of Shakespeare’s Pericles. When Rivette and his crew completed this first foray into feature

Othello (Photofest) are three very fine minds on display.” — of Lincoln Center. (, 1990, Beta SP, French with subtitles, 123 minutes) Jean Renoir, le patron (Jean Renoir, the Boss) is a short documentary Rivette made for French television in the late 1960s. (1967, Beta SP, 30 minutes)

Wuthering Heights () February 11 at 4:00 Rivette moved Emily Brontë’s classic tale (adapted for the screen by , , and Rivette) to the stony, stark Cévennes region in the south of . The period is the early 1930s, ’s name remains Catherine, and becomes Roch. “A tale of tenuous boundar- ies between classes, between reality and dream, between viewer and viewed,” wrote Juliet Clark. As in the original novel, the two protagonists are one with their surroundings until Catherine is “seduced by civilization, and awakens as a wife in a pastel dream of affluence, triggering the nightmare that is Roch’s revenge. Through it all, the camera keeps its distance, watching and listening to performances that are less expressions L’Amour fou (Photofest) of impetuous passion than choreographed movements in space.” (1985, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 130 minutes)

filmmaking, the director said, “If I try to sum ear to the impulses and the imagination of up Paris nous appartient in a word, I can’t use his actors,” said Raphael Bassan, “each of The Gang of Four (La Band des quatre) any other term than ‘adventure’ — inconclu- whom is responsible for the coherence of his February 17 at 2:00 sive and futile perhaps, but isn’t this a risk or her own microcosm, while the filmmaker implied in ‘adventure’ itself?” Fellow French simply plays the role of mediator.” (1972, 35 Four aspiring young actresses and their sea- filmmakers of the day collectively called it “a mm, French with subtitles, 255 minutes with soned coach () are pulled into one fusion of poetic vision and realist expression,” intermission) of Rivette’s fantasy-realm plots that this time while the British journal Sight and Sound noted involves national terrorism. While most of its Kafkaesque qualities. “Not since Louis the film’s three-hour narrative quietly observes Feuillade with his Les of 1915 has Duelle the quartet’s daily lives, the action comes anyone made such inspired and inventive use February 4 at 4:00 close to that of the works of Marivaux — of Paris.” — Judy Bloch. (1958 – 1960, 35 mm, From Rivette’s four-part series Scènes de la Vie which the actresses are rehearsing. Typi- French with subtitles, 142 minutes) Parallèle, Duelle is set during carnival season, cally for Rivette, essential truths are revealed Fool’s Mate, an early short subject, consists the only time goddesses will appear on earth through metaphor as the four women learn of four characters and a fur coat, François for commerce with mortals. A ghost god- the rules essential to their adult life. (1988, Couperin’s music, and commentary compar- 35 mm, French with subtitles, 160 minutes) dess (Juliet Berto) and a fairy goddess (Bulle ing the characters’ actions to chessboard Ogier) compete for possession of a diamond moves. (1956, 35 mm, French with subtitles, that permits them to remain longer than the The Story of Marie and Julien 28 minutes) usual forty days. “With a nonexistent word (Histoire de Marie et Julien) (the feminine form of a masculine noun) for February 24 at 3:30 L’Amour fou a title and an imaginary myth for a starting “A fantasy film for grown-ups and incurable January 27 at 2:30 point,” writes , “Duelle deliberately defines itself through contradic- romantics, The Story of Marie and Julien follows The fragility of human relationships captures tions and clashes, maintaining a disequi- the haunted love affair of two isolated Pari- the spotlight in L’Amour fou. Ongoing rehears- librium that flirts with, and refuses, the sians, but its ghosts and phantoms extend als for a stage performance of Racine’s Andro- comforting balances of classic narrative. One far beyond the screen. Taking its cues from mache — and the shooting of documentary can interpret the film as yet another critique Cocteau’s poetic fantasies and Poe’s uneasy television footage of the play — form a back- of the film-going process — the mortals tremors, this not-so-straightforward narra- drop to the marital problems taking place (viewers) take over the lives of goddesses tive is alternately told from the point of view between the theater’s director (Jean-Pierre (stars) and vice versa, through the means of of the solid Julien and the ethereal Marie, Kalfon) and his actress wife (Bulle Ogier). a transcendental diamond that fulfills every his obscure object of desire. Their romantic “The field is thus cleared for confrontations wish.” (1975, 35 mm, French with subtitles, beginnings give way to a strange mysteri- between husband and wife, between ordered 120 minutes) ousness, as if certain things have been told passion and mad love, between theater and before. Anchored by the earthy performances TV, and even between 16 mm and 35 mm of Jerzy Radziwilowicz and Emmanuelle film footage….” — Tony Rayns. (1968, 35 mm, Jacques Rivette, The Night Watchman Béart as the star-crossed couple, Rivette’s French with subtitles, 252 minutes) (Jacques Rivette, le veilleur) ephemeral tale suggests all affairs are

also Jean Renoir, le patron haunted by earlier loves.” — Jason Sanders. February 10 at 3:00 (2003, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 152 Out One: Spectre minutes) February 3 at 2:00 Early in her career, French filmmaker Claire Denis worked as Rivette’s assistant. His Rivette was encouraged to adapt Honoré influence was so substantial that Denis later de Balzac’s Histoire des Treize for a contem- made this television documentary for the porary audience. The result is one of his popular series Cinéma, de notre temps. Cahiers du more audacious works, a commentary on cinéma editor interviews Rivette Cinedance in America storytelling and the human tendency to while accompanying him on his wanderings create meaning from even the most confus- across the city of Paris — visiting cafés, riding The representation of dance on film is ing jumble. “Four hours of improvisation,” the Métro, and walking the streets as their uniquely different from the experience of live wrote Jonathan Rosenbaum, “with the best conversation ranges from art to ethics to the dance on the stage. As the earliest motion New Wave actors... and edited and arranged . “Between Claire Denis and picture footage of dancer Annabelle Moore so that sometimes it’s a mystery story and her two brilliant, loquacious subjects, there at the Edison Studio makes clear, the art of the rest of the time it’s a naturalistic story cinedance requires an imaginative approach about the same people.” “Rivette puts his to capturing form and movement. From the early twentieth century on, American film- makers and dancers who undertook this Béla Tarr century organist Andreas Werckmeister, a challenge created a host of interesting col- musical theorist who is credited with divid- laborations, abstract syntheses of shape and ing the octave into twelve equal tones to cre- Hungarian director Béla Tarr (b. 1955) has motion that were radically different from ate a system of major and minor notes. (Since completed only one new film since his mere recorded dance performance. A centu- order and harmony can be viewed as delusion, monumental seven-hour Sátántangó (screened ry’s worth of invention is revealed in this four- however, the film introduces a villager who at the National Gallery in 2000) was first part survey of American trends from early seeks to correct Werckmeister’s mistake.) In released in the mid-1990s. The extraordinary experimentation, Hollywood productions, the end, wrote critic Sam Adams, “the film it critical response to Sátántangó — hailed as a the avant-garde, and beyond. Film historian most recalls is Andrei Tarkovsky’s bleak Sac- landmark for its uncompromisingly bleak Bruce Posner made the selections, many of rifice, although it is less philosophical. Like yet poetic depiction of rural life in Central which have been culled from Unseen Cinema: Sacrifice, Werckmeister Harmonies could pass Europe after communism’s fall — propelled Early American Avant-Garde Film 1894–1941, with for science fiction, although there is nothing Tarr into the top ranks of European cineasts. additional material from Anthology Film futuristic about it — rather, it is set in a world This two-part series presents his most recent Archives, Film-Makers Cooperative, The that seems to have once been our own, and film,Werckmeister Harmonies, and Damnation, Museum of Modern Art, Dance Film Archive, to have taken an abrupt turn.” (2000, 35 mm, which preceded Sátántangó. Although Tarr and private collections. Hungarian with subtitles, 145 minutes) likes to tease viewers with radical formal challenges, long takes, and stark black- Reaching Beyond the Stage and-white compositions, his real interest March 11 at 4:30 is always in getting close to his actors, in penetrating everyday life. “My films are In the opening program, film historian Bruce comedies... like Chekhov. They look at the Music and Film: John Cage Posner discusses the history of American real world, and human life must inevitably be and Elliott Carter cinedance with a selection of shorts and regarded as funny.” excerpts from dances by Adolph Bolm, Ruth American composers John Cage and Elliott Page, Anna Pavlova, Agnes de Mille, Martha Carter, two of modernism’s musical geniuses, Graham, Paul Taylor, Amy Greenfield, Andy Damnation are the subjects of extraordinary documen- Warhol, and others. Among those included March 18 at 4:00 taries from Dutch documentarian Frank are Danse Macabre by Dudley Murphy (1922); “The landscape, the elements, nature, a Scheffer. Scheffer, who has produced over Nine Dances by Pavlova (1924); “Pas de Deux” unique world in which nothing remains,” twenty films since the 1980s, presents rous- Loney Lens (1925); Ballet Lesson [Agnes de Mille] were the director’s musings when describ- ing portraits of the men, their methods, and (1929); “Skyline Dance” Manhattan Cocktail ing the film that won the highest of acco- their music. (1928); Hände: The Life and Loves of the Gentler lades from critic Susan Sontag: she listed it Sex (1927 – 1928); Night Journey (1961); Dancer’s among her favorite cinematic works of all World by Peter Glushanik (1958); Antigone: Rites time. Arguably Tarr’s darkest depiction of From Zero: John Cage of Passion (1990); and Warhol’s EPI [Exploding humanity, Damnation’s “decaying villages, also A Labyrinth of Time Plastic Inevitable] (1968). (total running time poverty, and depressive behavior,” wrote March 24 at 1:00 80 minutes) another critic, “are observed from a point of Conceptual artist John Cage (1912 – 1992) view that stalks silently and patiently through astonished both avant-garde and art public 1894 – 1938: First Steps and New Directions the ruins.” The simple storyline — a recluse alike in the early 1950s, when his piano piece March 17 at 12:30 falls hopelessly in love with a cabaret singer 4' 33 — famously performed without playing and gets her husband involved in a smug- a single note — premiered. In this landmark Short films and excerpts fromAnnabelle Dances gling scheme — “seems almost secondary to documentary, he discusses at length his and Dances [nine films 1894 – 1897] (2005); its formal beauty,” wrote Jonathan Rosen- favorite subjects and recalls friends, anec- Early Superimpositions (1898 – 1903); Dance of baum. “The near miracle is that something dotes, and sundry influences from Marcel the Ages by Ted Shawn (1913); Soul of the Cypress so compulsively watchable can be made from Duchamp to Zen Buddhism. Andrew Culver, by Dudley Murphy (1920); “Artist’s Ball” So This a setting and society that are so petrified.” who over the years worked with both John is Paris (1926); Miss Tilly Losch in Her Dance of (1988, 35 mm, Hungarian with subtitles, 119 Cage and Merce Cunningham, collaborated the Hands (c. 1930 – 1933); On the Shore (1934); minutes) with Scheffer on the film. (Frank Scheffer Poem 8 (1932); Le Joie de vivre (1934); Air for the and Andrew Culver, 1995, 80 minutes) G String [1928] (1934); “By a Waterfall,” Footlight In A Labyrinth of Time, the filmmaker Parade (1934); An Optical Poem (1938). (total Werckmeister Harmonies considers New Yorker Elliott Carter (born running time 84 minutes) March 25 at 4:00 1908), arguably the world’s greatest living A bravura performance by Lars Rudolph as composer. In addtion to capturing the artist’s 1939 – 1962: Classic Works of a village eccentric (Tarr’s evocation of the place in the modernist tradition, the film por- Avant-Garde Cinedance Eastern literary tradition of the “holy fool”) trays as a lively metaphor for March 31 at 1:00 anchors the stunning black-and-white pan- Carter’s compositions. Interviews with Pierre orama of Werckmeister Harmonies, Tarr’s most Boulez, Daniel Barenboim, and Charles Short films and excerpts from Spook Sport recent film. The title refers to the seventeenth- Rosen, among others, round out the portrait. (1939 – 1940); Introspection (1941/1946); A Study (Frank Scheffer, 2004, 90 minutes) in Choreography for Camera (1944); Clinic of Stum- ble (1947); Meditation on Violence (1948); Four in the Afternoon (1951); Bullfight (1955); Thanatop- sis (1962); Death & Transfiguration (1961). (total running time 83 minutes)

1965 – 2002: The Postmodernist Explosion March 31 at 2:30 Short films and excerpts fromNine Variations on a Dance Theme (1966); Trio A [1965] (1978); Water Motor [1971] (1978); Tides (1982); Sticks on the Move (1983); Central Park in the Dark (1985); Wake Up Call (1989); Little Lieutenant (1994); Wild Fire (2002). (total running time 81 minutes)

Martha Graham and Andy Warhol with Warhol lithograph of Graham, photograph by David McGough (DMI / Photofest)