| Maysles: direct Cinema / Saturdays in May at 6:30 & 7:00pm (check listings for details) |
 Albert and David Maysles have brought unprecedented intimacy to the documentary medium, being among the first to take handheld cameras and portable sound equipment directly into the homes, workspaces and private lives of fascinating individuals, both famous and not-so-famous. With an unfaltering scrutiny, they give equal insight to their subjects, from rock stars to door-to-door Bible salesmen; through their technique you actually meet Marlon Brando, go into the dilapidated house of “those crazy old ladies down the street”, and eyewitness the actual physical moment in which the dream of the ‘60s was snuffed out. Ignoring classical concerns about the filmmaker’s invisibility and old-fashioned concepts of visual beauty, they pursue their subjects with a raw, yet sensitive camerawork, creating an unprecedented sense of the present tense. In the Maysles’ “Direct Cinema”, reality seems to pour through the lens, unfiltered by overt god-like manipulations and post-production gimmickry, right into the audience’s wide-open eyes.
5/3 @ 6:30pm / SERIES: maysles: direct cinema
Grey Gardens
shown with
The Beales of Grey Gardens
Ordinary squalor can be uncomfortable, but irreverent, upper-class squalor is a wonder to behold. The charming subjects living in the spacious tumbledown East Hampton halls of Grey Gardens are the seventysomething high society shut-in Edith Beale and her memorably stylish daughter Edie, real-life cousins to Jackie O. caught in both physical decay (their crumbling mansion is condemned by the Health Department) and a time regression where past conflicts and unresolved dreams are rehashed for their own amusement. Amongst the cluttered furniture, filth and stray raccoons, Edith and Edie revel in the attention provided by the camera, charming us with genial storytelling, song and playful familial bickering. While the reality of the womens’ situation can be sad, Grey Gardens shows the Beales as beacons of light. Also screening is The Beales of Grey Gardens, a ninety-minute companion piece comprised of outtakes too tangential for the original film, but too entertaining to languish in the Maysles archives.
Grey Gardens Dirs. Ellen Hovde, Albert and David Maysles, Muffie Meyer, 1975, DigiBeta, 100 min
The Beales Of Grey Gardens Dirs. Albert and David Maysles, 2006, DigiBeta, 90 min.
Tickets - $10
5/10 @ 7:00pm / SERIES: maysles: direct cinema
 Salesman
shown with
The Burks of Georgia
The Maysles trained their unflinching camera on the day-to-day hustle of door-to-door Bible salesmen in this direct cinema landmark. Salesman is a poignant look at the casualties of the American Dream, with a real life Willy Loman, “The Badger”, at its center. Bathed in flop sweat, but as tenacious as the badger from which he derives his nickname, Paul Brennan is the star of Salesman, a weary huckster of overpriced Bibles to poor suburbanites, and he and his three compatriots use guilt, charm, seduction and faux piety to separate average Americans from their hard-earned money. The film is filled with genuine suspense, humor and unexpected pathos. Like a humanist Glengarry Glen Ross, Salesman thrills us with the mercenary nature of sales while deepening our empathy for the huckster at its center. Also showing is The Burks Of Georgia, in which the Maysles profile a poor white Georgian family struggling to survive with the realities of thirteen children.
Salesman Dirs. Albert and David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, 1968, 16mm, 85 min.
The Burks Of Georgia Dirs. Albert and David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer, 1974, MiniDV, 53 min.
Tickets - $10
5/17 @ 7:00pm / SERIES: maysles: direct cinema
Maysles Shorts, Program 1
Either letting the material dictate the length, or simply working-for-hire, the Maysles have actually made more shorts than features. Within these films lies much of their finest, and least seen, work. Program 1 includes: IBM: A Self-Portrait, which fascinatingly documents the corporate juggernaut in its incipient stages; Anastasia, an episode of NBC's "Update" about an American dancer in the Bolshoi Ballet; Cut Piece, showing one of Yoko Ono's most famous conceptual art pieces; and a variety of rare footage and outtakes from deep in the Maysles' vault.
Dirs: Albert and David Masyles, various formats, 90 min.
Tickets - $10
5/24 @ 7:00pm / SERIES: maysles: direct cinema
 Maysles Shorts, Program 2 (Hollywood)
In the ‘60s, the Maysles had unprecedented access into the backstage lives of members of the Hollywood elite. Program 2 is a selection of amazing verité documents of these entertainment icons: Meet Marlon Brando finds the titular titan of acting stuck against his will at a routine press junket for the routine war film Morituri; Orson Welles In Spain is a glimpse of Welles pitching a film idea about bullfighting to incredulous high-society patrons; and Showman gives us a blustery portrait of maverick indie producer Joseph E. Levine, and the ad campaign he concocts to win Sophia Loren an Oscar for Vittorio De Sica’s Two Women.
Dirs. Albert and David Maysles, various formats, 120 min.
Tickets - $10
5/31 @ 6:30pm / SERIES: maysles: direct cinema
 What's Happening! The Beatles In The U.S.A. & Gimme Shelter
Amazingly, the Maysles were present, with cameras rolling, for two of the quintessential moments of the 60’s — arguably the beginning and the end, at least musically. First up is What’s Happening! The Beatles in the U.S.A., a candid account of The Beatles' 1964 arrival in America, from the crazed JFK airport reception to unguarded moments inside the Plaza Hotel in preparation for their landmark Ed Sullivan Show appearance, to their equally frenzied homecoming. A humorous and freewheeling film, What’s Happening was a direct inspiration for Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night. Then, we fast-forward to the end of the 60s, and the definitive document of the hippie dream’s brutal demise. When the Rolling Stones hired the Maysles to film their own “Woodstock”, no one knew that the final result was doomed probably from the moment the Stones hired Hell’s Angeles as bodyguards — and decided to pay them in beer. The ultimate outcome was the murder of a concertgoer just a few feet away from the stage. In the Maysles’ capable hands, Gimme Shelter captures the intensity and terror of every moment of this ill-fated rock festival, making it a special case of history being recorded on the spot by major artists. Two great films, two great bands, one night at the Cinefamily.
What’s Happening! The Beatles In The U.S.A. Dirs. Albert and David Maysles, 1964, DigiBeta, 81 min.
Gimmie Shelter Dirs. Albert and David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin, 1970, 35mm, 91 min
Tickets - $10
| the new romanians / Saturdays in June (see listings below for showtimes) |
 Once stifled by authoritarian repression, the Romanian film industry has finally found its own voice, and has given both the movie lover and the film critic a cause for celebration. Three years in a row, Romanian filmmakers have won major prizes at Cannes, with director Christian Mungiu crowning the country's renaissance with its first Palme D'or last year. Artful, melancholic, suspenseful, shocking and often hilarious, films like 12:08 Bucharest and The Death of Mr. Lazarescu are both sharp political satires and brilliant exercises in technique and style. Drawing on the formally refined works of nearly unseen auteurs like Lucian Pintilie and Alexandru Tatos (whose influential works are included in this series,) the gifted filmmakers of the New Cinema add a dimension of uncensored social reality, boldly claiming the freedom to express the turbulent past and uncertain future of Romania.
6/7 @ 5pm / SERIES: the new romanians
 The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
shown with
Stuff and Dough
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu seems so realistic and convincing, unfolding in real time, that it’s hard to believe it was acted. As it follows an ailing boozehound who gets carted from one overtaxed Bucharest hospital to another in search of proper care, a whole stressed society is laid bare: each doctor, nurse, paramedic, and patient leaps into view with sharp individuality and articulate self-defensiveness. Director Cristi Puiu claimed the 2005 Cannes “Un Certain Regard” prize for this darkly humorous, compulsively vibrant feature. Also showing is Puiu’s debut, Stuff and Dough, the Tarantino-like tale of a young cash-strapped punk accepting a courier job from a local gangster without ever inquiring just what’s in the package. Michael Atkinson of the Boston Phoenix writes: “[Stuff]’s all rhythm and time and experience, a road movie so stripped down that there’s almost nothing left.”
The Death Of Mr. Lazarescu Dir. Cristi Puiu, 2005, 35mm, 150 min. 5pm
Stuff and Dough Dir. Cristi Puiu, 2001, 35mm, 91 min. 8pm
Tickets - $10
6/14 @ 7pm / SERIES: the new romanians
 California Dreamin'
Winner of the “Un Certain Regard” prize at Cannes in 2007, California Dreamin’ marked a short end to 27-year-old director Cristian Nemescu’s career, as he was tragically killed in a crash six weeks after the film’s principal photography wrapped. Inspired by an event that had occurred in the late 1990s during the Kosovo war, the film finds a scheming village station master in a Bucharest suburb blocking a train filled with NATO military equipment and American Marines for lack of legitimate customs papers. The scenario unfolds over the course of several days, as village locals mingle with the self-righteous stranded troops. Forced to live side by side, both groups discover that life can never again be quite the same.
Dir. Cristian Nemescu, 2007, DigiBeta, 155 min.
Tickets - $10
6/21 @ 7pm / SERIES: the new romanians
 12:08 Bucharest
shown with
Corneliu Porumboiu Shorts
History — who remembers, and how — is at the heart of Corneliu Porumboiu’s 12:08 Bucharest. A provincial television station decides that it’s going to produce a show on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the fall of the communist government, focusing on what transpired in that town at the exact time that Ceauescu fell. Unhappily, the only two eyewitnesses the station can find are a hard-drinking history teacher, and an elderly retiree who works as a part-time Santa Claus. The show begins, and the two panel guests pour out their versions of what happened on Dec. 22, 1989. It doesn’t take long for viewers to start phoning in their own versions of that day, often taking the eyewitnesses to task for what they think are outright distortions. Shown with Porumboiu’s two other recent films, the shorts Liviu’s Dream (2004) and A Trip To The City (2003).
12:08 Bucharest Dir. Corneliu Porumboiu, 2006, 35mm, 89 min.
Liviu's Dream Dir. Corenliu Porumboiu, 2004, 35mm, 40 min.
A Trip To The City Dir: Corenliu Porumboiu, 2003, 19 min.
Tickets - $10
6/28 @ 6pm / SERIES: the new romanians
 Sequences
shown with
Reenactment
A program highlighting two key films that point the way to today’s Romanian New Wave. Astonishingly rich in its insights into the dynamics of filmmaking, Sequences is comprised of three episodes, each of which involves a camera crew at various moments in a production. In the first part, the words of the film’s protagonist come to describe the director’s own life. In the second sequence, an insignificant family drama hides deeper tensions off the set, and in the startling finale, two extras discover that during the war they were bitter enemies. Art imitates life, or is it the other way around? Reenactment, formerly banned in its native country, is the story of two students who, after being arrested for public drunkenness, are given the option of jail, or working on a state-sponsored documentary on the evils of alcoholism. 12:08 Bucharest director C. Porumboiu cites Reenactment as the best film Romania has ever produced.
Sequences Alexandru Tatos, 1982, 35mm, 98 min. 6pm
Reenactment Dir. Lucian Pintilie, 1968, 35mm, 106 min. 8pm
Tickets - $10
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