F for Fake

My published Flavorpill post:

F for Fake is Orson Welles' farewell to filmmaking, as well as a crafty reminder of the art form's slippery relationship with artifice. The "documentary" on infamous art forger Elmyr de Hory delights in toeing the truth/fiction line. It includes supposedly found footage from an unfinished film on the dishonest de Hory, notorious hoaxster Clifford Irving as an interviewer, and allusions to the director's own work dealing in deception (The War of the Worlds broadcast, for example). Viewers should know to take everything in Welles' self-aware and mischievous swan song with a grain of salt — if not a whole shaker of it.

Winter's Eve

My published Flavorpill post:

The brag: it's the largest outdoor holiday festival in a city where magnitude matters. The backup: a varied and vibrant program that includes brassy Afrobeat orchestra Antibalas (currently seen on Broadway with Fela!), a Neil Young birthday tribute by jazz bassist Ben Allison, and two-dozen-plus food tastings. Indeed, Lincoln Square is utterly transformed for the rah-rah festivities of this tenth Winter's Eve, one that commences with the lighting of the ceremonial Balsam Fir tree. Beside in-store happenings, area sidewalks transform into a circus of jugglers, stilt-walkers, choral groups, and acts like Harlem Samba and the mirthful Hungry March Band.

Small Change

My published Flavorpill post:

A simple, late-career classic from François Truffaut, Small Change is a collection of loving vignettes of the resourceful children in a laid-back burg in southern France. Childhood was the humanistic auteur's go-to focus and it's depicted herein with a seemingly offhand, au naturel touch, whether the preteens are at school, home, or the cinema. Now in a new 35mm print, Truffaut's camera observes the oh-nos to joys of several kids — from Julien's schemes to counter parental abuse to Patrick's sexual education — for a portrait that is at once humorous, heartening, and whole.

Neel Murgai Ensemble w/ Five-Course India Dinner

My published Flavorpill post:

A post-Thanksgiving bonus for gastronomes, one can definitely bliss out at this five-course North Indian supper and performance. The 11th installment of the Williamsburg space's Monthly Dinner Series, this evening features a belly-rubbing menu that includes seared, tandoori-honeyed diver scallops, truffled sooji, and a Rajasthani-style lamb loin, with the meal's clincher being a chai-spiced poha pudding with shaved almonds and mango sorbet. Best yet, the masala mashed potatoes are accompanied by the Neel Murgai Ensemble, a classical sitar-and-tabla group that also digests the sounds of raga, jazz, minimalism, East Euro gypsy, and Mongolian throat singing.

Fashion for Action 2009

My published Flavorpill post:

Co-chaired by Derek Lam and Olivia Palermo, Fashion for Action combines designer ready-to-wear and charity into a four-day event. A ticketed benefit and silent auction are set for Thursday at the Rubin Museum, only to be followed by a free, weekend-long sample sale at the Chelsea Thrift Shop that features 150-plus high-end brands at half off (and more), including Acne, Band of Outsiders, DVF, Paul Smith, YSL, and a bounty of merchandise from the Gilt Groupe. Raising funds for Housing Works and its crusade to assist New Yorkers with HIV and AIDS, shoppers have an easy motive to buy-buy-buy: to contribute to the well-being of your fellows.

Liv Ullmann

My published Flavorpill post:

Later this month, Liv Ullmann redoes A Streetcar Named Desire with Cate Blanchett as Blanche DuBois. But before she shines a Norwegian light on Tennessee Williams' classic, BAM looks back at her film collaborations with Ingmar Bergman. Under the airtight direction of Sweden's finest, she often portrayed characters at an impasse, be it moral or spiritual. In the elliptic Persona, her actress-in-distress and nurse Bibi Andersson head seaside for a psychological one-on-one, while Scenes from a Marriage chronicles a union in ruin and Saraband revisits them 30 years later. Other entries include the disquieting Cries and Whispers, The Serpent's Egg with David Carradine as trapeze artist, and Faithless, in which Ullmann directs a Bergman script.

John Hillcoat

My published Flavorpill post:

Aussie director John Hillcoat comes ready to discuss his intense adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer winner The Road. The post-apocalyptic story documents the day-to-day survival of a father (Viggo Mortensen in prime form) and his young son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) as they trek across a mysteriously burnt-out American landscape to get to the coast. Plan for Hillcoat — who also directed The Proposition, a fantastic 2005 western about the Wild Wild Outback — to talk about collaborating with Nick Cave again, his first-rate cast, and the ins and outs of translating McCarthy's spare, sculpted prose into a persuasive visual experience.

M. Hulot's Holiday

My published Flavorpill post:

Holiday is Jacques Tati's superfine intro to Monsieur Hulot, the French director's lovable alias and a magnet for pratfalls and faux pas. Whereas the character's later escapades would be city-based, here he's seaside with a pack of vacationers out for playtime and memories (which Hulot provides in spades). Like an impressionist painting of the campagne, an air of leisure and nostalgia coats the sweetly muted occurrences, with Tati shrugging off A-to-B plotting in favor of light, satiric episodes that tie in screwy boats, Chaplin, plenty of firecrackers, and a tennis serve that's simply automatic.

Dread & Superficiality: Woody Allen as Comic Strip with Stuart Hample & Dick Cavett

My published Flavorpill post:

Combine this title with 1978's Non-Being and Somethingness, and you've got the core tenets of the famed, horn-rimmed neurotic. Writer/cartoonist Stuart Hample's Inside Woody Allen — a comic series inked during the auteur's golden years in the late '70s — supplies the book's cerebral and hilarious contents. Besides finely drawn panels that compress an entire worldview, Hample's step-by-step process is also laid bare with pencil roughs, corrections, marginal notes, and even correspondence. Tonight, Hample sits down with former talk show host and ace converser Dick Cavett.

An Evening with Christopher Plummer

My published Flavorpill post:

A Christopher Plummer completist has a mighty assignment since the prolific Canadian has spent 60 years on the tele, stage, and silver screen. He's incarnated a history tome of faces, from Aristotle to Wellington to FDR, and the core figures in Shakespeare's folio too, whether Hamlet or Lear. And, of course, there's his cherished turn as Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Plummer's recent memoir imparted his many trials and triumphs, and tonight the great thespian joins John Martello, executive director of The Players, for an in-depth chat about his decorated body of work.

The Missing Person

My published Flavorpill post:

Constructed by Noah Buschel, this neo-noir stars Michael Shannon as a Chicago-based P.I. with — surprise, surprise — a don't-ask past that soon materializes before us. Indolent and soused, Shannon offers a brilliant performance, flashing a quirk for every minute and moving like an ooze even after his wiseass takes on a high-pay, "hide and seek" case. Once he gets on the Los Angeles-bound Zephyr Express to track his unnamed mark, we're all aboard for an unusual tale about loss and letting go. Although it needs fine-tuning here and there, The Missing Person is a genre riff that entrances with its assurance and its novel, hard-edged visuals.

Robin Hood: Food for Good

My published Flavorpill post:

With Thanksgiving a mere fortnight away, the Robin Hood Foundation teams with Food for Good to distribute rations and optimism to those with an outstretched hand. More about providing a future than saving the day, each organization strives to eliminate poverty one case at a time – last year, for example, Robin Hood and its partners set up countless soup kitchens and food pantries across the city. Tonight's gala is hosted by running back turned philanthropist Tiki Barber and brings together the generous and the socially conscious, in addition to recognized faces like Chelsea Clinton. Just imagine: one admission supplies a family of eight with a turkey and all the fixings.

My Dinner with Andre

My published Flavorpill post:

Directed by the incomparable Louis Malle, and now aged 28 years, this heady toast to life's intricacies could not have a simpler premise: two friends reunite and catch up over supper. In this enriching case, actor/playwright Wallace Shawn and theatre director André Gregory are the ones across the table, both fencers of an intellectual thrust. The two basically play themselves; initially, André, a blessed raconteur, relates his quixotic search for transcendence (including being ritualistically buried at Richard Avedon's estate in order to be reborn). These experiences are met with a wall of "uh-huh"s before Wally eases himself into one of cinema's most memorable conversations.

Score! Pop-Up Swap

My published Flavorpill post:

We're teaming up with our chums at MeanRed for this special Score!, otherwise a monthly swap that traffics in others' clothing, literature, music, etc. Lug your gently worn threads, soft jazz cassettes, how-to paperbacks — you name it — over to 3rd Ward, where each item is free ninety-nine. There's cold drinks, custom mixes on the speakers, and the expertise of a few tastemakers, with Nylon's senior editor curating the clothing section and Showpaper tackling the music. Leftovers find a home too, as the anti-poverty organization Rock and Wrap It Up disperses them to city nonprofits.

Directed by Jerry Lewis

My published Flavorpill post:

The French have lavished Jerry Lewis with bouquets throughout his career, while our love song for the madcap comedian has been lodged in our throat. The passage is now clear; for one, critic Chris Fujiwara's persuasive new tome argues why Lewis' schizoid genius is on level with the holy trilogy of Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd, while Anthology offers support with a rare, crackerjack retrospective of his self-directed films. The nine-pic series is bookended by his experimental debut The Bellboy and selfsame adieu Cracking Up, while The Ladies Man features a glorious dollhouse set and The Nutty Professor provides a fantastic antidote for Eddie Murphy's.

Luc Tuymans

My published Flavorpill post:

Ohio gets the art, we get the artist. It's all about Luc Tuymans of late, with the illustrious Belgian painter receiving two firsts: a thorough US retrospective (now open at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus) and a second-to-none volume about his emblematic, mute-colored oeuvre. This afternoon, he hangs out and autographs copies of the 175-pager, which tells an artistic story that embraces photography and the moving image in unceasing appraisal of memory and history at large — from post-WWII Europe to postcolonial Congo.

Red Shoes

My published Flavorpill post:

Many a musical pale in comparison to this Technicolor fantasia — or Pantone tonic if you will. Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger with a go-go dash (esp. for 1948), this wondrous production circles around Hans Christian Andersen's same-named fairy tale about a pair of ruby-reds that wear its owner to death. Moira Shearer stars as the star-crossed danseuse who — after a truly rapturous Shoes performance — must select Life or Art, here represented by composer-cum-beau (Marius Goring) and a haughty Diaghilev-like impresario (Anton Walbrook). Film Forum's new 35mm only makes for additional gasps of bliss.

Nefer/Nfr

My published Flavorpill post:

Egyptian for both "beautiful" and "good," Nefer/Nfr is a group show for seven Brooklyn-based artists who explore human decoration and decorum through sculpture, sound, and other media. Curated by Molly Surno — who contributes a photographic monograph on Brooklyn's alluring fingernail art and culture — the artworks include Suzette Guy's outré headdress for an "urban-jungle queen," Leif Ritchey's scrappy ode to ephemera, and Shaun Kessler and Olivia Wyatt's series of juju, Malian-influenced masks. For opening night, DJ Luiza Sa of CSS spins and artist Abby Walton provides free nail art.

Ayn Rand and the World She Made

My published Flavorpill post:

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me." Ayn Rand cultivated such an individualistic spirit throughout her career, one capped by her me-myself-and-reason school of philosophy, Objectivism. Anne C. Heller's evenhanded biography details the contentious icon's life and times from when she still went by Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum in Bolshevik Russia to her rise to world-renowned novelist. If your knowledge of Rand can be listed on a matchbook, come tonight as Heller steps up to the lectern.

The Brooklyn Beefsteak

My published Flavorpill post:

Loosen the belly — with water, vitamins, whatever — before this throwback to the Gilded Age. Beefsteaks, aka all-you-can-stomach-meat-and-ale parties, were occasions for fat cats like Boss Tweed to secure male blue-collar votes for a mountain of tenderloin — veritable "sausage" fests. Everyone is welcome this afternoon (the more the merrier, with discounts for groups of four-plus) as the Bell House is a perfect, retro-flavored spot to consume gallons of McSorley's and heaps of organic meat using your hands. Back in the day, a moderate gulp-and-chug meal was "six pounds of meat and thirty glasses of beer," so bring an appetite.

House of Diehl's Style Wars

My published Flavorpill post:

Happening in cities around the world, Style Wars is a souped-up fashion show in the Project Runway mold: one minute you're haute stuff and the next it's auf wiedersehen. For these wham-bam duels, eight contestants use vintage threads and other materials to fabricate couture pieces on models — all while under the discerning gaze of the cognoscenti, who can bob heads to the DJs on the decks in addition to the innovative, on-the-fly designs. The vibe is joyfully anything-goes; but after each runway walk-off, the celebrity panel must cross out a name until only one designer's makeshift line remains.

The Internationalists: Around the World in 24 Hours

My published Flavorpill post:

The Internationalists — LPAC's resident theatre company this season — utilizes the Internet for a wonderfully futuristic event in which artists and audiences can interact with fellows from around the world. Over a dozen acts take the "stage" during this 1,440-minute art marathon, with performers in Berlin, London, Osaka, and other megalopolises looped in via live feeds. Of particular interest are esteemed Romanian playwright Peca Stefan's latest script and Puerto Rican performance artist Nancy Millán's solo musical theatre piece, La Mujer Invisible. Meanwhile, thingNY's on-location portion includes painted scores, video, Eskimos, and bits from composers like Morton Feldman and David Lang.

Collapse

My published Flavorpill post:

Collapse recalls Errol Morris' superlative series of interviews, First Person. Here, it's former LAPD officer turned rebel with cause-for-alarm Michael Ruppert, who delivers an incredible monologue that says to hell with the shibboleth of capitalism — that there's always more. For 82 minutes, he transfixes with a litany of oncoming collapses (previously, he predicted the economic vortex), and his warnings resound in the ear like a timpani that goes doom-doom-doom. Yet, as he describes the "peak oil" crisis (aka our depleted supply) and its domino effect, director Chris Smith frames him less as a savior than a man sealed off by his own neurosis and righteousness.

Dan Flavin: Series and Progressions

My published Flavorpill post:

Dan Flavin organized fluorescent lights into eyeful towers, often leaving them untitled (with parenthetical dedications here and there) or with titles that were playfully descriptive (see: alternating pink and "gold"). This exhibition does as it claims, focusing on such works as the blue, square-unit rarity untitled (to Helga and Carlo, with respect and affection), which was part of his "barriers," and nominal three (to William of Ockham), a six-light salute to the philosopher of Razor illustriousness. Other sculptural configurations include nine, red-supreme works that comprise the 1968 series two primary series and one secondary, and a sequence of colorful late works.