Third Time’s a Charm: A look back at Cinema Arts Festival Houston 2011

A festival patron in Lynne Hershman Leeson's !WAR installation

Judging by the audience’s mixed reaction to the opening night’s feature, Downtown Express, it was hard to envision that the 2011 edition of Cinema Arts Festival Houston would exceed the heights of last year, which ended inside the halls of Ryan Middle School with an ecstatic audience cheering on the hometown heroes of Kashmere Reunion Band at the end of the almost-cancelled screening of the documentary Thunder Soul. Although Downtown’s screening at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston was well attended, the crowd’s reaction was lukewarm at best, despite cautious praise for the film’s music performed by musicians such as singer-songwriter Nellie McKay and violinist Philippe Quint. But the festival’s programming in days to follow had thoroughly exceeded my expectations and it was encouraging to see how the festival’s unique identity has taken shape in its third official year.

Love’s Executioner: David Cronenberg’s A DANGEROUS METHOD

Michael Fassbinder and Keira Knightley in A Dangerous Method

David Cronenberg has carved a highly respectable career out of making films that tap into the freakiest of human sexuality. A Dangerous Method—a fictionalized account of the early career of psychoanalysis pioneer Carl Jung—looks rather tame in comparison to depraved gynecologists in Dead Ringers. But with less graphic provocation comes more intellectual stimulation. The detailed discussions of the psychoanalytic theories of the Freudian times are very much accurate, but more importantly, the film also provides insight on Cronenberg’s career-long fascination with sexuality and violence.

Preview of Sundance Cinemas Houston

The brand-spanking new Sundance Cinemas will be hosting a benefit event for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston ­tonight before officially opening on Wednesday, November 23^rd. A few weeks ago, the theater invited the press to tour its facilities while the workers are tirelessly putting the theater together. As you can see in the pictures, everything is essentially a premium upgrade from the site’s former occupant, Angelika Film Center. The loveseat-style chairs are roomy and cushioned with fine fabrics, paired with a Maplewood armrest that can hold your drinks (alcoholic or otherwise) and the fancy food you can order at the bar. Patrons will also be able to reserve their selected seats when they purchase tickets online.

Paranoid Android: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s WORLD ON A WIRE

“Genius” is not a word to be thrown around lightly. There have been many masters in the history of cinema, but only once in a very long while does a genius come along. By my personal definition, a “genius filmmaker” is one who possesses the natural talent in the field at an early age and his/her creative vision is unlike anyone before him/her and will be hard to emulate by the ones who come after. German New Cinema wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder certainly fits the criteria. Rejected by Berlin Film School, Fassbinder spent a couple successful years in theater (much like another prodigy, Orson Welles) before his directorial debut in cinema with 1969’s Love is Colder Than Death. Between the years 1971 and 1973, the multi-talented Fassbinder has an output of ten films, either released theatrically or broadcasted on German television. Among them in this prolific period is World on a Wire, the two-part TV film Fassbinder made in 1973 which had faded into obscurity until its recent restoration.

Cut to the Chase: Nicolas Winding Refn’s DRIVE

Ryan Gosling in DRIVE

Adjust your expectations. Drive won the Best Director at Cannes for Nicolas Winding Refn earlier this year but it is not the usual festival-friendly artsy movie. To avoid the fate of being on the wrong side of history, the Robert De Niro-led jury made the obvious decision by handing out the prestigious Palme d’Or to the philosophically ambitious The Tree of Life, which is arguably the most anticipated film at Cannes in recent memory. I can imagine that the gesture of rewarding Refn’s action thriller was the jury’s subtle way to claim they can appreciate an entertaining studio flick as much as a high-minded artsy drama. And what a way to stick it to the controversial Lars von Trier by crowning another Dane?

Fit To Print? PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES

Page One: Inside The New York Times

“Just because you put on a fucking safari helmet and look at some poop doesn’t give you a right to insult what we do,” David Carr interjects calmly during his interview with Vice magazine co-founder Shane Smith, who was putting down The New York Times as he boasts his poop-sighting, cannibalism-exposing video report on Liberia. It is early in Page One: Inside The New York Times that director Andrew Rossi and co-writer Kate Novak establishes the straight-shooting Carr, a media reporter of The Times, as the unwavering advocate for the one of the largest newspapers in the United States. The showdown (or smackdown) between Carr and the Vice dudes is only the tip of the iceberg in the inevitable struggle old media institutions face as technology rapidly changes the way we acquire information.

Sneak Peek: The Complete Jean Vigo

Dead at the age of 29, Jean Vigo left the world with only 1 full-length feature (L’Atalante) and three short films, yet his influence on French (and World) Cinema is tremendous. So when Criterion Collection announced the release of his complete work in one 2-discs set, I was more than ecstatic. Criterion’s PR handlers sent me the final product a couple weeks ago (to review for the next issue of Film Monitor), but I haven’t gotten a chance yet to watch it since my time was devoted to Page One: Inside a New Times and other movies that opened (or about to open) in Houston. Here’s a sneak peek of the DVD packaging (designed by Jason Hardy), which is top-notch, even when comparing to their always terrific designs. The booklet inside (always my favorite thing in Criterion’s releases) is printed in four different pastel color papers and I especially love the envelope shape logo. I shall review the actual films soon, but even just by the look of the set, I’d say this is a must-buy. Go find one at a store tomorrow, August 30. (I’ve watched L’Atalante in the past and it was magical; I’m certainly looking forward to the legendary Zero de Conduite.)

The High-wire Act: Aaron Schock’s CIRCO

Reyna Ponce at the circus ticket booth.

Written, directed, photographed and produced by Aaron Schock, Circo exudes the kind of tenderness and authenticity that can only be a labor of love. Perhaps such attitude is required for a documentary filmmaker to successfully tell the stories of these subjects, a family of traveling circus performers in rural Mexico whose lives revolve around the act every minute of their day. Led by ringmaster Tino Ponce, Gran Mexico Circo, though it is not as grand as its name suggests, is a pride filled family business, which has been passed from one generation to the next in Mexico since the late 19th century. Tino’s children—all four of them still school age—practice and perform everyday, mastering acts of contortion and the tightrope, which their aunts and uncles had done before them. But times have changed. Financial problems and family tension is threatening the Ponce family tradition.

Walk on the Wild Side: Céline Danhier’s BLANK CITY

Klaus Nomi, Chris Parker and Jim Jarmusch. Photo © GODLIS

(by Carolina Astrain)

Céline Danhier’s first documentary film, Blank City, is a love letter to the filmmakers of New York’s No Wave movement in late Seventies/early Eighties. Much in the spirit of the subject’s do-it-yourself spirit, Danhier started the project shortly after receiving her law degree despite her lack of formal training in filmmaking. The documentary is strewn together by footage from No Wave films, including Jim Jarmusch’s Permanent Vacation, Amos Poe’s Unmade Beds (featuring Debbie Harry of Blondie) and Vivienne Dick’s She Had Her Gun All Ready (featuring Lydia Lunch). Other artists featured in the documentary include Jean-Michel Basquiat, hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddie and actor Steve Buscemi.

The No Wave Cinema collective steered away from what Andy Warhol created with his avant-garde projects. They weren’t interested in art for art’s sake; they were interested in telling stories that would touch people. Their subjects are often closely related to their personal experience. In Permanent Vacation, Jarmusch follows a 14-year-old kid walking around the dilapidated jungle of New York’s Lower East Side, where most of these renegade filmmakers lived. Starving young artists like Jarmusch had nothing to lose but plenty to give. They prided

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