Gossip Central

Incitement: New York Jewish Film Festival on a Roll

Where is Quentin Tarantino when we need him? As we know, his Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, now nominated for a Best Picture Oscar among many other awards, turns on the conceit of what if, the fantasy that the Manson murders on August 9, 1969 had a different outcome. Yaron Zilberman’s Incitement, a powerful recreation of the events leading to November 4, 1995, climaxes in the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv following his triumph with the Oslo Accords. The fiction film opens in New York this month, after screening in the current New York Jewish Film Festive, and at East Hampton’s Guild Hall this weekend, presented by HamptonsFilm. You watch, knowing the end, wishing history could be averted, hoping somehow that the murder of peace-loving Prime Minister Rabin would have stalled, and peace would prevail. Alas, instead Zilberman leads us through the “incitement” to the cataclysmic moment, exploring the mindset of Yigal Amir, an aspiring law student and orthodox Jew of Yemeni descent, whose violent act has led us to Bibi Netanyahu’s election, to a regime that remains strongly right wing, taking the region closer to chaos and war, and keeping peace an illusion.

Martin Scorsese’s Rat Pack

Whatever else happens, no matter what other Oscar nominations The Irishman garners, Best Picture is guaranteed. The New York Film Critics Circle and National Board of Review, to name two groups, have already augured its success. But of course, winning is anyone’s guess. After decades of movies, Martin Scorsese seems to take the award season in stride, flanked by his posse including Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, as he was this week at Tao for the NYFCC. Picking up an award at Tao this week, jet lagged following the Golden Globes on the other coast, he spoke about another of his pack, Harvey Keitel, wanting to jump ship at that event. “We were sinking,” he confessed defeat. Harvey switched tables for Tarantino’s.

But there Marty was front and center at Tao, with everyone paying homage to the master as they took the stage.

Quentin Tarantino’s “Iambic Quintameter” and other Rhythms at the 85th Annual New York Film Critics Circle Awards Dinner

Back in 2012, when Brad Pitt received a Best Supporting Actor Award from the NYFCC, he proclaimed that he loved this award evening best of all because these awards will not be televised. Does that explain why this awards night breathes relaxation, friends awarding friends despite a gripe (from Adam Sandler) about mean reviewers? Not to mention Quentin Tarantino’s whine about critics, ones he loved and ones he hated, even though Pitt was presenting him with a Best Screenplay honor at this year’s NYFCC ceremony at Tao Downtown. Cued in to critics as scribes, Pitt emphasized Tarantino’s process: “Quentin writes his scripts by hand; he writes novelistic chapters of backstory for his characters, he loves them so much. I call his rhythms iambic quintameter.”

Cinema Eye Honors Docs: The Great Hack, American Factory, and More

Is Cinema Eye Honors a prelude to The Academy Award category for Best Documentary? The fifteen features shortlisted for an Oscar affirm the artistry of the nonfiction film. A champion of the art of doc, Netflix has distributed several of this year’s best, including The Great Hack and American Factory. The films have been available to stream for a while, but I saw them on the big screen this weekend, at The Roxy Hotel and at the Crosby Street Hotel, with filmmakers on hand to discuss their art.

Steve Bognar talked about the complexities of American Factory, how our perspective on the global economy shifts as foreign countries come to us for cheap labor and opportunities. Focusing on a Chinese owned factory in Dayton, Ohio, the film, co-directed by Julia Reichart who could not attend, shows what happened when General Motors left the city, and their factory, eliminating jobs. One woman said she earned $29/hour working for the car industry, but now when the Chinese-owned Fuyao glass factory offered her a much-needed job, she had to accept $12/hour. We also see a shift in culture and labor ethics, the urgency of union affiliation, and resistance to it. With no easy answer, the film tells a compelling and resonant story. This award-winning film has won numerous awards, most recently Cinema Eye’s Honors for Outstanding Nonfiction Feature and Outstanding Direction.

Why The Song of Names Matters

On the eve of the Golden Globes, consider The Song of Names, a film of merit in a tough, competitive film season. An epic post-Holocaust drama of two men who grow up as brothers, one a Jewish child prodigy, the other a Christian, the son of a classical music producer, The Song of Names focuses on its title song. Coming at a pivotal point in the film, “Song of Names,” composed by Oscar-winner Howard Shore, defies clichés about the Jewish dead, in simply naming names—in this case, the murdered at Treblinka; miraculously, the Canadian filmmakers, producer Robert Lantos (Sunshine, Barney’s Version) and director Francois Girard (The Red Violin, Thirty-two Short Films about Glenn Gould) were permitted to film there, a memorial site with an unforgettable field of boulders, each representing a town evacuated to this death camp. Based on the novel by Norman Lebrecht, he movie was a standout at the recent Hamptons International Film Festival, where I sat down with the filmmakers to talk about music, the Holocaust, and the stars Clive Owen and Tim Roth.

Celebrating Sondheim with the New York Philharmonic: Joy on New Year’s Eve

Photo: Regina Weinreich

Introducing this evening, Bernadette Peters cautioned the audience at Lincoln Center’s Geffen Hall, "Sweeney Todd"'s Mrs. Lovett will not be singing about baking shepherd pies with real shepherds a featured ingredient. Not that it mattered. This would be Stephen Sondheim composer, and except for two numbers from Follies with the outstanding Katrina Lenk singing the words to “Losing My Mind” and “Could I Leave You,” Peters kept her promise. Lenk will star in a revival of Sondheim’s “Company,” coming to Broadway.

Without his brilliant lyrics, the Sondheim feste did not disappoint. Beginning with the “Overture to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “Suite from Into the Woods,” the orchestra, led by Alexander Gemignani, and directed by Lonny Price, sampled Sondheim’s ample oeuvre. You could see musicians pucker, whistling as birds in the woods. The performance, an hour and half of joy, included “Suite from Assassins” and ended with “Suite from Sunday in the Park with George.” Peters and Lenk returned, champagne flutes in hand, for “Auld Lang Syne.” If you are in New York City for the holidays, the Philharmonic is the place to be on New Year’s Eve.

Sandra Bernhard Celebrates Ten Years of Mayhem & Madness at Joe’s Pub

 

“Welcome to the Kremlin West!”

Aglitter in a sequined sheath, Sandra Bernhard took the Joe’s Pub stage like a bat outta hell, that is a rock goddess, belting Bobby Womack’s “Across 110 Street,” backed by her first-rate Sandy Squad Band. On this, her tenth anniversary celebration doing New Year’s at this venerable Village venue, she does not disappoint, featuring fresh snark and keeping it true. Taking a break from filming “Pose,” (--oops, “did I drop Pose. That’s so unlike me.” Bat bat bat.), she tips her hat to the queens Olivia Coleman, Nancy Pelosi, and Nicole Wallace. Mashing up the Zeitgeist, she reveals our inner angst over the ecology, the president, Walmart, Blue Apron. The passing of Barney’s had her rushing back to Mount Sinai for further tests! Oh, she’s well connected and drops names like gumdrops: Barbara Streisand, Chrissie Hynde, Carole King, Emma Stone, Debbie Harry, Julianne Moore—as if we too know these people, and would be there if they were having a holiday party—just saying. That should be our biggest worry!

Is This a Room at the Vineyard Theater: Arresting Reality

No wonder the whistleblower won’t reveal him/herself. You know, the one who called out the infamous quid pro quo presidential phone call with Ukraine. See Is This a Room at the Vineyard Theater, a transcript made into a riveting drama, to see how those who cross the current American regime are treated. Perhaps you already know the name Reality Winner, know that this Air Force vet is incarcerated without actually having been accused of leaking sensitive material to the media regarding the Russian interference in the 2016 election. She, in her mid-20’s, an animal lover who learned Farsi so she could help women in Afghanistan, is only thought to have done so. The play, conceived and directed by Tina Satter, takes place on Winner’s doorstep in Augusta, Georgia as she is confronted by FBI agents, and is a literal transcript, redaction included, of what happened including the removal of her dog and cat, and the placement of recently bought groceries into her fridge. Talk about chill. All the more because it is true.

Cats: The World Premiere: T. S. Eliot, Can You Hear Jennifer Hudson?

The latest entry into the Oscar race is Cats, a feature adaptation of the now iconic Andrew Lloyd Weber musical based on T. S. Eliot. I must mention “The Wasteland” poet because at no time during the state of the art premiere this week at Alice Tully Hall did anyone acknowledge this bona fide cred. Well, the musical is what its audience calls for: spectacularly beautiful to look at, with exceptional voices rendering the musical’s songs --or song. As one wag put it, I have never seen a whole feature devoted to one tune. That song, “Memories,” sticks in the craw, grating in its familiarity and cliché, but Jennifer Hudson as the ousted Grizabella, manages to give it new oomph. It soars.

Robert DeNiro Praises Jane Rosenthal at the Muse Awards: New York Women in Film and Television Celebrate Game Changers

When a performer as dynamic as Gloria Estefan claims to be shy, as she told the packed ballroom at the midtown Hilton for New York Women in Film and Television’s Muse Awards this week, you wonder what life experiences had an impact. Her grandmother, an entrepreneur when she came to America from Cuba at the age of 57, had to push her toward her stellar career in music, she told the room of documentarians, actors, and film world visionaries. Her mother had to hold the fort when her father was imprisoned. These revelations are de rigeuer for Muse awardees: from Harriet director Kasi Lemmons to Caroline’s Comedy Club’s Caroline Hirsch who said, “From my childhood in Brooklyn, I was groomed for a career in retail, working at Gimbel’s for a while.” She never would have imagined the comedy empire she created, from discovering an unknown Jay Leno to her great event, “Stand Up for Heroes,” with comedy’s biggest talents performing for wounded veterans. Year to year, even comedy wannabe Bruce Springsteen gets into the act, telling a joke or two before retreating to his reliable “Born in the U.S.A.” Hirsch gets the “Made in New York” prize.