IFC Center In Manhattan
By: Kevin Filipski |
Tuesday May 16, 2006 |
| Even in a movie-mad town like Manhattan, there's room for new entrants in the arthouse game. |
| The IFC Center, which opened last June in the West Village - only a few blocks from another fabled arthouse institution, Film Forum - and has so far done everything right: booking exclusive runs of new foreign and independent films, showing beloved classics on weekends and at midnight, all shown in superbly-designed interiors including plush, comfortable seats in intimate auditoriums, and topped off by the theater's very own restaurant, the Waverly at the IFC Center.
The IFC Center has made more movies available to New Yorkers. Titles distributed by IFC Films automatically find a home at the Center, including the latest monstrosity by Matthew "Cremaster" Barney, whose Drawing Restraint 9 costars his current paramour, Bjork. Also at the IFC Center is Hou Hsiao-Hsien's latest, Three Times, only the Taiwanese master's second feature with a proper New York release outside of festival showings (the first was Millennium Mambo). Three Times is a failed love story told thrice in three different eras: 1966, then 1911, then 2005. Would that Hou's contemporary takes on Taiwanese culture like Mambo, Goodbye South Goodbye and Good Men, Good Women were as fascinating as his historical films like A City of Sadness and The Puppetmaster. Hence, it's during the two "historical" segments - especially the middle section, set in a 1911 brothel - that finds Hou in his cinematic element. Still, there's glamorous actress Shu Qi, who stars with the less interesting actor Chen Cheng in all three episodes: she's a true movie star who can hold the camera's attention even when all else around her fades into oblivion. Another IFC Films release is Cedric Klapisch's followup to his drily amusing roundelay L'Auberge espagnole: Russian Dolls follows the same characters five years later, concentrating on Xavier, now a 30-ish writer whose relationships with women (including Audrey Tautou and Kelly Reilly from the first film) are as exasperating as ever. Klapisch evidently feels that the endless variations on the subject of messy and broken relationships among a bunch of semi-narcissists are vastly more interesting than I do, otherwise Russian Dolls wouldn't drag on for two-plus hours. However, the writer-director has a way with droll observations, coaxes excellent performances out of several attractive performers (Reilly is smashingly good) and has the terrific sense to shoot his movie in several exquisite locations: Paris, London and the always-photogenic (and infrequently-seen) St. Petersburg. Coming this summer from IFC Films is the acclaimed documentary about New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz, Wordplay, which also includes the puzzle's legions of fans, including Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart. The IFC Center also shows classic films on weekends, some rarely seen. Last fall, during a series of Francois Truffaut films, his obscure black comedy Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me (1972) was shown; not one of his best, it is at least a diverting comic trifle with a terrific star-making performance by Bernadette Lafont as the young lass who kills her paramours in turn. IFC showed a an unrestored print which looked surprisingly good. Maybe this showing will prod someone to release this hidden not-quite-gem on DVD. Currently, the IFC Center is presenting Kurosawa classics on weekends. Here's hoping that audiences continue coming so that we'll see many more classics (and future classics) on the big screen where they belong. |
