Writing Culture: Food, Film & Beyond

Bold as brass I entered the small lobby of blue brick Cinema Village with its rhomboid-shaped marquee jutting out over Greenwich Village’s East 12 St. off of Fifth Avenue, without calling ahead for an appointment to speak to its manager. It felt, to me, as though I were coming home in a way. I’ve been going to Cinema Village for a quarter-century, at least. The picture house is an bare-boned affair with no frills. Like a fast-food restaurant: you go in, see a film; after it’s finished, you leave. To me, too, it has the feel of a favorite, well-worn sweater.

As luck would have it, Lee, the manager, was at his post by the concession stand. Polite, thoughtful, and soft spoken, he greeted me as though we were old friends, and he had all the time in the world to chat but not to ‘manage’ an art house. He struck me as a private person, but he began our conversation by immediately telling me something about himself and, of course, Cinema Village.

“I am as old as Cinema Village, 47. The house opened in 1963, the year of my birth”, began this slightly built man, youthful Nebraskan, with a shock of snow-white hair, hidden under a baseball hat, with wire-framed glasses. He himself is no stranger to film: in fact, he managed of the East Village ‘Pioneer Theater’, an independent house, until it fell victim to rising real estate rents. “Cinema Village”, he proudly announces “is the oldest art house in New York”.

Physically, Cinema Village occupies an abandoned turn-of-the-century fire station. “Unfortunately, the original owner did not think of preserving the building’s original facade”, he thought. Certainly, retro is in today, and what a draw that would be, he added. In 2000, it was transformed from a single- to a three-screen picture house: the original auditorium has a 156 seats; the smallest seats 66, and the medium-sized hall downstairs has room for 73. Only the biggest hall is wheelchair accessible.

Its patrons come not only from the Village, but from all five boroughs. Lee couldn’t say how many tickets are sold a year; but it is profitable shoestring operation with a staff of nine (four managers are also non-union projectionists). Most films are on 35-mm, but Lee will also show films on Blu Ray or high-definition format, but not regular DVD because of its poor quality. Cinema Village shows vintage films, first-run, cult and contemporary favorites, documentaries, and ‘indies’. “Where else can see “Kimjongilila”, a documentary on a flower named after North Korea’s strongman?” he says as his face breaks out into a broad smile.

Lee quickly rattles off some stats: “the Cesar-awarded film ‘Tell No One‘ ran for a record 82 weeks; ‘The Piano Teacher‘ 28 weeks, ‘Yi Yi‘ 21 weeks and ‘Mulholland Drive’ 18 weeks. And the six-hour Grammy Award ‘Carlos‘ played nine weeks, which says something about the kind of film mavens who go to Cinema Village”.

On any week, this cinema will schedule three to six or seven films. On Friday, March 4, when I visited it, you could see Peter Weir’s “The Way Back”, Nicole Kidman’s “Rabbit Hole”, the ‘indie’ “Putty Hill”, and a documentary on the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, “The Wasteland”. Slated for the coming weeks are films from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tibet, France, Germany, and the US: quite a palette of cinematic color and variety. Distributors will send Cinema Village a rooster of films, which the staff will review, reject, or schedule.

Lee points modestly adds, “A serious film buff would spot Woody Allen’s use of our marquee in some of his films. Martin Scorcese rented the house for ‘The Departed’”.

As a business, Cinema Village has hosted film festivals: Greek, the Other Israel, Russian, Korean, and Irish. It doesn’t refuse “four-walling”, since it guarantee money upfront. The house has no budget for advertising, postcards, or posters, which is picked up by the distributor. It does show first-run films because distributors feel they can tease out an extra dollar or two by booking it there.

Admission is competitive: adults pay $10, students $7, and seniors $6. Consequently, it draws a steady stream of patrons.  “The house, however”, Lee adds “doesn’t show ‘kids movies’”. Nonetheless, Cinema Village will rent out space on mornings for children’s birthday parties.

Cinema Village is an institution on the New York scene. “The New York Times”, “Wall Street Journal”, “The Nation”, “Village Voice”, and “New York Press” regularly review the films it offers.

David Rothenberg, founder of Fortune Society and a host on WBAI and a retired Broadway agent, is a booster. Joseph Hurley, a veteran film reviewer, never misses a chance to “plug” a film at Cinema Village.

As for me, I usually go see French films there. I occasionally run into Rivka, a Paris-born Hassid from Brooklyn’s Borough Park. We usually exchange some thoughts on films with a Jewish theme we saw, say, a Franco-Israeli film “Va, vit, et deviens”. Adjusting her light-brown “sheitel”, she was very much moved by “Va…” “The plight of the Falasha or Ethiopian Jews in Israel”,  she thought, “was handled subtly with nuanced understanding”. To me, I found it equally remarkable for the willingness of the Franco-Moroccan actor Roschdy Zem to play in an Israeli film.

Where else can I  see “The Grocers’ Son” with the talented Nicolas Cazale?

Gwyn Sullivan next to whom I sat  at “Carlos” was a friend of Pauline Kael. “Pauline would’ve been at home in Cinema Village. And, “Carlos” is the kind of film, Pauline would have sunk her teeth in”, she wryly remarked.

How much do people truly confess when they go to confession and how much of it is true? That is the theme surrounding the short film The Confession. The film was directed by Tanel Toom. Sam and Jacob, who are both nine years old, are best friends. Both children are each other’s foil. Sam is often quite and loves to follow the rules; Jacob on the other hand is one who likes to get into mischief. Set in Britain the story takes a dramatic turn when the young boys, who attend catholic school, are getting ready, in a couple of days, to make their first confession During a conversation with Jacob, Sam reveals that he has never done anything bad and therefore has nothing worth confessing. For Jacob this is a huge problem as so makes it his mission to change that.

As a person who is somewhat a skeptic when it comes to religion Confession was right up my alley. When it comes to confessing one’s sins how much can you truly trust a priest? What if someone came in there and said that they were molesting children, raping women or men, or planned to the night that they went to confession? As a priest would they keep it to themselves or would they tell someone? If they have to keep it to themselves how do they cope with it? I am in the mist of trying to find out these answers and if anyone could help me it would be greatly appreciated.

Jacob’s plan for Sam is that they go into a cornfield and steal the scarecrow. Of course Sam, being the good boy that he is, is a first very reluctant; but feeling peer-pressure from Jacob he finally relents. The problem occurs while both boys are removing the scarecrow and dragging it across the desolate road. As they are dragging it along they hear a sound of a car approaching. Not wanting to get caught, and fearing that they will, they leave the scarecrow in the street and run into the grass to hide.

A young woman driving the car, believing the object is a human being, quickly swerves to get out of the way; and in the process hits a tree. At that point I was screaming inside my head “do something Sam!” The driver even opens her eyes and look at the young, boys but to no avail. Sam once again relents to his friend and leaves the woman there, with a child in the backseat, to die as the car goes up in flames.

This film reminds me of Doubt; the film starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Huffman. Streep as Sister Aloysius, the principal of St. Nicholas a Catholic School in the Bronx, begins to suspect that Father Flynn, played by Huffman, is abusing children. She suspects this because Father Flynn is always having young boys in his office and never gives reasons of why, at least to her liking. This film does exactly as the film title states: It fills you with doubt and it leaves you with it.

The similarity between the two films is that they raise questions about religion and specifically the Catholic religion. With religion you hardly ever get an answer and if by chance you do is it the right one? Is it true?

Later on in the film after Sam says that he will confess to what they have done regardless of the consequences Jacob and he get into an argument. It the mist of that argument Sam pushes Jacob. This leads Jacob to fall in a hole and die instantly.

At the end, however, Jacob did get his wish because Sam did not confess to any of the two events.

This is not Toom’s only short film dealing with a confession. In 1999 in his short film Desert Moon a Surgeon named Jonathan Kaufman confesses a secret to his priest on his death bed.

It’s hard to imagine a film so cute you could hug it winning a live-action short Academy Award, but that’s exactly what Luke Matheny’s endearing take on the story of Cupid, “God of Love,” did by partnering nostalgic black and white cinematography with a playfully romantic but conniving hero.

Although Matheny is no stranger to winning awards, his previous film “Earano” won a few at various prestigious festivals, his Oscar winning short has been cleaning house in film festivals from New York to Hawaii. The film focuses on Raymond, a darts enthusiast/jazz singer afflicted with a seemingly incurable and unfortunately unrequited love for his band mate, Kelly. He prays for her love when a mysterious package of darts arrives for him at the bar where his band has a residency. The darts possess the power of making someone fall in love, after being stuck with one of course, with the next person they see. The film that follows is a quirky look at how love doesn’t make any sense but most importantly is selfless.

“I was also determined to critique the image of the lovestruck hero,” writes Matheny in a statement about the short on his personal website. He achieves this by presenting Raymond’s awakening from a self-interested lover to a dart flinging cupid. At first Raymond’s interest in love is depicted as shallow, with camera’s looming in the distance and Kelly’s character devoid of any personality; she is isn’t really there because Raymond doesn’t even know her. The black and white coloring of the film also works together with the jazzy soundtrack to highlight Raymond’s fictionalized romance for Kelly.

Raymond finds out abruptly however that love isn’t something that sticks like a dart if it doesn’t come from a place of honesty. Tricking someone can only work for so long before the emotion built up to that moment falls apart and the intentions come to light.

The film tells a well thought out story with humor and a sort of self-mocking goofy director who plays the main character.  “I should have gotten a haircut,” said Matheny as he accepted his golden statue, but his personality both behind and in front of the camera come across so well through those curly locks of hair.

Wasp-Andrea Arnold

Most short live action films are intended to impact an audience. For the most part, they try to speak to the heart and the mind of the viewers.

Wasp, created by Andrea Arnolds and winner of the 2005 Academy Awards for best Short Live Action film, not only speaks to the younger generations about the difficulties and challenges of parenthood at a young age but also allows audiences to have a sense anger and depression over the problems portrayed on the film.

Set in the UK, Wasp follows the story of a young single woman, mother of three girls and a boy, who is still more concerned with her social and private life than taking care of her children as she ought to do.

It was not the foul language used, or the way poverty was portrayed but it was the mother’s attitude what disgusted me the most about this film. I have to be completely honest the film got me to a point where I was not longer sure if I wanted to continue watching it. I am, by nature, a very sensitive person, and even more so when the issues involve children. However, I tried to have an open mind and finished watching the entire film.

Was this film worthy of an Oscar Award? Yes, I have to say it is. The story is a very dramatic one and it was well done. The person behind the story successfully reached the hearts of its viewers and also their upset minds.

Let me start with announcing that I totally lost my idea of what a typical Oscar movie is. I used to belie it had to be a stereotypical Hollywood cliche, or have a “good” and serious theme. But apparently I was wrong. This realization came over me when God of Love, the one of all the action short film nominees I  said “can’t win” took home this years Oscar. Whit this chocking piece of news still fresh in mind, it was with no expectation I sat down to watch the winner of this same Oscar category, class of 2005. Let me present to you, Wasp.

When the first thing you see on the screen is a young woman, barefoot and dirty, running down the stairs holding a baby, you know this wont be the most pleasant movie experience. When this woman then is followed by three dirty children, and soon a bare baby’s butt fills the screen, you get your confirmation – this 30 minutes will be rough.

Wasp sure did know how to provoke and chock you. The story in a nutshell was the life of a young single mother and her four children,  living dirt-poor in a British suburb. When the mother meets an old crush, she decides to meet him at a bar – and leave the kids outside to wait.

If the story sounds depressing now, I warn you, it’s getting worse. There will be kids cursing, eating drunk peoples leftovers, and a baby getting a wasp in his mouth. All this time the mother is trying to live a “normal” life, meeting a man at the bar. Offcourse, this will not work out.

The ending of the film finally brings a little light to the life of this tragic family, but who knows for how long. I guess you got a interesting look into the life you hope no one will  have to live with. And I guess there was some hope at the end. All in all, I might understand how Wasp got the price of an Oscar. But then again – who knows what kind of movie that should be.

“Wasp,” Andrea Arnold’s 2005 Oscar winning short film was thought provoking and anger-inducing, so much that we are left with more questions than with less. Set in the UK, the film begins with a single mother, Zoe, who charges into a hair-pulling catfight with another mother, as her four barefooted children, as well as neighbors into houses located not too far away, look on stricken with the violent temperament of the scene.

The film’s opening scene immediately sets the tone– coloring our perception– for what we are to experience in the remainder of the film. Wasp isn’t a passive film but a disruptive one; it left me indignant at the surroundings in which her children are raised. When Dave, her romantic interest from her earlier years in school, passes by her on a street in the suburban town in a beat-up car after the incident, she is flirtatious and denies that she is with her children. We are aghast at her behavior, but cannot be without any sympathy.

At her date with Dave in a crowded, dingy pub, in which she leaves her children in the parking lot, I could only imagine the despair and darkness that her children were in, left to fend for themselves in the dangerous world outside. They are hungry and almost like beggars– when a group of drunk men with bottles of beer drop a foiled bag of food, they scavenge and eat messily, leaving barbecue sauce messily on the infant’s mouth. This film left us to question, in indignation, at how a single mother can be so cruel. But beyond this, this film was thought provoking and not without an ironic twist– a wasp in her infant’s mouth forces her to leave Dave alone in the car. That’s right, a wasp. And with it, Dave discovers the truth.

Denial, the shallow layers of lies that she creates, are ultimately uncovered. Truth, we see, is never too far away.

I’m there, running in circles with her children, sitting in the back of an old car, walking through a smelly bar, growing more anxious with every frame. I feel hopeless and poor, a wild dog dressed as a child. Andrea Arnold’s exclusive use of the handheld camera, mixed in with some steady cam shots, is incredibly effective when conveying the anxiety of a single mother’s dilemma and her four children’s plight in the short film “Wasp.”

The film is incredibly easy to watch, but hard to sit through. Arnold takes the camera and shoots from the most awkward angles, to help create a sense of overwhelming claustrophobia in the film. In one scene Arnold traps us in the kitchen with desperation taking hold in the children’s eyes who stare at us with unrelenting hunger. Their mother scavenges for food and we join them on the floor and wait for moldy bread or flour.

The film also generates an incredible amount symbolism from otherwise meaningless imagery. Hand drawn paintings hang in the home after we see her lose a fight for them. She’s hungry and weak, but the love is there. On the car ride home a bag flies out the window symbolizing how we don’t appreciate things when we have them. The film is full of these strong images.

The fact that a movie can be this powerful with handhelds and on location shooting is wonderfully inspiring. Who needs two hours and a million dollar budget when something this powerful can be done with the so much care and attention to detail.