* Art: Museum & Gallery Shows: Laying the Tracks Others Followed – Frank Stella’s Early Work at L&M Arts, by Roberta Smith

Art: Museum & Gallery Shows: Laying the Tracks Others Followed – Frank Stella’s Early Work at L&M Arts, by Roberta Smith:  The wonderfully sharp, perceptive Roberta Smith has written a review of the exhibition “Frank Stella: Black, Aluminum, Copper Paintings,” at L&M Arts gallery in New York, (through 2 June 2012).  Simply wonderful..

image: 2012 Frank Stella/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Tom Powel Imaging, L&M Arts; article: Roberta Smith, The New York Times

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* Art: Keith Haring: 1978-1982 at the Brooklyn Museum

Art: Keith Haring: 1978-1982 at the Brooklyn Museum: From the Brooklyn Museum: “Keith Haring: 1978–1982 is the first large-scale exhibition to explore the early career of one of the best-known American artists of the twentieth century. Tracing the development of Haring’s extraordinary visual vocabulary, the exhibition includes 155 works on paper, numerous experimental videos, and over 150 archival objects, including rarely seen sketchbooks, journals, exhibition flyers, posters, subway drawings, and documentary photographs.

The exhibition chronicles the period in Haring’s career from his arrival in New York City through the years when he started his studio practice and began making public and political art on the city streets..”  Essential, obviously.

Through July 8, 2012, Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing, 5th Floor at the Brooklyn Museum.

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Bobby G. Can’t Swim – Directed by John-Luke Montias

Bobby G. Can’t Swim (1999)  Written, directed and starring John-Luke Montias, and others.  This indie drama, shot in a gritty, pre-clean-up, pre-gentrification Hell’s Kitchen in New York City, is the story of a small-time drug dealer and all-around loser, who, from error to calamity, and calamity to disaster, somehow remains naively optimistic, as do most all the film’s characters, despite their difficult, even marginal, lives.  Embodying what may be called the essence of indie films, Bobby G. Can’t Swim, is quirky, low-budget, and fresh, and its cinematography interesting, if not sophisticated.  The story, though nothing new, is interesting, though perhaps a bit too often the writing leaves something to be desired.  Nevertheless, for a glimpse of indie urban spirit with an edge, Bobby G. Can’t Swim is easy to watch, and rewarding, in its own modest manner. (PR)

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top image: Les Films de l’Astre

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Marathon Man – Starring Dustin Hoffman & Laurence Olivier

Marathon Man (1976)    Directed by John Schlesinger ( Far From the Madding Crowd (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), The Day of the Locust (1975)), starring Dustin Hoffman (Midnight Cowboy (1969), Straw Dogs (1971), Straight Time (1978), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Rain Man (1988), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)), Roy Scheider (The French Connection (1971), All That Jazz (1979)) and Laurence Olivier (Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965), Sleuth (1972), The Boys from Brazil (1978), and many, many others, of course).   This classic thriller is distinguished by some very good acting on the part of Hoffman, as Babe Levy, an emotionally confused, guilt-ridden and rather annoying history graduate student, and, of course, Laurence Olivier as Dr. Szell, a politely, coldly demonic ex-Nazi, gem-smuggling sadistic dentist.  Roy Scheider, as  Hoffman’s brother Doc, secretly an agent for a clandestine government agency, is really quite good, as well.  Marathon Man is also characterised by an effective use of place: New York, Paris, and very briefly South America, and a sensitivity to lighting, all of which contribute to an overall atmosphere essential to its success.  The plot is, shall we say, a bit confused, replete with double-crossing, triple-crossing and perhaps even more, and, in the end, Marathon Man may be a bit weak on logic.  But perhaps that’s not really the point, as the tension of scene after scene is more than palpable and the acting so very good. (PR)

See our previous posts on the films Sunday Bloody Sunday directed by John Schlesinger, Straw Dogs and Straight Time starring Dustin Hoffman, and The French Connection with Roy Scheider.

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top image: Wikipedia

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The French Connection – Starring Gene Hackman (Oscars for Best Film, Best Actor, and more)

The French Connection (1971)(DVD)  Directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist (1973), Cruising (1980), Bug (2007)), starring Gene Hackman (Downhill Racer (1969), The Conversation (1974), French Connection II (1975), Unforgiven (1992)), Fernando Rey (That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)), Roy Scheider (Klute (1971), Marathon Man (1976), Naked Lunch (1991)) and others, with the screenplay written by Ernest Tidyman based on the non-fiction book The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy by Robin Moore which in turn recounts the story of efforts to dismantle the international heroin-smuggling operation, based in Marseille, France and known as the French Connection.  This iconic crime drama, representing an important step in American neo-realist cinema, and winning many awards (among them, the Academy Award for Best Picture, and the Academy Awards for Best Actor (Gene Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay), features a gritty and inspired Gene Hackman as an almost pathologically determined New York City anti-narcotics detective attempting to break the ominous French Connection heroin smuggling organisation.  The film also features a dirty, cold and brutal New York City, a strikingly ominous, fatalistic presence through which the action takes place, including what has come to be thought of as one of the best car chases in cinema, dangerous, even possessed, through the streets of New York.  The tension built, though, through the fragmenting of pursuit scenes, be they on foot, or otherwise, is the real star of The French Connection, along with the icy, decrepit fatalism of the city itself.  A must-see film. (PR)

See our post on the sequel French Connection II, also starring Gene Hackman.  And see our previous posts on the film American Gangster, also about New York City and the heroin trade, on the film Scarecrow, starring Gene Hackman and Al Pacino, and on the film Klute, with Roy Scheider, starring Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda.

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top image: Wikipedia

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