Not interested in just pretty pictures
By Leigh Hyams August 8, 2008 San Miguel de Allende
Film
Alice Neel
Mon, Aug 11, 3pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos
Portrait painter Alice Neel described herself as a “collector of souls” who painted her models on canvas through six decades of the twentieth century—among them were Andy Warhol, Bella Abzug, Allen Ginsberg and Anne Sprinkle. She sacrificed almost everything for her art, yet she raised two sons in the bohemian world in which she lived.
Alice Neel’s grandson, filmmaker Andrew Neel, puts together pieces of the painter’s life, using intimate interviews with her surviving family and personal archival video. The documentary explores the artist’s tumultuous biography, the difficult personal choices artists must often face and how this affects the people around them.
From the beginning Neel was uninterested in painting “pretty pictures.” She found an important role model in painter/teacher Robert Henri, an early social realist painter, and his ideas strengthened her determination to paint her era. Her portraits are brave, intimate, personal affirmations of unique, unsanitized aspects of people. She painted those closest to her—colleagues, lovers, neighbors, children and grandchildren—depicting the joy and pain of sexuality and family as well as anxieties of modern life in New York City. Leaving Greenwich Village, she moved to Spanish Harlem where she quickly felt at home living in an immigrant neighborhood. She painted her neighbors, particularly women and children who would sit for her in her apartment on 108th Street.
In the forties, the rise of abstract expressionism pushed her work aside and by 1950 Neel’s art virtually disappeared from the galleries. Her paintings were ignored by prominent art critics who viewed her work as a form of journalism.
But with the advent of the civil rights, women’s and antiwar movements of the sixties, American culture finally caught up with Alice Neel. The momentum of the women’s movement demanded that women get their long overdue recognition and Neel became an icon of sorts for feminists of the time.
In 1974, she finally had a retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum, marking her acceptance by the art world. In 1979, President Jimmy Carter presented her with a National Women’s Caucus for Art award for outstanding achievement. Interest in her work continued to grow until her death in 1984 and continues to grow today.
Cinemateca, August 11–17, 2008
José Luis Pick’n’tip
The Sea is Watching
Japanese master director Akira Kurosawa has been gone for nearly five years, but we haven’t been able to miss him because his admirers keep turning his old un-produced scripts into lavish Japanese movies in which his posthumous participation is the big selling point.
Based on a 1994 Kurosawa script, this latest example of the phenomenon is set entirely within the society of a brothel in a nineteenth-century Japanese seaside town and deals mostly with a good-hearted young prostitute who keeps falling in love with her customers.
The film is a little static in its exploration of subtle class distinctions and what at first seem trivial subplots—though it does build emotional momentum in the last half and it works to a cataclysmic storm sequence worthy of a Hollywood disaster epic. (William Arnold)
The Tip Important: In order to provide the best viewing experience, the show times for some movies may be adjusted to accommodate their length. Be sure to check the schedule carefully. I also want to remind you of our new ticket price: 50 pesos and discount cards buy 12 shows for 450 pesos. Starting Monday, after 11am, buy your tickets in advance for any movie or show of the week. If you have a discount card, collect your pass to secure a seat; don’t take the risk of being locked out. Would you like to receive this info by email? Write to Jose Luis at
alephamour@hotmail.com. Thank you.
The Movies
Alice Neel (2008)
Monday, August 11 at 3pm
Biographical art documentary, English, 82 minutes
Director: Andrew Neel
Cast: Alice Neel, Hartley Neel, Richard Neel, Philip Bonosky
Director Andrew Neel looks at the life and work of his grandmother, Alice Neel, one of the twentieth century’s best portrait artists, in this intimate documentary that uses interviews, photos and art to detail her struggles as a painter and single mother. The enigmatic Alice, who died in 1984, sparked a revival of the genre by producing portraits that unmasked her subjects, who included Andy Warhol, poet Allen Ginsberg and other notables.
The Sea is Watching (Umi wa Miteita, 2002)
Monday, August 11 at 5pm
Japanese drama, Japanese with English subtitles, 118 minutes
Director: Kei Kumai
Cast: Misa Shimizu, Nagiko Tono, Masatoshi Nagase, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Eiji Okuda
This lyrical movie, directed by Kei Kuwai and based on a script by the legendary Akira Kurosawa, chronicles the lives of two women at a brothel in ancient Japan. O-Shin (Nagiko Tohno) cuts through class divisions by falling in love with a young samurai, while the more experienced Kikuno (Misa Shimizu) juggles two suitors—one gentle, one not. When a stranger, Ryosuke (Masatoshi Nagase), shows up at their doorstep, everything changes.
For All Mankind (1989)
Tuesday, August 12 at 3pm
Science documentary, English, 79 minutes
Director: Al Reinert
Director-journalist Al Reinert sifted through six million feet of film and 80 hours of interviews with astronauts to deliver a dazzling, Oscar-nominated documentary chronicling the American space program and its rush to put a man on the moon. With Brian Eno’s atmospheric score, the film uncovers vibrant, never-before-seen footage of the space race, which ended in 1969 when Apollo 11 fulfilled President John F. Kennedy’s challenge to NASA.
Coming Home (1978)
Thursday, August 14 at 3pm
Political drama. English with Spanish subtitles, 126 minutes
Director: Hal Ashby
Cast: Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern, Penelope Milford, Robert Carradine
While her husband is in Vietnam, Sally Hyde (Jane Fonda) volunteers at a veteran’s clinic, where she encounters embittered paraplegic Luke Martin (Jon Voight). Sally begins to feel progressively disconnected from her spouse and embarks on an emotional and physical affair with Luke. When Sally’s husband returns, however, the trio must contend with a new reality—and with a country that turned its back on America’s fighting men.
Kids Movies: Cartoons
Saturday, August 16 at noon
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