Month: February 2008

Typically, the word “tectonic” refers either to the construction or deformation of our planet’s foundational materials. For lars jerlach and helen stringfellow, it’s a little more specific: As tectonic industries, a collaborative partnership, their artistic goal is to build around collective mainstream memory—then tear down the modern desire for instant gratification. How does that translate to visual art? At the core of their new exhibition is a sixteen-monitor video installation displaying a remake of The Birds, the Hitchcock classic, through a series of talking heads delivering monotone, often grave line readings from the script. More than just the art of artificial exchange, jerlach and stringfellow give us an eerie, intricate investigation into our shared cultural landscapes. Also on view: contemporary color photographs shot in Ukraine by Karolina Karlic.

Franklin Art Works, 1021 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-872-7494.

[Note from editor: At the request of the artists, their names and the title of the exhibit have been left un-capitalized.]

At the turn of the last century, Georges Méliès was literally a stage conjuror, and his eye for the magical led to the creation of some of the most startling silent films ever made. Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (DVD release, March 11) is a thirteen-hour collection of 173—count ’em, 173!—shorts … Watchmen (wide release, March 6), perhaps the most overrated graphic novel ever made, bullies its way into theaters at the hands of Zack Snyder, who gave us the odious 300 … One of the least heralded comedies ever, and an inspiration for Mario Puzo’s Godfather, Alberto Lattuada’s 1962 Mafioso (DVD release, March 18) is being given Criterion’s white-glove treatment … Stewart O’Nan’s melancholy novel Snow Angels (Lagoon Cinema, March 21) is a story of murder, infidelity, and trying to make it as a teenager in a sullen town. Director David Gordon Green (George Washington) is the perfect choice to capture O’Nan’s honest observations of blue-collar life.

Word has it that controversial director Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher, Caché) simply remade his original 1997 shockfest shot by shot. But who cares? The original Funny Games is hands-down one of the most disturbing films ever made; and if this one has Naomi Watts in the lead we’re, well, game. With the story of a bourgeois family who, while vacationing at their lake home, are attacked by a pair of young men clad in what appear to be Wimbledon tennis outfits, Haneke managed not only to raise the tension, ever so slowly, to unbearable levels; he also made us, the audience, feel culpable. The ’97 version is a masterpiece and possibly the worst date movie ever. The remake promises to be equally unsettling.

Lagoon Cinema, 612-825-6006.

Here’s an interesting show for you and the kids: Arranged, a tale of two Brooklyn teachers—Rochel, an Orthodox Jew, and Nasira, a Syrian Muslim—both of whom are in the process of being set up in arranged marriages. Somehow they manage to become close friends. By setting the film in a public grade school and forcing these two characters to endure the unquenchable curiosity of their young charges, the directors, Diane Crespo and Stefan Schaefer, have created a film that invites dialogue without battering you over the head. This sweet little movie is full of fascinating characters and plenty of fine moments, especially those illuminating the painfully awkward steps toward meeting the men with whom these women will spend the rest of their lives. Watch to see that an arranged marriage has many of the same pitfalls as today’s conventional courtships. This screening is part of the Sabes Foundation Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival.

Sabes Jewish Community Center, 4330 S. Cedar Lake Road, St. Louis Park; 952-381-3400.

Told in flashback, The Counterfeiters is the exciting true story of Salomon Sorowitsch, who, in the years before World War II, was the world’s greatest counterfeiter. Arrested in Berlin, Sorowitsch is sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp—as both Jew and habitual criminal he’s considered doubly threatening. But the Germans find a use for Sorowitsch, putting him to work on “Operation Bernhard,” the Nazi plan to counterfeit U.S. dollars and the British pound, flood the market, and subsequently wreck the Allies’ economies. The prisoners involved in the operation—an uneasy mix of bankers, printers, and criminals—are given preferential treatment over the other Jews. Nevertheless, their actions have devastating consequences. As Sorowitsch, Karl Marcovicks is simply brilliant: At once a charmer and a rogue, you can’t take your eyes off him.

Edina Cinema, 3911 50th St. W., Edina, 651-649-4416.

Traditionally, Minnesota Opera presents its big American premiere in March; this year, it’s a 297-year-old rediscovered treasure from Germany: Reinhard Keiser’s The Fortunes of King Croesus (March 1–9) … The Guthrie’s production of Heather Raffo’s 9 Parts of Desire (March 1–23), a one-woman play about nine Iraqi women’s lives during war, packs a considerable double-punch of talent, with director Joel Sass behind the scenes and emotional powerhouse Kate Eifrig as the lone performer … Over at Mixed Blood, resident playwright Aditi Brennan Kapil premieres Love Person (February 28–March 22), a romance fluent in no fewer than four languages: Sanskrit, English, American Sign Language, and—wait for it—cyberspeak … For an alternative perspective on what it means to “let loose”: Jawaahir Dance Company will peek behind the mashrabiya (the screen traditional Arabs use to isolate women’s quarters) in Girls Night Out IN (Southern Theater, March 20–30).

Things could get interesting when the English and Theater departments at the U of M embark on a joint investigation of Suzan-Lori Parks’s oeuvre. This Pulitzer- and MacArthur Genius Grant-winning playwright boasts a body of work that’s rich in poetics and historic awareness, yet audacious enough to confront issues of emotional brutality head-on. (In other words, beware of over-intellectualizing.) The series kicks off when Frank Theatre, the local company with the most Parks plays under its belt, excerpts its productions of The America Play, Venus, and Fucking A (Rarig Center, February 26). Frank’s founder and artistic director, Wendy Knox, also joins a panel of experts to discuss what it’s like to direct Parks’s plays (Rarig Center, March 4); and the series culminates with Parks in the flesh at Ted Mann Concert Hall on March 26, where she will lecture, play her guitar, and “show her ass,” as she likes to (metaphorically) put it.

University of Minnesota, 612-626-1528. 

One of the most literate, thoughtful choreographers in town, Stuart Pimsler presents a double bill of protest art late in the month. Ways to Behold, a world premiere with accompaniment by spoken-word artist Tiyo Siyolo, juxtaposes the realities of a U.S.-initiated—yet somehow invisible—war overseas with the comforts of daily life on our own shores. Sentry is a reprise from the Reagan era; it was created during Pimsler’s days in New York City, when he was active with Artists Against Nuclear Madness. Set to a medley of ’60s protest songs, the piece is based in part on military orders that one of Pimsler’s students smuggled out of the Air Force Academy.

Ritz Theater, 345 13th Ave. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-436-1129.