If you’re looking for a distraction from the misery of rain pounding snow into thick, icy crusts, well, you’ve got it in spades this weekend.
On Friday night, the Alliance Francaise is going to have a screening of the little-seen (as of late) 1983 classic Rue Cases-Negres (Sugar Cane Alley) at 7pm (donations accepted). This is the story of a family trying desperately to rise above their hardscrabble life hacking away at sugar cane in Martinique.
Saturday morning, the Central Library continues its Movietime For Kids series, a wonderful alternative to the garbage that spews out of the TV at that time (or anytime, really). From 10 to 12, we’ll see Dan the Accordion Man warm up the kids with his awesome riffs, and then watch one of Disney’s truly great films Make Mine Music, which highlights some of the animated shorts from Fantasia, Peter and the Wolf, and The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met.
Saturday’s piece de resistance is Intolerable an entertaining and thought-provoking short from director Alison MacLean and starring actor/author/adventurer David Rakoff. Intolerable isn’t so much a story as an actor’s exercise: Rakoff waits at a table and explains to the bewildered talent auditioning for a role in a fictional film called Flight. Essentially, Rakoff explains, the actor is supposed to conjure up that thing that scares them the most, and flee from the room, down the hall (and past the other surprised actors), and not return. It’s not so simple, though, as Rakoff ratchets up the tension by openly provoking some of the poor souls, like the guy who is told that they need him to sing, but not that song, stop snapping your fingers, you’re horrible. “I was called in here to snap!” the guy shouts, though that’s certainly not why he was called in.
Intolerable is a sharp, intelligent, entertaining short film, a great study of editing, casting prowess, and acting. It also points to the fact that the Oscars are buffoonery on even this scale: I saw all the nominated shorts and none of them, not one, held a candle to this film–with the film that did win, it would be akin to You, Me, and Dupree taking the best picture award.
Intolerable shows at the Walker Cinema on Saturday night at 7:30 with The Music of Regret, no doubt another quality short that was ignored at the red carpet.
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