About Town
One, Two, Three
Fri., January 13-Thurs., January 19
By Jim Knipfel
It's a shame, really, that Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three-a 1961 film that's really a 1930s screwball comedy-isn't better remembered than it is. Especially nowadays. James Cagney's machine-gun delivery has never been more sharply honed, as he plays a fast-talking Coca-Cola sales rep in Berlin who's at once trying to set up a deal with the Russians and prevent his boss's daughter from marrying a commie.
Those are two of the subplots, at least.
In proper screwball fashion, Wilder throws in about a dozen more, and then knots them all together while the jokes zip past with lightning speed. Along the way he satirizes communism, capitalism, Germans, Russians, Americans, pop culture, the middle class, business, airplane travel-hell, he satirizes the whole damn world as we know it, and somehow prophesies both the beginning and the end of the Cold War. (The Wall was built while they were filming in Berlin.)
It's both a hilarious and exhausting film. Sadly, when filming was done Cagney could only focus on the latter. He'd had enough of the shtick, with the whole mess. Or maybe it was Wilder's use of "Itsy-Bitsy, Teenie-Weenie, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini." In any case, Cagney wouldn't appear onscreen again for another 20 years. Film Forum, 209 W. Houston St. (betw. 6th Ave. & Varick St.), 212-627-2035; call for showtimes or go to filmforum.org.
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Sat., January 14-Sun., January 15
By Jim Knipfel
Three years after making Don't Look Now, a still youthful, stylish and experimental Nic Roeg turned the still youthful, stylish David Bowie into a movie star by casting him as an androgynous alien on a mission in this 1976 parable about greed.
The film also features Rip Torn, Buck Henry and Candy Clark, and there's no denying that Bowie was perfectly cast as the alien looking for water for his dying planet who winds up on Earth, where Candy Clark falls in love with him, and evil greedy men try to destroy him. Think of it as a mid-'70s Day the Earth Stood Still, but without robots. (And for those youngsters who've never seen it, no, the alien is not Ziggy Stardust and no, it's not a musical.) Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Ave. at 36th St., Queens, 718-784-4520; 6:30, $12.
6th Annual New York Guitar Festival
Sat., January 14 through Weds., February 8
By Richard Morgantown
Among the 60 musicians playing 20 shows at the seven venues of the New York Guitar Festival are such guitar legends as Sonny Landreth, Mark Eitzel, Dan Zanes, Michelle Shocked, Daniel Lanois and Bill Frissell. But the wide range of the festival is probably best demonstrated by its inclusion of tribute concerts honoring everyone from Elizabeth Cotton to Bruce Springsteen. (The latter starts off the festival with a free 8 p.m. concert at the World Financial Center's Winter Garden.)
"It's nothing like playing the San Francisco Jazz Festival," notes one of the expected performers, veteran improvisational guitarist Henry Kaiser. "You know the management and booking there couldn't care less about the music. All they care about is the festival sponsorship. Speaking as someone who buys way too many guitar albums, the New York Guitar Festival is a very cool thing."
Kaiser speaks with the grateful authority of someone who's survived an era where conventions, seminars and festivals tend to celebrate turntablists. The press kit for this festival includes a quote from SPIN celebrating Frisell, but that's probably from a pretty old issue.
For this year's Guitar Fest, Kaiser is teaming with Lauren Connors on Saturday, January 28, to perform a new soundtrack for the silent 1926 film A Page of Madness.
Unlike his contemporaries, though, Kaiser is improvising his new score as the film runs. "I've seen lots of people do silent films," Kaiser concedes, "but they play their new composition, and it never quite syncs with the film. When you improvise a score, it happens in the moment. It's like being a martial arts guy who knows just how to hit the brick. Improvising doesn't require rational thinking. It puts you one second ahead." The complete schedule for the 6th Annual New York City Guitar Festival can be found at newyorkguitarfestival.org. n