DISAPPEARING ACT V--with the new, the special, and the overlooked--fifth annual European film fest hits NYC, April 10-21

Can it really be that five years have passed since the first Disappearing Act made its debut here in New York City? I think so, because I just looked back and found my original post on it here. This festival -- initially dedicated to giving New Yorkers a second chance to see good films from all over eastern and western Europe (and, in later editions, Scandinavia) that may have opened here but then disappeared from view all too quickly -- is still delivering the goods. 

A lot has happened over the past five years so far as movies and the way we watch them have evolved. Almost nobody was streaming Netflix when Irena Kovarova, the woman who puts together this increasingly popular festival, delivered her first in this annual series. Yet by the time her second festival rolled around, the subject of the panel discussion she hosted in 2010 (click here to learn more) was The New World Distribution for Subtitled Films.  

This year's subject of the panel discussion?  Streaming as a Source of European Cinema. Clearly Ms Koravova was -- still is -- on to something. Although we see no dearth of foreign films opening here and in many major U.S. cities (a point TrustMovies actually made aloud during the Q&A of that first year's panel discussion), the fact that these movies make far too fast a disappearance is still, perhaps more than ever, true. What with anywhere from a dozen to as many as 30 new films opening up weekly in New York (19 new ones opened theatrically here in the city this week!), how can not many of these movies get lost in the increasingly enormous shuffle?

All of which makes Disappearing Acts a necessary and important part of the city's film-culture calendar. In addition to movies that have too quickly come and gone, Ms Kovarova includes a few NY, even international, premiers as well, and her little festival is growing nicely with each new year. It now offers three venues (see below) along with quite a expansive list of films to be seen.  TM has seen only four of the films screening this year: the interesting Italian movie Corpo Celeste (shown at top), a lovely French "family" film, Tomboy (two photos above);  the odd but relatively enjoyable Attenberg (shown above, from Greece), and the absolutely terrific Romanian film Tuesday After Christmas (shown below). For the rest, you're on your own, but given Kovorova's taste level and credentials as a film programmer, I'd say you're in good hands. And since almost all of these films are screened free of charge, this is a rare bargain for New Yorkers.

Below is all the information you'll need regarding the films, when and where they will be shown, and  how to get tickets (remember: most of these screenings are FREE, on a first-come, first-served basis!). For information and a description about each of the films, go to www.disappearingact.org and scroll down. 

April 10 & 18
OPENING NIGHT & SPECIAL SCREENING
IFC Center, 323 Sixth Avenue at West 3rd Street, New York
Subway:  A, C, B, D, E, F & M to West 4th St. station

April 9, 11-17 & 20
PRE-FESTIVAL EVENT & FESTIVAL SCREENINGS
Bohemian National Hall, 321 East 73rd Street bet. 1st and 2nd Avenues, New York
Subway: 6 to 68th Street Hunter College or 77th Street

April 19-21
FESTIVAL SCREENINGS
Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), 36-01 35th Avenue, Astoria-Queens
Subway: M, R to Steinway Street, N, Q to 36th AvenueTickets to opening night screening of Play and special screening of Dreileben, Parts 1-3 are available for purchase at the IFC Center and online at www.ifccenter.com/series/disappearing-act-v/.
The Opening night screening will be followed by a party for ticket holders at Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building.

Opening night tickets: $15, seniors $12, IFC Center members $10. Tickets to Dreileben at IFC Center are $13.50 for general admission, $9.50 seniors, $8.50 IFC Center members for each individual film; tickets for the entire trilogy are $30 ($20 IFC Center members).  Admission to screenings at Museum of the Moving Image free with museum admission, ($12; seniors and students $9); tickets to Friday night screenings are $12 (seniors and students $9).

ADMISSION FREE TO ALL OTHER SCREENINGS on a first-come, first-served basis
Film descriptions and other info at www.DISAPPEARINGACT.ORGFestival blog: DISAPPEARINGACTBLOG.wordpress.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Disappearing-Act/529045513782246

Twitter: @DisappearingNYC

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
Pre-festival Event:
Tuesday, April 9 Bohemian National Hall
7:00PM Panel Discussion: Streaming as Source of European Cinema 
Panelists: Ira Deutchman, Emerging Pictures; Andrew Mer, Snagfilms; Delphine Selles-Alvarez, Cultural Services of the French Embassy Moderated by Irena Kovarova, Disappearing Act V curator and producer. Discussing: Streaming of films in theaters and for at home viewing and how can European partners boost the efforts of companies providing foreign language films via streaming to the public in the US?

Opening Night:
Wednesday, April 10 IFC Center
7:00PM Play, Sweden-France-Denmark, 2011, directed by Ruben Ostlund
Q&A with director Ruben OstlundFollowed by
Opening Party for ticketholders – music by DJ Sub-Bells and DJ Cosmo

Thursday, April 11 Bohemian National Hall
6:30PM 1395 Days Without Red (1395 dana bez crvene), UK-Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2011, directed by Sejla Kameric and Anri Sala – North American Premiere
8:00PM Kuma, Austria, 2012, directed by Umut Dag – NY Premiere
Q&A with actress Nihal Koldas

Friday,  April 12   Bohemian National Hall
6:30PM  Stars Above (Tahtitaivas talon ylla), Finland-Iceland, 2012, directed by Saara Cantell
8:30PM  Diamond Flash, Spain, 2011, directed by Carlos Vermut – North American Premiere

Saturday, April 13 Bohemian National Hall
3:30PM Small Crime ( Mikro eglima), Cyprus-Germany-Greece, 2008, directed by Christos Georgiou
5:30PM Made in Ash (Az do mesta As), Slovakia-Czech Republic, 2012, directed by Iveta Grofova – NY Premiere
7:15PM Tilva Rosh (Tilva Ros), Serbia, 2010, directed by Nikola Lezaic – NY Premiere
Q&A with director Nikola Lezaic

Sunday, April 14 Bohemian National Hall
3:30PM  Attenberg, Greece, 2010, directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari
5:30PM  The Taste of Creme Brulee (O Sabor do Leite Creme), Portugal, 2012, directed by Hiroatsu Suzuki and Rossana Torres – Intl. Premiere
7:00PM  Tuesday, After Christmas (Marti, dupa Craciun), Romania, 2010, directed by Radu Muntean

Monday, April 15 Bohemian National Hall
7:00PM  The Almost Man (Mer eller mindre mann), Norway, 2012, directed by Martin Lund – NY Premiere
Q&A with director Martin Lund

Tuesday, April 16 Bohemian National Hall
6:30PM  Living Afterwards (De leur vivant), Belgium, 2011, directed by Geraldine Doignon – NY Premiere
8:30PM  Lena, The Netherlands-Belgium, 2011, directed Christophe Van Rompaey – NY Premiere

Wednesday, April 17 Bohemian National Hall
6:30PM  Feed Me With Your Words (Nahrani me z besedami), Slovenia, 2012, directed by Martin Turk – NY Premiere
8:15PM  Flower Buds (Poupata), Czech Republic, 2011, directed by Zdenek Jirasky – NY Premiere
Q&A with director Zdenek Jirasky

Thursday,  April 18 IFC Center
Dreileben, Parts 1-3, Germany, 2011
6:30PM   Beats Being Dead (Etwas Besseres als den Tod), directed by Christian Petzold
8:15PM   Don’t Follow Me Around (Komm mir nicht nach), directed by Dominik Graf
10:00PM One Minute of Darkness (Eine Minute Dunkel), directed by Christoph Hochhaeusler

Friday, April 19 Museum of the Moving Image
7:00PM Rose (Roza), Poland, 2011, directed by Wojciech Smarzowski

Saturday, April 20 Museum of the Moving Image
3:00PM  Corpo Celeste, Italy-Switzerland-France, 2011, directed by Alice Rohrwacher
Bohemian National Hall
6:00PM  Mushrooming (Seenelkaik), Estonia, 2012, directed by Toomas Hussar – NY Premiere
8:00PM  The Boy Who Was a King (Momcheto, koeto beshe tsar), Bulgaria-Germany, 2011, directed by Andrey Paounov
Q&A with director Andrey Paounov

Sunday, April 21 Museum of the Moving Image
2:00PM  Summer Games (Giochi d’estate), Switzerland-Italy, 2011, directed by Rolando Colla – NY Premiere
4:30PM  Tomboy, France, 2011, directed by Celine Sciamma
7:00PM  The Exam (A vizsga), Hungary, 2011, directed by Peter Bergendy – NY Premiere
Q&A with screenwriter Norbert KobliMore information at www.DisappearingAct.org 

Disappearing Act V is presented by the Disappearing Act Festival Board, chaired by the Czech Center New York, in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut New York, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, and the Polish Cultural Institute New York, organized in partnership with the Balassi Institute – Hungarian Cultural Center, the Belgian Tourist Office – French Speaking Belgium – Brussels Wallonia, the Consulate General of Cyprus, the Consulate General of Estonia, the Consulate General of Finland, the Consulate General of the Slovak Republic, the Consulate General of Sweden, the Consulate General of Switzerland, the Embassy of Portugal together with Instituto Camoes, the Embassy of Slovenia, the EYE Film Institute Netherlands, the IFC Center, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Museum of the Moving Image, the Norwegian Consulate General, the Onassis Foundation (USA), together with the Consulate General of Greece, Pragda, and the Romanian Film Initiative, and with support from the +421 Foundation, Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association, the Cyprus Federation of America, the Finnish Film Foundation, the Slovak Film Institute, Slovenian Film Centre, Spain Culture New York, and Wallonie Bruxelles Images. Disappearing Act V is an official project of the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC), sponsored in part by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the EU Delegation to the United Nations, additional support from Pilsner Urquell, Hospoda Restaurant, and Becherovka.

Curated and produced by Irena Kovarova. Production assistance by Sven Buehrer.

Special thanks to Alex Zucker, Jaap Verheul, Tomas Mazalek, Radka Ondrackova, and Amber Shields.

Tibor Takács' SPIDERS will creep you out -- especially if you're prone to arachnophobia

Remember Tarantula? (You've got to be pretty elderly -- or given to watching monster movies from the 1950s -- to manage it.) If so, you'll probably be willing to stand in line to get a gander at the new scare flick SPIDERS. If you do, I think you'll agree that it's those creepy, crawly arachnids who deserve most of the cheers -- along with the special effects people who created them. The movie itself is a competent enough scary-monster flick, which will entertain that portion of the masses who enjoy this sort of thing, but it may also hold appeal for many movie buffs for other interesting reasons.

Directed and co-written by Hungarian filmmaker Tibor Takács (at right), the movie, from what I can gather, was filmed in Bulgaria (or some other nearby eastern European country, but it's Bulgaria most often mentioned in the end credits), in which were constructed a few street-scape sets meant to make us imagine we're in New York City. Now, NYC is a place that even NYC itself does not always make real enough, so these charming and actually pretty good attempts at capturing the Big Apple are to be first commended and then chuckled at. (Sorry, but this New York is just not crowded enough with people, and admist the usual big, red stand-up boxes that hold The Village Voice is an occasional big blue box, too!)

The story/screenplay itself is pretty good -- at least for maybe two-thirds of the way along. We know the world is in for trouble pre- and during the opening credits, as a space shuttle careens toward earth carrying a dead astronaut and a bunch of living spiders.

From the outset, the arachnids hole up in a particular station of the city's subway system, where they begin biting and killing (and laying eggs in) people -- and rats. And then the spiders start growing. Yikes! (That's one of 'em, facing off against a mechanical dog, above.) In the old days, these movies would simply have a scientist (or two) and his pretty, young assistant or daughter discover a way to rout the monsters (who were almost always a product of nuclear testing in the dessert or ocean).

These days, however, as conspiracy theories mount and we can trust almost anyone except our own government, movies continue to reflect this change, and so Spiders does its bit for paranoia, while adhering to the age-old principle of the mad scientist (nicely limned by Pete Lee-Wilson) who's got a jones for his eight-leggers at the expense of us poor human beings.

That scientist may be be a bit stupid (in the way that movie mad-scientists so often are), but he is a hell of a lot more humane that the U.S. military man in charge of things (a strong and nasty William Hope, above), who is ready to sacrifice everyone in any way connected with the project to ensure maximum secrecy.

That would include our heroic family -- dad (Patrick Muldoon, above, right), who works for the NYC Transit Authority, his estranged wife (Christa Campbell, above, left), who works for the NYC Health Department, and their lovely, nearing teen age daughter (Sydney Sweeney, shown below, a bit surprised by the size of what she sees). All are acceptable performers but are never given the opportunity by script or direction to be much more. (But, come on, do we go to these movie for the acting?!)

The usual elements are here, initially stirred a little differently, until somewhere around the halfway point -- at which time, the movie, hmmmm... degenerates is a tad too strong a term (maybe wilts is better) into the usual, conceive/write/direct-by-numbers routine.

Still there are those delightful title characters, creepily created and evidently a lot smarter than most of the human beings nearby.

Spiders, via Millennium Films, opens its very limited theatrical run today, Friday, February 8 -- mostly, according to the press info I received, in outlying areas of the Los Angeles region -- but not, I think in 3D, the way it was initially advertised and probably filmed (you'll note many of these comin'-at-you effects as the movie bounces along). Instead, it is being shown in a 2D version that -- on the screener I received, at least -- looks pretty damn good. All told, Spiders provides decent fun, thrills and special effects. And that limited run should not deter fans around the rest of the country, as the movie also premieres today on Premium VOD. Then, mid-March, it will become available on DVD and VOD.

DISAPPEARING ACT III opens with another roster of fine European films -- all FREE!

It's an eight-day week for film buffs, beginning this Wednesday, April 6 and running through Thursday, April 14. During that time, plan to catch up on 19 of the finest films of the last year or so, some of which (Come Undone, Everyone Else, The Father of My Children, Home, Lourdes and Me Too)  had very limited theatrical runs, others not at all, and at least two of which, Bibliothèque Pascal and The Blacks represented their respective countries (Hungary and Croatia) for Best Foreign Language Film in this year's Oscar race. Others have graced the festival circuit, drawing much praise (Tales from the Golden Age, a still from which is shown above), and a couple (The Girl, Troubled Water) are from Scandinavia, which, I am told, is part of Northern Europe. So, then, all of the films are from Europe -- with an accent on the continually creative Eastern block.

My headline also mentions another amazing feature: All these films are shown free, and in a pleasant, comfortable auditorium with good projection facilities. What not to like? If you earlier let any of the already-released films go by, here's the chance to see them on the big screen.  As for the others, why not discover a good film and a noteworthy director on your own? The entire program can be found here (scroll down to read about the content of each film), and reservations are needed only for the opening night program -- Czech Peace (above), after which will come a Q&A with co-director Filip Remunda. (As of now opening night is at capacity, but you might want to check in around performance time to see if any seats open up.)

Presented jointly by the Czech Center New York and the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, this third annual series is the brain child of one, Irena Kovarova, independent film programmer and Czech Film Center representative in North America, who is back this year with what might be her best series yet (well, every year's been pretty extraordinary).

TrustMovies has already seen at least half of the 19 films  (click the link of each film mentioned, and if I've seen it, my review will open up; if not, you'll get its IMDB page.) That's why I'm so excited about the festival in general: I know how good it is. In the short time I had to prepare this piece, I've managed to watch three films I had not seen and will talk about them briefly below.

THE BLACKS, a 75-minute movie from Croatia, co-directed and co-written by Goran Devic and Zvonimir Juric, is about as dark as the festival will get, I suspect.  It deals with a wartime para-military unit that does the dirtiest deeds, and it takes place just after the complete cease-fire has been declared. Beginning in what looks a black-and-white that only gradually and never completely morphs to color, the filmmakers toss us into the middle of things and take us to climax quickly.  But then we go back to shortly before what we have just seen. Characters are alive again, and we slowly learn more about each of them. This is an odd tactic that pays off well by forcing us to consider once again how all actions have their consequences. The performances are top-notch, the photography (above) expert, and Devic and Juric excel at their spare dialog, letting just enough of it drop so that we understand and recoil sufficiently. I hope this film will at the very least find its way to DVD. It deserves to be seen, if only for its grave view of the difficulty of decent men being able to live with themselves after having done some very indecent things.

The Polish movie MOTHER TERESA OF CATS (above), written and directed by Pawel Sala, also offers an unusual organizing premise. Each scene takes place before the one that preceded it (the opening moments are something else!) so that we keep moving back in time until several years are accounted for.  This is a dysfunctional family movie like no other, because the dysfunction seems so very enormous. And yet, as we travel backwards, the movie begins to seem less and less so, and we come to understand how the piling up of small mistakes can lead to craziness like this.  Societal responsibility, parental responsibility and individual responsibility are all given a workout here, and by the end of the movie -- which brings us back to that initial scene -- we have the grim feeling that, while we may now understand, we are yet no wiser than before.

THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (above and below), directed and co-written (with Augustina Stanciu) by Radu Jude, is from Romania. Which means, most likely, that you already know that its title must be taken as the bleakest of ironies. Surprise: While its title is ironic, the film is also a lot of fun – albeit in a relatively dark way. A family from the country is on its way to the big city to shoot a commercial for an orange drink firm that is giving away a new automobile to the prize winners in its contest. While the daughter has dreams of driving that car to college, mom and dad have other plans for it. Meanwhile, the filmmakers of the commercial and their client demand professional work for our little non-professional heroine, and things go from bad to worse. Jude’s spot-on depiction of the family’s petite bourgeoisie mentality spans three generations (granny remains unseen), and he captures its innate greed and stupidity with a light touch that in no way lessens the reality. You are left with a clear, gritty sense of everyone using everyone else, as well as with intimations of the problem this little country has of letting go of its recent past and learning to stand on its own.

As usual, with this series, there will be one evening devoted to a panel discussion on the state of foreign film here in the U.S. This year's is titled Sub-titled Cinema Initiative and the panel will include Carlos A. Gutiérez, of Cinema Tropical, Oana Radu, deputy director of the Romanian Cultural Center in New York, Delphine Selles-Alvarez, cinema program officer of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and John C. Woo, executive director of Asian Cine-Vision. These panel discussion are always fascinating and full of good information, including the Audience Q&A that follows. This year's panel discussion will take place on Monday, April 11, at 6:30pm.

Also , as usual this year certain directors will be in attendance: Srdjan Koljevic is coming all the way from Belgrade, while Ioana Uricaru is making a personal appearance from L.A. Meanwhile, don't let these fine films get by you again. If only to see Hungary's Bibliothèque Pascal (above) on the big screen, the even't a must-attend. The Czech Center is located at the Bohemian National Hall, 321 E. 73rd Street, in NYC. Click here for a link to directions.