Made in U.S.A. @ the Charles Theatre this week

Jean-Luc Godard’s MADE IN USA has rarely been seen in this country and never released in a 35mm print. A just-released new 35mm ‘scope print plays three times this week at the Charles.


Showtimes:
Saturday, Febrauray 28 at Noon
Monday, March 2 at 7 PM
Thursday, Marhc 5 at 9 PM

1966 Jean-Luc Godard. Anna Karina, Jean-Pierre Léaud, László Szabó, Marianne Faithfull, Yves Afonso. In French with English subtitles. 90m. Color. 'Scope. New Print.

Jean-Luc Godard's Made in U.S.A. is not the celluloid holy grail, but it's close enough. Four decades after its...premiere at the 1967 New York Film Festival, the least-seen, most quintessential movie of Godard's great period gets an American distributor and even a limited run. (J. Hoberman)
read full review


“In 1966, Jean-Luc Godard threw together, in mere weeks, this hectic, self-flagellating political fantasy, based loosely on a novel by Donald Westlake as well as on the widely reported kidnapping of the Moroccan left-wing activist Mehdi Ben Barka. The slapdash spontaneity of the production helped Godard unleash a host of frenzies—political, cinematic, and personal. He cast his ex-wife, Anna Karina, as a journalist in search of her former lover, a political activist who, like Ben Barka, disappeared (and whose tape-recorded voice is Godard’s own). The patchy plot of cartoonish Cold War skulduggery involves a couple of secret agents with the Hollywood monickers of Siegel and Widmark (played by the French New Wave icons Jean-Pierre Léaud and László Szabó), a novelist named after the noir writer David Goodis (Yves Afonso, a Jean-Paul Belmondo look-alike), and two young Cahiers du Cinéma critics playing Richard Nixon and Robert McNamara. With a color scheme of agitprop Mondrian, a background of blankly suffocating spaces, a barroom lesson in semiology featuring the young Marianne Faithfull’s a-cappella rendition of “As Tears Go By,” and a deluge of political rhetoric, Godard evokes a chaotic new world of deadly abstractions, artistic impasses, and insoluble conflicts. His luminous, longing closeups of Karina show who really was desperately seeking whom. In French.” (Richard Brody The New Yorker)


“Whether or not it completely works isn't that important. The movie begins with Paula waking up and ends with her falling asleep; in between is a bizarre dream world, one French artist's love/hate response to the cultural hegemony America exported via its wars, pop culture, and entertainments in the 1960s.” (Bret McCabe, Citypaper)

“Beautiful, goofy, and explosive! Anna Karina was never lovelier in dazzling color and scope and Godard’s ultimate statement about his love/hate for the aesthetics/ politics of American movies/ life is an event to be savored and celebrated...has all the electric thrill of a Rauschenberg painting in motion.!”
(Jonathan Rosenbaum)

watch trailer

Escape @ American Contemporary Gallery

Ten Tigers' friend Bart O'Reilly is included in the newest group show opening March 6th at the American Contemporary Gallery in Annapolis! Check it out:

You are cordially invited to attend our opening of Escape

on March 6th, a show about the art of escaping ... from reality, fantasy,

taxes, or maybe just yourself. Come see the exciting art of

six nationally recognized artists, taking us to a place that gives us what

we need or perhaps what we think is missing. You'll see this show leads us

down a path that is rarely followed while offering nothing

from the proverbial middle of the road.

Please join us for our reception on the evening of March 6th,

2009 from 7 - 10 PM. Escape runs through March 31st.

1851 McGuckian Street, Annapolis, MD 21401

Cocoon by Bart O'Reilly

Pierrot le Fou @ the Charles Theatre this week

Showtimes:
Saturday, February 21 at Noon
Monday, February 23 at 7 PM
Thursday, February 26 at 9 PM

1965 Jean-Luc Godard. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Graziella Galvani. In French with English subtitles. Color. 'Scope. 110m.


“’I wanted to tell the story of the last romantic couple,’ Jean-Luc Godard said of this brilliant, all-over-the-place adventure and meditation about two lovers on the run (Jean-Paul Belmondo and Anna Karina). Made in 1965, this film, with its ravishing colors and beautiful 'Scope camerawork by Raoul Coutard, still looks as iconoclastic and fresh as it did when it belatedly opened in the U.S. Godard's misogynistic view of women as the ultimate betrayers is integral to the romanticism in much of his 60s work--and perhaps never more so than here--but Karina's charisma makes this pretty easy to ignore most of the time. The movie's frequent shifts in style, emotion, and narrative are both challenging and intoxicating: American director Samuel Fuller turns up at a party scene to offer his definition of cinema, Karina performs two memorable songs in musical-comedy fashion, Belmondo's character quotes copiously from his reading, and a fair number of red and blue cars are stolen and destroyed.” (Jonathan Rosenbaum) In French with subtitles. 110 min.



View Trailer

Involving Violence @ School 33

Involving Violence
February 20 – April 11, 2009
Curated by Lasso
Karin Patzke and Carrie Ruckel
Part of School 33 Art Center’s Annual Open Call to Curators
Baltimore area artists include:
Ramsey Barnes, Gerecho Delaney, Matthew Freel, Brook Halvorson, John Morris, Diane Ramos, Marilee Schumann
Chicago area artists include:
Alan Lerner, Regina Mamou, Sari Maxfield, Joe Sikora, Jason Stec, Krista Wortendyke

Opening Reception: Friday, February 20, 2009 | 6 – 9 pm | 7pm gallery talk

School 33 Art Center
1427 Light Street | Baltimore, MD 21230 | 410-396-4641

Propositions @ Area 405

Propositions Propositions is an exhibition curated by Stephen G. Dewyer and features works by Neal Reinalda, Ding Ren, Glenn Shrum and Elena Volkova at Area 405, a not-for-profit and artist-run gallery in Baltimore, MD. Propositions exhibits works that investigate the function of propositions. The absence of spatial qualifications in a proposition means that a proposition locates a placeless space. A proposition identifies its subject with a space always-already in transition. Artists in propositions produce works that locate in a liminal, third space of transition from the everyday to the uncanny and vice versa; the application of boundaries to boundless space and vice versa; semblance to dissemblance and vice versa; and, between the interval of light becoming shadow and vice versa. Propositions intends to locate works within the present that negate certain ends in occupation.

For Immediate Release Propositions www.propositionsatarea405.com 15 February – 29 March 2009 Opening reception 7 – 10 pm Curator’s talk 7 – 7:30 pm on Saturday, 21 February Curated by Stephen G. Dewyer Works by Neal Reinalda Ding Ren Glenn Shrum Elena Volkova

At Area 405 405 E. Oliver Street, Baltimore, MD 21202-2908

Respond Opens @ Rosenberg Gallery

Respond, a four-artist show, featuring Christine Tillman, John Shipman, Heidi Neff and Stuart Stein, opened Thursday, February 12 at Goucher's Rosenberg Gallery. Curated by Laura Amussen, each artist was asked to respond to the architecture of the gallery through various, site-specific paintings and installations.

Heidi Neff's ceiling painting of helicopters was my personal favorite.

John Shipman's wall painting

Rob and Christine Tillman

John Shipman

Stuart Stein's video and graphite-like digital photo-collages

Hans and Audrey consider the artwork

Christine Tillman's ink and woodgrain contact paper installation

Christine and Cara, being lady-like.

The show runs through March 8th. For more information on the gallery or the artists, visit the Rosenberg Gallery's website!

Congrats to the Sondheim Semi-Finalists!

Seth Adelsberger's Scaffold

From the Baltimore Sun:

Sondheim arts prize names 26 semifinalists

Exhibit coincides with Artscape

By Edward Gunts | ed.gunts@baltsun.com

5:46 PM EST, February 11, 2009

Twenty-six visual artists or groups from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia were named semifinalists today for the fourth annual Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize, one of the most prestigious arts awards in the Baltimore area.

Named for civic leaders who were strong supporters of the arts, the prize includes a $25,000 fellowship to a visual artist or "visual artist collaborative" working in the Baltimore region. About six finalists will be selected in the spring, and an exhibit of their work will be shown at the Baltimore Museum of Art during the summer. An exhibit of the semifinalists' work will be shown in the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries at the Maryland Institute College of Art in July, coinciding with the 2009 Artscape festival from July 17-18. The winner of the Sondheim prize will be announced at 7 p.m. July 11 at the BMA. This year's competition drew 334 entries.

The competition is sponsored by Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, and the juried exhibition is held in conjunction with the BMA and MICA. Judges for this year's prize are Ellen Harvey, a New York-based artist; Valerie Cassel Oliver, curator of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston; and Elisabeth Sussman, a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

The semifinalists are:

• Seth Adelsberger, Baltimore

• "Alzaruba," also known as Al Zaruba, Baltimore

•The Baltimore Development Cooperative, Baltimore. The cooperative includes Scott Berzofsky, Dane Nester and Nicholas Wisniewski, who are working on a community farm/art project in East Baltimore. Berzofsky and Wisniewski are former founding members of the artist collective known as Camp Baltimore.

•Lisa Blas, Washington, D.C.

• Rachel Bone, Baltimore

• Jessica Braiterman, Beltsville

• Travis Childers, Fairfax, Va.

• Mary Coble, Washington, D.C.

• R.L. Croft, Manassas, Va.

• Alyssa Dennis, Baltimore

• Liz Ensz, Baltimore

• Leslie Furlong, Baltimore

• Ryan Hackett, Kensington

• Christian Herr, Lancaster, Pa.

• Jason Horowitz, Arlington, Va.

• Jessie Lehson, Baltimore

• Kim Manfredi, Baltimore

• Katherine Mann, Baltimore

• Baby Martinez, Washington, D.C.

• Sebastian Martorana, Baltimore

• Lisa Moren, Baltimore

• Ellen Nielsen, Baltimore

• Louie Palu, Washington, D.C.

• Molly Springfield, Washington, D.C.

• "TwoCan Collective," Baltimore. TwoCan Collective consists of two women, "Emily C-D" and Jessica Unterhalter, who often make work using recycled materials.

• Karen Yasinsky, Baltimore

AK SLAUGHTER Goes On Tour

Baltimore music sensation, AK SLAUGHTER is going on tour, potentially to your city. DO NOT MISS THEM! Heres the info:

Thursday, Feb 12th: WHALEHAMMER TV show at SUNY Purchase (will be on youtube, I can send you the link once it happens.)

Friday, Feb 13th, 8pm: The Silent Barn w/Consider the Source, Grafitti Monsters, No one and the Somebodies, HD, Imbala, New York, New York Cost: ?

Saturday, Feb 14th, 8pm: Local 121 w/ESH the Monolith 121 Washington St, Providence, Rhode Island 02903 Cost: $5

Maestro Sensational Presents: Shrunken Love

Saturday February 14, 2009
Doors open 8pm
Show starts @ 8:30
at Black Cherry Puppet Theater in SOWEBO
1115 Hollins Street Baltimore, MD 21223 (directions at blackcherry.org)
Only $5!!

Join us for an evening of puppet acts, songs, romance and more! For Grown-ups! Hosted by the biggest sock in show business, Maestro Sensational! Maestro and his chorus of feisty sockophants will perform tender bits of comedy sure to warm your heart on the cold winter night of Valentine's day. House band Walker & Jay provide tunes and soundtrack for the evening of puppet performances by various Baltimore artists including Matt Gemmel and Liz Ensz, Sean Blue, Dawn Swartz, Dana Schloss and more!

Seating is limited, so get there early. No date required! Tell your friends!

Mise En Scene Opens @ Paperwork Gallery

Paperwork's new show has branched out from its "works on paper" criteria, to the benefit of the exhibition. Mise En Scene, featuring the work of Audrey Collins Petrich, Lillian Bayley Hoover, and Guillaume Pallat, includes photography, paintings (on canvas!) and Petrich's multi-media installations. Each artist, and Petrich in particular, pays close attention to the design of their setting. Figures become secondary elements, and the interest is in the detail. As always, I prefer photographs in frames, but arranged as if stills from a film, Pallat's images read well and employ a consistent humor. Hoover's large paintings are a feat of technical expertize, although maybe a little rigid. It is really in Petrich's delicate dioramas that the theme is best articulated. Her work is personal and precise, balancing nostalgia and ambiguity.

Audrey Collins Petrich

Lillian Bayley Hoover, above and below

Guillaume Pallat

Detail of Petrich's diorama

Monique and Michael supporting friends

Audrey Collins Petrich

Hans and Gary

Check out the show, on view through March 7, 2009.
Paperwork Gallery
107 E. Preston Street
www.paperworkgallery.com

A Woman is a Woman @ the Charles Theatre this week

SHOWTIMES:
Saturday, February 7 at Noon.
Monday, February 9 at 7 PM.
Thursday, February 12 at 9 PM.

A WOMAN IS A WOMAN (1961 Jean-Luc Godard) Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Claude Brialy. In French with English subtitles. 84m. Color. 'Scope.

"One of Godard's most accessible early films, a sly tribute to the great American musicals of the 1940s. Anna Karina stars as the stripper who decides she wants a baby and goes about finding a man who'll give her one
This genre-defying production by one of the great figures of the French New Wave is Godard at his lightest and most playful, layering jokes and deliberate misunderstandings and tossing in references to his own earlier work.

Karina (who married Godard the same year and was to star in six more of his films) is Angela, a nightclub dancer who hopes a baby might give meaning to her life. Her boyfriend Emile (Brialy) won't oblige and jokingly sends her to his best friend Alfred (Belmondo) who'd secretly be very happy to oblige.


The awkwardness of this love triangle is explored with comedy and tenderness. Belmondo exhibits the same inscrutable melancholy that he brought to A Bout De Souffle, while Brialy's character, who rides around indoors on a bike and hides - literally -behind his books, cowers in the face of his own feelings and his partner's.

This was Godard's first colour film and though he uses all the jump cuts and sudden edits associated with the New Wave, the camera clearly has the hots for Karina, and it's largely down to her vivacious presence that this story remains so effortlessly buoyant." (Jon Fortgang, Channel 4)

Mise En Scene @ Paperwork Gallery

Artists: Guillaume Pallat, Lillian Bayley Hoover, and Audrey Collins Petrich
Exhibition Dates: February 7 - March 7, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, Feb. 7, 7-9 p.m.

Stemming from the theater, the French term mise en scène literally means "putting on stage." When applied to the cinema, mise-en-scène refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement – sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting.

Mise-en-scène also includes the positioning and movement of actors on the set, which is called blocking. These are all the areas overseen by the director, and thus, in French film credits, the director's title is metteur en scène, "putter on scene."

Paperwork Gallery
107 E. Preston Street
www.paperworkgallery.com

So Many Organs Opens @ Current Gallery

So Many Organs, the three-person (Dina Kelberman, Liz Donadio, and Ryan Syrell) show at Current Gallery has a title indicative of absurd Wham word-play. Far from a mission statement, the title seems to best describe the cartoon aesthetics of Kelberman and Syrell, but falls short of tying in the sterile interior photography of Donadio. Syrell's paintings, alternately structural studies and bloated, abstract masses serves as a bridge between the two extreme aesthetics, but is most successful when he pushes the comic element.

Hung in small clusters of each artist's work, the show was most comfortable between Dina's cardboard, Richard Tuttle-like wall pieces and Ryan's paintings. The consistency falls off between the cardboard and photography, which is clustered to the front and rear of the gallery.

Mike Benevento and Tony Shore talking art

Donadio's photographs were somewhat dwarfed in the overall exhibition, perhaps due to the print size and presentation. Had she gone larger, and in groups of 3 or 4 images, the work would have fit more comfortably between Kelberman's large-scale pieces, and Syrell's clean-handed triptychs.
For more information on the exhibition and artists, visit Current Gallery's website.