Actualités

The Play Company PlayCo, the NYC-based theater company that produces outstanding contemporary plays from around the world, brings together top chefs and theater artists for this year's Cabaret Gourmet, PlayCo's annual gala. Drummer, DJ, producer, culinary entrepreneur and tastemaker, Questlove will be honored at the unique event, which features savory and sweet tasting dishes prepared by hand selected chefs from some of New York City's most celebrated restaurants, on the occasion of the publication of his forthcoming book somethingtofoodabout set for release the next day, April 12. The evening, which celebrates creativity in all its facets, will be Mc'd by Tony nominee Hand to God and PlayCo alum Enjoy, The Ugly One Steven Boyer, with musical entertainment provided by indie pop band Sky-Pony.

Éric Baudelaire. Photo © Festival del film Locarno 2013.

Over the past few years, Franco-American artist and filmmaker Éric Baudelaire has become one of the most intriguing voices working in the fluid realm of the cinémas du réel, the new documentary cinema firing up film festivals worldwide. Coming from a fine-arts background, Baudelaire explores the aftermath of actual real-life events in world history, as remembered by those who lived through them, in ways that mirror the shifting shapes of memory; that is, constantly disregarding the standard narrative arc.

For The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi and 27 Years Without Images (2011), sound and vision simply do not match: the lengthy audio interviews with Fusako Shigenobu and film director Masao Adachi, members of the Japanese Red Army group retelling their revolutionary experiences in the 1970s, and with Fusako's daughter May, born in clandestinity, have no possible visual counterpart other than archival or newly shot footage.

It all begins with a freeze frame of a dirt road somewhere in Yorkshire county, lined with trees whose lush foliage converges above in an arch. What could it be if not a portal? The movie itself, meanwhile, has not even started as we watch the opening credits, encased in large old-fashioned frames, slowly fade away—a device consistently favored by Alain Resnais who opened each of his 19 features likewise, holding off the films themselves until the screen no longer contained any visual surplus. The freeze frame comes to life as the camera pans farther down the road; then we find ourselves in a theatrical set.

We have been here before, of course. Resnais' Smoking/No Smoking, also based on a play by British playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn, is set in Yorkshire as well. Life of Riley (Aimer, boire et chanter) borrows from the five-hour diptych its theatrical setting, one...