In Brief

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun
NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

RAMONES: END OF THE CENTURY


unrated, 97 mins.


In the mid-1970s, because of their love for the Stooges, four dorks from Queens joined up, called themselves The Ramones, and reinvented rock as a machine-gun brat attack of pure sonic id. With a look as tight as their hooks – skinny jeans, leather jackets, bowl haircuts – they were icons long before they passed through London trailing the punk revolution in their wake. The superior rock doc “Ramones: End of the Century” breaks it all down year by year in a focused mix of archival footage and talking-head yadda yadda.


Things you probably knew about the Ramones: They were kooky, influential, and ridiculously cool. The movie will vividly refresh this knowledge. Things you probably didn’t know about the Ramones: Dee Dee turned tricks for dope and Johnny was a mean, ultraconservative control freak. Filmmakers Michael Gramaglia and Jim Fields don’t leave out the rough stuff; “End of the Century” is a clear-eyed hagiography of some pretty obnoxious saints.


It’s also a nostalgic trip back to a time when CBGB’s was more than just another T-shirt logo at Urban Outfitters, ghetto wasn’t fabulous, and a rock band scrounging for smack money could share a spacious East Village loft. From rags to not-quite-riches (it’s shocking to hear such sensational pop and be reminded that the Ramones never really broke through), “End of the Century” is ultimately a bittersweet story of rock ‘n’ roll professionalism. Let the gazillionare wimps in Metallica gaze at their navels. I’ll take the hard-working freaks from Queens.


THE LIFE & TIMES OF ALLEN GINSBERG


unrated, 84 mins.


Jerry Aronson spent two decades documenting Allen Ginsberg’s life, and the result is a testament to the bond that developed between the two men. His film, first released 10 years ago and now back in a director’s cut, is a gripping tale of a self-conscious, sensitive young man who surrounds himself (and falls in love) with many of his heroes – the “angelheaded hipsters” he famously described in “Howl.”


We all know Ginsberg traveled with a fast crowd, but we learn the ways he struggled to be a good son and how his mother’s madness haunted him all his life. The film overflows with old photographs, home movies, and interviews with friends (including Joan Baez, William Burroughs, Norman Mailer, and Ken Kesey). Highlights include his exchange with William F. Buckley and his reading of “Kaddish.” Ginsberg’s stepmother, with her silver hair and blue eye shadow, amusingly rattles off descriptions of his young friends (“Jack Kerouac, what a handsome boy!”). But the most powerful parts are simply of Ginsberg reciting his poetry to the camera, eyes twinkling, beard bobbing.


Ginsberg was born in Newark and lived most of his life in Manhattan; he was a great New York figure and the East Village certainly wouldn’t be the same place without him. Yet these days the Beats and their hippie brood are viewed with disdain, even by those in the so-called counterculture. Their macho posings, cigarette-smoking, and yearning for authenticity all seem a bit passe. “The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg” is a reminder of what original minds, and powerful personalities, they possessed.


IT’S EASIER FOR A CAMEL


unrated, 110 mins.


The French films that usually make it to these shores are typically satisfying, and typically satisfying in the same way. Often based in Paris, ricocheting from charming cafes to intelligently composed apartments, they follow realistically attractive yet flawed characters who smoke plenty, make a few mistakes, and sigh a lot. Watching seemingly insightful people act confused is somehow reassuring.


“It’s Easier for a Camel,” the directorial debut of Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (who also wrote and stars in it), has no shortage of such wistful smoking and sighing. Frederica Camaresca, a woman in her 30s, struggles with her guilt over being very rich. In one of the first scenes, she refers to her wealth as an “endless pit” and laments the way it “holds me back.” Though such complaints may inspire groaning, the film shows how too much money can drain purpose from a life. Frederica spends her days taking dance classes; writing plays; belting socialist anthems from the windows of her Jaguar; considering romantic affairs; confessing her sins; and administering to her dying father. Frederica’s life seems charmed, but everything is tinged with sadness.


The film, which works in flashes of animation and fantasy sequences, is beautiful to watch, but it moves slowly. It is held together by Ms. Tedeschi, who communicates an incredible range with a few subtle changes in her face. Her Frederica, with big eyes and girlish smile, stops short of being naive. She walks around with her shoulders slightly hunched, as if bracing herself for some sort of rejection. Yet her contradictions work and her relationships feel real, and so her film is compelling to watch.


-E.B.


ROSENSTRASSE


PG-13, 136 mins.


Based on the true story of German women who fought to save their Jewish husband’s lives, Rosenstrasse is a Holocaust film that attempts to blend feminism, family drama, and historical intrigue. The result is powerful at times, but the films many themes compete with one another.


Writer/director Margarethe von Trotta leans on a flashback conceit to propel her tale. Hannah Weinstein, a present-day New Yorker, is mystified by her mother’s sudden religious resurgence; in search of her family’s past, she returns to Berlin, her mother’s birthplace. A parallel narrative then show Lena Fischer, caretaker of Hannah’s mother and daughter of a prominent German family, struggling to free her Jewish spouse from a Nazi prison in Berlin.


Amid underwhelming performances Katja Riemann, who plays the war-era Lena Fischer, is stunning. She holds down the film’s center as plot and characters spin around her. She is also our window into the Aryan upper class; we attend a wartime gala at a Nazi officer’s estate with her, as nobles dance the night away in search of past glories, and watch her attempt to negotiate the Nazi bureaucracy. These scenes include Ms. Riemann’s finest moments.


The Holocaust story is gripping and poignant, but its counterpart, Hannah’s contemporary Jewish identity crisis, is tedious and cliched. As the story swings somewhat erratically from past to present and back again, the chronology becomes muddled and the drama loses its momentum. “Rosenstrasse” feels like a TV movie, commercial interruptions and all.

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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