“The Royal Road,” Anthology Film Archives, opens October 30Jenni Olson’s remarkable essay film, which was one of the best things to screen at the “Art of the Real” series at the Film Society of Lincoln Center earlier this year, is making its official New York theatrical premiere with a weeklong run at the Anthology Film Archives, with Olson in person at select screenings. “I crave the catharsis of narrative,” Olson says in her voice-over narration, which is spoken throughout over landscape shots of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the path that connects them — El Camino Real, or The Royal Road, which once connected the missions of California.“In my essay films I like to utilize a poetic, first-person voiceover as the persona which will tell a story that is partly fictional, partly my own personal reflections, and partly an exploration of various non-fiction topics,” Olson said in an interview with ARTINFO back in May. But the fiction is a ruse, a mode of survival. All the stray narratives the film acquires — the life of Franciscan missionary Junípero Serra, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” Cassanova’s “The Story of My Life” — circle back to a personal story of love and loss and remembering. Olson traces these different narratives because they form a bridge between the past and the present. Telling these stories is a cure for the melancholy of real life.Despite the dominating narration, the visuals — simple, direct, often quiet and unpopulated landscape shots — shouldn’t be ignored. They are not simply blank spaces with room for introspection. Each empty street, weathered building, or rolling hill also contains its own narratives. Sometimes the visual track lines up with the narration and sometimes it doesn’t, which leaves the viewer wondering: is there another narrative in place here, something unspoken, maybe even unknown, but plainly visible if we look deep enough?“The Royal Road” is a deeply exciting work of poetic-cinema, both emotional and cerebral.“Insiang,” Museum of Modern Art, opens October 28Filipino director Lino Brocka’s Shakespearean tragedy from 1976 is making a week-long appearance at the Museum of Modern Art after showing up at the New York Film Festival in September as part of their Revivals sidebar, following its unveiling at the Cannes Film Festival back in May. Restored earlier this year by Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata, with funding by The Film Foundation (non-profit founded by Martin Scorsese), the film concerns the struggles of the beautiful Insiang (Hilda Koronel), who lives under the thumb of an overbearing mother (Mona Lisa) and in a house filled with stray family members. Everybody is struggling, and there is barely enough food to feed them all. When Insiang’s mother, who, ever since her husband left her has been emotionally unstable, kicks the rest of her family out of her home, the neighborhood shuns her decision because they know the real reason is so she can spend more time with her younger lover, a brutish Lothario named Dado (Ruel Vernal).Dado, though, has other intentions than shacking up with an older woman. As soon as he starts spending more time at the house he begins to make eyes at Insiang, who hates him and refuses to give him any attention. But soon enough, Dado has intimidated her boyfriend, the childish Bebot (Rez Cortez), into never seeing her again, the first steps in a devious and horrific plan to take control over Insiang. When he ultimately succeeds, Insiang plots revenge against the man who has rendered her powerless.Brocka reportedly shot the film on a limited budget in around 11 days in the streets of Manila, all the while dodging government censorship. The film is masterful as it navigates the confined spaces of the neighborhood — specifically, Insaing and her mother’s apartment, which is so cramped you can sit on the toilet and eat at the dining room table at the same time.“Fassbinder: To Love Without Demands,” Bow Tie Chelsea, October 26This unflinching and comprehensive look at the life of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder is screening as part of NewFest, New York’s LGBT film festival. The film is hinged on select, and previously unseen, interviews with Fassbinder conducted by journalist and filmmaker Christian Braad Thomsen. Its analysis of Fassbinder’s life and work — much of it cribbed from Thomsen’s excellent book “Fassbinder: The Life and Work of a Provocative Genius” — is the kind that’s unusual for this type of exhaustive bio-doc: sharp, detailed, and provocative. No matter if you’re familiar with Fassbinder’s work or have never heard the name, the film is equally engaging.“The Assassin,” IFC Center/Film Society Lincoln Center, ongoing“If I wasn’t going to do it now I was never going to do it,” the director Hou Hsiao-Hsien said of his latest film, “The Assassin,” in a recent interview with ARTINFO. An exploration and personal vision of the wuxia genre that had interested him, like many others, since childhood (he added that “all these stories are a part of me,” expressing his lifelong fascination), the film is also typical of his previous body of work, with a visual style of long, contemplative shots, and a narrative interest in the historical complications of China.“Heart of a Dog,” Film Forum, ongoingIs Laurie Anderson’s latest film — about her dog, her mother, her friends, the N.S.A, and 9/11 — personal? “I do use the word I in the film, and it does refer to me as a person, but it’s a trick,” she said in an interview with ARTINFO. “I’m not interested in telling you my life story, but in asking questions about things. So I use myself almost as a character who wanders around in a series of questions. It’s very personal and in other ways very neutral.” But it’s also, maybe even to Anderson’s surprise, extremely moving and intimate, with her narration acting as a guide through understanding the weight of loss and the progress of life (sometimes the truth can exist even when you try to hide it). The biggest loss, never explicitly stated in the film but fully there, is that of Lou Reed, Anderson’s husband who passed away during the making of the film.
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