“Cemetery of Splendor,” directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, IFC Center, opens March 4Despite winning a Palme d’or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul — friends apparently call him Joe — and his sophisticated oeuvre are relatively unknown outside the film festival circuit. His latest work, notwithstanding a few tepid reviews, is one of his best and most intriguing. “Cemetery of Splendor” combines the dry comedy and distinctive visual style of his previous films with a relatively straightforward narrative: Jenjira, a volunteer at a rural hospital housed in a former school, which is filled with mysteriously comatose soldiers, befriends Keng, a psychic who helps the patients communicate with their families. When the pair find a notebook belonging to one of the patients that is filled with cryptic drawings and patterns, the reason for the sleeping sickness infecting the hospital begins to reveal itself. It’s a ghost story told with Weerasethakul’s typical dense compositions, static frames that seem to stop time in their tracks, and some ribald humor —volunteers playing with a sleeping soldier’s erection, for instance — to keep things interesting.In conjunction with the release of “Cemetery of Splendor,” the IFC Center is presenting “Mysterious Splendors,” a series of Weerasethakul’s previous films, including the Cannes prize winner referred to above, “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” (2010), and the elliptically personal “Syndromes and a Century” (2006).“The Ladies Man” (1961), directed by Jerry Lewis, Museum of Modern Art, March 1, 10Best known these days to scores of sad post-millennials as a telethon host and utterer of ill-advised comments about female comedians, Jerry Lewis is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, a fact that few — except for the French, of course — acknowledge. As a writer, director, actor, and producer, Lewis revolutionized the way comedy is presented in movies. Years after its creation, his body of work is still breathtaking, combining multilayered audio and visual gags with a speed and precision that, except perhaps in the films of Jacques Tati, is unmatched. The Museum of Modern Art is presenting a good chunk of his oeuvre in “Happy Birthday, Mr. Lewis: The Kid Turns 90,” opening on March 1. I’d advise you to see as many movies as you can. But for the purposes of this column, I’ve chosen “The Ladies Man.” It’s my favorite, mainly because I remember watching it as a child on cable television at my grandparents house and being mesmerized by the chaotic speed at which Lewis threw out jokes, the remarkable set design — he built a complete house with an open face on a soundstage — and the eye-popping colors. I watched it again last week, and few films have brought me as much joy. As an added bonus, all the movies are being shown in rare 35mm prints. It bears repeating that this may never happen again.“Babe: Pig in the City” (1998), directed by George Miller, and “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999), directed by Stanley Kubrick, Metrograph, March 5The new Manhattan theater Metrograph looks to be presenting a truly astonishing lineup of films over the next couple of months (expect to see them pop up here regularly). But it is launching with maybe the strangest, and most perverse, double feature — put together by director Noah Baumbach — I’ve ever seen. “Babe: Pig in the City,” George Miller’s highly-regarded children’s movie, and “Eyes Wide Shut,” the kinky marital drama that proved to be the final film from director Stanley Kubrick, both “take place in strange alternate cities,” Baumbach explained in the press materials provided by the theater. “All I know is, I get a similar hit off these two movies.” The operative word seems to be “hit,” which makes the whole thing more logical. “The Blob” (1958), directed by Irvin Yeaworth, Metrograph, March 6I’m throwing in another film screening at Metrograph, mostly because I’ve loved it for a long time. Steve McQueen stars in this enjoyable 1950s curiosity about a mysterious gooey substance that takes over a small town. Being screened in a 35mm print, it’s a great movie to see with an audience.
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