Scary Because They're Real

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It was a dark and stormy night when a team of scientists unleashed a weapon of unparalleled power, something that could eat away at human tissue and lay waste to entire cities.

That sounds like the stuff of science fiction and horror stories, but it's actually a description of the first atomic bomb explosion, which took place on July 16, 1945 in a New Mexico desert area known as Jornado del Muerto. This event is the subject of Doctor Atomic, the John Adams opera at the Metropolitan Opera into early November. (The opera can also be seen in movie theaters on November 8.)

The work is well-timed for the Halloween season, as it offers an opportunity to contemplate some of the great horrors of recent (and current) times: The enormity of World War II, the seeming inevitability of the creation and use of the atomic bomb in that war, and the dread that humanity has not moved beyond such nightmarish scenarios.

The opera's lyrics come from a variety of sources including the Bhagavad Gita, a work close to the heart of Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb" and the central character of the opera.

As I recall, the Gita is an interlude in the Mahabharata, a tale of a great war, in which the warrior (and great archer) Arjuna wrestles with profound doubts as he readies himself for the climactic battle.

Doctor Atomic is like a Gita for the nuclear age, in which the last stage of development of the bomb comes across as a kind of self-questioning interlude before the decisions that finally decided the war on the Pacific front. Early in the opera, scientists express concern about how the bomb will be used—perhaps, it is suggested, a mere demonstration of its powers on testing grounds would be enough to stop Japan. Such alternate choices loom over the remainder of the work as the test of the bomb comes closer and closer.

As realized in this production, this chilling work is worthwhile though something of a mixed bag. I didn't admire everything about it, but I found it touching as well as thought-provoking. You should be able to get excellent $20/30 tickets by showing up at the box office by 11am for the November 5 and November 13 performances—but feel free to do your own research to confirm this as well as the feasibility of going with standing room tickets.

EXTRA For a more "classic" Halloween experience, considering seeing Roman Polanski's masterful Rosemary's Baby, based on the novel by Ira Levin. As I've mentioned previously, Levin had a knack for seizing on anxieties experienced by many women of his day; this 1968 film is a catalogue of troubling scenarios related to pregnancy (not to mention marriage to actors). As the Motion Picture Herald put it, "Pregnant women should see it at their own risk." Just note the Halloween night travel advisory to get to the theater from the west (the 1 stop) to avoid the parade and another type of scary experience.

NYC NOIR [AND NON-NOIR] AT THE FILM FORUM

Bruce Goldstein melds New York movies and film noir in the Film Forum's midsummer repertory schedule for 2007. There's a mix of the familiar and the obscure (at least to me), so here is a very likely incomplete list of top-notch flicks in the series.

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS
July 27 and 28
Gossip columnist Burt Lancaster lords it over the city in this metropolitan melodrama featuring great location shooting from James Wong Howe.

THE CAMERAMAN with SPEEDY
July 30
Silent-era comedians Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd wreak havoc in the black-and-white Big Apple. Try to see the 3:50 pm or 7:00 pm screenings of The Cameraman for live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner.

PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET with KISS OF DEATH
August 1 and 2
This isn't quite the millionth time I've plugged Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street on this blog, but by now my regular readers must know how much I admire this hardboiled and still unnerving Cold War noir featuring Richard Widmark and a strong score by Leigh Harline. Kiss of Death scores high on IMDB.

THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE
August 3 and 4
Travel back into the NYC subway system circa 1974—if you dare—in this Blog About Town favorite.

ROSEMARY'S BABY
August 10 and 11
Roman Polanski's masterful, moody exploration of a Dakota Hotel tenant's somewhat unusual pregnancy (based on the novel by Ira "Stepford Wives" Levin, Rosemary's Baby was produced by gimmick king William Castle, whose cheesy movies (such as The Tingler) were once a staple of Film Forum summer programming. See the amazing trailer below!

MEAN STREETS and TAXI DRIVER
August 12 and 13
If you dig movie couples, few programs could be more appealing than this pairing of the flicks that solidified the relationship between Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese in the Seventies.

KILLER'S KISS with SOMETHING WILD
August 22 and 23
Killer's Kiss is an early Kubrick quickie, but Something Wild is what really catches my interest in this double bill. The talent includes Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Jean Stapleton, Aaron Copland, and Eugen Sch¨aut;fftan, a refugee from Breslau who also worked on visual effects for the Fritz Lang masterpiece Metropolis (which is closing tonight).

REAR WINDOW and ROPE
August 24 AND 25
Two of Hitchcock's most impressive movies. He never made a movie more taut than Rope.



Source (3:00)

Stills courtesy Film Forum/Photofest