D'Aiuto Cheesecake in Chelsea Got Out Of Biz

D'Aiuto Baby Watson Cheesecake in Chelsea
shared from the FB page of Pola Rapaport
no copyright infringement intended

(America viewed by Americans)

(New York, New York)

(Pola Rapaport)

The Lost Tribe of Eric Kamen

Eric Kamen
(http://www.mtv.com/artists/eric-kamen/discography/1580637/)
no copyright infringement intended

Were I to see only this 2 minutes movie from all movies created by the couple Rapaport/Held, I would know all about their movie universe.

Urban Flamenco. He plays the guitar. They dance, each one in her own world. Four dancers, four worlds in counterpoint, creating the paradox of unity in contrasts. And this unity of dance, against the sound of the guitar. The guitarist and the sound, minimalism at its best, superbly restrained to itself. The girls forcing the sound to let itself tell the tale - and the guy with his guitar, keeping the tale within itself. Dance and guitar flowing together, never attaining one another. The mystery of the lost tribe confined there.

He is Eric Kamen. They are Holly Googe, Pearrie Hammie, Shakiver Gordon, Cecile Klaus.

And the eye of cinematographer Wolfgang Held, together with the knowledge of cinematic rhythm of director Pola Rapaport, creating an incredible gem: two minutes concentrating the essential about Urban Flamenco. Nothing more needs to be said.

Eric Kamen, The Lost Tribe
(video by Eric Kamen Music)

(Pola Rapaport)

(Wolfgang Held)

The Satmar Jews from Brooklyn

1936: Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum greeting King Carol II of Romania
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SatmarRebbe36.jpg)
no copyright infringement intended

Pola Rapaport recommends the short documentary embedded in the video below. She lives now in Williamsburg, a large neighborhood in Brooklyn with a strong Satmar Jewish community presence: a Hasidic sect originating in the city of Satu Mare. Despite their so traditional ways of behaving the Satmar Jewish history is actually very recent: the sect was founded in 1905. By that time Satu Mare belonged to the Austro-Hungarian empire. Now it is part of Romania.

I visited Pola several times and I was always impressed seeing how these people looked like in their clothing. And I asked myself every time whether is it good or bad to look so out of touch with the modern life. And more than that, what's really behind this out of touch clothing style. Wouldn't it be better to plunge from shtetl and ritual into the Sturm und Drang of the modern world? (I'm quoting here Roger Cohen) The documentary recommended by Pola lets them presenting themselves and, which raises another question: is it really all this so idyllic? Pola might be fascinated with their ways, I would prefer the ways of Roger Cohen.

Nowadays more and more immigrants from Latin America are settling in Williamsburg, and the kids of the two communities play together on the streets. And maybe the answers to my questions could come from these kids playing together.

(video by stylelikeu)

(Pola Rapaport)

(New York, New York)

LIFE IS WUNDERBAR

LIFE IS WUNDERBAR (1992)
a film made by Wolfgang Held and Volker Euler
(video by heldrap)

1992 humorous short film by Wolfgang Held and Volker Euler about their love-hate relationship with Sydney, Australia, as young German travelers. Title song, Life is Wunderbar, written and performed by the 2 filmmakers.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3DvISx32k8)

It is an unexpected gem, this 14-minute movie, fresh and with an irresistible rhythm: a bit Expressionist (as the two guys came from Germany, with a deep understanding of the film universe there), a bit Commedia dell'arte (the two guys having a very sure taste in building the perfect environment for their story), and telling volumes about the pure joy in making this movie - two guys very knowledgeable in all cinema stuff, and absolutely happy that the camera was playing with them.

The two make an interesting couple. Volker Euler has a special kind of humor that calls in mind Tom Hanks, while Wolfgang Held is the Commedia dell'arte type, Buratino and Karabas-Barabas in the same time (if you know the story of Aleksey Tolstoy), enchanting, somehow naughty, and even potentially mischievous.

Wolfgang came firstly to Sydney and was charmed by the place: the cityscape was transforming his window into a picture postcard. So he persuaded Volker to come, describing Sydney as the city where everybody was driving in open cars, nobody worked and everybody had money. Volker came there, to find out that there were no jobs and and there were no money. In the following months the two guys kept on searching for a job, any job, while keeping spirits up (as it should have been at their young age). Eventually Wolfgang came out to the conclusion that they should go back to their country.

After some years Wolfgang came again to Sydney and found his old friend. He persuaded him in making a movie, to reenact their story.

Wolfgang Held and Volker Euler were producers, writers, directors, editors, and actors in this movie. Among the people who helped one way or another in the making of this film it was also Pola Rapaport. As an interesting detail, LIFE IS WUNDERBAR is the only movie of Wolfgang where he is not also the Director of Photography.

What happened with the two guys later in life? Twenty years passed since 1992, when the movie was made. I looked on the web to find information about Volker Euler. He remained in Sydney, where he is the North Sydney College Association Executive Officer. Among other responsibilities, he coordinates Worldly Soles, a charity organization. Wolfgang Held is now a well-known DP. He lives in New York and remained the same enthusiastic guy as he was in LIFE IS WUNDERBAR.

Wolfgang Held, now
(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=470195084464&set=a.10150113718424465.314633.732224464&type=1&theater)
no copyright infringement intended

Did their adventure have a sense? Says Wolfgang, human beings cannot live without dreams; we need to venture to countries beyond the horizon; and though, our travels might never find the perfect place; keep on moving to this universe, until you find your final.


(Wolfgang Held)

(Pola Rapaport)

Pola Rapaport at the Sarajevo Film Festival

(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=416929921692460&set=a.110297582355697.18111.100001263662279&type=1&theater)
no copyright infringement intended

Pola Rapaport was invited at the 2012 Sarajevo Film Festival, as a mentor in a workshop called Rough Cut Boutique. Five films from the Balkan region were chosen for mentorship in the editing stage. The group gave constructive comments to the filmmakers, and Pola worked closely with each filmmaker in individual sessions as well. It was an amazing experience for Pola: it was her first coming to this city, unique in so many respects. I wish I have one day the possibility to see that place with my own eyes: I have read about Sarajevo, and I have seen it in some movies of Kusturica. A great book was written by Anthony Loyd, who was there during the war. It was a horrible war, but I think that ultimately it was not able not change the destiny of this city: to be a place of encounter for three cultures; three opposing cultures finding in that place their complementarities.

(http://www.sff.ba/news/show/id/859/culture/en?symfony=49d6b5b195b382eb1f859a21e30312d1)
no copyright infringement intended

(Pola Rapaport)

Pola Rapaport: Female Classical Violinist in a NYC Subway Station

NYC Subway: Bedford Avenue L Station
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NYCS_BMT_Canarsie_Bedford.jpg)
no copyright infringement intended

A female violinist playing classical music in NYC subway. Pola Rapaport saw this violinist firstly in Union Square, by the end of February. She met her again several weeks later, at Bedford Avenue. Two universes in a brief contact. The violinist living her music. The passers-by, waiting for the next train, with their own thoughts, while infused by the world of the artist. The train arrives, the passengers are getting in, the doors are closing, the train leaves the station. The sound of the music is fading, it dies. Reverberations refuse to disappear. Not necessarily the memory of sounds. It's more subtle: a special moment happened there, on the platform, and a  little je ne sais quoi will travel with us for ever. Pola tried to capture this.

Female Classical Violinist in a NYC Subway Station
(video by Pola Rapaport)

(Pola Rapaport)

Paul Hitter: East Meets West

(@Paul Hitter, One and Only One Paul Hitter)

I dedicate this post to Pola Rapaport, who had once in mind to turn one of his movies into a dark comedy, East Meets West. Actually I haven't talked too much here on the blog about her movies. It's my mistake. She has some very challenging movies.

(Paul Hitter and Balkan Expressionism)

HERE ONE DAY

(in the editing room: Kathy Leichter and Pola Rapaport)

HERE ONE DAY is a movie in the making. It was shot by Kirsten Johnson and edited by Pola Rapaport. It is the personal story of the film director (Kathy Leichter): her mother committed suicide in 1995, victim of a bipolar disorder. The way the family recovered from the grief caused by this terrible loss is the subject of the movie.

Through this movie, director Kathy Leichter intends to:

# Reduce the stigma surrounding suicide and people with mental illness, increase understanding, break the silence, and create empathy;
# Give voice to those who have, or know someone with, bipolar disorder and mitigate the isolation these families can feel;
# Provide a forum for discussions about mental illness, suicide, loss, family history, mother-loss, and motherless mothers.

In order to finish the movie, Kathy Leichter started a Kickstarter fundraising campaign. She is more than 2/3 of the way to her goal of raising $25,000, and she has until June 1st to raise the rest. There are so far 125 backers who have pledged with $20,618. The making of the movie will be funded only if at least $25.000 will be pledged till Wednesday June 1st, 9:29 am EDT.

(scene from the movie: director Kathy Leichter and her father)

In order to make a pledge, please go to:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1259302825/here-one-day-a-film-about-my-mother-suicide-love-a

(Pola Rapaport)

Broken Meat now on Vimeo

I already talked about Broken Meat, the movie directed by Pola Rapaport and cinematographed by Wolfgang Held. I was saying, a beat poet, Alan Granville, as iconoclastic as New York is, as crazy, as miserable, as superb; wrapping the same way his misery in a plethora of words, in a myth built to seduce and to leave you puzzled.

Now the movie was published also on Vimeo, which makes it much easier to watch; first of all it is only one video, of 49 minutes.

And so I watched it again. It calls in mind Geography of the Body a seven minute short made in 1943 by the famous (sometimes infamous) couple of Willard Maas and Marie Menken: the same determined minutia in exploring the human flesh (here extended to the whole, encompassing body and soul, in all misery), in counterpoint with the same cri de guerre, cynical and pathetic (here the voice of Granville himself, hey, here I am, look at me, don't fake with me and don't pretend your bullshit any more, I am the holly one!) I would add here something that seem to be very Pola Rapaport style, treating the whole in tones of black comedy, also her passion in making the film a masterful edit, which is amazing: the scenes of the movie follow the chaotic mind of the poet in some kind of a devilish dance!

Add to this the image of DP Wolfgang Held: he got the real poetry of this New York to be hated and loved altogether. A New York resembling the poetry of Alan Granville, founding the holiness in its miserable failure.

Broken Meat
(video by Pola Rapaport)

(Pola Rapaport)

(Wolfgang Held)

Pola Rapaport

Street in Capri

This small painting is in the apartment where Pola Rapaport lives with her husband, Wolfgang Held. A very nice apartment in Brooklyn with a great view of Manhattan, across the East River.

I would like to start here from this small painting, a street in Capri: it calls in mind a fine movie made by Pola (with Wolfgang as director of photography): Blind Light. I will talk about it later.

A couple devoted to the world of movies: Pola is a film editor and film director, Wolfgang is a director of photography.

When I made the acquaintance of Pola I was curious about this name. Her father had been born in Romania, I could expect her to be Paula. Why Pola? Here was the reason: her mother was a passionate movie watcher for all her life, and the daughter got at birth the first name of a famous actress from between the world wars, Pola Negri.

As for the middle name, of a fascinating beauty, Garance, it had been the decision of the father: he had a great passion for the French spiritual universe, and Garance had all the perfume of an old stage in the history of France. Like Solange, the middle name chosen for the sister of Pola, Jill Rapaport.

It is a long story between Pola and Jill and me. I had known about them since childhood, without any clue where they could be found. Pola had known about me, too, for a long time, without any clue where I could be found. I knew only their last name, Rapaport. Pola knew only my first name, Pierre. I had no idea they were living in New Yok and their first names were Pola and Jill. They had no idea I was living in Bucharest and my last name was Radulescu. We discovered each other when I was in my early fifties. We were half siblings.

Maybe one day I will put this story here. What I want now, is to talk about the movies of Pola, as I did for the writings of Jill.

• Broken Meat (1990)
• Broken Meat now on Vimeo
• Grace Paley: Collected Shorts - a film by Lilly Rivlin (2010)
• HERE ONE DAY
• Female Classic Violinist in a NYC Metro Station
• Pola Rapaport at the Sarajevo Film Festival
• LIFE IS WUNDERBAR
• The Satmar Jews from Brooklyn
• The Lost Tribe of Eric Kamen
• D'Aiuto Cheesecake in Chelsea Got Out Of Biz

(Filmofilia)

Broken Meat, a Film by Pola Rapaport

A beat poet, Alan Granville, as iconoclastic as New York is. As crazy, as miserable, as superb. Wrapping the same way his misery in a plethora of words, in a myth built to seduce and to leave you puzzled. To understand the spirit of New York one needs to understand guys like Alan Granville, a huge talent in battle with a Moloch mocking of any talent. He experienced homelessness, drug addiction, and mental illness. He fought them with humor and with a sense of what destiny means: I was in the land of nowhere and I found there holiness.

This is a Broken Meat, a movie made by Pola Rapaport in 1991. The image is signed by Wolfgang Held. A New York that opens to you slowly and pensively, seamy and superb.

I had the chance to watch this movie long time ago, and I am glad that it is now on youTube.

Enjoy!

Broken Meat: Part 1/6
(video by heldrap)

Broken Meat: Part 2/6
(video by heldrap)

Broken Meat: Part 3/6
(video by heldrap)

Broken Meat: Part 4/6
(video by heldrap)

Broken Meat: Part 5/6
(video by heldrap)

Broken Meat: Part 6/6
(video by heldrap)

(Pola Rapaport)

(Wolfgang Held)

Grace Paley: Collected Shorts - a Film by Lilly Rivlin

Grace Paley
(1922 - 2007)

Grace Paley: Collected Shorts is a visual parallel of Grace Paley's life and writings revealed in colorful shorts and told in her own voice.

Her life was extraordinary. She was a firebrand on the front line of protest (imdb). With her Bronx rough-around-the-edges accent Grace Paley opposed for all her life war and nuclear proliferation, and fought for the rights of women. She went often to jail for her political attitude. Her work (short stories, poems, essays) was translated in 92 languages. For Enormous Changes at the Last Minute she has been compared to Chekhov. Says Lilly Rivlin, Grace was a New York icon who captured the essence of the city she loved. I would add, she captured the essence of the extraordinary times she lived.

another photo of Grace Paley

The movie will have its world premier at the Castro, July 25, 11 am, and the Roda Theatre (Berkeley Rep Theatre) at August 1, at 12 noon. I will miss the chance to be in the attendance and this is unfortunate, because I know very well the wonderful personality of the filmmaker, Lilly Rivlin. She is courageous in all her movies, and each of them is interesting and relevant.

Now, there is another fact for which I should not have missed this film: Wolfgang Held is the Director of Photography (and it would be a great experience to watch all his movies!). The film editing is done by Pola Rapaport.

(movie trailer: video by Lilly Rivlin)

(Lilly Rivlin)

(Grace Paley)

(Wolfgang Held)

(Pola Rapaport)