arts & life

Point And Show

Filmmaker
Frederick Wiseman
brings his new
documentary to the
Detroit Film Theatre.

Frederick
Wiseman

I

Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer

rederick Wiseman insists
that he doesn't shoot sit-
ting ducks. His targets,
41 so far, need to be much more
intriguing, complex and unique.
Wiseman, who shoots with
cameras and other high-tech film
equipment, has captured a vari-
ety of subjects — from the haute
couture environment of Neiman
Marcus (The Store, from 1983)
to the innards of a meatpacking
plant (Meat, from 1976).
Although most of the docu-
mentary filmmaker's work has
been made in America, the lat-
est took him to England, where
he set his sights on one of the

another to the public. Sometimes
they're state-supported; some-
times they're private?'
That is the case in National
Gallery, where Wiseman gives
a behind-the-scenes explora-
tion of the renowned London
institution, creating a portrait
of a place on film. Hailed as
"unexpectedly moving" by the

New York Times, National
Gallery tells its story without the
usual voice-over of documenta-
ries, instead allowing viewers a
privileged three-hour tour of the
museum.
Wiseman generally looks for
positive examples of the institu-
tions he wants to explore. High
School (1968), for example, went
inside the second-best upper-

A visitor gazes
at a painting
by Titian at the
National Gallery
in Wiseman's

documentary film

of the same name.

+plus

Fillmmaker Frederick Wiseman

will speak and present National

Gallery Thursday, Jan. 22, at

the Detroit Film Theatre in the

Detroit Institute of Arts. The

film will be shown Jan. 22-25.

$6.50-$10. For information and

details of other Wiseman films

(At Berkeley, Welfare, Hospital) to

be shown this winter, call

(313) 833-7900 or visit dia.org .

world's most prestigious muse-
ums.
The film, National Gallery,
also will bring him to Michigan,
where he will present and dis-
cuss it Jan. 22 at the Detroit Film
Theatre, where the movie will be
shown Jan. 22-25.
Speaking to the IN by phone
from Switzerland, the director,
called one of America's greatest
living nonfiction filmmakers,
previews his DFT discussion,
notes Jewish influences on his
work and recalls a project in
Michigan.
"I'm going to be discussing the
structure of the new film in some
detail?' says Wiseman, 85, whose
firm, Zipporah Films, is based in
Cambridge, Mass.
"Basically, I'm there to talk
about the way I work, the way the
film was made, the themes of the
film and the relationship of this
film to my other films.
"All of my films, with the
exception of the fiction film I did,
are about institutions — places
that have existed for a while and
offer services of one kind or

grades facility in Philadelphia;
the first-place school enrolled
only girls, and he preferred coed
classes. Juvenile Court (1973)
follows cases in Memphis, where
operations have been considered
laudatory.
Wiseman has been making
films since he was 30, deciding
that his attraction to movies
surpassed his experiences teach-
ing law.
"I started working in film
before there were hundreds of
film schools?' he says. "I worked
on someone else's film, learned a
lot and did my own.
"I usually spend eight or 10
weeks in the shooting and about
a year on the editing. I'm com-
pletely immersed in the material.
When I'm editing, I can work
seven days a week, three or four
months at a time:'
The Last Letter (2002), based
on a Russian novel by Vasily
Grossman, introduces a Jewish
woman doctor who writes a let-
ter to her son days before being
killed by occupying Germans in
her Ukraine town.

Editor's Picks

"The film is basically a recita-
tion of the letter?' says Wiseman,
who cast French actress
Catherine Samie as the princi-
pal character. "The message is
characteristic of what happened
to Jews throughout central
and eastern Europe when the
Germans arrived.
"The woman is summarizing
her life and explaining many
things that the son didn't know
about his father, his childhood
and what's going on in this small
town.
"It's based on Grossman's
real experience. His mother
lived in Berdichev, occupied
by the Germans after the inva-
sion of Ukraine. All the Jews
were marched out to the field,
perched on trenches and shot?'
Wiseman, who, with law pro-
fessor wife Zipporah Batshaw
Wiseman, has sons working in
law and computer program-
ming, grew up in an observant
Jewish household and watched
his father take leadership roles
in the Jewish community of
Boston.
"As a result of my father's
engagement, I was conscious at
a very young age of what was
going on in Germany during
World War II," the director says.
"I grew up with a very strong
sense of Jewish identity?'
Anglicans came to his atten-
tion in 1972 as he visited
Michigan to film Essene in
Three Rivers. It reveals daily
living in this Benedictine mon-
astery.
Other Wiseman visits to
Michigan have involved speak-
ing engagements in Detroit, Ann
Arbor and East Lansing.
"I'm currently, working with
a choreographer on a ballet
film based on my 1967 film,
Titicut Follies:' says Weisman,
whose recent honors include
a 2014 Golden Lion Honorary
Award from the 67th Venice
Film Festival and a 2013 Career
Achievement Award from
the Los Angeles Film Critics
Association. "The new film is
slated to open in New York in
2016.
"What all my movies have
taught me about life is what
people see in them, but I'm not
the first one to recognize that
life is very complicated:' ❑

CABARET
Cabaret 313 founders
Allan Nachman and Sandi
Reitelman present Italian
chanteuse Giada Valenti.
In From Venice with
Love, Valenti interprets
songs made famous by
Etta James, Edith Piaf,
the Doors
and Bruno
Mars at the
Marlene Boll
Theatre at the
Detroit YMCA,
Saturday, Jan.
17. $25-$125.
(313) 405-
5061.

BIG BLUES
Along with the
Rolling Stones and John
Mayall's Bluesbreakers, the
Siegel-Schwall Band was
vital to the 1960s blues
revival. The Chicago-based
bluesmen backed icons
like Muddy Waters and
Willie Dixon. Check out
Corky Siegel, Jim Schwa!l
and the others at the 21st
Annual Anti-Freeze Blues
Festival Saturday, Jan.17,
at the Magic Bag, Ferndale.
$25. (248) 544-1991;
themagicbag.com .

GRAMMY NOMINEES
See 2015 Grammy nomi-
nees Gidon Kremer and
23-year-old pianist Daniil
Trifonov together in a
Chamber Music Society
of Detroit recital. Violin
legend Kremer's father
was a Holocaust survi-
vor. Saturday, Jan.17, at
Seligman Performing Arts
Center, Beverly Hills. $15-
$60. (248) 855-6070;
chambermusicdetroit.org .

WAS EXODUS REAL?
In Patterns of Evidence:
Exodus, which follows a
12-year archaeological
investigation in Egypt, film-
maker Timothy Mahoney
asks: Is there evidence that
the story of Exodus actu-
ally happened? The film will
be presented in 600 the-
aters around the country,
including a handful in Metro
Detroit, Monday, Jan.19.
$12.50. FathomEvents.com .

January 15 • 2015

37