At Home With… June Picks
Friends of Metrograph Eileen Myles, Heidi Bivens, and Eugene Kotlyarenko each share a film they love, streaming on demand on the Metrograph At Home platform.
Mephisto, dir. István Szabó, 1981
Klaus Maria Brandauer is the actor who becomes a star by pandering to the Nazis. I saw this film when I was quite young and the scene I’ll never forget is this chilling conversation with God or his own rotten soul during a stretchy workout in tights in front of a full-length mirror.
Eileen Myles is a poet, novelist, and art journalist. Pathetic Literature, which they edited, came out in Fall of 22. A “Working Life,” their newest collection of poems, is out now. They live in New York & in Marfa, TX.
Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint, dir. Halina Dyrschka, 2019
This in-depth documentary about Hilma af Klint’s life and creative process extensively explores her body of work. She was an artist and research scientist who infused her paintings with a cosmic perspective. The palette of colors she chose to use are beautiful and precise (yellow representing masculine, blue for feminine). A feminist driven by a personal call to action, she declined marriage, and was once quoted as saying, “Within me wells forth such a power carrying me forward that marriage and family happiness are not my destiny.” Through her study of atoms, quantum physics, and alternate dimensions, she was inspired to create a prolific number of now-hugely important works of art, which were not publicly shown until many years after her death. Dyrschka’s film is a celebration of Hilma’s unique, singular vision and body of work.
WATCH BEYOND THE VISIBLE: HILMA AF KLINT
Heidi Bivens is the Emmy-nominated costume designer for Euphoria and recently authored the book, Euphoria Fashion published by A24. Her recent credits include Causeway, Reservation Dogs, and co-producer for HBO’s The Idol.
Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, dir. Jafar Panahi, 2015
Already a formidable voice of neorealism, Panahi’s government-imposed ban on filmmaking made him a symbol of resistance and a cause célèbre. More significantly, it pushed him into a realm of creativity the likes of which few filmmakers have conceived of. Cornered into a framework that incorporates his ban, Panahi has adopted an experimental approach (adjacent to the meta-texts of his mentor Kiarostami, but very vividly his own) that questions the nature of what cinema is and can be. In Taxi, his second movie made under the ban, Panahi stars as himself; forced to drive a taxi to earn a living, he films all of his passengers as they go about their daily errands. Limited by the single “location,” the film still manages to be incredibly tense and fun, filled with astute social observations, memorable characters, light trolling, and deep insights into the human capacity for connection.
Eugene Kotlyarenko is a filmmaker and movie lover. He has made six feature films, including Spree (2020), Wobble Palace (2018), and 0s & 1s (2011). He is trying to push forward cinema, in his own little way.
