LIVE AND LET DIE At Moma's "Bond 50" Retrospective

Over the weekend, I went to the Moma "Bond 50" to see one of my favorite Bond movies LIVE AND LET DIE. This is one of the more unusual films in the 50 year franchise for a number of reasons. Where Bond usually finds himself in exotic and fancy locales, in this one....not so much. It starts off in gritty 1970s NYC actually with a FRENCH CONNECTION-style chase on the FDR (in big honking Caddies) and ends up with detour to Harlem. From there we go to New Orleans, a fictional Carribean island with poppy fields, and then the Louisiana bayou.  Not exactly Monaco and Munich!

However, one reason I like this film is the great sense of humor to the film, mainly due to the presence of Roger Moore. He had a way with the Bond one-liners that hasn't been matched. There is also some great 70's fashion (yes, 007 wears a leisure suit!) and hairdos (Afro-rama!) not to mention the hot Wings title song, "Live and Let Die". This was the first Bond song to be nominated for an Academy Award (it lost to "The Way We Were") and I've found the opening titles on YouTube, which you can watch below.  Also,  I believe this is the only Bond movie in which the song is actually sung as part of the story...in a dive bar in New Orleans by Brenda Arnau.

Anyway, after years of seeing it on TV in the 70s, it was great fun seeing this on the big screen in a gorgeous print at Moma. Next up; the camp classic VIEW TO A KILL (with Grace Jones) on Friday.

Stares In The City

Sex And The City's Kim Cattrall was one of more than 1300 people who sat across from performance artist Marina Abromovic in her 3-month marathon show at MOMA.  It ended on Monday afternoon to the applause of a filled atrium and the relief of Marina's back, which she was having some difficulty with after sitting 8 hours a day.


The Village Voice's website has put up photos from the Flickr stream of another artist, Marco Anelli, who took a picture of each person who stared down Marina for periods ranging from 1 minute to more than a couple hours.  Other celebs who sat were Lou Reed, Isabella Rossellini and Antony Hegarty.  There is also a priceless photo of a young girl who's 6 going on 60, a true city-kid skeptic of this whole performance art thing.  


I was at MOMA last week and it was fascinating to watch the different reactions of people as they sat to face the stone-faced Abromovic.  It was amazing to me that many people waited for more than 8 hours to have a few minutes in the chair opposite her for what some described as a religious experience. Some wept, some smiled and one woman even whipped off her clothes only to be removed by security.  Only in New York, kids! 

New Directors/New Films 2010

The annual survey of international cinema from 1st and 2nd time directors is wrapping up this weekend.  New Directors/New Films presents some of the newest voices in indie cinema on two gorgeous screens; the MOMA's Titus theatre and the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade.  Highlights this weekend including "Beautiful Darling", a doc on Warhol's Candy Darling, and a Russian psychological thriller which received some major awards at Berlin, "How I Ended This Summer".  The festival wraps up on Sunday with the French crie de couer "I Killed My Mother", which is a comedy about a gay boy and his mom.  French cinema with a sense of humor?  Who knew....