Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts in Far from the Madding Crowd

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will present sneak-preview screenings of three new films through June: Sundance's Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, The Wolfpack, and Far from the Madding Crowd.

On Monday, April 20, the intimate documentary portrait of a superstar, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, which premiered at Sundance, will screen followed by a Q&A with director Brett Morgen. Offering never-before-seen home videos of the Nirvana frontman and his family, this film is more concerned with giving you an intimate glimpse into the short life of a man than it is in perpetuating the legend of a generational icon.

In a recent review, Rolling Stone observed: “Instead, we get the unfiltered Kurt experience, all disturbing sketches, poems in progress and aspirational lists. We also get a disjointed, disorienting look at fame through his eyes, seen as a jumble of shows, news reports and vapid TV interrogations that all bleed together. And we get an uncomfortably intimate look at his life with Courtney…”

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck plays with the documentary form. It strives not just to inform audiences but to create a sensory experience akin to that of Cobain’s through the use of cartoons and reimaginings of his most famous songs. “Though those previously unfamiliar with the subject may not be completely sold by songs heard here mostly in cacophonous live performance,” noted Variety in their review, “several of the pic’s most arresting sequences are de facto music videos, many animated (by Stefan Nadelman and Hisko Hulsing). A nightmarish manipulation of Kurt’s prolific drawing and painting imagery accompanies the searing 'Scentless Apprentice.' Other tracks are illustrated by graphic-novel-style depictions of a cartoon Cobain’s creative process.”

On Tuesday, April 28, Thomas Vinterberg’s latest film, Far from the Madding Crowd (based on the Thomas Hardy novel) starring Carey Mulligan, will screen followed by a conversation with the Danish director. This decadent period piece centers on the antics of a plucky young woman, Bathsheba Everdene (Mulligan), as she dodges the advances of her three very different, yet equally hopeless suitors. The film’s stirring performances have earned rave reviews, in particular Mulligan’s magnificent embodiment of the iconic role. According to The Guardian: “Carey Mulligan is excellent: her face has a pinched girlish prettiness combined with a shrewd, slightly schoolmistressy intelligence – the sort of face which can appear very young and really quite old at the same time.”

Vinterberg’s film is an aesthetic feast for the eyes. It’s pastoral locations, use of natural light, and stunning landscapes underscore the passion inherent in its fiercely, independent protagonist. As Variety observed, “What does register at every turn is a vibrant sense of time and place that pulls us into Hardy’s bygone world even when the drama falters. Shooting on location in the real Dorset, Vinterberg and regular cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen rely mostly on natural light and spacious widescreen frames to capture the land in all its rugged, forbidding beauty — a look as transporting, in its way, as the fog-shrouded majesty of Polanski’s .”

The Wolfpack, which won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at this year's Sundance Film Festival, follows a family with seven children who have rarely been allowed to leave their Manhattan apartment. An observation of the effects of deprivation on the human spirit, Wolfpack remains impartial as it documents the children’s resentment toward their father, an alcoholic who has the only key to the front door. He forbids them and their mother from going outside because he believes they will be contaminated by the evils of the world.

In order to experience life beyond their cramped walls, however, the kids not only devour movies insatiably but also create sets and act out scenes from their favorites. Their creative spirit is noted by The New York Times in their review: “The Angulo siblings come across in The Wolfpack as articulate, sensitive and extremely likable. At times, whether lost in role play in the apartment or heaped in a pile on a mattress to watch television, they can also seem a bit feral. A few speak, at times, with a cadence that is slightly off kilter. They clearly love their mother, Susanne, who is presented as being controlled to the same degree that they are.” The Wolfpack will screen on Thursday, June 11 with director Crystal Moselle and subjects in attendance. The film will open theatrically at the Film Society on June 12.

[Tickets are $18; 13 for Film Society members/students/seniors. On-sale dates: Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (available now), Far from the Madding Crowd (April 9), and The Wolfpack (in May). Visit filmlinc.com for more information.]


An image from Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck

Schedule, films, and descriptions follow:

SOUND + VISION presents:
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
Brett Morgen, USA, 2015, DCP, 132m
Kurt Cobain—lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of Nirvana—remains an icon 20 years after his death. Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck invites you to experience Cobain’s life, art, and mind through his own unique lens, bringing audiences as close as possible to the generation-defining icon. This first-ever fully authorized documentary feature blends Cobain’s personal archive of art, music (his most famous as well as some that’s never been heard), written word, and rare home movies with animation and revelatory interviews from his family and closest confidantes. Following Cobain from his earliest years in Aberdeen, WA, through the height of his fame, the film offers intense and powerful insight into an artist who craved the spotlight even as he rejected the trappings of fame. Those of Cobain’s generation will learn things about him they never knew; those who’ve discovered the man and his music more recently will understand what makes Cobain the lasting icon that he is. Just like the legendary frontman of Nirvana himself, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is authentic, visceral, and unflinching. It will get into your head and stay there long after the end credits roll. An HBO Documentary Films release. Monday, April 20, 9:00pm (Q&A with Director Brett Morgen)


Carrey Mulligan in Far from the Madding Crowd

Far From the Madding Crowd
Thomas Vinterberg, USA 2015, DCP, 119m
Based on the literary classic by Thomas Hardy, Far From The Madding Crowd is the story of Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan), a fiercely independent and spirited young woman who inherits her uncle’s farm.  A rarity in Victorian times – financially autonomous, beautiful and headstrong – she attracts three very different but determined suitors: Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), a sheep farmer, captivated by her willfulness; Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge), a handsome and reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), a prosperous and mature bachelor.  This timeless story of Bathsheba’s choices and passions, while trying to maintain her own independence, explores the nature of relationships and love – as well as the human ability to overcome hardship through resilience and perseverance. A Fox Searchlight release. Tuesday, April 28, 7:00pm (Q&A with director Thomas Vinterberg)


The kids in The Wolfpack 

The Wolfpack
Crystal Moselle, USA, 2015, DCP, 89m
First-time feature filmmaker Crystal Moselle trains her camera on an utterly unique subject in this documentary that seems destined to join the ranks of Grey Gardens and Poto and Cabengo as a portrait of fascinating figures dwelling in society’s margins—or, in this case, a housing project on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The Angulos are a family with seven long-haired children—six boys and one girl, ages 16-24—whose names are culled from ancient Sanskrit and who have been homeschooled by their mother and forbidden from leaving their apartment by their withdrawn Hare Krishna father. However, no restrictions have been placed on the children’s movie-watching diets, and the six brothers have not only grown to become die-hard cinephiles, they also collaborate on elaborate, meticulously staged remakes of their favorite films. Their love for movies signals a long-suppressed desire to engage with the outside world—but how do you reconnect with society when the inside of your apartment and your vast DVD collection is all you’ve ever known? Moselle enjoys a tremendous degree of access to the Angulo brothers, who have managed to become sensitive, passionate, and surprisingly self-conscious people eager to bridge the gap between the world they’ve invented for themselves and the great outdoors. A Magnolia Pictures release.
Thursday, June 11, 7:00pm (Q&A with director Crystal Moselle and subjects)