Alan Markfield Paramount Pictures
The bizarre true story of Albrecht Muth, an eccentric German native and compulsive fabulist who murdered his Washingtonian wife, Viola Drath — 44 years his senior — fascinated not just the tony residents of Georgetown, where the crime took place in 2011, but the world. A 2012 New York Times article, “The Worst Marriage in Georgetown,” is now the basis for a fictionalized drama about the case, which begins with a disclaimer: “This film does not in any way claim to be the truth. Nevertheless, it was inspired by actual events.” The directorial debut of Christoph Waltz, “Georgetown” stars Waltz as Muth’s fictional counterpart, Ulrich Mott, a fiercely ambitious, closeted-gay immigrant who met his future wife, Elsa Brecht (Vanessa Redgrave), while working as a 50-year old Senate intern on Capitol Hill. (The timeline of the film necessarily compresses events; Muth was actually a teenager when he met Drath, and Waltz is now 64. Yet the oddities of the real story are generally preserved: Muth sometimes wore an eye patch and affected an aristocratic title. He also wore what appeared to be a thrift-store military uniform and claimed to be a staff brigadier general in the Iraqi Army.) Although “Georgetown” sometimes feels like a true-crime movie made for TV, Waltz is capable behind the camera, and his direction of Redgrave and Annette Bening, as Brecht’s suspicious daughter, generally stays out of their way, allowing them to do what they do best. As the main character, he’s a bit too hands-off. Waltz has the pathological social-climbing down, to a T. But we never really get inside Mott’s head — if that’s even possible. Still, “Georgetown” is a fascinating guilty pleasure, for anyone who remembers the case. R. Available on demand; also playing at the Angelika Film Center Mosaic and Angelika Pop-Up . Contains strong language, brief nudity and sensuality. 99 minutes.
— Michael O’Sullivan
Stage Russia
Animator Yuri Norstein in his studio in the documentary “Making ‘The Overcoat.’ ”
Among animation enthusiasts, the name Yuri Norstein is spoken in hushed tones reserved for icons. The Russian artist, best known for such classics as “The Tale of Tales” and “Hedgehog in the Fog,” is worshiped for his sensitive, wistful aesthetic and commitment to handcrafted process (no digital cheating for him). He’s particularly admired in Japan, where such as animators Hayao Miyazaki and Osamu Tezuka consider him a master of the form. For the past 40 years, Norstein has been working on an adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s “The Overcoat,” a project that has grown in legend the more it has stopped and started. In“Making ‘The Overcoat,’ ” Japanese filmmaker Ryo Saitani visits Norstein in his cluttered Moscow studio to find out what’s stalling him and get a glimpse of the 25 minutes Norstein has committed to film. “Making ‘The Overcoat’ ” isn’t particularly well made, and Saitani’s interviews with Norstein often result in a frustrating sense of shapelessness. (A scene in which he hectors Norstein about “everyone” waiting for “The Overcoat” is especially cringeworthy.) But even amid the juddering camera work and flaccid editing, “Making ‘The Overcoat’ ” is worth it, if only to see Norstein’s brilliant past work and those exquisite sketches and clips from the titular work in progress — a soulful, chiaroscuro masterpiece-in-the-making suffused with Norstein’s distinctive melancholy and abiding humanism. This is must-see viewing for aficionados and initiates alike. Unrated. Available through Sunday at pushkinhouse.org. On Friday at 1 p.m., Norstein will participate in a live Q&A. Contains nothing objectionable. In Russian and Japanese with subtitles. 109 minutes.
— Ann Hornaday
[‘The Overcoat’: Twenty years of toil, 20 minutes of unique film ]
In 2014, Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa made “Maidan,” a transfixing documentary about the civil uprisings in Kyiv, constructed of long, observant takes of increasingly unruly crowds moving through the titular city square. With “State Funeral,” Loznitsa employs a similar strategy, this time combing through hundreds of hours of documentary footage of Joseph Stalin’s 1953 funeral to construct a meditative, deeply engrossing portrait of ritualized grief and public memory. Starting with images of Soviet citizens learning of Stalin’s sudden death and ending with the dictator’s internment in Lenin’s tomb, “State Funeral” unfolds like a silent pageant, the only narration provided by propagandistic eulogies over loudspeakers. (Think of Armando Iannucci’s “The Death of Stalin” without the antic wit.) Using images taken by 200 camera operators stationed throughout the far-flung Soviet republic, Loznitsa creates a portrait that is simultaneously dreamlike and immediate, poetic and polemical, with the Soviet Union’s multitude of ethnic communities expressing state-approved grief in weird lockstep. It’s easy to dismiss it all — the copious tears, the never-ending queues, the ever-larger wreaths being carefully placed and preened over — as so much political theater. This is the man, as Loznitsa’s postscript reminds us, who exterminated millions of Soviet citizens. But he’s also the man who saw the USSR emerge victorious from the ravages of World War II. Without subtitles, and only the fascinating tableau of faces to go by, it’s hard to know what’s in the hearts and minds of “State Funeral’s” subjects. Like 2010’s “The Autobiography of Nicolai Ceaucescu,” Loznitsa’s film stands as a work of archival ambition and psychological ambiguity, as much about obedience and cultish denial as it is a visually stunning time capsule (the black-and-white and color images have been dazzlingly restored). It’s not every day one can witness mythmaking in real time. Unrated. Available on Mubi. Contains nothing objectionable. In Russian without subtitles. 135 minutes.
— A.H.
Also streaming
IFC Films
Eric Bana in “The Dry.”
Eric Bana stars in “The Dry,” an Australian drama about a police detective who returns to his rural hometown to investigate a crime he comes to believe is related to a decades-old mystery. Bana delivers a “sober, soulful performance,” according to the Hollywood Reporter, in this “moody” and “slow-burn” thriller. R. Available on various streaming platforms; also showing at iPic Pike & Rose. Contains violence and crude language throughout. 118 minutes.
“Blast Beat”tells the story of Colombian brothers, played by real-life siblings Moises and Mateo Arias, whose pursuit of the American Dream falters after their family emigrates to Atlanta so the boys can finish high school in the United States. Variety calls the coming-of-age story a “slender” yet “sincere” drama of dislocation. Unrated. Available on demand; also showing at iPic Pike & Rose. 105 minutes.
The documentary “Hating Peter Tatchell” is a portrait of the outspoken British gay rights activist. TV-MA. Available on Netflix. 91 minutes.
Abramorama
Robert Plant in the documentary “Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm.”
“Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm” takes a documentary look at a Welsh farm that was turned into a residential recording studio by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward, whose business served the likes of Black Sabbath, Queen, Robert Plant, Iggy Pop, Simple Minds, Oasis, the Stone Roses and Coldplay. It’s an “agreeable” film, according to the New York Times, yet one “best appreciated by rock mavens.” Unrated. Available at afisilver.afi.com. 90 minutes.
Written and directed by Indian filmmaker Rajat Kapoor, “RK/RKAY” is a meta-movie about moviemaking in which the fictional main character of a film-within-the-film (played by Kapoor) steps out the story he’s in and runs away, pursued by its director (also Kapoor). According to Variety, playwright Luigi Pirandello (author of the absurdist drama “Six Characters in Search of an Author,”) “definitely would have approved of the spirit” behind this “small-scale” identity comedy. Unrated. Available at afisilver.afi.com. In English and Hindi with subtitles. 95 minutes.
Kimstim Films
Suzanne Lindon stars in “Spring Blossom,” which she also wrote and directed.
The directorial debut of 21-year-old Suzanne Lindon, who wrote the screenplay when she was 15, “Spring Blossom” follows Suzanne, a 16-year-old, bored by her peers (and played by the director), who becomes obsessed with a man 20 years older than her (Arnaud Valois). “Ultimately,” says Slant magazine, “the film ends on a note of wistful but placid understanding that finds the young woman attain some of the maturity she assumed she already possessed.” Unrated. Available at afisilver.afi.com. In French with subtitles. 73 minutes.
Exhibition on Screen
Vincent van Gogh was fascinated by sunflowers, which are the subject of five of the artist’s paintings closely examined in the documentary “Sunflowers.”
The art documentary “Exhibition on Screen: Sunflowers” takes an extended look at the five publicly owned versions of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings of sunflowers in a vase Unrated. Available at virtualavalon.org. 85 minutes.
Zeshawn Ali
Hanif, a New Jersey casket maker, teaches 12-year-old protege Furquan his craft in a scene from the documentary “Two Gods.”
The documentary “Two Gods” follows Hanif, a Muslim casket maker in New Jersey who is mentoring rambunctious 12-year-old Furquan and the more hardened 17-year-old Naz, both of whom need guidance. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film “seems to be saying that, no matter what faith you practice in America, religion can provide viable solutions when nothing else does.” Unrated. Available at afisilver.afi.com. 85 minutes.
A trio of barflies try to track down a winning lottery ticket that was stolen from them in “Two Lottery Tickets,” which the Chicago Reader calls an “enjoyably deadpan Romanian comedy.” Unrated. Available at cinemaartstheatre.com. In Romanian with subtitles. 86 minutes.
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May 20, 2021 at 09:00PM
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New movies to stream this week: ‘Georgetown,’ ‘Making ‘The Overcoat’ ’ and more - Washington Post
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