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SMALL FILMS, BIG POTENTIAL<br />
BOOK IT!<br />
BY SARA VIZCARRONDO<br />
CRAZY HORSE<br />
The women, the men, the cameraman—all<br />
professionals<br />
It was only months ago Morgan Spurlock<br />
tried to make “the blockbuster of documentaries”<br />
with Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest<br />
Movie Ever Sold, branding each second of his<br />
film with Ban deodorant and Volkswagens.<br />
Veteran documentarian Frederick Wiseman<br />
isn’t one to go gleefully commercial, but<br />
with this doc he proves that doesn’t have to<br />
change his agenda to stretch his box office<br />
reach. The subject is The Crazy Horse, a<br />
Parisian nightclub known for having the<br />
best live nude shows in the world. Naturally,<br />
this doc shows a lot of skin—it’s aesthetically<br />
too beautiful to suggest Wiseman’s hit<br />
on National Geographic’s “anthropological”<br />
excuse to show breasts. But where most docs<br />
about the sex industry focus on exploitation<br />
and indignity, Crazy Horse replaces those<br />
concerns with demonstrations of this club’s<br />
dedication to art and quality. The French take<br />
this very seriously. The nude dancers have<br />
Broadway skills and a disciplined severity. At<br />
an audition sequence, the Crazy Horse looks<br />
impossible to saddle: the current dancers<br />
bark, “Are you all Russians?” and “Your legs<br />
are too short.” All this just after the artistic director<br />
explained it’s precisely those imperfect<br />
girls who dance the most evocatively because<br />
“They’ve had to learn to work with what<br />
they’ve got.” A document of the gold standard<br />
of strip clubs, it may gain a wider release<br />
than Wiseman’s previous films about boxing<br />
gyms, public housing and the deaf ever could.<br />
As for audience draw … did I mention it’s<br />
about a strip club?<br />
DIRECTOR Fred Wiseman GENRE Documentary; Frenchlanguage,<br />
subtitled RATING Unrated RUNNING TIME 129 min.<br />
RELEASE DATE Unset<br />
CONTACT: Zipporah Films / info@zipporah.com<br />
617-576-3603<br />
HIMIZU<br />
Poignancy sharp as knives<br />
Sion Sono’s view of post-tsunami Japan is, in<br />
turns, painfully bleak and shockingly hopeful.<br />
Made quickly after the March <strong>2011</strong> tsunami,<br />
Himizu revolves around one willfully<br />
“average” student, Sumida (Shota Sometani).<br />
As the teacher’s lectures about excellence<br />
78 BOXOFFICE PRO NOVEMBER <strong>2011</strong>
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