Every picture tells a story
Had camera, did travel. For 50 years, France’s Henri Cartier-Bresson and his trusty Leica went everywhere, seizing the “decisive moment” on the street or in a studio. You’ll recognize many of his photos, but MoMA’s “Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century” has about 100 images the public’s never seen.
“He used photography to explain the world to others,” says his widow, photographer Martine Franck. Married for more than 30 years until his death, in 2004 at 95, the much younger Franck says he was an empathetic artist and a supportive husband, one who “kept pushing me to continue working, not stay at home and cook!” This show plots his progress on a giant map and has cases full of his old Life and Paris Match reportage. Don’t miss his surrealist work from the ’30s, or his profound portraits of Coco Chanel, Truman Capote and many others. Grab an audio guide (they’re free) and see the world through his lens. Sunday through June 28. MoMA, 11 W. 53rd St.; moma.org.
— Barbara Hoffman
J DATE
New Yorkers needn’t travel further than Midtown to experience the tastes and smells of Japan tomorrow. Starting at 1 p.m. and running through 1 a.m., Japan Society’s “j-CATION:Taste of Japan,” sells a wide range of snacks and refreshments, accompanied by food-related art and film screenings, along with danceable deejay offerings and a performance from trance-rockers Asobi Seksu. The suggested donation is $5 at 333 E. 47th St., between First and Second avenues; 212-832-1155, japansociety.org.
FIDDLER ON THE HOOF
Melissa White was 6 when she got her first fiddle — after two years of pleading. “I was 4 when I saw Itzhak Perlman on ‘Sesame Street,’ and I loved the way his chin fit on the chin rest,” she says. She loved the sound, too, and once she started lessons, proved a quick study. Since finishing first in a national Sphinx Foundation contest in 2001, she’s played solos with the Boston Pops, the Pittsburgh Symphony — and on Fox News’ “Real American Stories.” Catch the 25-year-old Harlem resident tonight at 7:30 when she and cellist Tony Rymer play Bach and more in a joint recital. Consider it an appetizer: Her Harlem String Quartet plays Carnegie in the fall. WMP Concert Hall, 31 E. 28th St.; 212-582-7536.
— B.H.
ALL BOOKED UP
“If you want to travel around the world and read 200 books, then an iPad or a Kindle makes sense,” says Antiquarian Book Fair’s Sanford Smith. But there are certain things the brand-new iPad can’t do, says Smith, whose sons make games for various i-products. “The books we have date back to the 16th century, they’re well binded, they’re illustrated, they’re inscribed.” And he’s not kidding: The 50th annual Antiquarian Book Fair’s 100,000-plus books include items inscribed for FDR and Teddy Roosevelt, as well as collectibles signed by the likes of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. More than 200 booksellers make their wares available for buying and browsing through Sunday, starting daily at noon and ending tonight at 8, tomorrow night at 7 and Sunday afternoon at 5. Admission is $20 per day, $30 for a three-day pass, or $45 for all three days at the Park Avenue Armory, 643 Park Ave., at 67th Street; 212-777-5218, armoryonpark.org.
— Brian Niemietz
EXTRA! EXTRA!
Start the presses! Film Forum kicks off its 40-plus-flick salute to newspaper movies with one of the darkest: Billy Wilder’s “Ace in the Hole” (1951). Kirk Douglas stars as a down-on-his-luck reporter who uses a tragedy — a man trapped by a rockslide in New Mexico — to revive his own career. Jan Sterling sizzles as the trapped man’s tawdry wife, who delivers the film’s best line. Asked to pose for photos praying for her husband’s safety, she declines thusly: “Kneeling bags my nylons.” Douglas’ character is inspired by a real newspaper man who won a Pulitzer. “Ace in the Hole,” a k a “The Big Carnival,” screens today and tomorrow at the Forum, Houston Street, west of Sixth Avenue; 212-727-8110. The series, programmed by Bruce Goldstein, runs through May 6.
— V.A. Musetto