March 27th 2013. Pick Of the Day.

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Film Forum's dual screenings of Fritz Lang's M and Michael Cimino's HEAVEN'S GATE begin to wind down this bracing late March Wednesday. I've caught 'em both and can attest thus; having seen M screened in the past the new DCP restoration begs your attendance, having NEVER seen GATE with an audience it was heartening to view it on a big screen surrounded by fellow fans. You can't go wrong with either film, but as I've chosen these gems already they cannot be awarded today's Pick.

BAM's weeklong screening of Jacques Rivette's LE PONT DU NORD also winds slowly down, as the mystery solving mother and daughter team of Bulle and Pascale Ogier traipse through a kooky 80's Paris that does more than nod to its Nouvelle Vague past. Fun. Not my Pick.

Jean Cocteau completed his Orphic Trilogy with 1960's TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS, screening today through Friday as part of MOMA's great Auteurist History of Film series. The final fever dream to be directed by Cocteau mixes b&w with color film stock and features Charles Aznavour, Pablo Picasso and Yul Brynner. Normally I'd hoist this on proud shoulders as my Pick for all to see, but I'm feeling the more low key effort today, and while those words normally describe my work output today they refer to my aesthetic predilection. Read on.

The Mid-Manhattan Library continues to distance itself from my high school A/V club by offering Andrei Tarkovsky's THE SACRIFICE as part of its three month Three Auteurs of World Cinema series. The screening is free and comes complete with an intro and Q&A from a knowledgable sort, I'm told. Any Tarkovsky is better than NO Tarkovsky, but today I pass on the mad Russkie.

Finally the Andrew Sarris tribute at Anthology Film Archives digs through the critic's crates to conjure up a couple of interesting B-flicks. John Derek stars in FURY AT SHOWDOWN as an ex-gunslinger seeking a non-violent existence, and shows exactly why he starred in few other films. Whatevz, he married Ursula Andress, Linda Evans and Bo Derek, so you cry for the pretty boy. Sarris dug the work of director Gerd Oswald, the bulk of who's CV consists of later TV journeyman efforts, but before he jumped to the small screen he did manage to crank out minor classics like A KISS BEFORE DYING and CRIME OF PASSION. I'd choose this flick except I'm far more interested in a director I consider more imortant to B-movie lore and a star who shone less bright and long as her contemporaries but is worth rediscovering.

Joseph H. Lewis is beloved of 40's noir aficionados, and rightly so. This one time camera assistant and editor worked his way up the studio ranks until he was gifted his own director's chair for 1937's COURAGE OF THE WEST. He made his name as a helmer of low budget westerns and crime dramas before graduating to a series of noir films that allowed the master stylist to emerge. His most beloved works include SO DARK THE NIGHT, THE BIG COMBO and his masterpiece GUN CRAZY. One of his best featured the gifted and alluring Nina Foch, who would go on to mostly supporting work over the course of her 60-plus year career but showed potential for owning the lens in her lone effort with Lewis, the tale of an innocent abroad who accepts a job offer as a personal secretary and literally wakes up in a new town with a new identity. Paranoiac hilarity ensues.

MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS screens tonight at 7:15pm at Anthology Film Archives. Show Mr. Sarris some love, whydonch'ya?

 

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Safe, sound, look out for the next so-and-so too! Back tomorrow with Thursday's Pick! Mwah!

 

-Joe Walsh