April 3rd 2013. Pick Of The Day.
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Welcome to April 2013's first Pick. Wish I had more to choose from but the field provided me this day makes up for a lack of quantity with a surfeit of quality.
Film Forum's week-long booking of Hitchcock's DIAL "M" FOR MURDER continues for another couple of days, and while I find this a decidedly meh effort from one of the medium's greatest visionaries it remains his lone experiment with the 50's 3D fad and stars Grace Kelly in a slip. The Forum honors the film's heritage by providing the appropriate glasses to fully appreciate both. Sorta tempts, but not my Pick.
MOMA today kicks off its impressive retrospective focusing on the immediate influence German expressionist cinema of the 20's had on world cinema of the 30's and 40's, and beyond. The Weimar Touch offers a comprehensive selection of films from some of the most important Teutonic ex-pats and the Hollywood directors who best absorbed their style to reimagine and repackage to suit American tastes. Joseph Losey's remake of Fritz Lang's utter masterpiece M inaugurates the retrospective tonight, and while it climbs nowhere near the heights of its source it remains a fascinating trod by one artist in the shoes of another. Gus Van Sant didn't fare as well in Hitchcock's Uggs. Also not my Pick, which I reserve in order to laud one of the great American postwar filmmakers, whose name sadly isn't discussed as often as contemporaries Lumet and Penn and Altman, but who may have for a brief moment bested all three in terms of sheer cinematic ambition and the achievement of said vision. Not for nothing does the question "why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?' still send chills up one's spine, should ya be in the know.
John Frankenhiemer was raised in Queens county, but he grew up in the movie theaters of 1940's era NYC. A stint in college resulted in a film education. A tour of duty in the Air Force led to his first directing gig, a documentary. Fully entering civilian life he went to work in the lightning paced organized chaos of live TV in the 50's, eventually graduating to the director's chair. He would add 140 plus notches to his belt overseeing episodes of Playhouse 90, Climax! and Danger. That was some big belt. Ask Michael Bay.
In the refelective, existential guy cinema of the 60's he proved a pioneer, helming THE BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ, THE TRAIN, and his celebrated Paranoia Trilogy; THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, and perhaps the bleakest film assembled for popular consumption all-time, the Rock Hudson vehicle SECONDS. Before he cemented his status as testosterone's wary cinematic ambassador he began somewhere, with a smallish budgeted film about a priveledged young Hollywood prince who comes to the sobering realization that his status brings both brass ring and horsehair noose. Long before his Danno was ordered to book 'em, James MacArthur starred.
John Frankenhiemer's THE YOUNG STRANGER screens today through Friday at 1:30 at MOMA as part of their Auteurist History of Film series. A rare opportunity to view the first work of a master in the intended venue. Unwrap the Twizzlers before the lights go down is my only advice.
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Be safe and sound and make sure the next guy is too! Back tomorrow with Thursday's Pick! Exclesior!
-Joe Walsh
