May 9th 2013. Pick Of The Day.

Roberto Rossellini's Neorealist classic VOYAGE TO ITALY screens its last tonight as the Film Forum's 9-day trib to the master cinematic innovator and banger of Ingrid Bergman comes to a close. The story of a marriage suddenly tested on the eponymous trip after years of seeming content was lambasted upon release, speculatively due to the backlash against the married director's affair with the also-married-but-not-to-Rossellini Bergman, the film's star. It has however not only stood the test of time but bested it, and now sits at #41 on the BFI's list of the all-time greats. I finally made this gem my Pick yesterday so I encourage those who have yet to see it to attend, but not as strongly as another example of a troubled cellulod marriage. Troubled may be too soft a term actually. Keep readin'.

Michaelangelo Antonioni's THE CRY screens for the second of its three day run as part of MOMA's ongoing Auteurist History of Film series. A choice example of the influence Rossellini's Neorealist success had on his fellow countrymen, Mickey Tony's CRY follows ex-refinery worker Steve Cochran as he flees the violent end of an illicit affair with the product of that affair, his daughter, and embarks on an existential wander through his now unrecognizable homeland. Misses as my Pick today, as I choose an affair with an even more violent end. Yikes.

Maurice Piliat's UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN follows the plight of Gerard Depardieu's...well any further explanation is redundant, no?

Oh alright. Gerard Depardieu's country priest struggles with his internal demons as he devotes himself to the saving of a young murderess' soul. Screens as part of BAM's delightful Booed at Cannes series. Yes I used the term delightful. Fuck you. I skip this for an even more devious murderess, one who attempts homicide from the grave. Chills, I swear.

Over at the Clearview Chelsea Cinemas Audrey Hepburn slinks through our imaginations as the iconic and eternally desirable Holly Golightly in Blake Edwards' adap of Truman Capote's BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S. George Peppard co-stars as the yeah I'm not gonna waste any more space on my site's server. Audrey Hepburn is Holly Golightly. And while the Clearview Chelsea never seems to screen 35mm they are consistent and knowledgable in their programming, so I support them fully. However a vastly different portrayal of feminine insecurity, superficiality and downright neuroticism is screening tonight, and as much as I linger on the grace that is Audrey Hepburn, I have always found her no match for the sultry charms of Gene Tierney.

Martin Scorsese dubbed John M. Stahl's LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN the first "Technicolor noir". I ain't arguing with Marty. Tierney's obssessive need for writer Cornel Wilde's unbroken focus leads to jealousy, hatred and ultimately murderous plots of three distinct varieties. Stahl's masterpiece, brought gloriously to cinematic life through DP Leon Shamroy's lens, sits somewhere between the shadowy femme fatale noirs of the 40's and the lavish and unhinged Technicolor melodramas Douglas Sirk concocted in the 50's. The true takeaway from this classic as I've always seen it is its refusal, for the most part, to simply cast Tierney's Ellen Harland as the heavy, a dark dame with no mitigating circumstances whatever. Her Harland is afforded background, motivation and complexity while never threatening her perch as one of the cinema's greatest villians all-time. This to me remains the prime factor in this film's value both nostalgic and timeless. I cannot think of a single flaw this movie possesses, and I fully endorse it as Today's Pick!

John M. Stahl's LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN screens as part of the IFC Center's Modern School of Film series in a brand new DCP restoration tonight at 8pm. Director/screenwriter/playwright Neil La Bute will be on hand to discuss this masterpiece post-screening. Ya don't wanna miss this one.

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