July 11th 2013. Pick Of The Day.
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Sidney Lumet's debut feature 12 ANGRY MEN screens its last as part of Film Forum's week-long booking of the 50's classic that kickstarted one of filmdom's greatest directorial careers. Chose it instantly last Friday so it misses as my Pick this day. My boss sucks.
Satyajit Ray's TWO DAUGHTERS screens for the second of its three day run as part of MoMA's ongoing Auteurist History of Film series. I remain woefully bereft of a screening of ANY of the Indian filmmaker's CV, so I'm hoping to actually stalk out in this heat today or tomorrow to take this in, but it still misses as my Pick today. I'm persnickety that way.
BAM's month-long trib to John Cassavetes, the late great guy flick icon and godfather of American indie filmmaking, today offers his second commercial directing gig for a major studio, the classroom drama A CHILD IS WAITING. Producer Stanley Kramer brought the rambunctious filmmaker on board and was soon sorry for the decision, as they clashed continuously throughout production and finally disagreed over the theatrical cut, Cassavetes disowning it altogther. The stark examination of the struggles faced by the mentally challenged in a special needs school is much better than its director's assessment, but will not be my Pick this day. Even JC would choose Julie Christie over himself. The man was no fool.
Anthology Film Archives' series Agnes B. Selects, programmed by the fashion icon and dedicated to cinematic works instrumental to her artistic development, boasts unspoolings of Francois Truffaut's FARENHEIT 451and Ken Loach's FAMILY LIFE tonight. Neither exactly scream SUMMAH to me but they are excellent imports from two titans of foreign film. I skip 'em as my Pick only becuase a more unmissable production from across the pond gets the grand scale treatment it's rarely afforded. Sorry small-budget serious cinema.
Outdoor fare this gloriously oven-like July eve includes John Hughes' FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF in Brooklyn Bridge Park and Dennis Hopper's EASY RIDER in Tompkins Square Park. Both pleasant diversons for the wine cooler and weed crowd respectively, but tonight you can sit in a magnificently air condtioned theater and watch a battelfield of spray painted cornflakes pose as newly fallen snow. And you won't need to bring a towel to sit on either. Unless you want to. I promise I won't ask why.
Davis Lean was a crack editor in the British film industry before Noel Coward promoted him to co-director status on the wartime propoganda flick IN WHICH WE SERVE. He followed that success with three more adaps of Coward's work, including the flat-out masterpiece BRIEF ENCOUNTER. Moving on to twin Dickens' adaps GREAT EXPECTATIONS and OLIVER TWIST he seemed capable of no wrong, carving a niche as genteel purveyor of Brit melodrama. Success followed success with films like THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS, THE SOUND BARRIER, and HOBSON'S CHOICE. In 1955 he directed Katherine Hepburn in the smash hit SUMMERTIME, filming on location for the first time for a production co-financed by British and American production companies, and Lean discovered he liked having those extra American dollars in his coffers very much. He returned to the Brit/Yank funding model for his next film and first epic, the Academy Award minting THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI. Thus began the stage of his career he is not only most remembered for but is probably most beloved for as well; the thinking man's epic. His followup, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, was, well do we really need to trod that ground again? Even if we make easy stages?
He'd now won the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director twice running thanks to KWAI and LAWRENCE, and was gunning for thrice believe you me when he chose his next project, an intimate love story writ against the grand backdrop of the Russian revolution that carried over much of the essential cast and crew from his previous Oscar champ, including composer Maurice Jarre, DP Freddie Young, screenwriter Robert Bolt, and stars Omar Sharif and Alec Guinness. Always Alec Guinness. New to the mix were Ameican acting behemoth Rod Steiger, UK Angry Young Man icon Tom Courtenay, and the film's co-star and object of not merely Sharif's but the world's affection, the luminous Julie Christie. The resulting film, which was met with mixed reaction by the critics but went on to become Lean's biggest box-office champ, failed to snag a third little gold guy for the filmmaker, but succeeded in bringing the movie-loving world one of its most memorable screen romances all-time, underscored by the lavish and lasting Lara's Theme from composer Jarre. It is a gift then. Yes, very much indeed.
David Lean's DOCTOR ZHIVAGO screens this night 7:30pm at BAM's newly renovated movie palace, the Harvey Theater, as part of their Big Screen Epics series. If you think it's hot outside wait'll you see Omar and Julie yeah I'm not gonna finish that sentence. Shame on me.
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Be safe and sound and make sure the next guy/gal is too! Back tomorrow with Friday's Pick. Until then, here's my 2013 Summer Popcorn Fick assessment thus far; IRON MAN brought it, STAR TREK killed it, NOW YOU SEE ME sucked it, THIS IS THE END buzzed it, MAN OF STEEL ruined it, WORLD WAR Z got through it, THE LONE RANGER needs to cut 40 minutes from it. Guillermo Del Toro will save summer with PACIFIC RIM, I just KNOW IT! VIVE FILM, STOCKAHZ!
-Joe Walsh
