November 20th 2013. Pick Of The Day.
New York City's premiere resource for classic film screenings in the metropolitan area. Offering reviews, recommendations, venues and a host of links keeping classic film and the silver screens alive.
We got three series vying for your attention today, all interesting, all screening in 35mm, all being served up in heated venues. That last part may be the most important today. New and continuing shenanigans include MoMA's ongoing Auteurist History of Film, BAM's career retrospective Hot Dern! and Anthology Film Archives' Middle Ages On Film: Shakespeare. The rundown as follows;
MoMA
AMERICA, AMERICA (1963) Dir; Elia Kazan
BAM Cinematek
THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY? (1969) Dir; Sydney Pollack
Anthology Film Archives
HENRY V (1944) Dir; Laurence Olivier
MACBETH (1971) Dir; Roman Polanski
Today's Pick? Sydney Pollack's gruelling 1969 adap of Horace McCoy's 1935 novel THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY?, screening at BAM as part of their Hot Dern! series. Jane Fonda and Michael Sarrazin (who should'a been bigger) co-star as participants in a nightmare dance marathon staged for the benefit of an angry, bloodthirsty audience seeking respite from the toils and fears of the Great Depression. Timely when published, timely when filmed in a disillusioned 60's, and perhaps timelier in our current desperate, mean-spirited economic and cultural climate, where we routinely reward punishing and dignity-stripping "entertainment" on the tube with big ratings, encouraging further exercises in the degradation of our fellow human being. Ain't we just swell?
Pollack's film, like McCoy's source novel, scrutinizes a culture so obsessed with the quick path to fame and fortune nothing short of their very lives is worth the effort, however cruel its endurance may be. Death is not offered up as the ultimate price paid in Pollack's bleak view of the American Dream, or at least of its manipulation, however. Identity, morality, indeed our very humanity, are mere detritus to be shed in the pursuit of the brass ring, no matter how green it may have turned. Ironically, the only punished act of violence in the film is one of mercy. So should you be seeking a light two hours away from everything that's wrong with the world, from time immemorial, this might not be your cup of chai. Should you want to engage with a work made by several artists at the very top of their game (Pollack, Sarrazin, Fonda, Oscar-winner Gig Young), you'll find no better showcase today. Jeezus is this early winter getting to me or what?
For more info regarding these and all NYC's classic screenings in November '13 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the screen. And be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter! Back tomorrow with more of whaddayoolike! Til then be safe and sound and make sure the next guy/gal is too! If you're looking to help those who are really feeling the early cold you could do worse than check in with the folks at Occupy Sandy. One year plus later they're still looking out for the peeps still waiting to be made whole.
-Joe Walsh
