November 22nd 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.

Spotty rain showers serve as the perfect excuse to attened a classic film screening today, and there's a great batch to pick from. New and continuing series include MoMA's ongoing Auteurist History of Film, BAM's career retrospective Hot Dern!, the Film Society's Harold Pinter trib, Anthology Film Archives' Middle Ages on Film: Shakespeare, and the Rubin Museum's Cabaret Cinema. Here be the readin' of the names;

 

IFC Center

THE STING (1973) Dir; George Roy Hill

BRAZIL (1985) Dir; Tery Gilliam

 

Film Forum

SANDRA (1965) Dir; Luchino Visconti

 

MoMA

AMERICA, AMERICA (1963) Dir; Elia Kazan

 

BAM

THE TRIP (1967) Dir; Roger Corman

PSYCH-OUT (1968) Dir; Richard Rush

 

Film Society of Lincoln Center

THE SERVANT (1963) Dir; Joseph Losey

THE CARETAKER (1964) Dir; Clive Donner

THE LAST TYCOON (1976) Dir; Elia Kazan

THE GO-BETWEEN (1971) Dir; Joseph Losey

 

Anthology Film Archives

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (1965) Dir; Orson Welles

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (1935) Dirs; Max Reinhardt & William Dieterle

 

Museum of the Moving Image

THE CONFORMIST (1970) Dir; Bernardo Bertolucci

 

Landmark Jersey Loews

DRESSED TO KILL (1946) Dir; Roy William Neill

TERROR BY NIGHT (1946) Dir; Roy William Neill

 

Rubin Museum

THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD (1966) Dir; Martin Ritt

 

Today's Pick? I gotta admit the Pinter series at the Walter Reade leaves...me...sorta...cold. I've recently chosen Bertolucci's CONFORMIST, Gilliam's BRAZIL screens fairly often on the rep circuit, and I've twice drawn from the Bruce Dern well this week. I'm really tempted to pick a double feature from the Middle Ages series at AFA, as both the Welles and the Dieterle/Reinhardt are choice translations of the Bard to the screen. However, fewer even than excellent screen adaps of Shakespeare are films that utilized the sadly squandered talent of the Shakespearean Richard Burton to his fullest capabilities. After knocking crowds dead in the English theater he made the quick leap to Hollywood and found almost instant success as the star of the first Cinemascope vehicle, THE ROBE. Big box office led to lazy effort, and soon Burton found himself the star of such irrelevant claptrap (yep, I went there) as Philip Dunne's PRINCE OF PLAYERS, Robert Rossen's ALEXANDER THE GREAT, and Joe L. Mankiewicz's CLEOPATRA. You might've heard of the last one. Laurence Olivier is said to have reached out to Burton at this point as something of an intervention; "Do you want to be a great actor or a household name?" "Both", was the younger, blither man's reply.

Then, a funny thing happened. For a brief time Burton began to take the whole damn biz seriously again. He delivered a terrific perf in John Huston's adap of Tennessee Williams' NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, and followed it up with the title role in BECKET, co-starring with fellow drinking bud Peter O'Toole. This critical and commercial hit streak was capped off by the perf that should've finally won the actor his well-deserved Oscar, cast according to type as Liz Taylor's henpecked husband in Mike Nichols' WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, but Paul Scofield had a little something to say about that, and snagged the little gold guy for his turn as Thomas More in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS. The real gem amongst these efforts, what might arguably be the most autobiographical of his perfs, sometimes gets lost in this mix, as it's the least showy of his roles. But the peek inside the soul, or lack thereof, of a man whose only designation in this world is as player in a larger game, actor who can never shed his mask, gives Burton's audience a rare insight into his fears, his paranoia, the nattering demons that ate away at his confidence and talent over the years and left the botttle his only and best friend. Secrets buried deep, guilt over poor choices, the increasing loss of identity as occupation encompasses all; there's little difference, some might observe, between the life of a dramatic actor and a spy, especially in the age of all-consuming never-ending celebrity scrutiny. The eye is the sky is watching us all. There are, thankfully, several examples of Burton's genius in an otherwise forgettable CV, but his genuine cry for understanding, perhaps even help, might have come as the anti-hero in Martin Ritt's adap of ace espionage scribe John Le Carre's 1st masteriece. And hey, even if I'm reading too much into the flick, it remains a damn gripping Cold War yarn, with a coupl'a twists that'll floor ya. Whaddaya say, let's get nostalgic for Eastern Bloc paranoia? Who's in?

 

Martin Ritt's THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD screens tonight at the Rubin Museum as part of their Cabaret Cinema series. As usual the price of a drink secures you a ticket to the screening lounge, but these things tend to fill up quickly so make sure you get there early. And tip, ya bastidz.

 

For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in November '13 click the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. And be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter! Back tomorrow with another go 'round, til then make sure you chew your food and set a good example for the other kids. Excelsior.

 

-Joe Walsh

joew@nitratestock.net