November 30th 2013. Pick Of The Day.
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Lo, how the annual Thanksgiving holiday promise so quickly dissipates, beginning with the invigorating promise of family and food well met and in amounts copious, and so quickly plummeting to expectations of couch, blanket and whatever sports and movie marathon enrichment our televisions may offer. It is, after all, November cold outside, and them leftovers ain't gonna eat themselves. However, there are intrepid souls amongst you who I refuse to believe will designate these concerns for anything other than your utter scoff. SCOFF, mesez! And anyway you know those turkey/cranberry/mashed potato/stuffing/gravy/biscuit sandwiches will certainly be as delicious tomorrow as they are today. Perhaps eminently more digestable after a day of movies n' Tums. Just sayin'. The lowdown, as it were;
IFC Center
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) Dir; George Roy Hill
TAXI DRIVER (1976) Dir; Martin Scorsese
Film Forum
MAUVAIS SANG (1986) Dir; Leos Carax
Anthology Film Archives
RAN (1985) Dir; Akira Kurosawa
MACBETH (1971) Dir; Roman Polanski
Nitehawk Cinema
SERPICO (1973) Dir; Sidney Lumet
AMERICAN HIPPIE IN ISRAEL (1972) Dir; Amos Sefer
Today's Pick? The IFC's morning and midnight Butch n' Travis combo snagged my vote very recently. True as well for Kurosawa's RAN and Lumet's SERPICO, at the Anthology Film Archives and Nitehawk Cinema respectively. I'm left with the arthouse indulgence of Leos Carax, the Grand Guinol leanings of Roman Polanski, and the grindhouse bent of Amos Sefer. Whattodowhattodowhattodo...?
So my choice today is Leos Carax's MAUVAIS SANG, screening all day at the Film Forum, a choice that surprises me as well as you. Having seen my first of his films earlier this year (2012's HOLY MOTORS) I remain unmoved by his technique and unconvinced of his bearing. Which only serves to incentivize a Cinegeek like myself to explore further. So I'll fall back on that investigative spirit and attend with an open set of wide eyes tonight for this allegorical tale of future sex in a puritanical age of deadly man-made STD's. I did say future, right...?
For all the info regarding this last day of NYC's classic screenings in November '13 click on 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 the year's final month, December 2013, in classic film screenings. Til then be safe and sound and enjoy the 5th day of Thankukkah! Mazel tov, Knucks!
-Joe Walsh
