December 12th 2013. Pick of the Day.

My outer-body self will assume the duties of typing out the daily offerings to be had on the rep film circuit, as my corporeal self snoozes soundly beneath the fleece sheets provided by his friendly neighborhood Kmart on this 4,000 Kelvin below day.

New and continuing series include Film Forum's extensive month-long trib to Barbara Stanwyck, the Film Society's final sayonara of 2103 to master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, the Silent Clowns getting up to their old pre-talkie antics once more, Anthology Film Archives' revisit of their Delmer Daves retrospective, MoMA's Our Town: Baltimore, and the Japan Society's folded-hand bow to recently passed essayist and cinematic scholar Donald Richie. Here be the exacts;

IFC Center

THEY LIVE (1988) Dir; John Carpenter

Film Forum

THE FILE ON THELMA JORDAN (1950) Dir; Robert Siodmak

THE TWO MRS. CARROLLS (1947) Dir; Peter Godfrey

Film Society of Lincoln Center

EQUINOX FLOWER (1958) Dir; Yasujiro Ozu

AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON (1962) Dir; Yasujiro Ozu

SRANGER THAN PARADISE (1984) Dir; Jim Jarmusch

Library for the Performing Arts

PAYDAY/SEVEN AGES (1922/1923) Dirs; Charlie Chaplin/Edward F. Cline

A presentation of The Silent Clowns Film Series.

Anthology Film Archives

THE HANGING TREE (1959) Dir; Delmer Daves

A SUMMER PLACE (1959) Dir; Delmer Daves

MoMA

DINER (1982) Dir; Barry Levinson

Japan Society

LATE AUTUMN (1960) Dir; Yasujiro Ozu

Nitehawk Cinema

EATEN ALIVE (1977) Dir; Tobe Hooper

Today's Pick? Much as I'd love to hang the lantern on the Japan Society and all its wonderful efforts to share with us its culture not merely cinematic (though that's honestly all I'm concerned with), and as great a kick I get out of celebrating the efforts of Ben Model/Bruce Lawton/Steve Massa, aka The Silent Clowns, as they routinely offer deep cuts from the voiceless era, I'm gonna go with a Pick today at once in tune with our current street vibe wintry, yet warm with the soul of the city. Barry Levinson may not have consciously modeled his feature writing/directing debut on past efforts like Fellini's I VITELLONI or Lucas' AMERICAN GRAFFITI, works that achingly strove to recreate a time and place in the near-distant past, and which also served as the breakthrough efforts of their respective creators, but yeah nah I'm not even gonna pretend of course he consciously knew it.

But so what?

Capturing with lighting, celluloid, actors eager to both hit and make their mark, this perfectly, especially in your frosh effort, the setting, atmosphere and character of that point where your adolescence must either become your manhood or remain frozen in state, Levinson proved a fresh young voice (at age 40 and the screenwriting creds for SILENT MOVIE and HIGH ANXIETY under his notch-added belt) in what would become an increasingly harsh environment for individual creativity in the post-New Hollywood era. Indeed, Levinson's accomplishment might be all the more impressive for its time and place; both Fellini and Lucas had cultural upheaval to help ferry their works through the system. It makes it all the more impressive that Levinson's film about minute moments of soul and self came to be, and once more Pauline Kael was to thank for saving the flick from an otherwise unseemly obscurity. It may be the best film about adult procrastination ever concieved, and it very definitely burnishes the shine on 20th century American nostalgia in ways few films can boast. Indeed, Xmas never looked so C'MON!!!

Barry Levinson's DINER unspools tonight at MoMA. Feel free to join me for the screening. Just don't offer me any popcorn.

For more info on these and all NYC's classic screenings in the last month of 2013 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 a new Pick! Til then be safe and sound and make sure the next knucklehead is too! Excelsior!

-Joe Walsh

joew@nitratestock.net