December 17th 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.
The good news? Looks like we're comin' out of the 17 degree deep freeze by the weekend. The bad news? IT'S NOT EVEN TECHNICALLY WINTER YET! I BLAME THE MAYANS! THEY SCREWED UP THE WHOLE CALENDAR!
Ahem.
Ongoing series today include Film Forum's trib to Hollywood legend Babz Stanwyck, the Film Society's month-long appreciation of the great studio-era helmer George Cukor, MoMA's celebration of American quirk Our Town: Baltimore, Anthology Film Archives' revisit of Delmer Daves' CV, the French Institute's Max Linder retrospective, and the Nitehawk Cinema's Film Foundation series. The doings be as follows;
IFC Center
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) Dir; Frank Capra
Film Forum
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955) Dir; Nicholas Ray
A MESSAGE TO GARCIA (1936) Dir; George Marshall
BANJO ON MY KNEE (1936) Dir; John Cromwell
Film Society of Lincoln Center
CAMILLE (1936) Dir; George Cukor
KEEPER OF THE FLAME (1942) Dir; George Cukor
THE BABY/ MAGNUM FORCE (1973) Dir; Ted Post
PERSONA (1966) Dir; Ingmar Bergman
THE PASSION OF ANNA (1969) Dir; Ingmar Bergman
MoMA
TIN MEN (1987) Dir; Barry Levinson
FEMALE TROUBLE (1974) Dir; John Waters
Anthology Film Archives
YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE (1964) Dir; Delmer Daves
THE HANGING TREE (1959) Dir; Delmer Daves
French Institute/Alliance Francais
YOYO (1965) Dir; Pierre Etaix
Nitehawk Cinema
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955) Dir; Charles Laughton
Today's Pick? There's a lot to be said for the talent on display today, both behind and before the lenses. Lord knows the dueling tribs twixt Film Forum and the Film Society, repping Stanwyck and Cukor respectively, would normally be enough to contend with, without the likes of Capra's masterpiece and holiday mainstay, Barry Levinson's finest two hours, and Nick Ray's big bold beautiful valentine to teen angst also jockeying for pole position today. I must however, go with the only director among the pack today to begin and end his directorial career with a batting average of 1.000. That's because, as you probably well know, he only made the one film. But BOY is it a doozy. The tale of a murderous preacher venting his sexual frustrations on unsuspecting widows, of innocents sent forth into a nightmare landscape in search of a loyal guardian, of a pure soul who stands face to face with the world's worst evil, the bully, and reduces him to the clown status he so richly deserves. In short, the tale of love and hate. Sprawled, in Stanley Cortez's deep, gorgeous B&W cinematography, across perhaps filmdom's most famous set of tatooed knuckles.
Charles Laughton's THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER screens tonight at the Nitehawk Cinema as part of their Film Foundation series, presented by VICE magazine. This series has quickly become one of the most essential and rewarding monthly events for the NYC Cinegeek, offering pristine 35mm prints of some of the most big-screen worthy efforts from the medium's history. Plus, as I never get tired of trumpeting, some of the best tater tots this side of tatertotparadiseville. It's on the map. I checked.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic screenings in December '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 a new Pick, til then do yer best to stay in Santa's Nice column and assist the other children toward the same goal. Excelsior!
-Joe Walsh
