January 2nd 2014. Pick of the Day.

Continuing series today include Film Forum's Chaplin trib celebrating the Tramp's centennial, the last days of the Film Society's George Cukor retrospective, and MoMA's ongoing Auteurist History of Film. The lowdown as follows;

IFC Center

MY NEIGHBOR TORTORO (1988) Dir; Hiyao Miyazaki

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) Dir; Stanley Kubrick

MoMA

HUD (1963) Dir; Martin Ritt

Film Forum

CHAPLIN AT FIRST NATIONAL (1918-23)

CHAPLIN AT ESSANAY (1915)

Film Society of Lincoln Center

THE VIRTUOUS SIN (1930) Dir; George Cukor

TARNISHED LADY (1931) Dir; George Cukor

GIRLS ABOUT TOWN (1931) Dir; George Cukor

Today's Pick? I'm going with the last screening of animation legend Hayao Miyazaki's classic MY NEIGHBOR TORTORO over at IFC Center. Between Disney's heyday and the resurrection of animated entertainment in the early 90's, fueled by THE SIMPSONS, MTV's REN & STIMPY and LIQUID TV, and the resurgence of the Mosue House under Jeffrey Katzenberg with THE LITTLE MERMAID, toon-based frivolity experienced something of a lull to put it nicely. By the 60's and 70's most of the legendary animation from Hollywood had become stricly kid fodder, when once masters like Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and the Fleischer Brothers created with both children and adults in mind. Ralph Bakshi helped fill the creative void somewhat but he certainly never had the kiddie audience in mind when making FRITZ THE CAT and COONSKIN. Japanimation, as it was lovingly called, was the only true source during that period for ink-and-paint based entertainment that appealed to both childish and adult tastes, TV series like STAR BLAZERS and G-FORCE prime examples of the type of broad melodrama that hooked them both. On the big screen, though, there was one man who did more to solidify the status of Japanimation in the annals of World Cinema.

Hayao Miyazaki's first true love was the Japanese comic book, or manga, and prepped for a career in that medium until he saw THE TALE OF THE WHITE SERPENT when he was 16. After graduating from Gakushuin University he found a job at Toei Animation as an" in-between artsist", basically creating the fill-in frames between the master cells finished by the studio's chief animators. 15 years later he directed his first film, the classic THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO, and his sophomore effort, NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, was based on his own manga series. Flush with the success of these two films he took his biggest step yet and founded Studio Ghibli, Japan's most highly esteemed and influential animation studio, and the films that followed, works like CASTLE IN THE SKY, KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE, PRINCESS MONONOKE & SPIRITED AWAY, have fostered comparisons not only with Big Walt himself but with live-action fantasy masters like Lucas and Spielberg, with epic filmmaking titans David Lean and Akira Kurosawa, with groundbreakers like Melies and Griffith. Miyazaki's creative gifts and seemingly inexhaustive imagination are wonders to behold on any screen, to be sure, but his CV is one of the very rare that you haven't truly seen if you've never attended a big screen unspooling. Yeah, it's January 2nd, it's cold and snowy and the screening's at 11:10 friggin' A.M. in the morning, but you could choose so many much worse ways to get 2014 rolling.

For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in 2014 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 brand spankin' new Pick, til then don't buy any Brooklyn Bridges and pass said wisdom on to the other kids!

-Joe Walsh

joew@nitratestock.net