February 7th 2014. Pick of the Day.

I sense today a disturbance in NYC's rep film circuit, as if a thousand souls cried out at once and said HEY WINTER BLOW THIS ARCTIC TAKEOVER OF OUR MOVIE MAD METROPOLIS OUT YER TAILPIPE! Or some such invective. Anyway we got a lotta great classic cinema to choose from should you be bold enough to venture past your couch. New and continuing series today include both the winding-down Roadshow: the Fall of Film Musicals in the 60's and the ongoing Auteurist History of Film at MoMA, BAM's awesome Vengeance is Hers, the Film Society's Martin Scorsese Presents: Masterpieces of Polish Cinema, Museum of the Moving Image's See It Big! Musicals, and the Rubin Museum's swellagant Cabaret Cinema. The hijinks be thus;

Film Forum

ALPHAVILLE (1965) Dir; Jean-Luc Godard

MoMA

BLACK GIRL (1966) Dir; Ousmane Sembene

CABARET (1972) Dir; Bob Fosse

MANILA IN THE CLAWS OF LIGHT (1975) Dir; Lino Brocka

BAM

MEDEA (1969) Dir; Pier Paolo Pasolini

MS.45 (1981) Dir; Abel Ferara

Film Society of Lincoln Center

THE ILLUMINATION (1973) Dir; Krzsyztof Zanussi

CAMOUFLAGE (1977) Dir; Krzsyztof Zanussi

EROICA (1958) Dir; Andrzej Munk

New York Historical Society

THE RED SHOES (1948) Dirs; Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Museum of the Moving Image

THE WIZ (1978) Dir; Sidney Lumet

Rubin Museum

MY LEFT FOOT (1989) Dir; Jim Sheridan

Nitehawk Cinema

SHOGUN ASSASSIN (1980) Dir; Robert Houston

Today's Pick? I'm sorely tempted by elevated grindhouse fare, like BAM's screening of Ferrara's MS.45 and the Nitehawk's sword-'n-stroller classic SHOGUN ASSASSIN, but the Rubin Museum's presenting one of my mainstream faves, a film that not merely tugs on my 2nd gen Irish-American heartstrings but also introduced me properly to one of our era's greatest actors, in perhaps the career-defining role he still hasn't bested. Daniel Day-Lewis is that rarest and most celebrated of creatures in the acting world; an honest-to-god maniac who employs said status to elevate his craft to its very peaks, rather than allow it to transform genuine promise to bad will and tabloid fodder. There is something embedded deep in the man's eyes that tells you, whether he's embodying the birth of the modern oil industry or essaying the gentle wisdom of our nation's greatest president, that something's just a bit, well, off about this man. And I mean that as an accolade. Few men in the history of filmed performance can lay claim to this ability to so subsume native self in service of assigned role. He has chosen more and more to exercise this talent sparingly, solely for projects that seemingly fan the flames of this ability. The first real example of this maniac gift, though, dates back 25 years, as the promise Day-Lewis displayed in Stephen Frears' MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE and Phil Kaufman's THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING was put to its fullest test; the portrayal of real-life Irish writer and painter Christy Brown, who managed to achieve greatness in the art world despite, perhaps in spite of, his cerebral palsy. Day-Lewis dove deep into his brand of method acting and absolutley assumed the soul of Brown onscreen. It was, and remains, remarkable; I'd nearly go as far as to say miraculous. Empathy is the most important tool any actor has to work with, and Day-Lewis' ability to convey this man Christy Brown to the movie audience, flaws and all, has few peers. As does the actor.

As a quick anecdote I like to repeat regarding this film, several years ago, in the wake of Day-Lewis' Oscar win for THERE WILL BE BLOOD, I was engaged in a heated debate over the screen acting ranks circa '07, with a few people declaring Johnny Depp the best working actor. While I count myself a huge fan of Depp's I argued only a select few actors had the chops, the gravitas of the great thesps of the 70's, the Pacinos and De Niros and Nicholsons and Hackmans and Voights, to name but a few. I nominated Day-Lewis for inclusion in these ranks and was soundly derided, for reasons I have yet to fathom. Several days later these same friends stopped by my place while I was re-watching MY LEFT FOOT, and somewhere about the middle of the film they asked me where the filmmakers found a handicapped actor of such great abiltity. Here endeth the lesson.

Jim Sheridan's MY LEFT FOOT screens tonight at the Rubin Museum as part of their Cabaret Cinema series. As usual a $10 bar tab snags you a free tik to the museum's swank screening space, but seats fill up quickly so be sure to get there early.

For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in February '14 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. And be sure to follow me on both Facebook, where I provide further info and esoterica on the rep film circuit and star birthdays, and Twitter, where I provide a daily feed for the day's screenings and other blathery. Back with a brand new Pick tomorrow, til then quick rule of thumb; if the guy on the non-partitioned toilet next to yours is fuming over your squalid bathroom conditions, you're probably an Olympic athelete in Sochi. Or a houseguest of Dick Cheney.

-Joe Walsh

joew@nitratestock.net

P. S. Should you be feeling charitable during this harsh weather period please remember to check in with the good folks over at Occupy Sandy. Some of our NY neighbors are still feeling the effects of last year's hurricane. Be a mensch.