March 2014! Hitchcock Begets Truffaut, Walsh Begets Scorsese, and MoMA Screens the Greatest Film Ever Made. Try Me.

We've made it to the third month of this relatively still-new year. Aside from losing, at an alarming rate, some of the most beloved talent the movie industry has ever known, I'm hoping we've all made it through this miserable, grim, dank and dour winter thus far with only mild wear and tear. Is the irony lost on all but me that last year at this time, when Bergman was screening on a seemingly weekly basis, the weather was so much less Bergmanesque?

Ahem.

The repertory circuit's finally getting warmed up, even if the city isn't. Many great series to be found, but I can confer Big Dawg status upon only one, so I gotta toss March's Daily Growl to Film Forum's comprehensive The Complete Hitchcock, which kicked off at last month's end and runs through to the 27th. Gems like NORTH BY NORTHWEST and SABOTEUR have alreday screened, but upcoming are some big entries in Big Al's CV, pictures like NOTORIOUS, THE 39 STEPS, REAR WINDOW, PSYCHO, and the current champ of Sight and Sound's film poll VERTIGO. I'm not particularly a fan of the latter work, but every snarky jackass who took to the internet to lambaste the legendary Kim Novak during Sunday's Oscar ceremony should be made to attend a screening of her lone Hitchcock film, just to see what all the fuss is still about.

Also screening as part of the series is The Hitchcock 9, the expensive, exhaustive DCP spit-shine of Hitch's nine surviving silent films, courtesy of the BFI and Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation. Even if you've seen these films before countless times, trust me, you haven't really seen them til you view them in their new crisp, undamaged iterations. You get til May 4th to avail yourself of the experience.

Month's end sees the Forum begin a follow-up to their Hitchcock series, the equally completist Tout Truffaut, lauding the legendary Francois with screenings of his entire CV, beginning with his landmark work of the Nouvelle Vague THE 400 BLOWS and ending with 1983's CONFIDENTIALLY YOURS. Scheduled as a series within a series is Truffaut's Antione Doinel cycle, which saw the director reunite with Jean-Pierre Leaud, his 400 BLOWS star, to revisit his iconic alter ego in the films ANTOINE AND COLETTE, STOLEN KISSES, BED AND BOARD, and LOVE ON THE RUN. The back-to-backing of the two massive series are designed to commemorate the landmark film text Hitchcock/Truffaut, the edited transcript of years of audio interviews the younger director (and one time Cahiers Du Cinema scribe) conducted with the older auteur. Leave it to chief rep programmer Bruce Goldstein and co. to be this successfully cheeky.

Also at the Forum is a one-week booking of Andrei Tarkovsky's NOSTALGHIA in a rare 35mm print. Hilarity will surely ensue.

A little further uptown at MoMA their Vienna Unveiled: A City in Film also proceeds apace, having begun late last month. A celebration of the Austrian Film Museum's golden jubilee, and prepared in conjunction with that esteemed institution, the series explores the city in ways both mythic and tangibly realistic, with standout works ranging from Erich Von Stroheim's MERRY-GO-ROUND, Max Ophuls' LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN and LA RONDE, Billy Wilder's THE EMPEROR WALTZ, Ernst Lubitch's THE MARRIAGE CIRCLE, and Carol Reed's THE THIRD MAN, the greatest film ever made. Suck it Sight and Sound.

Also at MoMA their excellent Auteurist History of Film contnues this month with screenings of Joseph Losey's THE SERVANT, Michael Roemer's NOTHING BUT A MAN, Robert Rossen's THE HUSTLER, and Bo Widerberg's RAVEN'S END. One of the great ongoing resources for the NYC film fanatic, try to take advantage.

Across the pond at Astoria's gleaming Museum of the Moving Image their See It Big! series resumes with a focus on big screen comedies, and there isn't a dud to be found. From Buster Keaton's masterful display of physical slapstick in SEVEN CHANCES, to the more refined tomfoolery of Ernst Lubitch's TROUBLE IN PARADISE, to a swell co-mingling of both sensibilities in Billy Wilder's SOME LIKE IT HOT, whether technically, visually splendid or simply worth a communal viewing every title demands your attendance, and is guaranteed to threaten the busting of your gut. My personal pick from this series was gonna be Spielberg's wonderfully anarchic 1941, a one-time guilty pleasure I have since shed all abash over. However the untimely passing of comic genius Harold Ramis makes the Sunday 3/30 screenings of ANIMAL HOUSE and GHOSTBUSTERS essential viewing. Thanks for the laughs, Mr. R.

Also at MoMI this month is the weekend series Hotels on Film, featuring iconic cinematic transient-friendly edifices from such memorable works as Ingmar Bergman's THE SILENCE, Edmund Goulding's GRAND HOTEL, and Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING, the worst ski resort ad ever that never seems to STOP screening in our movie-mad metropolis. There's also a top notch museum that is absolute heroin for the film and tv fanatic attached to the screening space, and ten bucks gains your admittance to the whole megillah. Show this joint some love.

In Queens County's sister borough of King's County (I can feminize Brooklyn, I'm a Bronx kid) BAM's Cinematek offers up two great series; Under the Influence: Scorsese/Walsh, which expores the impact the latter auteur had on our beloved Marty, and The Music of Morricone, which pretty much needs no explanation (actually they might explain why the series is so woefully short, but hey, who's complaining?). The Raoul Walsh fun includes classics of the gangster film genre like THE ROARING TWENTIES and WHITE HEAT, and boxing biopic GENTLEMAN JIM. Scorsese hijinks include pseudo-western TAXI DRIVER, Freed-unit movie musical revisit NEW YORK, NEW YORK, and boxing psychodrama RAGING BULL. The Morricone love extends only as far as Gillo Pontecorvo's THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS, Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, and John Carpenter's THE THING. Try picking your fave outta that trio.

Also at BAM this month is the slowly winding down booking of Czech masterpiece MARKETA LAZAROVA, the tale of feuding feudal clans (what were the odds?) in Middle Ages Prague, and the Michael Curtiz rethink of Hemingway's To Have and Have Not, 1950's THE BREAKING POINT, starring John Garfield and Patricia Neal. And Jacques Demy's musical masterpiece THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG gets a one-night only on March 7th. Oh, I heart BAM incredibly.

Back on our more civilzed side of the strait that lovable reminder of NYC's Grindhouse era, the Anthology Film Archives, unpacks two very worthy film series; Overdue, which this month focuses on the incredibly underrated director Richard Fleischer, and Auteurs Gone Wild, examining instances when prominent directors eschewed their particluar niche to explore beyond their wheelhouse. The Fleischer series, while leaving out some of the filmmaker's more prominent work (NARROW MARGIN, COMPLUSION, FANTASTIC VOYAGE, SOYLENT GREEN), still provides a healthy serving of his finer moments, from TRAPPED to 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA to THE NEW CENTURIONS. While perhaps no auteur Fleischer, who apprenticed at his father Max and uncle Dave's animation studio (you might've heard of them), possesses an eclectic and, in some cases, groundbreaking CV. Glad to see him get some cinegeek love for a change.

AFA's Auteurs Gone Wild series boasts some nutty koo-koo work from the likes of Henry Hathaway (PETER IBBETSON), Charlie Chaplin (A WOMAN FROM HONG KONG), Alfred Hitchcock (UNDER CAPRICORN), and mah boy Fritz Lang (YOU AND ME). Interesting to see artists of individual voice adopting the tenor of their felllow filmmakers, and to see which particular genres/subjects beyond their own intrigued them so. I kid the AFA, but the esteemed Casa de Mekas truly is an essential rep house for the NYC film communtiy. Patronize this venue every chance you get. The guy who likes to bring his own mattress will rent it for a reasonable fee.

The French Institute/Alliance Francais winds down their currect CineSalon series with screenings of Jean-Pierre Melville's TWO MEN IN MANHATTAN, Claire Denis' CHOCOLAT and the exceptional Henri-Georges Clouzot's THE TRUTH. Each film in the series is followed by a post-screening reception/discussion. This is one of the better kept secrets amongst the Cinegeek set in the five boroughs that I'd like to make a little less secret. Getchyer Gallic on!

In other goings on about town, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has scheduled a weeklong run of the recently departed Nouvelle Vague titan Alain Resnais' LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD. Finally saw it for the first time last year. Ahem.

The incredibly anti-social IFC Center (well that's my experience, anyway) has quite a lineup planned for the month, midnight screenings including such gems as Brian De Palma's DRESSED TO KILL and Bob Rafelson's BLACK WIDOW, part of the 80's & 90's Erotic Thrillers series, and David Lynch's ERASERHEAD and surprise of surprises Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING. Deja vu, Lloyd.

The Rubin Museum's swank Cabaret Cinema series concludes their current Mind Over Matter series this month with screenings of Hitchcock's NORTH BY NORTHWEST (Deja Deja Vu!), Terrence Malick's DAYS OF HEAVEN, John Boorman's DELIVERANCE, and Billy Wilder's A FOREIGN AFFAIR. A ten buck bar tab gains you admission to this exceedingly cool screening space and its attendant resonant guest speakers. Apparently there's a museum surrounding this joint that I'll have to check out one day.

Over at the Japan Society they extend their Donald Richie trib into a new series, Richie's Electric Eight: The Bold and the Daring. Titles enticing but heretofore unknown to me include Shusuke Kaneko's SUMMER VACATION 1999, Yoshitaro Nomura's CHASE, and Nagisa Oshima's THE CEREMONY. If not for Donald Richie we'd probably none of us be aware of these films. A year on we miss him still.

The New York Historical Society has a couple of excellent treats in store this month; legendary actress/filmmaker Lee Grant intro's a screening of Sidney Lumet's THE VERDICT on the 21st, and Susan Lacy, creator and exec producer of PBS' American Masters series will moderate a discussion of Willam Wyler's THE LETTER on the 28th. Who sez history's boring?

Midnights at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema this month include gems just outside this site's 25-year age requirements, but among them are master animator Hayao Miyazaki's SPIRITED AWAY and KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE. Just thought I'd explain why these films aren't included in this article. Waitaminnit...

And finally the goods to be had at my fave new movie theater in the 5 boroughs, B-Burg's Nitehawk Cinema, include whackjob midnight fare like Robert Greenwald's XANADU, George Miller' MAD MAX, and Sidney Lumet's THE WIZ (that cred never fails to perplex), and brunchtime cinematic suppings like Ron Howard's SPLASH, Jim Henson and Frank Oz's THE DARK CRYSTAL, and Jim Henson's solo outing LABYRINTH. Other noteworthy shenanigans at the 'Hawk include Rene Daalder's MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH as part of their grindhouse pean The Deuce, Orson Welles' MACBETH, unspooling in glorious 35mm as part of the VICE/Film Foundation series, and Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND, repping the venue's Art Seen program. Plus tots n' rot beer. I'm consistent.

That would seem to be that for the moment, but the NYC repertory film sked changes constantly, so keep checking this site and like/join the Facebook/Twitter feeds for updates, changes and general unruly behavior. Back tomorrow with a new daily Pick, til then safe, sound, look out for the next knucklehead too! Excelsior!

-Joe Walsh

JoeW@NitrateStock.net