March 22nd 2014. 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.
Today's continuing series include The Complete Hitchcock at Film Forum, The Music of Morricone at BAM, See it Big! Comedies at the Museum of the Moving Image, Auteurs Gone Wild at Anthology Film Archives, and Richie's Electric Eight: The Bold and the Daring at the Japan Society. The rep circuit Mexican standoff appears as follows;
Film Forum
PSYCHO (1960) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
THE BIRDS (1963) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
BAM Cinematek
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968) Dir; Sergio Leone
Museum of the Moving Image
HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1943) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
Anthology Film Archives
A WOMAN OF PARIS (1922) Dir; Charlie Chaplin
A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG (1967) Dir; Charlie Chaplin
UNDER CAPRICORN (1949) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
Japan Society
PROFOUND DESIRE OF THE GODS (1968) Dir; Shohei Imamura
IFC Center
BLACK WIDOW (1987) Dir; Bob Rafelson
ERASERHEAD (1977) Dir; David Lynch
Nitehawk Cinema
THE WIZ (1979) Dir; Sidney Lumet
Today's Pick? What is regarded by some to be the finest 3-plus hours Spaghetti Western founder Sergio Leone ever committed to Techniscope; 1968's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Charles Bronson, assuming Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name role (actually he's referred to as "Harmonica") plays a cat-and-mouse game, motives mysterious, with Henry Fonda's soulless assassin, the latter employed by the railroads to remove any obstacles to their expansion. Jason Robards, in essence filling the ugly shoes to Bronson's good and Fonda's bad, plays capable sometimes-partner to the secretive stranger, while Claudia Cardinale's ex-hooker slowly discovers her role in the complex proceedings.
It was and is a thrilling experience for any film fan to watch as Leone's style became more and more ambitious and baroque film by film; the great Morricone's music growing more complex and eloquent, the long camera takes taking longer, the plots and motivations more elaborate, until by the time of OUATITW it's almost completely removed from the category of Horse Opera and is now genuine goddam opera. No further evidence need be referenced than Morricone's use of individual character theme, and the way he interweaves them slowly in scenes they share, until three and even four themes are seamlessly overlapping to complement and heighten the drama onscreen. As this film unspools as part of a series honoring the great film composer I think it only appropriate to attend if only to experience the score, first and foremost, in the venue intended. It's one of the most majestic ever concieved for the movie screen, right up there with Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score for THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD and Maurice Jarre's for LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. Also the accompanying film's pretty nifty too. Whatehvz, get yer ass to BAM.
Sergio Leone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST screens all day today at BAM Cinematek as part of the series The Music of Morricone.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in March '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 tomorrow with a brand new Pick, til then the other day I saw three dusters like that. Inside the dusters were three men. Inside the men were three bullets. Cue harmonica.
-Joe Walsh
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.
