DECEMBER 2012! MAX VON SYDOW, JEAN LOUIS TRINTIGNANT AND PIER PAOLO PASOLINI! IT MUST BE CHRISTMASTIME!

Wait! Don't stop reading! There actually is a whole slew of Xmas cheer on the revival circuit this month, in the form of Dickens adaptations, perennial holiday faves and Jimmy Stewart finding Zuzu's petals. I just couldn't resist noting the coincidence of concurrently booked tributes to bleak unspooling this holiday season at BAM, Film Forum and MOMA. So if you happen to run into Charles Silver or Bruce Goldstein, hugs. Trust.

Speaking of Dickens let's start with this month's rep champ. MOMA has two great comprehensive retrospectives programmed, one dedicated to traditional melodrama from one of its great practitioners, the other not so much. Dickens On Film kicks off on Thursday the 20th with the Claude Rains starrer THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, based on the author's unfinished sleuthing yarn. The series features more obscure silent and foreign versions of Dickens' best known works, which is pretty much all of them, as well as the more memorable Hollywood versions such as Jack Conway's A TALE OF TWO CITIES and the consecutive masterpieces from David Lean GREAT EXPECTATIONS and OLIVER TWIST. And of course, Alastiar Sim's CHRISTMAS CAROL is repped. You can't go wrong catching virtually every film in this series.

The same goes for MOMA's other series, though the drama is, to be kind, less conventional. Even today the work of Pier Paolo Pasolini stirs up fiery emotions from film fans and the art world in general. A homosexual teen coming of age in Mussolini's Italy, Pasolini had a harsh yet very humanistic take on society, its hypocrisy as well as its fragile soul. What other secular artist would film an ode to the gospels without an ounce of irony? All of the director's key works both documentary and dramatic, such as debut THE SCROUNGER, LOVE MEETINGS, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW, MAMMA ROMA and the still divisive and provocative SALO, screen as part of this comprehensive series dedicted to an important artist and his tumultous times.

Anthology Film Archives has given us some very strong repertory programming in 2012, and they close out the year with two more excellent series, one dedicated to the men behind the movies and one to a particular grizzled mug that thankfully graced our screens for over 50 years. First up is the return of AFA's continuing series From The Pen Of, focusing on screenwriters and their themes, this time out highlighting the work of W.D. Richter (BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA), Alexander Jacobs (POINT BLANK), Waldo Salt (SERPICO), and Frank Pierson (DOG DAY AFTERNOON).

Ben Gazzara didn't reach the heights of some of his fellow postwar Actors Studio alum, but he remained an intruiging and commanding screen presence for the duration of his career that spanned classics of the waning studio era as well as some of the most important independent cinema of the century's latter half. AFA has assembled a generous sampling of the great actor's screen perfs, from Otto Preminger's classic ANATOMY OF A MURDER, through the Cassavetes-era experiments HUSBANDS and THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE, to later memorable collaborations with Petey Bogs SAINT JACK and THEY ALL LAUGHED. All worth your attendance.

Over the river in Astoria's Museum of the Moving Image two more notable series unspool in the cultural mecca's newly renovated screening space. Which is awesome by the by. The Cinema and its Doubles focuses on the celluloid doppelganger, and offers gems like John Ford's THE WHOLE TOWN'S TALKING, featuring the freakin' awesome Edward G. Robinson as a bank clerk AND his look-alike hood. Other entries include Bunuel's THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE, David Cronenberg's creepfest DEAD RINGERS, and the tour de force perf that bests them all; Jerry Lewis' uber-geek Julius Kelp and nightclub monster Buddy Love in THE NUTTY PROFESSOR. Try me.

The doppelganger to this MOMI program is their See It Big series, simply a selection of films chosen for their big-screen worthiness, which is the point of this whole damn site to begin wth. The unmissbale entries this month include Marcel Carne's CHILDREN OF PARADISE, Douglas Sirk's ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, Ingmar Bergman's FANNY AND ALEXANDER, Otto Preminger's BONJOUR TRISTESSE, and Federico Fellini's masterpiece LA DOLCE VITA! Why you'd miss any of these I cannot fathom. Mebbe you got a life or something.

Film Forum's got a lot goin' on. None of which includes seat size enlargement. I kid. Their major retrospective this cheery month focuses on the equally cheery Jean Louis Trintignant, one of the most important stars of the French New Wave. About as comprehensive as any JLT tribute could be, all the major works are repped, from early efforts like AND GOD CREATED WOMAN and IL SORPASSO, to seminal mid-career works like A MAN AND A WOMAN, Z and THE CONFORMIST, to late-innings triumphs in RENDEZ-VOUZ and THREE COLORS: RED, the full breath of his influence and importance is on display. Plus, I once saw him smile. Honest. Why will no one believe?

The Forum's Douglas Fairbanks retrospective also proceeds apace this month screening every Monday, and a few Sundays, with piano by Steve Sterner accompanying all shows. This month the big guns come out; Fairbanks' adventure classic ROBIN HOOD, which I'm pretty sure was seen by a certain Michael Curtiz, as well as THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, DF's masterpiece, featuring William Cameron Menzies' awe-inspiring production design as well as the most state of the art effects work 1924 had to offer. THIEF screens for a full week. Take advantage. Other highlights of the retrospective include DON Q, SON OF ZORRO and the comedies WHEN THE CLOUDS ROLL BY and FLIRTING WITH FATE.

Individual revivals at the Forum include Roman Polanski's guilty plea TESS, starring mitigating factor Nastassja Kinski, Sergio Corbucci's seminal Spaghetti Western DJANGO, and the only pairing, sadly, of Great Garbo and Ernst Lubitsch, NINOTCHKA, which, for a change, is screening in a BRAND NEW 35mm PRINT! HALLELLOO SEZ MOI!!!

Back across the East River BAM throws down the bitter wintry gauntlet in a seasonal gesture to movie fans, offering a retrospective to that great cinematic Swedish import, or Spruce Goose as I lovingly refer to him, the mighty Max Von Sydow, who as I love to point out has played everybody from Jesus and Father Merrin to Blofeld and Ming! Fuck with that, whydontchya? The series is in progress as I type, and upcoming gems include Hollywod hits THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR and THE EXORCIST, as well as international art house fare THE EMIGRANTS, THE NEW LAND and DESERT OF THE TARTARS. Oddities include STRANGE BREW and DUNE. Flat out awful consists of NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN. Maxie rules.

BAM has also cobbled together an eclectic holiday fest. Home For The Holidays features Joe Dante's GREMLINS, Vincente Minelli's MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, John Waters' FEMALE TROUBLE, somebodymadeit's SILENT NIGHT, BLOODY NIGHT and John Huston's final film THE DEAD. Every kind of Xmas seems repped here. Finally mah boy Sidney Lumet's lone musical, THE WIZ, screens as part of BAM's Brooklyn Close Up series.

The 92YTribeca joins Film Forum in hand-wringing anticipation of Quentin Tarantino's Spaghetti Western DJANGO UNCHAINED by offering its Beyond Leone fest, paying tribute to lesser known Spag West auteurs and fauxteurs. One of which, Enzo G. Castellari, repped by his awesomely titled KILL THEM ALL AND COME BACK ALONE, also inspired Tarantino with a little film he made called INGLORIOUS BASTARDS back in 1978. Other titles in the series include GET MEAN, TRAIN FOR DURANGO, CUT-THROATS NINE and DON'T TURN THE OTHER CHEEK, the latter which stars Spaghetti icons Franco Nero and Eli Wallach. I want to live here.

92YT also lifts from the vaults the Joseph H. Lewis noir SO DARK THE NIGHT, which follows a big city Parisian detective investigating the nurder of his small-town bride-to-be. Moody, atmospheric, with a descent into madness that our hero may not excape from. Happy Holidays.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center throws down a mighty Cinegeek gauntlet this month with its See It In 70mm series, featuring pristine prints of film classics in the titluar format at its hallowed Walter Reade Theater. The titles on hand include Richard Brooks' shot at David Leandom LORD JIM, John Ford's elegiac and contrite CHEYENNE AUTUMN, Stanley Kramer's kitchen-sink Cinerama comedy IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD, the actual David Lean's somber RYAN'S DAUGHTER, twin Robert Wise musicals WEST SIDE STORY and THE SOUND OF MUSIC, and the prizes of the bunch, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and Steven Lisberger's TRON. Equally brilliant in their simplicity and highly influential to their respective cinematic futures. Try me.

Plus, c'mon, fuck you, it's TRON in 70mm. Could be the screening of the month. Lightcycles at dawn, monsieur!

Speaking of the French the Alliance Francais, or French Institute, hosts a month long tribute to that country's sex goddess of the 50's; the legendary Brigitte Bardot. Husband Roger Vadim first got our fave cinematic object of desire naked in the seminal but overhyped AND GOD CREATED WOMAN, which broke the subject of this retropsective on the international scene. And for which we thank him. The retrospective also offers screenings of Jean Luc-Godard's MASCULINE, FEMININE and CONTEMPT, and Rene Clair's first color feature THE GRAND MANEUVER. The Alliance offers a superb screening space, so I implore you to take advantage of this series.

The classic-film lover's Shangri-La, if Brooklyn can host a Shangri-La, is the Nitehawk Cinemas, offering classic screenings at noon and midnight complete with boozy accoutremants. This month's brunch sked features Hitchcock's last near-great film, the psychosexual thriller MARNIE, Bob Clark's completely non-psychosexual A CHRISTMAS STORY, and Mike Hodges masterpiece of fantasy filmmaking FLASH GORDON, which wants to party 80's style. The midnight sked offers the earliest surviving animated feature PRINCE ACHMED, and the latest cocaine-fueled trash oddity from the 80's to be anointed midnight cult status THE MIAMI CONNECTION. How can you not love this joint, measks?

The Rubin Museum's Cabaret Cinema program also involves booze, but they do not merely offer it, they demand you imbibe as the price of admission. How goddam cool is that? Showtimes are 9:30pm on Friday all month long, and their slate includes Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW, Gorge Cukor's CAMILLE, Vincente Minelli's AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, and Roman Polanski's CHINATOWN. The latter of which I'm told you should forget. Whatevz, the Rubin's screening space rocks.

The Clearview Chelsea Cinema offers up three portraits of women rebelling against the social roles of their times. How uncharacteristic of them. Mervyn LeRoy's GYPSY features a scantily clad Natalie Wood, Robert Wise's I WANT TO LIVE features a prison garb clad Susan Hayward, and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS features a bearded Vincente Minelli. Courtesy of star Judy Garland. Different times.

Finally the IFC Center gives with the midnight joy, and also the last ingredient of our cinematic Christmas nog. Among the elites screeing at midnight on 6th ave are Steven Spielberg's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, which sadly remains the ONLY film in the Indiana Jones series, Ridley Scottt's ALIEN, Alejandro Jodorowsky's THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, and David Lynch's whowhatwhy ERASERHEAD. The theater's other midnight fare, part of the IFC's America, Fuck Yeah! series, includes Elaine May's sorely underappreciated ISHTAR, John Carpenter's near-masterpiece THEY LIVE, and John Frankenhiemer's towering achievement THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. But the real sugar plum fairy on display is the IFC's great gift these last few Christmastimes to all of NYC.

Frank Capra returned from active duty in WW2 resolute in his desire for independence from studios and their moguls. Along with William Wyler and George Stevens he founded Liberty Films, an attempt at creating a new United Artists, a studio run by and for the talent. For the company's first feature Capra chose a short story that his friend Philip Van Doren Stern had written as a Christmas card to his loved ones. Upon completion Capra considered it the finest film he'd ever made. Audiences disagreed. In one of the most staggering examples of the general public's occasional bad taste the film flopped and was sold off in a series of attempts to recoup investment dollars. It fell into the public domain, and here is where the idea of Christmas miracles gets its steam. After a good two decades of televised screenings, some occuring three at a time on different stations, the movie came to be regarded not only a success, not merely as Capra felt his masterpiece, but perhaps the greatest Christmas movie ever filmed. And to this day, though copyrights have been reassumed and televised viewings aren't as multitudinous, that claim may still be made; it may be the geatest Christmas movie of all time. Which is why the IFC Center should get a special pat on the back every Decmeber for keeping a tradition alive.

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE screens at the IFC Center from Friday the 14th through Thursday the 20th, showtimes TBD. I can't think of any other way I'd want to end this overview or the month in classic screenings itself. It's been a good 7 months since I started this site, and a great 2012 overall. I'm grateful for the support I've gotten from everybody on both sides of the computer screen, and I'll continue to do my best to make this a better resource for the film fanatic. Be safe and be sound and make sure the next guy is too, Stockers! And get your ass to the movies! Vive le cinema! And MERRY CHRISTMAS YOU BEAUTIFUL OLD BUILDING AND LOAN!

-Joe Walsh