August 26th 2014. Pick of the Day.
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One more August comes slowly rolling to a stop. It hasn't quite felt like summer, these last three months, but it's been summer enough. We've had warm days, blue skies, baseball and popcorn tomfoolery. The rep circuit has rewarded us with a pair of killer noir series, tributes to Luis Buñuel and Kenji Mizoguchi, and outdoor screenings providing awesome cinematic glory and beautiful views of our city. Memories were made this summer of 2014, and it's not over. August may be waning, but there's much left to indulge in. Let's have a peek.
Continuing series today include The Great War: A Cinematic Legacy at MoMA, a Film Comment Double Feature at the Film Society's Howard Gilman Theater, Screenwriters and the Blacklist: Before, During and After at Anthology Film Archives, Classics in HD at Symphony Space, and Journalists in Film at the Nitehawk Cinema. To the celluloid foofaraw!
Film Forum
THAT MAN FROM RIO! (1964) Dir; Philippe de Broca
ACCIDENT (1967) Dir; Joseph Losey
THE SERVANT (1963) Dir; Joseph Losey
MoMA
The Great War: A Cinematic Legacy
SEAS BENEATH (1931) Dir; John Ford
BROKEN LULLABY (1932) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
Film Society of Lincoln Center
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE (1972) Dir; George Roy Hill
THE GREAT WALDO PEPPER (1975) Dir; George Roy Hill
Anthology Film Archives
Screenwriters and the Blacklist: Before, During and After
WOMAN OF THE YEAR (1942) Dir; George Stevens
PRIDE OF THE MARINES (1945) Dir; Delmer Daves
Symphony Space
PSYCHO (1960) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
Valentino Pier, Red Hook, Brooklyn
ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) Dir; Elia Kazan
Nitehawk Cinema
THE PASSENGER (1975) Dir; Michelangelo Antonioni
Today's Pick? I've gotta admit I have a love/hate thing goin' with Michelangelo Antonioni. I should say a partial love/hate thing because I've yet to really, wholly dive into the man's CV, having only seen the still impactful BLOW-UP, on multiple occasions might I add, and only recently caught his legendary L'AVVENTURA, which I will most likely not be revisiting anytime soon. Tonight's selection is also among the few Antonioni's I've borne witness to, more than once, deeming it a fascinating sort of chilly upon my first viewing, but not so cold as to quell my interest when a second opportunity presented itself. Plus I'll watch Jack Nicholson in anything. Anything. YES, even that horrible Keanu Reeves romcom and his spotlight-sharing with Adam Sandler. It's that kind of devotion.
From my limited exposure to the man's work it would seem that his great theme, with which he struggles in the celluloid forum, is trust; specifically the paranoia caused by the inability to trust one's own eyes and ears. The five senses decieve, he suggests, particularly the visual. In tonight's entry Nicholson practices a form of deception reliant on this shortcoming of sensory perception, with the ironic intention of uncovering truth, not merely fulfilling his obligation as reporter but in search of something deeper, something true about himself, perhaps nothing short of himself entire. Whether he ultimately gets there or not is something I've never quite been able to decide, so I'm giving it a third go tonight. If nothing else then maybe I'll find myself during tonight's screening. I hear there's a reward out for me.
Michelangelo Antonioni's THE PASSENGER screens tonight at the Nitehawk Cinema as part of the Journalists in Film series. As long as I find the tater tots, I'm good.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in August '14 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. For the monthly overview and other audio tomfoolery check out the podcast, and follow me on SoundCloud! For reviews of contemporary cinema and my streaming habits (keep it clean!) check out my Letterboxd 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 safe, sound, make sure the next knucklehead is too! Excelsior!
-Joe Walsh
