August 28th 2014. Pick of the Day.
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Good Gawd awmighty, another summer seems to have slipped by, with nary a footprint, however seemingly permanent, planted to mark its passing. Seems like just yesterday we were showing up at Memorial Day BBQ's, whether we were invited or not; taking our first jaunt out of town for a much-needed breather in June; accepting a challenge to watch all 9 seasons of the U. S. THE OFFICE on Netflix; catching SNOWPIERCER on the big screen the night of July 4th; anticipating an annual Jersey Shore Clamfest; spending some quality time on two separate occasions with friends and fellow film fanatics from nearby and faraway; and saying a sad farewell to the likes of legendary makeup artist Dick Smith, filmmaker Paul Mazursky, and the indelible onscreen likes of James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Robin Williams, and Lauren Bacall. It was also the summer of Columbia Crime and Sam Fuller at MoMA, Alec Guinnesss and Femmes Noirs at Film Forum, King Hu and Luis Buñuel at BAM Cinématek, and the glorious experience of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in 70mm at Moving Image. The summer gaveth mostly, as is usually the case, and it's going to be missed incredibly. Not that it's over yet, mind you, but the mere prospect of September is a grim one. So let's celebrate the last 4 days of this month, and check out the remaining classic film shenanigans.
Ongoing series today include the expiring An Auteurist History of Film at MoMA, Strange Lands: International Sci-Fi at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and Screenwriters and the Blacklist: Before, During and After at Anthology Film Archives. The repertory rigmarole be thus;
Film Forum
THAT MAN FRO RIO! (1964) Dir; Philippe de Broca
THE SERVANT (1963) Dir; Dirk Bogarde
ACCIDENT (1967) Dir; Dirk Bogarde
MoMA
MANHATTAN (1979) Dir; Woody Allen
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Strange Lands: International Sci-Fi
THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE (1958) Dir; Karel Zeman
THE END OF AUGUST AT THE HOTEL OZONE (1967) Dir; Jan Schmidt
Anthology Film Archives
Screenwriters and the Blacklist: Before, During and After
THREE FACES WEST (1940) Dir; Bernard Vorhaus
THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR (1948) Dir; Joseph Losey
Today's Pick? Well, even though the tech snafu was entirely the property of my so-called internet provider, one Time Warner Cable, I feel obligated to yesterday's unposted Pick, even though I was wholly prevented in my efforts to post it. Yet there's an equally worthy Pick today, one that stands on its own timely, if somewhat sentimental merits. I feel like I'd be punishing one or the other should I choose only one. So I'm going with my first split Pick of the day, one that also counts as an unofficial three-fer should you choose to jet between midtown and the East Village to attend them all. So without further eloquence, here they be;
Woody Allen's MANHATTAN screens at MoMA as the last entry (for the time being, mehopes) in their exceptional, six-year long program An Auteurist History of Film. I'm equal parts devastated that this bounteous resource is slowing to a stop, and elated over the upcoming series that will assume its time-slot. In any event it has given us the best examples of Chaplin and Cocteau, Renoir and Ray, Mann and Murnau, Aldrich and Altman, Preminger, Powell and Pasolini, Fellini, Fassbinder and Ford, Kubrick, Kiarostami, and Kurosawa, and of course, and unavoidably, Hitchcock. It has served us three days out of every week for the last 312. And it closes out today with an appropriate valentine to the city that hosts it, cinema's original Hollywood. It'll be missed, and we should attend before it's gone.
As payback for my IP's sins I offer the other half of my Pick today, a celebration of talents denied their prime, and a further castigation of the policy that allowed such denial. Bernard Vorhaus' THREE FACES WEST and Joseph Losey's THE BOY WITH GREEN HAIR screen at Anthology Film Archives today as part of Screenwriters and the Blacklist: Before, During and After, the initial section of a three-part program covering the damage done by the HUAC coterie. As I said, it's entirely possibe to catch all three films today, and you should, even though they come with separate admission prices and the only thematic throughline between the three is Time Warner Cable's ongoing incompetence. But if you do decide to while away a perfectly good August afternoon/evening in the company of three talented filmmakers, I don't think you'd regret it one bit. Unlike Joe McCarthy.
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 if you work for Time Warner Cable, hey, you can take a joke, can'tch'ya? Can'tch'ya? Hey! Hello? Wait, my modem's gone down again! HEY!!!
-Joe Walsh
