October 3rd 2014. Pick of the Day.
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Day three of the Joe Mank Retro gets underway later today at this year's 52nd annual New York Film Festival. As I'm attending the bulk of that series I'm left with very little else to banter about in today's header. Although, ironically, it has also given me something to fill this space. I will leave the greater philosophical
debate/bitchery to you, the faithful reader. To those not so claw-inclined here be the day's doings!
New and ongoing series today include 1939 - Hollywood's Golden Year at IFC Center, the Tennessee Williams trib at Film Forum, Acteurism: The Emergence of Ann Sheridan 1937-43 at MoMA, Retro Metro at BAM Cinématek, Joseph L. Mankiewicz: The Essential Iconoclast and Revivals at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien at Museum of the Moving Image, and Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum. The savagery, the utter savagery, be thus;
IFC Center
1939 - Hollywood's Golden Year
NINOTCHKA (1939) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
Film Forum
SUMMER AND SMOKE (1961) Dir; Peter Glenville
BOOM! (1968) Dir; Joseph Losey
MoMA
Acteurism: The Emergence of Ann Sheridan 1937-43
TORRID ZONE (19) Dir; William Keighly
BAM Cinématek
THE INCIDENT (1967) Dir; Larry Peerce
SPEEDY (1928) Dir; Harold Lloyd
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Joseph L. Mankiewicz: The Essential Iconoclast
THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN (1970) Dir; Joseph L. Mankiewicz
THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR (1947) Dir; Joseph L. Mankiewicz
THE TALES OF HOFFMAN (1951) Dirs; Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Museum of the Moving Image
Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien
A TIME TO LIVE AND A TIME TO DIE (1985) Dir; Hou Hsiao-hsien
Rubin Museum
VIRIDIANA (1961) Dir; Luis Buñuel
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
EVIL DEAD 2 (1988) Dir; Sam Raimi
Nitehawk Cinema
RE-ANIMATOR (1987) Dir; Stuart Gordon
Today's Pick? I'm stickin' with the Lincoln Center shenanigans but shifting my loyalties slightly. 118 paces to be exact. From 144 W. 65th street, today's host to the Joe Mank trib, to 165 W. 65th street and presumably larger artistic aspirations. Give or take.
A short distance geographically, but a vast distance artistically. From label of prestige Hollywood product to mark of Brit film industry's brash insistence, and ultimate steep decline. The Archers, the creative collusion of director Michael Powell and scribe Emeric Pressburger, enjoyed a peerless success during the war years and just postwar, defending the status of the British film industry, subsequently, and proudly, displaying their last and best gasps for the world to witness, sorta like Clooney's swordfisher from A PERFECT STORM, providing the world with one last grand spectacle they'd not yet seen, then folding into the waves of decay and dismiss.
Their rep was resurrected, and justly so, by über-fan Martin Scorsese, a critical esteem abandoned to a state of disrepair and disregard for years; restored, as was their celluloid, to the forefront of film's posterity. Many of their finest achievements, monumental works like THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, and THE RED SHOES, have undergone the 2K or 4K spitshine at this point. Tonight those lucky enough to have snagged a tik get to watch one of their final masterpieces in a brand new restoration. Some have said this attempt to spread the expressionist ballet sequence from THE RED SHOES from 12 minutes to two hours is too much of good thing. I will weigh in on that evaluation later tonight.
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's THE TALES OF HOFFMAN screens at the Walter Reade Theater tonight as part of the New York Film Fest's series Revivals! I look forward to the dance.
For more info on these and all NYC's remaining classic film screenings in October '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.
-Joe Walsh
P. S. We're swiftly returning to the winter climate, and believe it or not some of our fellow NY'ers have still yet to be made whole in the wake of the 2012 storm. Should you be feeling charitable please visit the folks at OccupySandy.net, follow their hammer-in-hand efforts to restore people's lives, and donate/volunteer if you have the inclination and availability. Be a collective mensch, Stockahz!
