October 5th 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.
Brevity is the soul of wit, some such witty bastard once remarked. It is also the soul of bed rest, something I'm finding in short supply as I attend this year's New York Film Festival. So forgive the brief header today, and let's get to the goods.
Continung series today include Film Forum Jr. and the Tennessee Williams trib at Film Forum, 1939 - Hollywood's Golden Year at IFC Center, Final Girl at the Nitehawk Cinema, Retro Metro at BAM Cinématek, Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien at Museum of the Moving Image, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz: The Essential Iconoclast at the Walter Reade Theater. The wim wam be thus;
Film Forum
CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS (1938) Dir; Victor Fleming
SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1959) Dir; Joseph L. Mankiewicz
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1958) Dir; Richard Brooks
SENSO (1954) Dir; Luchino Visconti
IFC Center
1939 - Hollywood's Golden Year
NINOTCHKA (1939) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
Nitehawk Cinema
THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1963) Dir; Mario Bava
BAM Cinématek
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) Dir; William Friedkin
AMC Loews Kips Bay 15, AMC Empire 25
M.A.S.H. (1970) Dir; Robert Altman
Mid-Manhattan Library
DARK VICTORY (1939) Dir; Edmund Goulding
Museum of the Moving Image
Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien
THE SANDWICH MAN (1983) Dir; Hou Hsiao-hsien
GROWING UP (1983) Dir; Hou Hsiao-hsien
THE JERK (1979) Dir; Carl Reiner
Landmark Jersey Loews
THE BIG PARADE (1925) Dir; King Vidor
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Joseph L. Mankiewicz: The Essential Iconoclast
GUYS AND DOLLS (1955) Dir; Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Today's Pick? I'm not nor have I ever been a fan of the movie musical. I'm one of those sour bastards that constantly harps on the implausibilty of characters suddenly breaking out into song and dance at pivotal emotional beats in the narrative. Because it just don't happen like that. However, I'm learning to get over my negative predisposition toward the genre. A little nugget called SINGIN' IN THE RAIN disabused me of my cynicism a couple of years ago (yes, it took that long for me to finally see it, and I know, I'm a terrible human being as a consequence). So I'm making a concious effort to fill in that monstrous lacuna of my film education, and I'm beginning to understand the genre's appeal. No one ever spoke like Shakespeare wrote dialogue either. Sometimes what you want from a work of art or entertainment or both is the grace unafforded the real world, one we so desperately and sometimes fruitlessly pursue.
All that aside, I confess the following; there have always been two movie musicals from the studio era that I've adored. The first is Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins film of WEST SIDE STORY. The second is today's Pick. The fact that their subject matter was street gangs and gamblers, respectively, did little to hurt their chances with me. Did I mention I grew up in the Bronx?
Joseph L. Mankiewicz's film of Frank Loesser's GUYS AND DOLLS unspools today as part of The Essential Iconoclast, the Film Society's trib to the filmmaker, part of this year's 52nd annual New York Film Festival. Brando sings, Vivian Blaine sneezes, and Sinatra can't believe he didn't get the lead. The Biltmore garage has been engaged as alternative venue, I have it on good authority. The back of the police station is out.
For more info on these and all NYC's 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 it's a probable twelve-to-seven you'll see me at the Walter Reade theater at 5:30pm.
-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!
