October 22nd 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.
I'm just wondering who Lorde is rooting for in this World Series.
Hey, if you can do better, submit yer jokes to joew@nitratestock.net! I'm all eyes!
Ongoing series today include CAPRA! at Film Forum, By Marguerite Duras at the Film Society, Acteurism: The Emergence of Ann Sheridan at MoMA, and Matías Piñeiro Selects: Bridges Over Argentinian Cinema at Anthology Film Archives. The cinematic scampery be thus;
Film Forum
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) Dir; Frank Capra
YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1936) Dir; Frank Capra
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959) Dir; Alain Resnais
Film Society of Lincoln Center
THE TRUCK (1977) Dir; Marguerite Duras
LES ENFANTS (1985) Dir; Marguerite Duras
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959) Dir; Alain Resnais
MoMA
Acteurism: The Emergence of Ann Sheridan
ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938) Dir; Michael Curtiz
Anthology Film Archives
Matías Piñeiro Selects: Bridges Over Argentinian Cinema
THE PLAYERS VS. ANGEL CAIDOS (1969) Dir; Alberto Fischerman
Today's Pick? Much as I love waking at the crack of noon each day I do make exceptions for exceptional screenings. Such is the power of certain films that I've arisen at the unGODly hour of 9am just to ensure my attendance (I will offer no more detail, as I fear an unfriendly programmer might increase the regularity of such screenings, thereby threatening the running times of my dreams, especially those featuring 40's-era Rita Hayworth, where I'm the captain of the cruise ship and she's the plucky stowaway...okay I'm not offering any further detail about this either).
It was with some chagrin that Charles Silver's Auteurist History of Film series concluded a 4-year run last month at MoMA, the revered institution where he serves as curator of film. As some consolation, however, Dave Kehr, MoMA's new adjunct curator, has concocted a brand-spankin' new series, one adherent to the auteur principle but expansive of it, proposing that authorship may come from before the cameras as well as behind it. It's an interesting concept, and as I've never fully committed 100% to the Bazin proposal, I'm ready to indulge in the conversations, the verbiage un-neighbor-like, the fistfights if need be. If it's Ann Sheridan's honor I'm defending, try me pal.
Michael Curtiz's gangster masterpiece ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES screens today at MoMA as part of the series Acteurism: The Emergence of Ann Sheridan. This is probably one of the most perfect films Hollywood ever produced, from perhaps a non-auteur but a director who oversaw some of the greatest films to ever emerge from the studio system. Star Jimmy Cagney, too, might've given the world his finest two hours as morally conflicted thug Rocky Sullivan. Sheridan, she possessed of the warmth and grit and eloquence of the streets, though not raised on them, was the epitome of the term broad, providing Depression and WW2 era audiences with a strong dose of feminine wit and wile during her too-short career. I'm overjoyed a series has been programmed to celebrate her.
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 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!
