October 24th 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.
Just in time for Halloween week: Ebola in Manhattan! It even sounds like the newest broadway extravaganza. It'll probably play better than most of them as well.
New and continuing series today include 1939 - Hollywood's Golden Year at IFC Center, Acteurism: The Emergence of Ann Sheridan and To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation at MoMA, See It Big! Horror at Museum of the Moving Image, Justice in Film at the New York Historical Society, Puppets on Film at BAM Cinématek, Industrial Terror and Matías Piñeiro Selects: Bridges Over Argentinian Cinema at Anthology Film Archives, and the eternally swank Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum. That's a lotta entertainment to break down, so let's get to it. Onward, MacDuffs.
IFC Center
1939 - Hollywood's Golden Year
WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939) Dir; William Wyler
ROBOCOP (1987) Dir; Paul Verhoeven
Film Forum
VERTIGO (1958) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959) Dir; Alain Resnais
MoMA
Acteurism: The Emergence of Ann Sheridan
ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938) Dir; Michael Curtiz
To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation
THE IRON MASK (1929) Dir; Allan Dwan
Museum of the Moving Image
THE EXORCIST (1973) Dir; William Friedkin
New York Historical Society
Justice in Film
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
BAM Cinématek
THE DARK CRYSTAL (1982) Dir; Jim Henson
THE THING (1982) Dir; John Carpenter
Anthology Film Archives
BLOOD FEAST (1963) Dir; Herschell Gordon Lewis
CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) Dir; Herk Harvey
Matías Piñeiro Selects: Bridges Over Argentinian Cinema
WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS (1971) Dir; Edgardo Cozarinsky
Landmark Jersey Loews
NOSFERATU (1922) Dir; F. W. Murnau
Rubin Museum of Art
CHAPPAQUA (1966) Dir; Conrad Rooks
Nitehawk Cinema
SUSPIRIA (1979) Dir; Dario Argento
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980) Dir; Geo Deodato
Today's Pick. Hoo boy, where to begin? Wyler's HEIGHTS may be to many a woefully imperfect adap of Emily Brontë's tortured masterpiece, but Greg Toland's dark DP work and the sheer presence of Olivier and Oberon as the doomed lovers remains powerful stuff. Curtiz's ANGELS is perhaps my fave Cagney gangster flick, and that's sayin' something, and it screens today to honor one of my all-time cinema crushes; the blunt and beautiful Ann Sheridan.
A windfall for the horror fan today as well, our rep screens offering such seminal spookery as Herk Harvey's bone-chilling CARNIVAL OF SOULS, Argento's coven cackle SUSPIRIA, Rugerio Deodato's, um, indescribable CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, and two absolute titans of the genre; John Carpenter's THE THING, and William Friedkin's THE EXORCIST.
All tempt greatly, but today really comes down to two essential viewings, both from the silent era, one with its partial spoken word sequences and musical soundtrack restored, the other boasting live accompaniment courtesy of the theater's Morton Wonder Organ. The former, and runner-up, Allan Dwan's THE IRON MASK, kicks off MoMA's annual month-long To Save and Project series. The latter, and today's champeen, is one of the few reasons I can think of to ride the PATH train into Jersey.
F. W. Murnau's NOSFERATU screens tonight at the Landmark Jersey Loews, and comes complete with a live music score provided by none other than the Silent Clowns' Ben Model himself. 50 ft. tall Max Schreck looming over the audience, Model ekeing whatever leftover chills remain from our bones. Plus popcorn and candy for a buck apiece. Better scares simply can't be dug up tonight. So please don't try. I mean it, that'd be weird.
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 Max Schreck isn't in the house.
-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!
