October 25th 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.
New November rep calendar's slowly coming together as October furiously speeds towards the Day of the Dead. No, I don't mean the Romero flick. Good GOD, no I don't mean the Cunningham remake debacle. I'm talking about the night when pumpkins rule, and don't for a second think their union ain't payin' off heavy to the Holiday Industrial Complex for that priviledge. I heard awhile ago about a squash lobby that was trying to muscle in? Two words: Gowanus Canal. And no squash would come forward to testify either. You know how scared you gotta make a squash to not squeal? DO you?
Neither do I, I don't know where I was goin' with that, of course squashes can't talk. Lemme take my meds and finish writing today's piece. If the eggplant lobby allows me to, that is.
Continuing series today include 1939 - Hollywood's Golden Year at IFC Center, To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation at MoMA, See It Big: Horror! at Museum of the Moving Image, Matías Piñeiro Selects: Bridges Over Argentinian Cinema and Industrial Terror at Anthology Film Archives, and Puppets on Film at BAM Cinématek. Come with me Kal El, as we explore this repertory universe...
IFC Center
1939 - Hollywood's Golden Year
WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939) Dir; William Wyler
ROBOCOP (1987) Dir; Paul Verhoeven
Nitehawk Cinema
REPULSION (1965) Dir; Roman Polanski
A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959) Dir; Roger Corman
SUSPIRIA (1977) Dir; Dario Argento
Film Forum
VERTIGO (1958) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959) Dir; Alain Resnais
MoMA
To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation
TODO MODO (1976) Dir Elio Petri
TOO MUCH JOHNSON (1938) Dir; Orson Welles
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919) Dir; Robert Weine
Museum of the Moving Image
NOSFERATU (1922) Dir; F. W. Murnau
Anthology Film Archives
Matías Piñeiro Selects: Bridges Over Argentinian Cinema
THE SIDEWALKS OF SATURN (1986) Dir; Hugo Santiago
JUAN MOREIRA (1973) Dir; Leonardo Favio
THE KIDNAPPER (1958) Dir; Leopoldo Torre Nilsson
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) Dir; George A. Romero
ABBY (1974) Dir; William Girdler
Landmark Jersey Loews
FRANKENSTEIN (1931) Dir; James Whale
THE HAUNTING (1963) Dir; Robert Wise
BAM Cinématek
RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983) Dir; Richard Marquand
Tarrytown Music Hall
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) Dir; Jim Sharman
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980) Dir; Ruggero Deodato
Today's Pick? Man, there's a ton of awesome to be had at your local rep screens this day. A daunting amount, actually. For the most part the focus is on horror this day, or morbid subjects at the least. The Nitehawk alone offers up Polanski's REPULSION, Corman's BUCKET OF BLOOD and Argento's SUSPIRIA, while Moving Image screens yesterday's Pick, Murnau's NOSFERATU, and MoMA unboxes a brand new print of CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. AFA grinds out Romero's LIVING DEAD and William Girdler's ABBY as part of their Industrial Horror program, while the majestic Jersey Loews spooks its ornate halls with Whale's FRANKENSTEIN and Robert Wise's THE HAUNTING. I'm sorely tempted to select today a haunted romance, perhaps the cinema's greatest example of said; Wyler's tempestuous (well, as tempestuous as Wyler could summon, anyway) adap of Brontë's WUTHERING HEIGHTS, a longtime fave and one of the best examples of producer Sam Goldwyn's creative powers and DP Greg Toland's deep focus work. However, I must pass up these ill-fated moonbeams once more, if only because they ultimately found their love requited in the realm eternal. Dr. Frank-N-Furter wanted it here and now or never at all. He settled for immortality. Poor him. Her. Whomever.
Jim Sharman's THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW unspools tonight at the Tarrytown Music Hall, replete with the stage show experience that lifted it, back in its day, from commercial flop to iconic and massively influential Midnight Movie. Let's do the Metro-North Express again! It's just like the Time Warp! When was the last time you saw Tarrytown?
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 come up to the lab, see what's on the slab, I see you shiver with antici...
-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!
...pation!
