October 28th 2014! Pick of the Day!
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Elimination games usually bring out the crowds, regardless of their devotion to any particular series or sport or nationality. And no I'm not referring to the upcoming HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGBLATHERY PART ONE. I'm talkin' tonight's Game 5 World Series matchup betwixt the Kansas City Royals and the San Francisco Giants. There are certain things real life does better than the movies still, as hard as that may be to believe. One of them is not Wes Anderson yarns, but tonight's game promises to be a boilerplate example of the truism. Please let there be a Game 7.
Ongoing and concluding series this day include Alain Resnais: Time, Memory and Imagination at the French Institute, To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation at MoMA, Industrial Terror at Anthology Film Archives, Monsters on Main Street! at the Tarrytown Music Hall, and Journalists in Film at the Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn. Let's chase some ghosts, shall we?
Film Forum
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959) Dir; Alain Resnais
VERTIGO (1958) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
Film Society of Lincoln Center
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959) Dir; Alain Resnais
French Institute/Alliance Française
Alain Resnais: Time, Memory and Imagination
PROVIDENCE (1977) Dir; Alain Resnais
MoMA
To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation
SHARK MONROE (1918) Dir; William S. Hart
Live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin.
TO THE LAST MAN (1933) Dir; Henry Hathaway
Anthology Film Archives
CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962) Dir; Herk Harvey
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) Dir; George A. Romero
Tarrytown Music Hall
Monsters on Main Street!
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948) Dir; Charles Barton
Nitehawk Cinema
ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976) Dir; Alan J. Pakula
Today's Pick? As we face the approach of yet another All Hallows Eve it seems my focus would be best spent on Le Cinema Du Spooky. In that regard there's much to choose from in our rep circuit this day. Hitchcock, that master of spine-chill, is repped by his vastly overrated VERTIGO. George A. Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD shares a sked with source inspiration CARNIVAL OF SOULS, both unspooling at the infinitely creepier Anthology Film Archives. Bud and Lou's first co-mingling with their studio's horror catalogue initiated the modern mashup of the genre's, and I seriously doubt GHOSTBUSTERS would've been possible without the farcical venture.
Tonight I'm going for a different kind of horror, though, a more subtle, subdued variety. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves and the undead are all well and fine, but for sheer real-life spine-tingle, nothing can take the place of the drama and denizens of America's Transylvania: Washington, D.C. Don't believe me? Just ask yourself this question: you wake up to a strange noise in the middle of the night, would you rather see Bela Lugosi or Richard Nixon hovering over your bed?
Alan J. Pakula's ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN screens tonight at the Nitehawk Cinema as the (for now, one hopes) concluding entry in their Journalists in Film series. Let's just be thankful that while Van Helsing was a complete fabrication, Hunter S. Thompson was only a partially fictional character. 70/30 was the last assessment I came across.
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 wait was that the sound of a tape recorder? Disconnect! Prank call! I want a lawyer!
-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!
