November 7th 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 waiting for the Knicks to get back to .500. And so should you. Til then it's film. Film film film. Aw hell, it's always gonna be film, the recurring quandary is how much Knicks and how much film? The mind reels...
New and continuing series today include 1939 - Hollywood's Golden Year at IFC Center, Fassbinder: Romantic Anarchist, Part Two at the Film Society, Acteurism: The Emergence of Ann Sheridan, 1937-43 and To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation at MoMA, the inviolable Rouben Mamoulian Weekend at Astoria's Museum of the Moving Image, and the eternally swank Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum. The motile mishegoss be thus;
IFC Center
1939 - Hollywood's Golden Year
GONE WITH THE WIND (1939) Dir; Victor Fleming
Film Forum
ONLY ANGLES HAVE WINGS (1939) Dir; Howard Hawks
HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959) Dir; Alain Resnais
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Fassbinder: Romantic Anarchist, Part Two
SATAN'S BREW (1976) Dir; Rainer Werner Fassbinder
FOX AND HIS FRIENDS (1974) Dir; Rainer Werner Fassbinder
IN A YEAR OF THIRTEEN MOONS (1978) Dir; Rainer Werner Fassbinder
MoMA
Acteurism: The Emergence of Ann Sheridan, 1937-43
THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (1942) Dir; William Keighley
To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation
LAUREL & HARDY: THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN (1932-33) Dirs; James Parrott, Lloyd French
GERTIE THE DINOSAUR IS 100 YEARS YOUNG! (1914) Dir; Winsor McCay
THE BUBBLE (1966) Dir; Arch Oboler
Museum of the Moving Image
LOVE ME TONIGHT (1931) Dir; Rouben Mamoulian
Anthology Film Archives
I WAS BORN, BUT... (1932) Dir; Yasujiro Ozu
THERE WAS A FATHER (1942) Dir; Yasujiro Ozu
Rubin Museum
ANTONIO DAS MUERTES (1969) Dir; Glauber Rocha
Today's Pick? Of all the important names to bellow ACTION over the transition from silent to sound era, Rouben Mamoulian, and this might just be the gin talkin', is one of the names I deem most sorely in need of rediscovery, if not amongst the academic set that has already canonized him then to the enthusiast who may well gain better appreciation for, and insight to, his chosen love affair. Mamoulian didn't make a great number of films, although he did walk off quite a great few of them, but the celluloid that remains is evidence of a stylistic master, if not a flat out genius. Coming from the theater, he first eschewed film. Coming from silent film, he initially eschewed sound. Once in the embrace of sound, or vice versa, he embarked on an experiment that yielded no less treasure than Lang's M in terms of brash deployment of new tech in service of narrative art form, if with far less overall impress.
In Mamoulian's hands, in search of the smoothest transition from mute to musical, the decision was thus; that he would first slowly build a diegetic symphony before employing an orchestral one. It was one of the boldest lantern-hangings on the change the medium was undergoing, also one of the most poetically employed, and successful. It remains a landmark of the interim period, when moving cameras stopped moving to accomodate stationary microphones, and the looming liberation mere steps away. No pun intended. Tonight, though, let's luxuriate in a work that straddled both eras, so vastly important to the cinematic timeline in their own respective right, blessed with a title emblematic of its perpetual status.
Rouben Mamoulian's LOVE ME TONIGHT screens at Museum of the Moving Image as kickoff to their weekend celebration of the director's best work. Gotta sing.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in November '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 you aim for the heart.
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!
