November 15th 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.
Alright, so my choices today are naked Rainer Werner Fassbinder and naked Helen Mirren? Do you even need to read on past that sentence?
Continuing series this day include Fassbinder: Romantic Anarchist, Part 2 at the Film Society, To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation at MoMA, Ways to Freedom: Polish Film and the Rise of Democracy at Museum of the Moving Image, and The Dark Side of the Sun: John Zorn on Japanese Cinema at the Japan Society. The moviola mishegoss be thus;
Film Forum
LE JOUR SE LEVE (1939) Dir; Marcel Carné
VERTIGO (1958) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Fassbinder: Romantic Anarchist, Part 2
THE DAMNED (1969) Dir; Luchino Visconti
LILI MARLEEN (1981) Dir; Rainer Werner Fassbinder
THE STATIONMASTER'S WIFE (1977) Dir; Rainer Werner Fassbinder
VERONIKA VOSS (1982) Dir; Rainer Werner Fassbinder
MoMA
To Save and Project: The 12th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation
CHAPLIN RESTORED (1915-17) Dir; Charlie Chaplin
SERGE BROMBERG'S RETOUR DU FLAMMES: A PRESENTATION OF WONDROUS NEW DISCOVERIES (Various) Dirs; Various
EXCALIBUR (1981) Dir; John Boorman
Museum of the Moving Image
Ways to Freedom: Polish Film and the Rise of Democracy
SMALLER SKY (1980) Dir; Janusz Morgenstern
ESCAPE FROM THE LIBERTY CINEMA (1989) Dir; Wojciech Marczewski
BAM Cinématek
THE SACRIFICE (1986) Dir; Andrei Tarkovsky
Japan Society
The Dark Side of the Sun: John Zorn on Japanese Cinema
CROSSROADS (1928) Dir; Teinosuke Kinugasa
Live musical accompaniment from shamisen musician Yumiko Tanaka.
Today's Pick? Quite simply, it's no contest. Filmmaker John Boorman is appearing in person to intro and discuss one of the formative films of my youthful cinephilia, one that remains a masterwork, one of the most romantic adventure epics ever filmed, on par with the chivalrous derring-do of Curtiz's ROBIN HOOD, whilst perhaps a tad more adult in depiction. Perhaps more than a tad. It has been and remains the desire of many a filmmaker to tackle the Arthurian legend on film, to concoct the definitive cinematic spin on the tale. Again, like Curtiz's earlier invocation of an equally magnetic figure of lore, Boorman has probably already retired the jersey on it. Or the armor. Or armour. I digress.
John Boorman graciously appears tonight to interact with a legion of longtime devotees, of his career in general and of one film in particluar; 1981's EXCALIBUR, screening as part of MoMA's To Save and Project, presented tonight in a brand new restoration, sure to enhance the deep forest greens and blood reds of his pluperfect work. I've never seen this film on the big screen. You don't wanna take my pulse today. Trust me.
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 next knucklehead is too!
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!
