December 5th 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.
It's down to the wire now. I've yet to see IDA, THE DOUBLE, and WE ARE THE BEST, all streaming on Netflix, and Hollywood Oscar bait like UNBROKEN and INHERENT VICE, as well as smaller offerings like A MOST VIOLENT YEAR, have yet to drop. Still, I'm unflagging in my opinion thus far that Wes Anderson, in what would be a first even though I'm prominent amongst his cult, has directed the year's best film. I'm struggling to even stock my 2014 Top Ten list, but since its release THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL has stood firmly atop. Pun intended. All comers have three weeks to knock it off its perch. We shall see.
Continuing series today include Acteurism: Joan Bennett at MoMA, Sunshine Noir at BAM Cinématek, Screenwriters and the Blacklist: Before, During and After at Anthology Film Archives, and Justice in Film at the New York Historical Society. Once more into the unspool!
Film Forum
THE PASSIONATE THIEF (1960) Dir; Mario Monicelli
MoMA
WILD GIRL (1932) Dir; Raoul Walsh
BAM Cinématek
KISS ME DEADLY (1955) Dir; Robert Aldrich
REPO MAN (1984) Dir; Alex Cox
Anthology Film Archives
Screenwriters and the Blacklist: Before, During and After
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE (1954) Dir; Luis Buñuel
SALT OF THE EARTH (1954) Dir; Herbert J. Biberman
New York Historical Society
Justice in Film
SABRINA (1956) Dir; Billy Wilder
Today's Pick? I think it a real drag that neither BAM nor AFA offers discounted tix, let alone double-feature pricing, as I'd swiftly jump to either cause whence they program such excellent back-to-backers as they've done today. Not that I'm in any way boycotting those series because of this practice, it just makes me roam about today's sked moreso. As the Monicelli screens for a week and I have time to choose it, it really comes down to a pair of Tinseltown's fairest beauties, one a dame in the utmost European sense of the term, the other of the utmost Hollywood iteration. For this qualifier alone, I'll go with the artist less popularly exalted, but perhaps no less beloved. She may have been and remain a cult infatuation, yet she worked, as I like to say, forever, beginning in the early sound era with sisters Constance and Barbara, through a 40's period peak collaborating with Fritz Lang, ultimately earning a new generation of devotees for her participation in the groundbreaking horror soap DARK SHADOWS. Some characters you adore because they're the templates, some because they tweak the templates in ever-interesting new ways. Joan Bennett may have never exemplified the former, but the latter, she's got that sewn up.
Raoul Walsh's WILD GIRL screens today as part of MoMA's new series Acteurism: Joan Bennett. Sin a little, whydonch'ya? It's early yet, Santa's not watching.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in December '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 fully entwined in winter's embrace, 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!
