December 23rd 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.
Please forgive my brevity with this week's headres, but Xmas be comin' and them geese be hungry. I'm sure you all would rather last-minute shop/holiday meet-up/beg Santa for forgiveness anyways,so let's all just get to it shall we? Can I get a Ho Ho Ho?
Continuing series today include Chandler, Hammett, Woolrich and Cain at Film Forum, Let There Be Light: The Films of John Huston at the Film Society, and MoMa's trib to filmmaker Robert Altman. The madcappery be thus;
IFC Center
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) Dir; Frank Capra
Film Forum
Chandler, Hammett, Woolrich and Cain
THE LONG GOODBYE (1973) Dir; Robert Altman
THE BRIDE WORE BLACK (1968) Dir; François Truffaut
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Let There Be Light: The Films of John Huston
PHOBIA (1980) Dir; John Huston
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948) Dir; John Huston
CHINATOWN (1974) Dir; Roman Polanski
THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING (1975) Dir; John Huston
MoMA
A PERFCT COUPLE (1979) Dir; Robert Altman
Today's Pick? I've never seen the low budget thriller PHOBIA, and those who know me know I'm not CHINATOWN's biggest fan. Regardless, the latter is a beloved classic and the former might be an intersting curiosity, and anyway the real selling point on today's sked are a pair of cinema's greatest adventure yarns, filmed nearly 30 years apart by the same man, a maverick who is honored today by said screenings.
John Huston's THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE and THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING unspool as part of the Film Society's comprehensive trib to the filmmaker, Let There Be Light. TREASURE boasts one of Humphrey bogart's finest perfs, while KING remains, believe it or not, the only onscreen pairing of best mates Sean Connery and Mawkel Caihne. They're gripping and ripping, beautifully shot, and blessed with enormous humanity. It's highly recommended you purchase the 4-film pack so that you can live at the Walter Reade Theater for a day at a discount, but if you can only catch two films this day, I've steered you in a good direction.
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!
