February 12th 2015. Pick of the Day. Plus, A Note About The Podcast.
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.
A quick update about Nitrate Stock's February podcast, or the lack thereof: I've taken note of its ratings during the course of its short life, one that has not yet extended to the 1st anniversary mark. I seem to have started off with a slight bang, perhaps what Orson would've deemed a "gonk", and gradually, or more correctly rapidly, slid from those initial numbers. I actually, truly planned to set the usual sked aside in January for its writing, recording and posting, as the discipline of the practice, or...the practice of the discipline...oh HELL I've forgotten the correct phrasing. In either case, I've cared more about the quality of the performance and less about how long, potentially, it would take to build the audience. The audience, however, seems to just not be there, not for the current incarnation anyway. So I'm taking a month off, to rethink the whole enterprise, and hopefully reconfigure its next version. It's a hiatus, not a foreclosure. For those of you who dug the dulcet tones of the white noise that accompanied my voice in the background, I promise the podcast will return shortly, tweaked and better than evah!
And now, on to the opera. Play, Don...
Continuing series this day include the tribs to director John Boorman and thesp Charles Laughton at Film Forum, adjunct curator Dave Kehr's sprightly Acteurism: Ginger Rogers and the it's-about-time Carte Blanche - Women Writing the Language of Cinema at MoMA, the it's-about-goddam-time Tell It Like It Is!: Black Independents, 1968-86 at the Film Society, the cute Chelsea Classics at the BowTie Chelsea, the essential John Carpenter: Master of Fear at BAM Cinématek, and the monthly Deuce undertaken by BillyBurg's Nitehawk. As it were. The cinematic higgeldy piggeldy be thus;
Film Forum
POINT BLANK (1967) Dir; John Boorman
HELL IN THE PACIFIC (1968) Dir; John Boorman
THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) Dir; James Whale
THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP (1932) Dir; Marion Gering
MoMA
FOLLOW THE FLEET (1936) Dir; Mark Sandrich
Carte Blanche - Women Writing the Language of Cinema
THE STUDENT NURSES (1970) Dir; Stephanie Rothman
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Tell It Like It Is!: Black Independents, 1968-86
LOSING GROUND (1982) Dir; Kathleen Collins
THE LONG NIGHT () Dir;
BowTie Chelsea Cinemas
ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) Dir; Joseph L. Mankiewicz
BAM Cinématek
John Carpenter: Master of Fear
DARK STAR (1974) Dir; John Carpenter
Nitehawk Cinema
SHARKEY'S MACHINE (1982) Dir; Burt Reynolds
Today's Pick? The obvious candidates, in terms of classy selects anyways, screen at MoMA and Film Forum, offering up the female-centric Acteurism: Ginger Rogers and Carte Blanche - Women Writing the Language of Cinema, and the Boorman & Laughton tribs, respectively. The Film Society's diggin' through of the cinematic crates, Tell It Like It Is!: Black Independents, 1968-86, continues to wow the unschooled, myself included, uptown. Other esoterica include the Bowtie Chelsea's Thurday Classics series, and, of quite further signifigance, the Nitehawk's trib to Times Square's glory Grindhouse era, The Deuce, today celebrating Burt Reynolds' B-Day a mere 24 hrs removed from the actual calendar cube, but none less worthy of your 'stache worship. A different 'stache beckons this day, however, one perhaps less worthy in the day of Cosmopolitan magazine's answer to a Playboy centerfold, but that sorat counta in his favor anyway.
I could wax endlessly as regards my affection, appreciation, and undying loyalty to one John Carpenter, a signature talent that was most imporatt to my burgeoning film geek status whence but a tyke, but then I'd just be preaching to a choir generations old at this point. The Man's debut feature, DARK STAR, co-realized with the great Dan O'Bannon, screens today as part of the series John Carpenter: Master of Fear, currently underway at BAM Cinématek. There was a shot I'd be able to interview JC going into this series, but those chances look grim. So in lieu of talking to Tha Bomb, I'll gladly settle for his cast talking to the Bomb.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in February '15 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 (currently suspended) 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 soon with new Picks 'n perks, 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!
