February 15th 2015. 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 suddenly strikes moi, as SNL preps its 40th anniversary telecast special, that I am a mere 5 years older than this program. Oh frabjous day.
Ongoing series this day include Film Forum Jr. and the Boorman and Laughton bathing-suit-area-touching at Film Forum, Screwball Romance at IFC Center, John Carpenter: Master of Fear at BAM Cinématek, and the Valentine's Day Massacre at Anthology Film Archives. The Sunday-ness be thus;
Film Forum
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951) Dir; Vincente Minnelli
DELIVERANCE (1972) Dir; John Boorman
ZARDOZ (1974) Dir; John Boorman
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955) Dir; Charles Laughton
IFC Center
MY MAN GODFREY (1936) Dir; Gregory La Cava
Nitehawk Cinema
LA BELLE ET LA BETTE (Beauty and the Beast - 1946) Dir; Jean Cocteau
BAM Cinématek
John Carpenter: Master of Fear
ASSAULT ON PRECINT 13 (1976) Dir; John Carpenter
Mid-Manhattan Library
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) Dir; Billy Wilder
Anthology Film Archives
MODERN ROMANCE (1981) Dir; Albert Brooks
POSSESSION (1981) Dir; Andrzej Zulawski
MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ (1971) Dir; John Cassavetes
Today's Pick? I can't in all good conscience return to the Boorman well, having chosen the grand master twice in the last four days. And, honestly, the prospect of attending the pre-noon Film Forum Jr. and Screwball Romance series terrifies me on this brick-cold morn. AFA's Valentine's Day Massacre would be so much more enticing would they simply change up the menu even slightly. And as much as Carpenter tempts this day, I have chosen him thrice in the last week alone. So, much as it irritates me to choose a work so obvious, so oft screened in our fair burg, it remains essential viewing, whenever and wherever it graces a nearby screen. It was the only film directed by its maker, a labor of love from a thesp most prized and accoladed, divining much of its bold power from Weimar expressionism, mixing said with a romance for the deep American gothic South. It is a fable, a simple tale, made wondrous by brazen, dynamic choics of art direction, cinematography and performance. It has influenced everything from The Clash's LONDON CALLING to Spike Lee's DO THE RIGHT THING, masterpieces both. Sadly, it is also the lone effort from the barker's chair from its visioneer, a giant among film and stage actors, who met the commercial failure of this film quite poorly, and dropped his follow-up, an adap of Norman Mailer's THE NAKED AND THE DEAD, out of both petulance and protest. The pessimistic take is this; we never got to see what he might have become as a filmmaker. The upside? He's one of a handful of directors whose CV bats 1.000. As optimist, I'm embracing the latter view. With gratitude.
Charles Laughton's THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER unspools its digitized 1's and 0's today as part of the Charles Laughton love at Film Forum. Love, hate, tattoos. Let Mitchum and Laughton tell you the tale.
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!
