March 2015! The Nation's centennial, B&W CinemaScope, and the Blacklist ends!

Hallo, Stockahz! It's been quite some time since I gave the monthly overview address in a form typed rather than spoken, but as you may have read I'm placing the podcast on a temporary moratorium until I figure out a new, potentially more popular format. Meantime, we'll just go back to what worked before. It's a plan that's worked previously for many a crooked politician and cat burglar, what better footsteps to follow in?

So welcome to the repertory film scene as gifted us by March 2015! There's a lot going on, and it's all good, so let's get to it!

I normally like to designate the month's most unmissable screening or series by declaring it my Big Dawg, and I've got a crowded shelter to adopt from. Forced to choose, however, I'm gonna go with BAM Cinématek's excellent series dedicated to widescreen monochrome, Black & White 'Scope: American Cinema. Unspooling as part of the magnificent program are such classics as Otto Preminger's ADVISE AND CONSENT, Richard Brooks' IN COLD BLOOD, and what might be the prize cherry of the orchard, Robert Rossen's THE HUSTLER. It's rare that this subgenre of aspect ratio is granted a moment under the spyglass, so take advantage.

Back on the civil side of the East River lower manhattan's Film Forum is a busy hive indeed. Weeklong bookings include Ken Loach's seminal sophomore feature KES, the recent 4K DCP resto of Powell and Pressburger's THE TALES OF HOFFMAN, Marco Bellochio's CHINA IS NEAR, and Max Ophüls' FROM MAYERLING TO SARAJEVO. Mondays in March the Forum offers a celebration of the works of D. W. Griffith, in tribute to the centennial of his game-changer, 1915's THE BIRTH OF A NATION. Whatever your personal feelings about the film's abject ethnic hatred, it remains a work worthy of study, the film equivalent of ancient scrolls. Joseph Losey's BOOM gets a one-off on the evening of the 7th, intro'd by author James Grissom, the man responsible for the Tennessee Williams' bio Follies of God. And of course the Forum's hook-'em-while-they're-young series Film Forum Jr. this month offers up Rob Reiner's THE PRINCESS BRIDE, Morton DaCosta's THE MUSIC MAN, Allan Dwan's HEIDI, and Robert Zemeckis' BACK TO THE FUTURE. Film Forum is located at 209 W. Houston st. in Manhattan.

The NYC film fanatic's fave collapsing edifice, the Anthology Film Archives, swings a mighty bat this spring training season; the conclusion of its excellent series focusing on the McCarthy witchhunts of the late 40's and early 50's. Screenwriters and the Blacklist: Before, During and After - Part Three: Post-Blacklist, traverses two decades of filmmaking in order to display what amounted to some minute measure of mea culpa toward the scribes most negativley affected by the scabrous efforts of that dangerous demagogue. Entries in the series include Robert Aldrich's THE LAST SUNSET (script; Dalton Trumbo), Sidney Lumet's FAIL-SAFE (script; Walter Bernstein), and Don Siegel's TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARAH (script; Albert Maltz). McCarthy's an excoriated and painful memory. The films that bested his worst efforts remain a reminder of what's best in us.

Also this month at AFA is the continuation of their exceptional trib to Italian horror films, The Killer Must Kill Again!: Giallo Fever, Part Two. Upcoming eyeball-piercing shenanigans in the series include Mario Bava's BAY OF BLOOD, Lucio Fulci's THE PSYCHIC, and Dario Argento's FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET. Count Floyd would be most pleased.

Lastly, the Archives present two iconic efforts from Luis Buñuel: 1930's L'AGE D'OR and 1950's LOS OLVIDADOS. Maybe the eyeball-piercing aficionados amongst you would prefer this series instead. at least in spirit. Anthology Film Archives is located at 32 2nd Avenue in Manhattan's East Village.

MoMA kicks March off with a revisit of the works of German New Wave maestro Wim Wenders, the man responsible for such masterworks as THE AMERICAN FRIEND, PARIS, TEXAS, and WINGS OF DESIRE. Because of the site's 25-year cutoff I will not list every screening in the series, so check the full listings at MoMA.org, and also keep an eye out for the filmmaker's in-person attendance.

Also at the temple to Modern Art this month is the second phase of adjunct curator Dave Kehr's shining of the Kliegs on a spectacular movie star; Actuerism: Ginger Rogers. A series that posits the notion that authorship of a film may come from before the camera as well as from behind it. This month we're privy to classics like Sam Wood's KITTY FOYLE, Mitchell Leisen's LADY IN THE DARK, William Dieterle's I'LL BE SEEING YOU, and Arthur Lubin's THE FIRST TRAVELING SALESLADY. Ant time spent with Ginger is smartly invested. MoMa is located at 11 W 53rd St. in midtown Manhattan.

Two collossal series unspool out at Astoria's Museum of the Moving Image. First up is the next chapter in their See It Big! series, entitled High and Wide, examining the implications of aspect ratio and its intrinsic value to cinematic narrative, which tempts with titles such as Frank Tashlin's THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT, Akira Kurosawa's HIGH AND LOW, and my choice for 2nd greatest movie ever made, Powell and Pressburger's A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH. Try me on that last title.

The other great series offerd by MoMI this month is dedicated to the smaller screen, but focused on it bigger screen antecedents. Required Viewing: Mad Men's Movie Influences places into evidence such titles as Hitchcock's NORTH BY NORTHWEST and VERTIGO, Billy Wilder's THE APARTMENT, and David Lynch's BLUE VELVET. MM creator Matt Wiener himself will be in attendance for the 3/20 screening of Wilder's gem, and will participate in a post-screening Q&A. Moving Image is located at 36-01 35th avenue, Astoria, Queens.

Heading into NYC's deep south toward handsomely hirsuite BillyBurg, the lovable knucklehaeds at the Nitehawk Cinema, my new fave movie theater in NYC, have plotted their usual hijinks. Brunch and midnight fare include Sam Fuller's SHOCK CORRIDOR, Hitchcock's SPELLBOUND, and Milos Forman's ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST for the Bellini-besotted, and Lamberto Bava's DEMONS, Luca Bercovici's GHOULIES, and Umberto Lenzi's PARANOIA filling out the Witching Hour's dance card. Other notable rep screenings at the 'Hawk include the kick-off of the new series Committed, which this month serves up Joe L. Mankiewicz's SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER and Robert Wiene's THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, as well as The Deuce, their trib to Times Square's glory Grindhouse era, presenting this month Roger Moore's mercifully final turn as 007, A VIEW TO A KILL. Have I mentioned this venue boasts of the finest root beer n' tater tots to be found before the big screen in the 5 boroughs? The Nitehawk Cinema is a short stumble away from the Bedford Ave L stop at 136 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg.

The Japan Society revs up its film program this month with the series The Most Beautiful: The War Films of Shirley Yamaguchi & Setsuko Hara, two powerful female forces that traversed adjoined eras which visited great difficulty upon their profession. Films programmed for the series include Osamu Fushimizu's CHINA NIGHTS, Kunio Watanabe's SONG OF THE WHITE ORCHID, and the great Akira Kurosawa's SCANDAL. Full disclosure: never been to the JS. I'll be checking in for one or five of these films.

Over at the French Institute/Alliance Française a new series begins, one that is sadly excluded by my site's cutoff rule, yet includes the first feature: Benîot Jacquos' THE DISENCHANTED, part of the month-long series dedicated to the filmmaker's Leading Ladies. I consider it my beau geste.

The New York Historical Society continues their Justice in Film series with screenings of Woody Van Dyke's THE THIN MAN and Louis Malle's AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS.

The BowTie Chelsea, which apparently has become Bolfeld's new hideout, so beridden with malware it seems, offers up Nick Ray's IN A LONELY PLACE, Robert Siodmak's CRISS-CROSS, Orson Welles' TOUCH OF EVIL and Robert Aldrich' KISS ME DEADLY.

Midnight goofiness at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema includes Woody Allen's full-on slapstick trib SLEEPER and Walter Hill's even more comic-booky THE WARRIORS.

And finally the Silent Clowns Film Series gives legendary producer Hal Roach the biz, fêting Harold Lloyd by unspooling some of his teen-era gems in their glorious 35mm iterations:1915's PECULIAR PATIENT PRANKS, 1917's CLUBS ARE TRUMPS, 1918's HEY THERE, 1919's PAY YOUR DUES, and 1920's GET OUT AND GET UNDER. In tribute, I will not try to best Lloyd's climbing of a clock tower, but salute it by climbing onto my couch. Criticize me and you're un-American, sirs and madams.

And that wouls seem to be the rep film round-up for March 2015. Skeds are subject to change, and they often do, so be sure to check back with Nitrate Stock for the updates. And be sure to follow me on Twitter @NitrateStock, on tumbler as NitratreStock, on InstaGram as nitratestock, and seek me out on whatever new social media app has been devised and gained prominence since I typed this. This is Joe Walsh saying if you're gonna see it, see it on the big screen!

joew@nitratestock.net