March 21st 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.
March Madness.To some, an invigorating annual sports event, one that involves spirited competition, miracles of human physical ability, and the gazing at potential future stars. To others, the lingering ghost of February. Just ask Jack Torrance. Don't hate the axe-wielding snow maze stalker, hate the game.
New and continuing series this day include Required Viewing: MAD MEN's Movie Influences at Museum of the Moving Image, The Killer Must Kill Again! Giallo Fever, Part Two at Anthology Film Archives, and The Most Beautiful: The War Films of Shirley Yamaguchi and Setsuko Hara at the Japan Society. The shenanigans be so;
Nitehawk Cinema
SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER (1957) Dir; Joseph L. Mankiewicz
GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1989) Dir; Joe Dante
Film Forum
THE TALES OF HOFFMANN (1951) Dirs; Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
CHINA IS NEAR (1967) Dir; Marco Bellocchio
Museum of the Moving Image
Required Viewing: MAD MEN's Movie Influences
VERTIGO (1958) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
BLUE VELVET (1986) Dir; David Lynch
Anthology Film Archives
The Killer Must Kill Again! Giallo Fever, Part Two
DIRTY PICTURES (1971) Dir; Umberto Lenzi
THE SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS (1971) Dir; Aldo Lado
PHENOMENA (1985) Dir; Dario Argento
Japan Society
The Most Beautiful: The War Films of Shirley Yamaguchi and Setsuko Hara
CHINA NIGHTS Dir; Osamu Fushimizu
Today's Pick? I'm holding off on AFA's Giallo series for a really good trip-bill, one worthy of the expenditure of your time and cash, especially since the latter will deplete on a film-by-film basis. P&P's HOFFMANN has already been selected, and Bellocchio's CHINA affords me 6 more days to do so. Once more Dante's brilliant sequel to his signature horror/comedy tempts mightily, as does the kickoff to the Japan Society's trib to two of the most important and legendary female figures of wartime and postwar Japanese cinema, but I think I gotta just go with my heart today, and choose a work that nearly defies description.
Influenced equally by Roger Corman's Poe cycle of the 60's, Doug Sirk and, by consequence, Fassbinder melodrama of the 50's and 70's, respectively, Hardy Boys mysteries, Reagan-era America-branding, and the great, somewhat ethereal Roy Orbison, it remains perhaps its maker's greatest work, a comment not only on film or the state of American culture in the 80's, but on the essential nature of mankind itself. It is a disturbingly dark work of film that results in enthusiastic optimism. It contains some of the most difficult scenes the cinema ever produced, and also some of its most heartwarming. Most importantly though, it shattered what was becoming a homogenized Hollywood film industry, one that at the time regarded its recent and glorious 70's era legacy with disdain, as if it had been a lost weekend from which its was recovering. It was met with a range of discomfort from blush to bash to blank. Along with new voices that included Spike Lee and the Coen Brothers, it helped lay the groundwork for the indie upheaval of the 90's. It is a defining point in American cinema, perhaps even the history of the cinema itself. And hey, you get to catch it alongside what many mistaken opinions deem the greatest film of all time! This is the living definition of the word opportunity.
David Lynch's BLUE VELVET screens today in glorious 35mm at Astoria's Museum of the Moving Image as part of their excellent new series Required Viewing: MAD MEN's Movie Influences! The price of admission also grants you access to Big Al's VERTIGO, perhaps the sinlge most overrated film in history, as well as the entirety of the museum space. Take my word for it, spend time in the museum, no matter how gorgoues Robert Burke's DP work on Hitch's flaw is. You'll thank me.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in March '15 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. 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 mercifully feeling the loosening of winter's embrace, but 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!
