June 13th 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.
New and continuing series this day include The Apu Trilogy and Gabriel Figueroa at Film Forum, Black & White 'Scope: International Cinema at BAM Cinématek, Glorious Technicolor: From George Eastman House and Beyond and 3-D Summer! at MoMA, and This is Celluloid: 35mm! at Anthology Film Archives. The warm weather wimwammery be thus;
Nitehawk Cinema
THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI: ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION (1984) Dir; W. D. Richter
VIDEODROME (1982) Dir; David Cronenberg
Film Forum
PATHER PANCHALI (1955) Dir; Satyajit Ray
APARAJITO (1956) Dir; Satyajit Ray
APUR SANSAR (1959) Dir; Satyajit Ray
THE PEARL (1947) Dir; Emilio Fernàndez
LOS OLVIDADOS (1950) Dir; Luis Buñuel
THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (1964) Dir; John Huston
BAM Cinématek
Black & White 'Scope: International Cinema
YOJIMBO (1961) Dir; Akira Kurosawa
SANJURO (1962) Dir; Akira Kurosawa
MoMA
Glorious Technicolor: From George Eastman House and Beyond
YOLANDA AND THE THIEF (1945) Dir; Vincente Minnelli
THE PIRATE (1948) Dir; Vincente Minnelli
THE STORY OF THREE LOVES (1953) Dir; Vincente Minnelli
HONDO (1953) Dir; John Farrow
Anthology Film Archives
NOSTALGHIA (1984) Dir; Andrei Tarkovsky
DREADNAUGHT (1981) Dir; Yuen Woo-ping
THE ENTITY (1982) Dir; Sidney J. Furie
VAMPYR (1932) Dir; Carl Th. Dreyer
Landmark Jersey Loews
SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE (1978) Dir; Richard Donner
THE SEVEN-YEAR ITCH (1955) Dir; Billy Wilder
IFC Center
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1970) Dir; Alejandro jodorowsky
EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY (1988) Dir; Julien Temple
Today's Pick? As my annual exult looms, one yearly expenditure of the lazing months' hours by indulging in and examining a genius and his CV, what I've lovingly come to call #SummerWithKurosawa, I am compelled to choose two of his finest slices of cinema, pun very much intended. After departing from the genre he helped resurrect, one called jidaigeki, or period, or samurai cinema, with an ace melding of the 40's noir potboiler with the Bard's tragic Dane prince entitled The Bad Sleep Well, one received lukewarmly by audience and critics alike, AK sought for his 2nd outing as independent filmmaker a simple, stripped down bushido blade tale to secure his production company its financial independence. Once more he turned to onscreen alter-ego Toshiro Mifune, to stalwart stand-in for human vulnerablity Takashi Shimura, and welcomed legend-to-be Tatsuya Nakadai into the Kurosawa stock company. Once more he choreographed blades in furious frenzy, dust swirling by seeming command, and honor itself in near-physical manifestation. It borrowed heavily on both Eastern and Western sources, and became a new blueprint for cinema's lone seeker of justice, not merely adrift in Hollywood's west, wherever that might reside, but in the wasteland, and hence its fingerprints may not only be found on Leone's FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (which bear its palm and feet prints, fer chrissakes!), but on George Miller's once-more relevant MAD MAX series. Yes it screens in two halves today (again, pun flung), but a day that features this much testosterone in one venue is perhaps in need of splitting the bill. I'll stop now.
Akira Kurosawa's YOJIMBO and SANJURO screen back to back today as but two of the closing entries this weekend to BAM Cinématek's fantastic series Black & White 'Scope: International Cinema! Raw steak and whisky optional.
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in June '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. The warm cuddle of the sun's friendlier disposition seems finally to have arrived, 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!
