August 2015! Marlon Brando, Indie 80's, and the Last Outdoor Screenings of the Summer!

Hallo Stockahz, and welcome back to your monthly rundown of NYC's rep film circuit. This summer season has thus far been a most awesome one for the gotham cinephile; we've enjoyed such series as the trib to B&W CinemaScope at BAM, the now sadly ended valentine to Technicolor cinema at MoMA, and programs dedicated to master filmmakers like Yasujiro Ozu and John Ford. As delightfully as these delihts have delighted, we've got so much more looming on the horizon, tributes to game-changing actors, filmmakers, tribs to film formats themselves, and of course the outdoor screenings that seem to grow ever exponentionally summer by summer. So let's not dally, because while we currently exult in climes majestic the dark months, or as I commonly refer to it NFL season, approacheth! Let's do this!

Those of you familiar with this site know that I routinely award what I lovingly refer to as Big Dawg status to the series or screening I deem that month's most unmissable. There's more than one mutt fighting out for that metaphorical chewtoy reward, however, from Anthology Film Archives' celebration of 35mm film in general and the legendary indie production house American International Pictures in particular, to Moving Image;s spectacular 70mm program, to the 2nd half of BAM Cinématek's kissy-face with independent cinema of the 80's. However, as genuinely thrilling and even important these prospects may be, I gotta go with that great film scholar, our dean emeritus of cinema and still perhaps the genre's finest ambassador: I award this month's Daily Growl to MoMA for its month-long series Scorsese Screens! In conjunction with the gallery exhibit Scorsese Collects, which, trust me , is worth a museum membership in and of itself, adjunct curator, film critic/historian, and all-around swell guy Dave Kehr has programmed a series that includes some of the master filmmaker's finest two hours sourrounded by a collection of the films deemed most influential to his eventual CV. In other words its All-Time World Auteurs full of Scorseses, in poker terms. Upcoming unmissables include Max Ophuls' LA RONDE, LE PLAISIR, & THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE... , three from influential horror producer Val Lewton: CAT PEOPLE, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, and THE LEOPARD MAN, all directed by master craftsman Jacques Tourneur. Finally an assortment of the usual suspects on Scorsese's hall of fame: Powell & Pressburger's A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, BLACK NARCISSUS, THE RED SHOES and the recently restored THE TALES OF HOFFMANN, John Ford's THE SEARCHERS, Howard Hawks' SCARFACE, Elai Kazan's ON THE WATERFRONT, Otto Preminger's LAURA, and Joseph H. Lewis' GUN CRAZY. Also this crazy Scorsese kid's repped by a couple of his own gems: 1973's MEAN STREETS, 1976's TAXI DRIVER, and the 1991 remake CAPE FEAR. In addition, you get the exhibition of posters and other film esoterica that graces the film lobbies in MoMA's theater spaces. Miss this and you are, indeed, a mok. The series runs from today, Wednesday August 5th, til September 6th.

Also at MoMA this month, the end of the month to be precise, is the kickoff to a centennial celebration of legendary actress/reason celluloid film, projector bulbs, and human eyes were invented Ingrid Bergman, in conjunction with BAM Cinématek. The schedule is jam-packed with classics and masterpieces, among the titles screening at the end of this month count Michael Curtiz's CASABLANCA, Ingmar Berman's AUTUMN SONATA, Hitchcock's UNDER CAPRICORN, and two by director and eventual lover Roberto Rossellini; 1950's STROMBOLI and 1954's VOYAGE TO ITALY. Check back next month for the full details on this extraordinary celebration to one of the grreatest film stars of all time. MoMA is located at 11 W. 53rd street in Manhattan.

Coming in at a close second is that fave haunted house amongst the NYC rep film fanatic, that magnificent collapsing reminder of NYC's glorious grindhouse past, the Casa de Mekas; the EV's very own Anthology Film Archives. This month they offer two-count-'em-two ace series. The first is a reprise of their terrific ode to those oddly mumbered auteurs who were one-and-done, jumping ship after their initial efforts yet leaving their indelible mark on the film landscape nonetheless. One-Film Wonders this month brings us Charles Laughton's THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, Barbara Loden's WANDA, Herk Harvey's CARNIVAL OF SOULS, Saul Bass' PHASE IV, and Norman Lear's COLD TURKEY.

Kicking off the month at AFA, however, is the absolutely essential trib to the most important indie production house American film has ever known; American International Pictures! The little-distributor-that-could decided that in-house production was the way to profit, and so studio heads Samuel Z. Arkoff and James B. Nicholson partnered with a hands-on producer and sometimes-director named Roger Corman, who would be fairly instrumental in the direction American cinema would take in the postwar era. Upcoming screenings include drive-in and grindhouse fare like the tandem of Gene Fowler's I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF and Herbert L. Strock's I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN, somewhat more sublime cult fare like Curtis Harringotn's QUEEN OF BLOOD, Mario Bava's BLACK SABBATH, and Ubaldo Ragona & Sidney Salkow's THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, as well as what might be Corman's directorial masterpiece THE TOMB OF LIGEIA, and the first film from the aforementioned Martin Scorsese, 1972's BOXCAR BERTHA. The series runs til September 3rd. Anthology Film Archives is located at 32 2ns Avenue in Manhattan.

Zipping westward to more less-haunted halls NYC's temple to all things cinematic, lovingly referred to as Film Forum, boasts a fascinating sked all its own. This weekend sees the start to a celebration of legendary thesp and master fruitcake Marlon Brando, inventively titled Brando! Focusing on his most iconic perfs, in conjunction with the brand new doc LISTEN TO ME MARLON, the series offers such indelible works as Kazan's ON THE WATERFRONT, Bernardo Bertoluci's LAST TANGO IN PARIS, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's JULIUS CAESAR, and Francis Ford Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW. You will believe a man can mumble. Runs from Friday August 7th to the 11th.

Also at the Forum this month is a one-day screening of the recent restoration of Alain Resnais' HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR, screening on the 6th of the month to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. Rounding out the month are two restorations: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS, and Jean-Pierre Melville's ARMY OF SHADOWS, running from August 12th to the 18th and 26th to September 1st respectively. Film Forum is located at 209 W. Houston St. in Manhattan.

Across the strait known lovingly as the East Rive the good folks at BAM Cinématek are forging fully forward with the 2nd half of their wonderful examinaton of independent cinema in the 80's, inventively titled Indie 80's! Upcoming gems from what many wrongly consider the Black Hole of Calcutta of American film include George A. Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD, Joel and Ethan Coen's debut BLOOD SIMPLE, Victor Nuñez's A FLASH OF GREEN, Hal Hartley's THE UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH, Steven Soderbergh's SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE, Spike Lee's SHE'S GOTTA HAVE IT, and David Lynch's ubiquitous BLUE VELVET. The series concludes, sadly, on the 27th. BAM Cinématek is located at 30 Lafayette avenue in Brooklyn.

Borough-hopping north into that crown jewel of the five boroughs, the Palm Springs of NYC, the one-and-only Astoria, their majestic cinematic Tower of Babel, otherwise monickered Museum of the Moving Image, revives a series that blew minds and took names last summer; See it Big: 70mm! I was lucky enough to attend a screening of Kubricks 2001 last summer, and not only does it remian one of the more recent indelible experiences I've had on the NYC rep scene, it's being offered again this month, and I urge you not to miss this a second time if you missed it the first. Other noteworthy screenings in the series include Douglas Trumbull's BRAINSTORM, Steven Lisberger's TRON, Stanley Kramer's IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD, Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins' WEST SIDE STORY, and David Lean's masterpiece LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. The festivities run from August 7th thru the 30th. Moving Image is located at 36-01 35th avenue in Astoria, Queens.

Back on the fully-toothed side of the pond the folks up at the Film Society of Lincoln Center have cobbled together a trib to one of the modern era's most fascinating, in some cases most maddening filmmakers, just this side of John Boorman. Richard Lester: The Running Jumping Pop Cinema Iconoclast focuses on the american ex-pat and his works innovative, like the undoubtable A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and the ever enthralling PETULIA, alongside works for hire like THE THREE MUSKETEERS and THE FOUR MUSKETEERS and RETURN OF THE MUSKETEERS and THE MUSKETEERS ENDORSE METAMUCIL, as well as oddities like THE BED-SITTING ROOM, the wonderful farce HOW I WON THE WAR, the broad broadway adap A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, and later career death-rattles like BUTCH AND SUNDANCE: THE EARLY DAYS and CUBA, as well as one solid intelligent disaster actioner form the catastrophe-obsessed 70's, the tense and terse JUGGERANUT. The series runs from August 7th to the 13th.

Also at the Film Society this month Whit Stillman's debut feature METROPOLITAN screens in a newly concocted DCP iteration, and the filmmaker will be on hand for a couple of these digitized unspoolings. And Wise & Robbins' WEST SIDE STORY encores in an outdoor screening at Linclon Center Plaza in conjunction with the Met. The Film Society is located at the Walter Reade Theater Theater at 165 W. 65th st. and the Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center at 144 W. 65th street.

Takig advantage of the MTA's most luvuro=ious L train line, we now head into follically-festooned Williamsburg, and its signature theater; the Nitehawk Cinema. Upcoming noontime and midnight doings at this venue include Tommy Chong's CHEECH AND CHONG'S NEXT MOVIE for the Bellini-besotted, and a quartet of martail arts classics boked for the witching hour; Chang Cheh's FIVE DEADLY VENOMS, Meng Hua Ho's THE FLYING GUILLOTINE, Gordon Lui's SHAOLIN AND WU TANG, and King Hu's COME DRINK WITH ME. Other notable screenings at the Nitehawk include Alan J. Pakula's THE PARALLAX VIEW as par of the series It's a Conspiracy, Robert Butler's NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER as part of the series The Deuce, and J. Michael Muro's STREET TRASH as part of no series whatsoever. As if it needs one anyway. Sheesh. The fantabulous Nitehawk Cinema is a mere stumble from the Bedford Ave L train stop at 136 Metropolitan Avenue.

Again rescuing our cinemagoers from the throes of the outer boroughs the solid bedrock of Manhattan isle fully supports the IFC Center, and I fully support its rep film program. Undyingly. This month their Superheroes 1.0 series offers up Jeannot Szwarc's SUPERGIRL, Gary Goddard's MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, Steve Barron's TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, and Mike Hodges FLASH GORDON. The Yasujiro Ozu trib continues with screenings of THE FLAVOR OF GREEN TEA OVER RICE, EARLY SPRING, TOKYO TWILIGHT, and EQUINOX FLOWER. Other midnight fare includes Alejandro Jodorowsky's THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, Ridley Scott's ALIEN, David Lynch's BLUE VELVET, and Jim Cameron's ALIENS. Finally their Celluloid Dreams series continues with Joseph Losey's SECRET CEREMONY. IFC Center is located at 323 6th Avenue in Greenwich Village.

The Rubin Musuem's sleek, slick and swank Cabaret Cinema series presents this month screenings of Hiroshi Teshigahara's THE FACE OF ANOTHER, Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY, Billy Wilder's WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, and Hitchcock's TO CATCH THIEF. The policy has changed and the price of admission is no longer a $10 bar tab, but hey, wher else can you strech yer legs like a 1st class ticket-holder and sip a perfectly chilled Perfect Manhattan? Oh, and the movies are top-notch as well! The Rubin is located at 150 W. 17th street in Manhattan.

The benificent folks at Lincoln Center's Library for the Performing Arts offer up a trib to the centennary of Sinatra's birth, unspooling two later classics of a sort: Gordon Douglas' TONY ROME and THE DETECTIVE, on the 6th and the 17th respectively. And the Silent Clowns continue their excellent trib to Hal Roach with screenings of DIZZY DADDIES (1926), SHOULD HUSBANDS PAY? (1926), SUGAR DADDIES (1927), and WE FAW DOWN (1928) on the Afternoon of the 8th. The Library for the Performing Arts is located at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

And finally to the last, in this case also the last of thenoutdor screenings we may lay claim to in our movie-mad, summer-obsessed burg. Highlights include George Cukor's DESK SET, Roman Polanski's CHINATOWN, and Robert Zemeckis' BACK TO THE FUTURE at Bryant Park, the Spielberg-helmed E.T. - THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL at Hunter's Point South Park and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK at Cunningham Park, Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE at Brooklyn Bridge Park, William Wyler's ROMAN HOLIDAY at the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, and John Huston's KEY LARGO at Brooklyn's Garden of Hope. Summer outdoor screenings, we hardly knew ye.

So there you have it, your August 2015 repertory film calendar. Skeds are subject to change, and they do, so be sure to check back with the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. Don't be shy about feedback, either. Be sure to let me know what ya think of the job I'm doing. And be sure to like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, observe me on Instagram, stalk me on Tumblr, measure me on Vine okay that's enough now. You know where to find me should ya wanna keep up with the rep film doings in NYC. So until next time, be safe and sound, Stockahz, and make sure the next knucklehead is too. Excelsior!

-Joe Walsh

JoeW@NitrateStock.net