August 14th 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.
Continuing series this day includes the director tribs to Yasujiro Ozu and Scorsese , at IFC Center and MoMA respectively, Indie 80's at BAM Cinématek, See It Big: 70mm! at Museum of the Moving Image, One-Film Wonders at Anthology Film Archives, and the eternally effervescent Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum. The repertory rapscallionery be thus;
IFC Center
EARLY SPRING (1956) Dir; Yasujiro Ozu
MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE (1987) Dir; Gary Goddard
ALIEN (1979) Dir; Ridley Scott
Film Forum
THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS (1982) Dirs; Paolo & Vittorio Taviani
BAM Cinématek
SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE (1989) Dir; Steven Soderbergh
THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984) Dir; Rob Reiner
Museum of the Moving Image
TRON (1982) Dir; Steven Lisberger
Anthology Film Archives
SPRING NIGHT, SUMMER NIGHT (1967) Dir; J. L. Anderson
WANDA (1970) Dir; Barbara Loden
MoMA
IT ALWAYS RAINS ON A SUNDAY (1947) Dir; Robert Hamer
Rubin Museum of Art
BLACK SUNDAY (1960) Dir; Mario Bava
Nitehawk Cinema
THE FLYING GUILLOTINE (1975) Dir; Meng Hua Ho
Today's Pick? Torn between a couple of choices I've never seen before; Anderson's SPRING/SUMMER at AFA and Robert Hamer's SUNDAY at MoMA. I'm also always up for the culty goodness of Bava's SUNDAY (no relation to Hamer I assume), Meng's GUILLOTINE and Reiner's SPINAL TAP. I would finally and officially direct your attention toward two smart indie masterowrks; Soderbergh's well-known, game-changing VIDEOTAPE and Barbara Loden's much lesser-seen and badly in need of championing WANDA. however, I gotta go with a Pick very very close to my heart, one that stood out in the very competitive pack during what I like to call the Magic Summer, the period that saw the release of such iconic genre works as Carpenter's THE THING, Scott's BLADE RUNNER, Meyer's WRATH OF KHAN, Cronenberg's VIDEODROME, and Miller's ROAD WARRIOR. While some have nothing but contempt for it, and others include it the the irony bin of 80's Basic Cable classics, it actually stands, both then and now, as a minor masterwork, a visonary bit of filmmaking whose visual wizardry forever altered how we both make and view movies. While its narrative might be held together by thread most meager, it held and continues to hold this mix of celluloid and computer joy. Among the bold choices made during its production, painstaking choices like hand-painting each frame of the film to provide the neccesary computer-world glow to the live-action sequences, was he decision to film the proceedings on glorious 70mm stock, a process exceedingly rare these days, available to auteur classmates like Tarantino and P. T. Anderson, but otherwise of value to the cinema aficionado only. For that reason more than any other, I'm directing you toward luxurious Queens County. From there you can find your way to the game grid.
Steven Lisberger's seminal sci-fi masterwork TRON unspools in glorious 70mm as part of museum of the Moving Image's excellent series See It Big: 70mm! I'll see you there, mister high & mighty Master Control Program!
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in August '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 warmer, fiercer cuddle of the sun's sunnier disposition has reached its zenith, 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!
