September 15th 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 three director tribs; Wim Wenders at IFC Center, Vittorio De Sica at Film Forum, and Hasse Ekman at MoMA, aswell as the centennial celbration of the birth of Ingrid Bergman, continuing til month's end at BAM. The flickering fantasmagoria be thus;
IFC Center
Wim Wenders: Portraits Along the Road
PARIS, TEXAS (1984) Dir; Wim Wenders
WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) Dir; Wim Wenders
THE STATE OF THINGS (1975) Dir; Wim Wenders
Film Forum
Vittorio De Sica: Autore, Regista, Seduttore
GOLD OF NAPLES (1954) Dir; Vittorio De Sica
RIFIFI (1955) Dir; Jules Dassin
ARMY OF SHADOWS (1969) Dir; Jean-Pierre Melville
MoMA
Hasse Ekman: The Other Swede in the Room
CHANGING TRAINS (1943) Dir; Hasse Ekman
WANDERING WITH THE MOON (1945) Dir; Hasse Ekman
BAM Cinématek
THE BELLS OF ST. MARY'S (1945) Dir; Leo McCarey
Today's Pick? I know better than to believe Film Forum when they say a film MUST ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY WITHOUT A DOUBT MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH END ON THIS PARTICULAR YET ARBITRAY DATE! However, on the off chance they might actually be on the up-and-up regarding two recently restored classics of French noir, I'm going to shine my site's Kliegs in good faith. They don't screen as a double feature, but for the price of separate admissions you get to experience twin masterpieces, one crafted during the run-up to the Nouvelle Vague explosion, by an ex-pat filmmaker escaping Hollywood's witch hunt, and the other helmed by a filmmaker largely shunned and even excoriated by that same new wave movement, and who perhaps exemplified its core inspirations better than any of the Cahiers du Cinema clique. The former was an instant sensation, which proved so successful a career redemption for its maker he found himself correcting folks who now pronounced his name as though he were of French origin and not a Bronx Jew. The latter, a potboiler expose of the French Resistance during the war, proved so controversial it didn't see American sunlight until its eventual appearance in 2006, wherupon it landed on every critic's Top Ten list. They are only loosely connected on their surfaces, yet they share very common themes; desperate men united for circumstances most shadowy, betrayal amongst those already morally compromised, and Paris. That last one might seem casually thrown in. That just means you've never been to Paris.
Jules Dassin's RIFIFI and Jean-Pierre Melville's ARMY OF SHADOWS screen today, for what may or may not be their final times, at Film Forum. No doom ever seems as cool as French doom. I've crossed the Seine at midnight with a open bottle of Côtes du Rhône and a lit cigarette. Trust me.
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in September '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 begun its annual wane, 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!
