October 2nd 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 Film School 101: Canon Fodder at IFC Center, the waning week of Vittorio De Sica: Attore, Regista, Seduttore at Film Forum, Modern Matinees: In the Beginning at MoMA, Interesting Women, Interesting Lives at BAM Cinématek, the always highly-anticipated Revivals portion of the New York Film Festival, and the eternally sah-wank Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum. The kino kookookery be thus;
IFC Center
VERTIGO (1958) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
Film Forum
Vittorio De Sica: Attore, Regista, Seduttore
TWO WOMEN (1960) Dir; Vittorio De Sica
ANATOMY OF LOVE (1954) Dir; Alessandro Blasetti
MoMA
Modern Matinees: In the Beginning
THE ITALIAN STRAW HAT (1928) Dir; René Clair
Japan Society
PARADISE VIEW (1985) Dir; Go Takamine
BAM Cinématek
Interesting Women, Interesting Lives
WORKING GIRL (1988) Dir; Mike Nichols
Film Society of Lincoln Center
RAN (1985) Dir; Akira Kurosawa
Rubin Museum
SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932) Dir; Josef von Sternberg
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974) Dir; Tobe Hooper
Nitehawk Cinema
RABID (1978) Dir; David Cronenberg
Today's Pick? Again, I'm usually against letting one program hog the spotlight in a metropolis so movie-mad, but as I will be in actaul attendance at the majority of the festa I gotta go with a triple-dip this day. Plus, I think I'd be swinging the Kiegs in the direction of this screening under almost any circumstances. Fave filmmakers have that effect upon us all.
It's funny how we gravitate toward certain filmmakers over the course of our life/film education, for those of us so inclined to keep track of individual CV's anyway. Amongst the directors who I initially found both academic and artistic interest include Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Mah Boy Sid Lumet, Stanley Kramer, Preston Sturges, and my absolute pantheon three; Fritz Lang, Howard Hawks, and John Ford. Amongst the foreign filmmakers I found interest in number François Truffaut, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini. So I'm a populist, for the most part, a fan of classic narrative cinema, even though my tastes tend to be drawn in virtually every cinematic direction. But from an early age, without the benefit of ever knowing about the Auteur Theory, I sought and found themes personal that traversed the CV's of these fascinating crafters of film. That was my entry point into a lifelong addiction to the form, the desire to explore the larger body of work, to identify with or express contempt for an artist's overall message. It was only important to me that that filmmaker have a message.
Japan has quite the tricky history where its film industry has been concerned, let alone where their foreign policy once led them. Things're better now, it's okay it's okay. It was a thriving industry in the days leading up to WW2. Once the conflict's spark grew to a white hot blaze, some filmmakers who'd been working successfully within the studio system conformed or folded. Others broke in at this opportune time that demanded propaganda. One however, perhaps the beneficial recipient of times that changed quite rapidly in his favor, started his career with the bullhorn under the censorship of the Japanese military, and quite quickly found himself under the censorship of the occupying American forces. This was a man who was never a wilting lily, yet never along for the ride once his nation was seized by its native gangsters, a theme he'd continue to explore over the course of his career whether it be in periods antiquated or contemporary. In the wake of the war, of the atrocities committed, the myopic militarism, the shame of defeat and an uncertain future, he gradually found his great subject; the search for his country's soul. This took him into its then-contemporary ghettos and the human parasites exploiting their weakened own. It took him into his country's past, at first to shatter it to pieces, indeed to shatter the notion of any truth in cinema into shards, and then to re-introduce the notion of Bushido, a Japanese set of ethics akin to chivalry. Not an easy thing to do when the Jidaigeki, or samurai film, was basically banned during Japan's rebuild under their former enemies and current overseers.
He went further; decrying chauvinism and celebrating strong women, attacking the new corporate fascism he saw taking the place of the one-time military absolute. He did this all while combining influences like his own industry's celebrated vets, like Keisuke Kinoshita and Kenji Mizoguchi, while absorbing western narrative style from the like of Wellman, Walsh, and of course his beloved John Ford. A major hiccup in his career occured when he was promised a project that would find him collaborating with hero Ford; a grand scale epic re-telling of the Pearl Harbor attack, told from the American side by Pappy and the Japanese by himself. Ford's health grew dire, and the fact that his box office had been weak combined to boot the man many still consider the greatest of all American filmmakers off of the project. Across the pacific, news that Ford had been replaced by journeyman Richard Fleischer (though a personal fave of mine) sent the man who most singularly defined Japanese cinema around the globe into a depression. He quit the project, even attempted suicide. He spent a few years in the wilderness, during which he directed his first film in color, DODESUKADEN. But largely, he was considered all but finished.
Then a little indie project about Jedis, lightsabers and a Death Star was released. And whether it was a grab for serious film cred or the honest truth, George Lucas attributed much of the film's structure to this great Japanese filmmaker, though perhaps jumbled in a mix of Flash Gordon serials and 50's sci-fi flicks. Suddeny the filmmaker was relevant again, his film THE HIDDEN FORTRESS sought out wherever possible by rabid STAR WARS fans, and interest in future projects resurgent. Lucas partnered with mentor, surrogate big brother and fellow acolyte Francis Ford Coppola to help raise funds for a majestic return to cinemas for their idol, and the result was KAGEMUSHA, a flat-out masterpiece. The elder statesman was back, and in a big way. So once more he gambled, using all of his newfound clout to shoot the works, to go for one last chance at a career-definer. He began with the parable of a warlord in feudal Japan, and at some point realized the similarites to Shakespeare's KING LEAR, and incorporated them. The resulting film not only thrilled his fans and wowed lapsed advocates, it not only spurred padawan Lumet to pursue a successful campaign to have the director nominated for Best Director at that year's Oscars, it has become shorthand for any filmmaker of advanced age attempting a grand scale epic. Eastwood has heard the comparisons over AMERICAN SNIPER. Scott has heard the comparisons over PROMETHEUS. He was 75 years old when he crafted one of his finest achievements. And, no offense to any filmmaker of advanced age attempting the same epic feat these last 30 years, no one else has ever even come close.
Akira Kurosawa's RAN screens tonight at the Walter Reade Theater as part of the Revivals section of the 53rd annual New York Film Festival! I heart this man tremendously, and this'll be my 4th time watching this on the big screen. Be sure to follow my gushing on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and Vine and Boondoggle and Rigmarole and HowzYaBallz ENOUGH! You know wheh to find me. Arigato, Kurosawa-san.
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in October '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!
