November 21st 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, To Save and Project: The 13th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation at MoMA, a trib to Dalton Trumbo at Museum of the Moving Image,the equally blacklist-themed Sound and Fury: The Films of Cy Endfield at Anthology Film Archives, and Nobuhiko Obayashi: A Retrospective at the wonderful Japan Society. The sprockety splendiferous be thus;
IFC Center
BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (1925) Dir; Sergei Eisenstein
LADY SNOWBLOOD 2: LOVE SONG OF VENGEANCE (1974) Dir; Toshiya Fujita
Nitehawk Cinema
REPO MAN (1984) Dir; Alex Cox
ALIEN (1979) Dir; Ridley Scott
MoMA
To Save and Project: The 13th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation
HOMUNCULUS (1916) Dir; Otto Rippert
THE UNKNOWN ORSON WELLES: JOURNEY INTO FEAR (1943) Dir; Norman Foster
THE BRICK AND THE MIRROR (1965) Dir; Ebrahim Golestan
Mid-Manhattan Library
BLUE HAWAII (1961) Dir; Norman Taurog
Museum of the Moving Image
THE BRAVE ONE (1956) Dir; Irving Rapper
GUN CRAZY (1950) Dir; Joseph H. Lewis
Anthology Film Archives
Sound and Fury: The Films of Cy Endfield
CRASHOUT (1954) Dir; Lewis R. Foster
THE LIMPING MAN (1953) Dir; Cy Endfield
THE ARGYLE SECRETS (1948) Dir; Cy Endfield
THE MASTER PLAN (1954) Dir; Cy Endfield
Japan Society
Nobuhiko Obayashi: A Retrospective
BOUND FOR THE FIELDS, THE MOUNTAINS AND THE SEACOAST (1986) Dir; Nobuhiko Obayashi
I ARE YOU, YOU AM ME (1982) Dir; Nobuhiko Obayashi
Today's Pick? I'm sorely tempted by both the film prez fest at MoMA and the Trumbo huggery at MoMI, especially as the latter is a two-fer with paid admission to the museum proper. But I'm gonna test your loyalties today: yer wallets or yer rep film cred? Although they're available only for seperate admission prices I'm going with the Cy Enfield trib today, all four films either written by the man, directed by him, or both. Anthology Film Archives has placed a special focus over the last year and a half on the blighted era of McCarthyism, particularly with their exceptional 3-part series that unspooled in 2014, focusing on blacklisted artists before the scourge, during, and in its wake. With the new and surely to be nominated biopic of the blacklist's most famous survivor, scribe Dalton Trumbo, in theaters and the subject of the Astoria rep house's slow dance, this is a fitting moment to fete this filmmaker whose career was taken slightly off course, not derailed like some others, due to a nation's fears and one man's unconscionable quest for power.
The Endfield quartet is as follows; Lewis R. Foster's CRASHOUT, written by Endfield, 1953's THE LIMPING MAN, Endfield's first directing gig abroad and fronted by another filmmaker, THE ARGYLE SECRETS, Endfield's first time out as writer/director, and THE MASTER PLAN, a B-movie quickie churned out in the UK under a pseudonym. Granted this'll be a long day in the NYC film fanatic's fave haunted house, but it'll be worth it to explore a lesser known career, one that might've been bigger and bolder had the 50's not gotten in the way. Plus, should ya get tired, you can always ask the guy who brings his own mattress to hook a brother up.
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in November '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!
