January 2016! Sir Christopher Lee, A Pioneer Cowboy, and the Bard on the Big Screen!

Well Hallelloo, Stockahz, and welcome to the first post of this fledgling upstart known to us all by the collective monicker of 2016! Perhaps not as warm or personable a given name as Jeff or Mary, but one we will no doubt come to know intimately, in ways both good and meh and Holy Hell over the next 12 months. We all made it through a 2015 that was at times rough, at times supermely fulfilling, at times WTF? We made it through together though, you and I who share this love of classic films, in particular the repertory film circuit in NYC's majestic 5 boroughs and just beyond. We've much to look forward to in this new year; centennial celebrations, film restorations, the opening of one, possibly two new venues dedicated to rep screenings, festivals abundant, outdoor summer screenings, and the potential for several new ventures that will see this site grow from its website iteration into a multifacted entity covering the circuit in multiple new ways. Exciting stuff looms, but for now we have a 31 day cycle to focus on. So let's get to it.

You who visit the site with some degree of regularity know that I love to bestow what I call Big Dawg status on that screening or series I deem the month's most unmissable. Last month that much-coveted distinction went to The Film Society of Lincoln Center and their terrific retrospective dedicated to one of the greatest masters of sudsy melodramatic laundry; Imitations of Life: The Films of Douglas Sirk, which has just now concluded, but you bet your life its exit was a memorable one.

Receiving the passed baton from that remarkable series is a tribute to one of my film heroes, a figure that factored heavily into my love of film as a child, and then remained throughout my adult life and its accompanying, burgeoning cinephilia. He made a routine lament of the fact that his career was mostly comprised of films that popped up on late-night local television, and yet it escaped him, for a long time anyway, how effective those films were to children who defied their parents' bedtime mandates to sit up close to the cathode ray tube with the sound down low to drink in, pun intended, his sheer presence, his total command of the screen, whether the film was beneath him or not. Often it was, yet he always managed to rise above and even elevate the proceedings by sheer virtue of his presence. He left us last year, sadly, at the too-young age of 93, and there are some who theorize he's simply lying in his grave only to leave it vacant shortly. He is the definitive Dracula. He should've been James Bond, at least once. And he helped provide a great deal of awesome to Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. He debuted onscreen as part of Olivier's HAMLET. He helped bury Hilter as part of British Intel during the war. And he recorded a heavy metal Xmas album. No, two. Because screw once. And he was amongst the baddest of the badasses to ever grace the world cinematic.

So January '16's Daily Growl goes happily to IFC Center for their 8-film celebration of the life and career of Sir Christopher Lee, who will be fêted, most appropriately, at midnight for an octet of weekends upcoming. Titles include Terence Fisher's THE MUMMY, Guy Hamilton's THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, Joe Dante's GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH, and the quintessential take, if you ask me, on Stoker's iconic tale of insidious toothy grins; Fisher's HORROR OF DRACULA. This is a celebration of a legend, at the hour perhaps most appropriate to his legacy. Embrace January's chills and shadows and pay the man his due. The series runs from now thru March 19th.

Also at IFC Center this month a wonderful series dedicated to the woefully undersung Charlotte Rampling, inventively entitled CHARLOTTE RAMPLING, unfolds over the next 2 months. Classics like Silvio Narizzano's GEORGY GIRL, Woody Allen's STARDUST MEMORIES, Sidney Lumet's THE VERDICT, Dick Richards' FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, and perhaps the actress' defining role in Liliana Cavani's THE NIGHT PORTER. The series runs from the 8th til March 6th.

Other doings at IFC include midnight viewings of James Cameron's ALIENS, Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING, and David Cronenberg's VIDEODROME. IFC Center is located at 323 6th Avenue in Manhattan.

Burning the hoverboard just south and west of IFC, West Houston's Film Forum, that pantheon dedicated to the purity of picturegoers' persnickitiness, boasts a slate enviable by any other venue this month. The Bard is the thing lo these upcoming 31 days, and so the new restoration of Orson Welles' CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT, a film that culls together most of the Falstaff scenes from HENRY IV Pt's 1 & 2, RICHARD II, HENRY V, and THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, leads into the Forum's splendid Stratford-On-Houston, a celebration of Shakespeare on film. Scheduled greatness includes Laurence Olivier's appearing in and overseeing HENRY V, RICHARD III, and his Oscar-winning HAMLET, Akira Kurosawa's THRONE OF BLOOD, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's JULIUS CAESAR, Fred McLeod Wilcox's FORBIDDEN PLANET, and two other masterpieces from Welles; 1948's MACBETH and 1952's OTHELLO. The series runs from the 13th through the 21st.

Also at the Forum this month the hook-'em-while-they're-young series, Film Forum Jr., continues apace with exceptional titles like George Dunning's YELLOW SUBMARINE, Joe Dante's EXPLORERS, and Stanley Donen's THE LITTLE PRINCE. As always , the Forum blesseth the faithful. Film Forum is located at 209 W. Houston St.in Manhattan.

Careening eastward we find ourselves at NYC's fave haunted rep house, Anthology Film Archives, hosting the fantastic third section of their trib to AIP Pictures, the brainchild of low-budget masterminds Sam Z. Arkoff and James Nicholson, but truly the legacy of one Roger Corman, producer/writer/director extraordigetitdonecheapandnow. So many future masters got their start here, so many who were never employed by the company still found themselves inspired by the team's spirit. they exist in the history of American cinema somewhere between film school and Troma. You may decide which of the two entities is the more desirable. Upcoming films in the series include Roy Ward Baker's THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, Bert I. Gordon's FOOD OF THE GODS, and Robert Fuest's THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES. So much current cinema was birthed by the work of this studio, both respectable and who-gives?, that an assessment is immeasurable. But this is a damn good place to begin should you decide to accept such an undertaking.This leg of the ongoing series runs from the 28th til March 21st.

Also at AFA this month is an encore screening of a film reintroducd by MoMA last summer as part of their 3D retrospective. Julian Roffman's THE MASK boasts the distinction of being the first Canadian Horror flick. It unspools over the weekend of the 15th, 6 screenings in total. It's not to be missed. Anthology Film Archives is located at 32 2nd Avenue in Manhattan.

6-training it up to midtown the wonderful folks at MoMA have much to occupy our classic film preoccupations this traditionally slow month on the calendar. First up is a reprise of some of the great titles recently screened as part of their essential new series, Modern Matinees. Unfolding under the subheading "Late to the Party", encore unspoolings include Fred niblo's origianl silent THE MARK OF ZORRO, starring Dougals Fairbanks at his buckle's most swashed, John Ford's HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, which showcases the radiant screen presence of the legendary and recently departed Maureen O'Hara, and Alan Crosland's THE JAZZ SINGER, which. y'know, reinvented the cinema. Every title's a must, and the series runs through Sunday the 17th.

Also at MoMA this month, as part of the regular Modern Matinees series, a tribute to early western film hero William S. Hart, a silent film star that did much to establish the parameters of the genre. Entitled A Pioneer Cowboy, shorts and featurettes in the series include BRANDING BROADWAY, HELL'S HINGES, THE SCOURGE OF THE DESERT, and THE TIGER MAN. The series runs from January 6th through February 26th.

Returning to MoMA in January is their recent and exciting find from the early silent era, what is now the earliest-known example of an all-black production. BERT WILLIAMS LIME KILN CLUB FIELD TRIP was abandoned after its production, and never received funding for its post-production. Discovered during an assessing of MoMA's Biograph Studios collection, they not only painstakingly restored the film, they perfomed a best-guess assembly of the footage into what may be close to the original filmmakers' intent. It made its premiere over 100 years after its filming, thus proving anything is possible when it comes to cinema history. So celebrate a miracle, and catch one of these screenings, running from the 13th to the 19th.

Finally MoMA closes out January with a celebration of the film work of choreographer Jack Cole, the man who presaged such influential individuals as Jerome Robbins & Bob Fosse. Iconic titles in the series include Alexander Hall's DOWN TO EARTH, Vincente Minnelli's DESIGNING WOMAN, Charles Vidor's GILDA, and Howard Hawks' Marylin Monroe-defining GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES. Runs through February 4th. MoMA is located at 11 West 53rd street in Manhattan.

Rollerblading further uptown the Film Society of Lincoln Center presents a mother & daughter trib to the loves of musician Serge Gainsbourg's life, wife Jane Birkin and lil' girl Charlotte. Jane and Charlotte Forever presents several choice cuts from the CV of both women, including Jacques Deray's LA PISCINE, Jacques Doillon's THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER, and Pierre Grimblat's SLOGAN, all showcasing Birkin, and Doillon's LA PIRATE, Claude Miller's L'EFFRONTEE and THE LITTLE THIEF, featuring Charlotte. Not all the films booked for the series fit this site's 25 yr cutoff criteria, so be sure to check the full sked here. The Film Society is located at the Walter Reade Theater, 165 W. 65th street, and the Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center at 144 W. 65th street, on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Hipstering into Brooklyn's follically festooned BillyBurg the Nitehawk Cinema, still my new fave movie theater in NYC, boasts its usual slate of excellence. Brunch and midnight screenings don't quite fit the clasic timeline criteria I observe, but does include Randall Kleiser's GREASE for the Bellini-besotted. Also, Vernon Zimmerman's UNHOLY ROLLERS, an entry into the didn't-happen roller derby genre craze of the 70's, unspools in all its depraved magnificence as part of the Nitehawk's monthly trib to Times Square's glory grindhouse past, The Deuce. The Nitehawk Cinema is just a short stumble from the Bedford Avenue L train stop, at 136 Metropolitan Avenue. Root Beer n' Tater tots. Forever.

Chakrasing our way back to the om side of the 5 boroughs the Rubin Museum's Cabaret Cinema series continues to delight, with screenings of Jean Renoir's GRAND ILLUSION, Vittorio de Sica's BICYCLE THIEVES, and what I deem the greatest film ever made, Carol Reed's THE THIRD MAN. The ticketing policy has changed, and the purchase of a drink no longer grants you access to the museum's swank screening space. However, for the low cost of 10 bucks you can order a drink, stretch your legs, and take in the uniformly excellent guest speakers that intro each film. It's quite the elegant filmgoing experience, take advantage if you can. The Rubin is located at 150 17th st. in Manhattan.

After that, pickins be slim Stockahz. The BowTie Chelsea Cinema screens Rosalind Russell's star turn in AUNTIE MAME on the 7th. The New York Historical Society presents Stanley Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE on the 29th, intro'd by filmmaker Ric Burns. The Mid-Manhattan Library's weekend series' gives us a motnh of Sundays with Billy Wilder, beginning with what may be his masterpiece, 1950's SUNSET BOULEVARD, and continuing with ACE IN THE HOLE, KISS ME STUPID, and what is probably his last great film, 1965's THE FORTUNE COOKIE. The Tarrytown Music Hall goes all silly walk with screenings of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL and THE MEANING OF LIFE on the 13th and the 20th, respectively. And the Japan Society presents the film that fully re-established samurai cinema in postwar Japan, Keinosuke Kinugasa's GATE OF HELL. So many films, so little time.

And that's that, Stockahz, your NYC rep film sked for 2015! I should mention that schedules are subject to change, and god knows they do, so be sure to check back with the site's interactive calendar to keep current. And also please follow yours truly via the Facebook page, the Twitter acc't, the Instagram doings, the Tumblr & Vine doohickery oh hell just stalk me whydontch'ya?!? As always, thanks for choosing Nitrate Stock for your rep film lowdown, and I look forward not only to keeping you informed of its doings but joining you for its screenings. Happy New Year, knuckleheads, and Excelsior!

-Joe Walsh

JoeW@NitrateStock.net