February 5th 2016. 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 the Charlotte Rampling deep body massage at IFC Center, the trifecta of Modern Matinees: A Pioneer Cowboy, Modern Matinees: Fashionably Late, and All That Jack (Cole) at MoMA, Heat and Vice: The Films of Michael Mann at BAM Cinématek, Jane and Charlotte Forever at the Walter Reade Theater, the third lap of Anthology Film Archives' trib to legendary production house American Intenational Pictures, and the legroom luxurious Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum. The projected primp and pomp be thus;
IFC Center
THE NIGHT PORTER (1974) Dir; Liliana Cavani
THE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985) Dir; John Hughes
Film Forum
I KNEW HER WELL (19) Dir; Antonio Pietrangelli
MoMA
Modern Matinees: A Pioneer Cowboy
THE TIGER MAN (1918) Dir; William S. Hart
Modern Matinees: Fashionably Late
TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
LES GIRLS (1957) Dir; George Cukor
BAM Cinématek
Heat and Vice: The Films of Michael Mann
THIEF (1981) Dir; Michael Mann
Film Society of Lincoln Center
KUNG FU MASTER (1988) Dir; Agnès Varda
CHARLOTTE FOR EVER (1986) Dir; Serge Gainsbourg
LOVE ON THE GROUND (1984) Dir; Jacques Rivette
Japan Society
THE SWORD OF DOOM (1966) Dir; Kihachi Okamoto
Anthology Film Archives
American Intenational Pictures, Part Three
DAY THE WORLD ENDED (1956) Dir; Roger Corman
THE DUNWICH HORROR (1970) Dir; Daniel Haller
New York Historical Society
Justice in Film
GLORIA (1980) Dir; John Cassavetes
Rubin Museum of Art
AMARCORD (1973) Dir; Federico Fellini
Nitehawk Cinema
BLOOD DINER (1987) Dir; Jackie Kong
Today's Pick? There's a full table to sort through this day. IFC's Rampling series offers up what many esteem her most iconic perf in Cavani's PORTER. No less a luminary than the Self-Styled Siren herself, Farran Smith Nehme, posted a boost for the MoMA screening of Cukor's LES GIRLS at the Film Comment site, positing that the sense of the Golden Age musical's looming end had visceral results in the released films. Read it.
I can't think of a better way to experience Fellini's AMARCORD than in the swank screening space at the Rubin. But it misses my mark. Honestly, at the end of the day, there are three flicks vying for my Pick; the runners-up are Okamoto's THE SWORD OF DOOM at the Japan Society, and te magisterial Ernst Lubitsch's TROUBLE IN PARADISE. However, being as today amounts to the first ever complete retrospective of a major modern director's career, at leat within these movie-mad 5 boroughs, I can't help but select his first masterpiece, a film so seemingly simplistic yet otherwise heavily loaded with theme, motif, and future intent it can't help but be seen as his manifesto. It afforded James Caan his last great perf, perhaps his greatest, the one he'll be remebered for even more than Sonny Corleone. It introduced the great Dennis Farina to the world. And it remains among the few films to offer the remarkable Tuesday Weld a role worthy of her gifts. Rep venues might change films like some people change socks, but BAM's hangin' on to this worn, darned megillah for at least a couple of days. Try 'em on. Used and dirty are the essence of noir, this is just a new-ish pair.
Michael Mann's THIEF unspools its digitized 1's and 0's in a new DCP resto as the kickoff to BAM's trib to the complete CV of its insanely influential filmmaker. Catch it over the next three days if you can. After that I'm throwing you away.
Okay I'm not really throwing you away, that's a line from the film. Oh damn, I probably should've typed Spoiler Alert before I said that. Look, see the film, willya? Otherwise ya might wind up as hamburger meat okay I'm stopping now.
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in February '16 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. Winter's icy grip seems to have finally taken hold of our fair city, and 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!
