March 30th 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.
As each desk calendar sees its final pages stripped with melodramatic aplomb, y'know like in the movies, so does the rep film calendar grow meager. The good news is that meager does not neccesarily imply a paucity of quality. I other words, what's there to be had today is cherce! The lone series on display is Her Man: A Forgotten Masterwork in Context at MoMa. The projected PBR praise be thus;
Film Forum
BLUE VELVET (1986) Dir; David Lynch
MoMA
Her Man: A Forgotten Masterwork in Context
HER MAN (1930) Dir; Tay Garnett
FRANKIE AND JOHNNIE (1936) Dirs; Chester Erskine, John H. Auer
Today's Pick? Even had I not chosen the series Her Man: A Forgotten Masterwork in Context just esterday, I'd be absolutely remiss in overlooking the 30th anniversary of the film that jump-started the heart of American cinema in an increasingly predictable, corporate-controlled 80's Hollywood. The mavericks that created so much of the indelible modern works of U.S cinema during the wild, breakneck 70's had been relegated to safer fare and overruled by new masters more beholden to stockholders than audiences in the following decade. Unique voices were still to be found, but mostly from foreign voices like Jean-Jacques Beiniex of BETTY BLUE and DIVA fame, or expats like Terry Gillaim, he of the controversial and still fascinating BRAZIL. No one, however, provided the art form's defibrilation better than one David Lynch, a filmmaker already proven capable of the nightmarishly avant-garde with ERASERHEAD and conventional prestige with his sophomore outing, 1980's THE ELEPHANT MAN. He then declined the offer to oversee the final chapter in the STAR WARS saga, at least until Disney decided to revive it, and instead took on the monumental long-in-development challenge of adapting Frank Herbert's DUNE. Which was received to wildly varying opinion. To this day. Full dislosure: I still crave a re-watch of this behemoth every three or so years.
The Herbert adap proved a massive finacial and critical failure, so large a debacle from all parties heard that Lynch's career seemed not merely in jeopardy, but completely finished. The story goes that producer Dino De Laurentiis, the man responsible for atrocities like Sergey Bondarchuk's WATERLOO, the 1976 KING KONG remake and its impossible successor KING KONG LIVES, and the remake of John Ford's own bad movie HURRICANE, but also the man responsible for a pair of Fellini's best, Mario Bava's DANGER: DIABOLIK, Sidney Lumet's SERPICO, Mike Hodges' still-thriling campfest FLASH GORDON, Michael Mann's MANHUNTER, look, okay , you get the idea, the story goes that Italy's fave Selznick felt so bad, so responsible in the wake of the Arrakis implosion that he offered to finance a film by the rep-wounded director if he could bring it in for a certain amount of spaghetti. Turns out Lynch had been obssessed for years about the notion of delving into small-town Americana's dark corners, actually its absolutely surreal topsy-turvyism and perversions, about where a single rift in the fabric of Rockwellesque red white and blue might eventually lead. The result was a deep spelunk into the bleakest yet still morbidly entrancing depths of our national identity, perhaps even our soul, collective and singular. It was bizarre, but it was honest, the work of an assured artist, knowing and discovering in the same moment. And it shook the film world at a crucial moment, and remains perhaps the most critical entry in the canon of 80's arthouse cinema, paving a great amount of the way 90's cinema would thankfully travel, re-gifting audiences with Lynch's bravado and, by proxy, that of the New Hollywood 70's. It remains unpleasant to a large degree. It also remains amongst the most thrilling singular statements in modern film. So grab yer cannister of nitrous and snag a good seat. Or, y'know, just buy a popcorn and soda like the rest of us. Dennis Hopper will provide the rest.
David Lynch's monumental masterpiece BLUE VELVET screens in a brand-new DCP iteration at Film Forum as part of its 30th anniversary celebration. How subversive is this flick? Bobby Vinton is still blushing. That's how subversive.
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in March '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 loosened on our fair metropolis, but milder weather aside 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!
