July 1st 2016. Pick of the Day.
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Crack-'o-dawn new series this day include the 3-month trib to the mighty Fellini at IFC Center, a weeklong celebration of one of our finest character actors, Warren Oates: Hired Hand at Lincoln Center, and a short program dedicated to that special July misery, Summer in the City at the Metrograph. The projected profundity be thus;
IFC Center
LA DOLCE VITA (1960) Dir; Federico Fellini
Film Society of Lincoln Center
PRIVATE PROPERTY (1960) Dir; Leslie Stevens
THE HIRED HAND (1961) Dir; Peter Fonda
BADLANDS (1973) Dir; Terence Malick
TWO-LANE BLACKTOP (1971) Dir; Monte Hellman
Film Forum
BLOOD SIMPLE (1984) Dir; Joel Coen
Metrograph
DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975) Dir; Sidney Lumet
Museum of the Moving Image
BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) Dir; Robert Zemeckis
WNYC Transmitter Park, Brooklyn
THE 400 BLOWS (1959) Dir; Francois Truffaut
Williamsburg Oval Recreation Center, The Bronx
THE GOONIES (1985) Dir; Richard Donner
Willowbrook Park, Staten Island
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) Dir; Steven Spielberg
Nitehawk Cinema
ROCKY IV (1985) Dir; Sylvester Stallone
Today's Pick? I'm normaly all about the outdoorsy flicker come this time of year, but the gloom 'n doom thunderstorm forecast has me perhaps over-cautious about whether they'll even get those screenings going tonight. So pardon, Francois. The good news is that much quality remains on the indoor circiut! Fellini's glam dream regarding the slow selling-off of the human soul somehow never depresses and always fills the heart. But as Marcello Mastroianni's less than ethical celebrity wag would no doubt balk at any activity before 2 in the afternoon, I gotta follow his lead. I've also got the better part of 2 weeks in which to select the debut feature from my beloved Coen Brothers, so no rush there. I'm sorely tempted to choose Lumet's seminal NYC heat wave classic, but I get another opportunity to do so, so I'm gonna make like Sonny and wait it out. Look how that worked out for him, huh? No, today I have to shine the Kliegs on a most beloved cinematic figure, someone who left the world at an unforgivably young age yet left behind a complete and robust body of work well worth examining. He could play mannered and even aristocratic. He could, and more often than not was asked to, play seedy, seamy fringe dwellers, sweaty and gristled thieves and gunmen. He was never less than a pro in either capacity, and he definitely found uniqueness within even the most 2-dimensional cliched role, which is no doubt why he became a director's fave, most notably with Monte Hellman, John Milius, and of course the great Sam Peckinpah, who did no less than designate the man as his onscreen alter ego. Movieline's Joe Queenan designated the 90's indie movement as Scuzzball Cinema, a celebration of lowlifes, bank robbers, kidnappers, drug peddlers & users, unshaven, unshowered, staging grand conversations whose profundity never escaped the low orbit of pop culture mediocrity, such as naming the other two Pussycats not named Josie and the correct order and titles of Bruce Lee's ouevre. Exactly the type of conversation I thrive on. And it's all pretty unthinkable, I believe, without the prior existence of Warren Oates.
Warren Oates: Hired Hand begins its run today, and it's a doozy of a sked! It begins with the previously-thought lost PRIVATE PROPERTY, a psycho-sexual thriller from Leslie Stevens, who would shortly go on to create TV's THE OUTER LIMITS. It's been restored by Cinelicious Pics in what promises to be a stunning 4K version, and is joined by Peter Fonda's follow-up to EASY RIDER, 1971's THE HIRED HAND, and two bonafide masterpieces; Terence Malick's BADLANDS and Monte Hellman's TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, both unspooling in glorious 35mm! Specially-priced ticketing means you can catch 3 or more films for a discount, so my advice is to take the Film Society up on such a generous offer if only to escape into their magnificent AC & popcorn for a whole day! Trust me, let Warren do the sweating today. He was well-paid for it.
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in July '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. Summer seems to have finally graced 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!
