July 8th 2016. Pick of the Day.
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How did it become July already? How? It seems just yesterday that the Oscars got it wrong once more, Tax Day got it wrong re: our bank acc'ts, and the RNC got it wrong well I'll leave politics outta the conversation. It's the Hawks in me. But JEEZ! We're already past the year's halfway mark? So much rep film treasure has passed, like BAM's complete retrospective of the films of Michael Mann, MoMA's 90th birthday trib to the invaluable legend Jerry Lewis, and MoMI's equally important and luminous 90th birthday trib the the great, groundbreaking Sidney Poitier! Much more rep film wealth looms on the horizon, especially considering the emergence of new venues like Bushwick's Syndicated and the LES's Metrograph, with the re-opening of the Quad to come this Autumn and the expansion of IFC Center! This is the richest age of rep cinema in NYC since the days of the original Thalia, of the New Yorker, of the Bleecker St. Cinema and the 8th. St. Playhouse and the Waverly. It only reinforces my spirit to know so many people are not only investing in this genre, but attending as well. The future looks bright. As bright as the past.
So to the present: new and ongong series this day include Modern Matinees: Summer with Judy Holliday at MoMA, Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z at, well, the Metrograph, Eternity and History: The Films of Theo Angelopoulos at Museum of the Moving Image, and the eternally swank Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum. The emulsified ebullience be thus;
Film Forum
BLOOD SIMPLE (1984) Dir; Joel Coen
MoMA
Modern Matinees: Summer with Judy Holliday
ADAM'S RIB (1949) Dir; George Cukor
Metrograph
JE T'AIME JE T'AIME (1968) Dir; Alain Resnais
THE LUSTY MEN (1952) Dir; Nicholas Ray
Summer in the City
REAR WINDOW (1954) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
Museum of the Moving Image
Eternity and History: The Films of Theo Angelopoulos
LANDSCAPE IN THE MIST (1988) Dir; Theo Angelopoulos
FDR Boardwalk, Staten Island
FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF (1986) Dir; John Hughes
Rubin Museum
ORPHEUS (1950) Dir; Jean Cocteau
Nitehawk Cinema
CAR WASH (1976) Dir; Michael Schultz
LAST TANGO IN PARIS (1972) Dir; Bernardo Bertolucci
Today's Pick? I've always wanted to punch Feris Bueller smack in the jaw. So no to that. Joel & Ethan Coen's debut noir masterwork screens for another week, so I've got time to choose it. Cukor's RIB was never my favorite, full disclosure, so meh. Really th tempting runner-up this day is a 35mm screening of Hotch's REAR WINDOW, what is probably my all-time fave from the Big Guy's CV. However, there is another classic screenig this eve, as a midnight offering, and while it unspools as 1's and 0's in a DCP print, I believe its helmer, a man also responsible for such gems as COOLEY HIGH, GREASED LIGHTNING and THE LAST DRAGON, and such notorious misfires as SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEART'S CLUB BAND, is very deserving of a rediscover. He's been on the cusp of a career reevaluation for years now, but I firmly believe the full megillah is just around the corner. And one more screening like this only helps the cause. Each of his films bears an individual, indelible stamp, whether it be COOLEY HIGH's masterful take on African-American teen life in the 60's, which many feel matches or even outdoes George Lucas' evocation of the same era in Marin County in AMERICAN GRAFITTI, the sober yet gripping tale of GREASED LIGHTNING, which provided career-bests for stars Richard Pryor and Pam Grier in the eyes of many, and the Shaw Brothers homage of THE LAST DRAGON, 2 years before John Carpenter took his own legendary crack at transplanting, for lack of a better & more academic term, the Chop-Socky genre to American shores in BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. Even the ill-conceived and badly-produced SGT. PEPPER is notorious. So even Schultz's ebacles are noteworthy. For an African-American director working in the 70's and 80's, this is quite the statement. Aside from Charles Burnett, no other filmmaker possessed of such melanin commanded such critical attention, and even Burnett got to work with the budgets Schultz did. He's incredibly important to the cinematic timeline, even if you consider his CV to be litle more than trite commercial pap. If Sidney Poitier casually, seemingly effortlessly broke the "color" barrier onscreen, then Michael Schultz did the same behind the camera. And he deserves your appreciation.
Michael Schultz's CAR WASH, a film that unfolds mostly to the continuous strains of its title smash song alternately in foreground and background, screens at 12:20am at the Nitehawk Cinema. Bring your Boogie Pants. Now that I just typed that I realize I don't know exactly what I meant. Except I do.
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!
