November 25th-27th: Talkies Dance, 3D Begins, and Kurosawa Closes It Out! Only the Strong May Enter.
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Au hasard Balthazar, Stockahz! Welcome to the last weekend update of the month of November in the year 20 wait that actually wasn't any kind of greeting French or otherwise. It's a title of a Robert Bresson film and translates to "Balthazar, at random". I just feel like a French intro makes me seem so much smarter, more erudite, so much more important to the rep film conversation. Who'm I kiddin'? You see right through me, you with your Bazin essays committed to memory, your Monaco treatises at yer fingertips, your Lumenick Turkey List prepped for the deep-fryer. Why even pursue the ruse? If you'll forgive me, and we can make amends, I'll give this whole intro thang another go. With abject honesty my objective. Or object honesty my abjective. I forget. Nonetheless, in the spirit of authenticity, here goes;
Die Dreigroschenoper, mein liebschen! Oh hell I'm just making it worse. Let's move on shall we? Arigato.
New, ongoing and concluding series this last weekend of the month include Kurosawa and Mifune at IFC Center, Willy Wonka & Workshops and See it Big! Holiday Films at Museum of the Moving Image, Modern Matinees: The Body Politic at MoMA, That's Entertianment: MGM Musicals Part II at BAM Cinématek, the aforementioned trib to Bresson at Metrograph, Voyeurism, Surveillance and Identity in the Cinema at Anthology Film Archives, 3D Auteurs and Film Forum Jr. at, you guessed right, Film Forum. The concerted controversy be thus;
Friday November 25th
IFC Center
SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) Dir; Akira Kurosawa
RASHOMON (1950) Dir; Akira Kurosawa
Museum of the Moving Image
WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971) Dir; Mel Stuart
MoMA
Modern Matinees: The Body Politic
KISSES FOR MY PRESIDENT (1964) Dir; Curtis Bernhardt
BAM Cinématek
That's Entertianment: MGM Musicals Part II
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1953) Dirs; Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen
KISS ME KATE (1954) Dir; George Sidney
Metrograph
AU HASARD BALTHZAR (1966) Dir; Robert Bresson
LANCELOT DU LAC (1974) Dir; Robert Bresson
Anthology Film Archives
Voyeurism, Surveillance and Identity in the Cinema
BODY DOUBLE (1984) Dir; Brian de Palma
Today's Pick? What better way to begin the brushing off of 2016's dust in favor of 2017's hope, as surely as the silent era had to make way for the talkies, than to embrace that greatest of movie musicals, most knowing take on that crucial crossover, and perhaps the shining 2 hours of MGM's Freed unit and helmer/hoofer/accomplice Stanley Donen; the immortal, impeccable, unimpeachable SINGIN' IN THE RAIN? It unspools in its native and luminous 35mm at BAM as part of their wondrous and ongoing That's Entertianment: MGM Musicals Part II! Gotta dance! Or in NY'er terms, gotta swipe my Metrocard, practice my prison stare on the subway, and brave construction scafolding Indiana Jones-like to attend this screening. So magical is this film that such an effort, exagerrated or otherwise, would still prove a mere pittance. Gotta do whatehvz ya gotta to attend this screening. Lyric updated.
Saturday November 26th
IFC Center
SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) Dir; Akira Kurosawa
YOJIMBO (1961) Dir; Akira Kurosawa
Nitehawk Cinema
TRADING PLACES (1983) Dir; John Landis
Museum of the Moving Image
WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971) Dir; Mel Stuart
GREMLINS (1984) Dir; Joe Dante
DIE HARD (1988) Dir; John McTiernan
BAM Cinématek
That's Entertianment: MGM Musicals Part II
SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954) Dir; Stanley Donen
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1953) Dirs; Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen
Metrograph
LES ANGES DU PECHE (1943) Dir; Robert Bresson
PICKPOCKET (1959) Dir; Robert Bresson
AU HASARD BALTHZAR (1966) Dir; Robert Bresson
Film Forum
GUN FURY (1953) Dir; Raoul Walsh
THE STRANGER WORE A GUN (1953) Dir; André de Toth
DIAL M FOR MURDER (1954) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
INFERNO (1953) Dir; Roy Ward Baker
Today's Pick? I haven't really gone the full 3D in honor of the Film Forum's dedicated trib to the format, in both its earliest offerings and its now seemingly ubiquitous proffer. So while the screenings aren't offered as a double-bill, let alone a triple-bill, I'm gonna suggest you plunk down the sheckles to attend each individual flicker, those screenings that offer the original 35mm print, or what I call the fickler, perhaps unfairly becuase some of thsee DCP restos are absolutely brilliant, if not offering absolute fealth. In any case you could and can do much worse than spend your entire day at the Forum viewing Walsh's GUN FURY, de Toth's THE STRANGER WORE A GUN, and Baker's INFERNO as the cumulative consumption of your most precious hours.
Sunday November 27th
IFC Center
SEVEN SAMURAI (1954) Dir; Akira Kurosawa
I LIVE IN FEAR (1955) Dir; Akira Kurosawa
Film Forum
MR. LAUREL AND MR. HARDY (1932-33) Dirs; Various
SECOND CHANCE (1953) Dir; Rudolph Maté
HONDO (1953) Dir; John Farrow
WINGS OF THE HAWK (1953) Dir; Budd Boetticher
GUN FURY (1953) Dir; Raoul Walsh
Nitehawk Cinema
TRADING PLACES (1983) Dir; John Landis
Museum of the Moving Image
WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971) Dir; Mel Stuart
MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (1947) Dir; George Seaton
FANNY AND ALEXANDER (1982) Dir; Ingmar Bergman
Mid-Manhattan Library
WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS (1956) Dir; Fritz Lang
BAM Cinématek
That's Entertianment: MGM Musicals Part II
GIGI (1958) Dir; Vincente Minnelli
HIGH SOCIETY (1956) Dir; Charles Walters
Metrograph
LES DAMES DU BOIS DE BOULOGNE (1945) Dir; Robert Bresson
Anthology Film Archives
Voyeurism, Surveillance and Identity in the Cinema
BODY DOUBLE (1984) Dir; Brian de Palma
Today's Pick? As tempted as I am to embrace both Seaton's MIRACLE and Bergman's FANNY AND ALEXANDER, two examinations of childhood yearning, dancing about the lines of fantasy and reality in terms both snuggly and, well, Sweden's version of snuggly, I'm against the too-early dusting off of Mistlenog's entry into our collective. So Xmas must wait a few more days. But Kurosawa waits for no one. So AK's unique mash-up of Miller's SALESMAN with an early stab at Willy da Shakes' KING LEAR, utilizing the 10th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing as motive, pairs intriguingly with the sensei's masterpiece this day. In other words I LIVE IN FEAR co-screens with the immortal SEVEN SAMURAI this day, as part of IFC Center's excellent, ongoing series Kurosawa and Mifune. We'll get to Christmas soon enough. Until then, and let's keep this off our naughty and nice lists, let's have at the bandits. Onscreen and off.
Other notable screenings during the last days of November '16 include Metrograph's screening of AU HAUSARD BALTHAZAR, Monday the 28th as part of the series Bresson; the always-welcome HAIRSPRAY from original shockteur John Waters, Tuesday the 29th at Cinépolis; and a what-better-way-to-close-out-the-month-when-fascism-won-at-the-polls, or to welcome in #Islenism, than one more timely, timely, TIMELY screening of Frankeheimer's no-longer-nightmare political conspiracy scenario THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, Wednesday the 30th. At MoMA. So that last part's nice, anyway.
So there ya have it, my advice for your next 6 days' best time expenditure. We'll check in again a week from now for the overview of December's best oferings on our hallowed rep film circuit. Til then be sure to follow me on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, and be SURE to catch my new YouTube channel, Nitrate Stock TV, where I'll be checking in at screenings all over the city and giving my 2 cents on the film, the venue, the audience, any damn thing that comes to my mind. Which, as some of ya know, can be quite entertaining. Til next time Stockahz, remember: be safe, be sound, and make sure the next guy and gal are too. Excelsior!
- Joe Walsh
P. S. As you know I like to beat the drum for what I consider worthwhile causes. Lately the strain of xenophobia which, sadly has always been present in our countyr, mostly dormant, but at times very awoken and tangible. Sadly, the latter is the present case, and the subject of Syrain refugees has become a veritable powderkeg. To those of you who believe we can aid these people, our fellow human beings who are desperate for our help, I suggest the heroic efforts of the good men and women at DoctorsWithoutBorders. They're providing boots-on-the-ground relief, everything from surgery and medicine to clean water. It's a small something to be sure in this maelstrom of madness, but is is just that: something.
