July 14th - 20th: Freddy's Dead, Our Shark, and The Motorcycle Boy Reigns. Vroom On, True Believers!

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New and continuing series this upcoming week inlcude "Ford to City: Drop Dead!" NYC in the 70's at Film Forum; Modern Matinees: The Impeccable Deborah Kerr at MoMA; Edgar Wright Presents Heist Society and Notes on Camp at BAM Cinématek; Mondo Bava at the Quad Cinema; and the effortlessly swank Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum of Art. The tomfoolery be thus;

 

Friday July 14th

 

IFC Center

CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (1961) Dir; Agnes Varda

 

Film Forum

"Ford to City: Drop Dead!" NYC in the 70's

SHAFT (1971) Dir; Gordon Parks

SUPER FLY (1972) Dir; Gordon Parks Jr.

 

MoMA

Modern Matinees: The Impeccable Deborah Kerr

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) Dir; Fred Zinnemann

 

BAM Cinématek

Edgar Wright Presents Heist Society

THIEF (1981) Dir; Michael Mann

 

Notes on Camp

FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980) Dir; Sean Cunningham

 

Quad Cinema

Mondo Bava

LISA AND THE DEVIL (1973) Dir; Mario Bava

A BAY OF BLOOD (1971) Dir; Mario Bava

PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES (1965) Dir; Mario Bava

 

Tompkins Square Park

PORT OF SHADOWS (1938) Dir; Marcel Carné

 

Roxy Hotel Cinema

E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) Dir; Stevn Spielberg

 

Rubin Museum of Art

Cabaret Cinema

THE GREAT DICTATOR (1941) Dir; Charlie Chaplin

 

Today's Pick? I would normally never pass up such perfect summer fare as Marcel Carné's noirish meditation on love, valor and honor, set against the thick fog of a French seaport town, his masterpiece PORT OF SHADOWS. I mean what says été quite like Jean Gabin's deserter sweating out his manhunt? Alas, by all accounts our OWN weather coastal will conspire against to shut down this outdoor screening this day. So let's stay in NYC but jump in the wayback machine instead, attending the excellent double feature of Gordon Parks' SHAFT and Gordon Parks Jr.'s SUPER FLY, both bedrocks of the essential Blaxploitation gnere that helped defined 70's cinema, and boasting two undoubtable star turns; Richard Roundtree as the the cool PI, and Ron O'Neal as the pusher's pusher. Both also boast outstanding, genre-defining soundtracks from two genuises from the funk/soul/r&b world, the former from Isaac Hayes, the latter from Curtis Mayfield. They unspool in 35mm at our beloved Film Forum as part of their currently underway "Ford to City: Drop Dead!" NYC in the 70's!

 

Saturday July 15th

 

IFC Center

CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (1961) Dir; Agnes Varda

 

Film Forum

"Ford to City: Drop Dead!" NYC in the 70's

TAXI DRIVER (1976) Dir; Martin Scorsese

MEAN STREETS (1973) Dir; Martin Scorsese

THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) Dir; William Friedkin

WHERE'S POPPA? (1970) Dir; Carl Reiner

 

Quad Cinema

Mondo Bava

ROY COLT AND WINCHESTER JACK (1970) Dir; Mario Bava

THE WHIP AND THE BODY (1963) Dir; Mario Bava

5 DOLLS FOR AN AGUST MOON (1970) Dir; Mario Bava

SHOCK (1977) Dir; Mario Bava

EVIL EYE (1963) Dir; Mario Bava

 

Museum of the Moving Image

CLASS OF NUKE 'EM HIGH (1984) Dir; Lloyd Kaufman

 

Roxy Hotel Cinema

THE WARRIORS (1979) Dir; Walter Hill

JAWS (1975) Dir; Steven Spielberg

 

BAM Cinématek

Edgar Wright Presents Heist Society

GAMBIT (1966) Dir; Ronald Neame

DANGER: DIABOLIK (1966) Dir; Mario Bava

 

Today's Pick? I'm gonna pull a switch-'em here and go with a new venue that's really giving it their all, maybe not with the fanfare of the newly reopened Quad or the year-old Metrograph, two beauts no doubt, but with an increasing focus on programming and outreach to the rep community. The Roxy Hotel Cinema brings us a pair of films we may be familiar with on the circuit, Walter Hill's THE WARRIORS and Tha Shpielz's JAWS, but they do so in a venue unfamiliar and promising. So let's patronize their efforts and welcome yet another player to the family. After all the NYC rep film communal is no more than a street gang. Or a trio of guys on a boat drinking beer and comparing scars. Or a consortium of sun-deprived carpal-tunnel syndrome-sufferers complaining about the noise in the theater until they realize they're the ones making it okay I'll stop now.

 

Sunday July 16th

 

IFC Center

CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (1961) Dir; Agnes Varda

 

Film Forum

"Ford to City: Drop Dead!" NYC in the 70's

NETWORK (1976) Dir; Sidney Lumet

DOG DAY AFTERNOON (1975) Dir; Sidney Lumet

HUSBANDS (1970) Dir; John Casavettes

THE TAKING OF PALHAM ONE TWO THREE (1974) Dir; Joseph Sargent

MEAN STREETS (1973) Dir; Martin Scorsese

 

Quad Cinema

Mondo Bava

BLACK SUNDAY (1960) Dir; Mario Bava

RABID DOGS (1974) Dir; Mario Bava

KNIVES OF THE AVENGER (1966) Dir; Mario Bava

BLOOD AND BLACK LACE (1964) Dir; Mario Bava

 

Mid-Manhattan Library

THE RED DANUBE (1949) Dir; George Sidney

 

BAM Cinématek

Edgar Wright Presents Heist Society

THE HOT ROCK (1972) Dir; Peter Yates

DIRTY MARY CRAZY LARRY (1974) Dir; John Hough

 

Athens Square Park, Queens

RUMBLEFISH (1983) Dir; Francis Ford Coppola

 

Today's Pick? Francis Ford Coppola's RUMBLEFISH, screening outdoors at Athens Square Park, Quens. Loyalty is my only vice.

 

Other notable screenings this upcoming week include Oliver Stone's WALL STREET, Monday at sunset at Bryant Park; Richard Lester's wonderfully pear-shaped THE BED SITTING ROOM, unspooling in 35mm this Tuesday as part of MoMA's newly-kicked Future Imperfect: The Uncanny in Science Fiction; Petey Bogz's WHAT'S UP DOC?, screening this Wednesday at sunset, Pier One, Riverside Park South; and an unmissable screening of the great Mario Bava's comic-adap DANGER: DIABOLIK, this Thursday at the Quad Cinema as part of their essential series Mondo Bava! That last one might be the gioiello della corona of the week! Bene!

 

Once again, there you have it, my picks and pontifications regarding your next 7 days' worth of rep filmgoing! We'll check in again a week from now, in the early days of a whole new spin 'round the sun, for the purposes of once more rummaging through the reels and making the tough yet wonderful choices regarding our chosen love. 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. Xenophobia has sadly always been present in our country, mostly dormant, but at times very awoken and tangible. Sadly, the latter is the present case, and the subject of Syrian 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, the outreach and safe haven offered by the International Rescue Committee, and the decades-old and ongoing good works from the folks at UNICEF. Collectively they're proving that the greatest investment we can make as a human race is in each other, and that helping to save someone else in troubled circumstances is indeed nothing more than saving ourselves. It's a small something to be sure in this maelstrom of madness, but it is just that: something.