August 18th-24th: Heists Gone Wrong, Kung Fu Done Right, and Double LP Concept Albums Turned Movies Gone Well You Tell Me??? Read on, Rep Film Raver!
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Still trying to make fewer excuses for the decrese in service and provide more content for the NYC rep film symbiote. The scene is changing, the tech is changing, dear god even my voice is changing, and I even recorded a song with Greg, Marcia, Bobby, Cindy and Jan to commemorate! I didn't intentionally put Jan last, it just seemed like where she'd wanna be. So if you're a regular follower of all things Nitrate Stock, there has definitely been a halt to some services, like my Twitter feed and the Facebook page. but if ya stick with, I promise to repurpose these and all other outlets for a more streamlined experience for you, the pale-skinned movie fanatic whose popcorn butter is 2% blood!
New and upcoming series this week include Summer Double Features at Film Forum; Modern Matinees: The Impeccable Deborah Kerr and Future Imperfect: The Uncanny in Science Fiction at MoMA; Disasterpieces at the Quad Cinema; the bent knee to the year '77 at the Film Society; Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z and Old School Kung Fu Fest at Metrograph; and the pugilistic pontifications of Boxing on Film: Part One at Anthology Film Archives. The spledindiferous spocketry be thus;
Friday the 18th
IFC Center
GASLIGHT (1944) Dir; George Cukor
ALIEN (1979) Dir; Ridley Scott
Film Forum
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950) Dir; John Huston
RIFIFI (1955) Dir; Jules Dassin
TAXI DRIVER (1976) Dir; Martin Scorsese
MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969) Dir; John Schlesinger
MoMA
Modern Matinees: The Impeccable Deborah Kerr
PLEASE BELIEVE ME (1950) Dir; Norman Taurog
Quad Cinema
AIRPORT (1969) Dir; George Seaton
DELUGE (1933) Dir; Felix E. Feist
THE POSEIDEN ADVENTURE (1972) Dir; Roland Neame
Film Society
THREE WOMEN (1977) Dir; Robert Altman
Metrograph
SCARLET STREET (1945) Dir; Fritz Lang
HAPKIDO (1972) Dir; Huang Feng
Anthology Film Archives
THE SET-UP (1949 Dir; Robert Wise
FAT CITY (1972) Dir; John Huston
Nitehawk Cinema
CUJO (1983) Dir; Lewis Teague
Today's Pick? No Contest. The twin-bill heist melodrama of John Huston's THE ASPHALT JUNGLE and Jules Dassin's RIFIFI, the former screening in glorious monochrome 35mm and the latter in a shiny but appropriately seedy 4K spitshine, as part of Film Forum's still-unfolding Summer Double Features! Both films are not only emblematic of the heist film genre, but also serve as intriguing examples of the colorful, even baroque turns film noir would take in the second decade of its existence. An unmissable two-fer! And I'm not just sayin' that 'cause we're casin' the box office wait I meant we're boxin' the case office never mind what I said who you been talkin' to?!?
Saturday the 19th
IFC Center
GASLIGHT (19) Dir; George Cukor
ALIEN (1979) Dir; Ridley Scott
Film Forum
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977) Dir; John Badham
DO THE RIGHT THING (1989) Dir; Spike Lee
TAXI DRIVER (1976) Dir; Martin Scorsese
MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969) Dir; John Schlesinger
Quad Cinema
AIRPORT (1969) Dir; George Seaton
AIRPORT '75 (1974) Dir; Jack Smight
THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974) Dir; John Guillerman
Metrograph
SCARLET STREET (1945) Dir; Fritz Lang
THE FATE OF LEE KHAN (1973) Dir; King Hu
MY YOUNG AUNTIE (1981) Dir; Lau Kar-Leung
INTIMATE CONFESSIONS OF A CHINESE COURTESAN (1972) Dir; Chor Yuen
Anthology Film Archives
GENTLEMAN JIM (1942) Dir; Raoul Walsh
Museum of the Moving Image
PINK FLOYD THE WALL (1982) Dir; Alan Parker
Nitehawk Cinema
CUJO (1983) Dir; Lewis Teague
Today's Pick? I gotta say, as tempted as I am by the great Lang's SCARLET STREET, by Walsh's GENTLEMAN JIM, and by the notion of watching Guillerman's somehow Oscar-nommed debacle on the big screen for the first, I 've been saying this for 35 years: I'm not sure if I ever actually saw Alan Parker's PINK FLOYD THE WALL or if I was the recipient of some truly munificent mescaline back when I was twelve. Yes, a story goes with it. But for another time. So it is that I make this day's choice the surreal, non-linear, exposition-light mixture of live action and Gerald Scarfe's animation, screening in its native format at Museum of the Moving Image as part of their annual gift to NYC's movie-mad, See it Big: 70mm! We don't need no edjumaction, ideedely!
Sunday the 20th
IFC Center
GASLIGHT (1944) Dir; George Cukor
Film Forum
THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937) Dir; Leo McCarey
MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937) Dir; Leo McCarey
TAXI DRIVER (1976) Dir; Martin Scorsese
MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969) Dir; John Schlesinger
MoMA
Future Imperfect: The Uncanny in Science Fiction
THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (1951) Dir; Alexander MacKendrick
Quad Cinema
A NIGHT TO REMEMBER (1958) Dir; Roy Ward Baker
EARTHQUAKE (1974) Dir; Mark Robson
Metrograph
COME DRINK WITH ME (1966) Dir; King Hu
A TOUCH OF ZEN (1971) Dir; King Hu
Film Society
THE DEVIL, PROBABLY (1977) Dir; Robert Bresson
Anthology Film Archives
RAGING BULL (1980) Dir; Martin Scorsese
Today's Pick? I gotta go with the King Hu back-to-backer at Metrograph, 1966's COME DRINK WITH ME, which pretty much intro'd the modern Kung Fu film with its melding of Peking Opera acrobatics and trad Chinese action stunt choreography, and what many dem his masterwork, 1971's A TOUCH OF ZEN, which proved so ambitious he initially released i in two parts because he was buying time at he box ofice to finish his magnum opus! Both screen in brilliant 35mm prints as part of the hallowed new venue's Old School Kung Fu Fest! I can't wait to see what the commisary's serving afterwards!
Other notables this week include Emile Ardolino's DIRTY DANCING, closing out the Bryant Park Film Fest this Monday night at sunset; 1976's Best Pic champ ROCKY, perhaps the best-known and remembered film from the recently passed John G. Avildsen, Tuesday at the great Tarrytown Music Hall; Bob Fosse's CABARET, outdoors this Wednesday at Corlears Hook Park; and, what the hell, Richard Donner's THE GOONIES, this Thursday at Roger Morris Park. Au revoir, summer screenings. I knew ye all too briefly.
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.
