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

Summer Double Features

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

Disasterpieces

AIRPORT (1969) Dir; George Seaton

DELUGE (1933) Dir; Felix E. Feist

THE POSEIDEN ADVENTURE (1972) Dir; Roland Neame

 

Film Society

'77

THREE WOMEN (1977) Dir; Robert Altman

 

Metrograph

Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z

SCARLET STREET (1945) Dir; Fritz Lang

 

Old School Kung Fu Fest

HAPKIDO (1972) Dir; Huang Feng

 

Anthology Film Archives

Boxing on Film: Part One

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

Summer Double Features

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

Disasterpieces

AIRPORT (1969) Dir; George Seaton

AIRPORT '75 (1974) Dir; Jack Smight

THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974) Dir; John Guillerman

 

Metrograph

Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z

SCARLET STREET (1945) Dir; Fritz Lang

 

Old School Kung Fu Fest

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

Boxing on Film: Part One

GENTLEMAN JIM (1942) Dir; Raoul Walsh

 

Museum of the Moving Image

See it Big: 70mm!

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

Summer Double Features

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

Disasterpieces

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER (1958) Dir; Roy Ward Baker

EARTHQUAKE (1974) Dir; Mark Robson

 

Metrograph

Old School Kung Fu Fest

COME DRINK WITH ME (1966) Dir; King Hu

A TOUCH OF ZEN (1971) Dir; King Hu

 

Film Society

'77

THE DEVIL, PROBABLY (1977) Dir; Robert Bresson

 

Anthology Film Archives

Boxing on Film: Part One

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.