September 15th-21st: Geek Tragedy, War is Hell, and The Touch Boasts Light Fingers. Read On, True Believer!
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New and continuing series this week include Modern Matinees: Directed by John Cassavetes at MoMA; Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z and UCLA Festival of Preservation at Metrograph; Sam Fuller's War Movies at Museum of the Moving Image; Jane Campion's Own Stories at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and the hook-'em-while-they're-still-in-knee-pants Film Forum Jr. at ya guessed it Film Forum! The lenticular licenciousness be thus;
Friday September 15th
IFC Center
THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK (1987) Dir; George Miller
EL TOPO (1970) Dir; Alejandro Jodorowsky
Film Forum
TIME TO DIE (1966) Dir; Arturo Ripstein
MoMA
Modern Matinees: Directed by John Cassavetes
OPENING NIGHT (1977) Dir; John Cassavetes
Metrograph
TO SLEEP WITH ANGER (1990) Dir; Charles Burnett
TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
Museum of the Moving Image
THE BIG RED ONE (1981) Dir; Sam Fuller
Roxy Hotel Cinema
NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1948) Dir; Edmund Goulding
Today's Pick? I know nothing of Ripstein, so it would be a pleasure to discover his first film work. I kno something of the great Charles Burnett, so the opportunity to catch his classic in 35mm tempts mightily. Lubitsch's PARADISE is a particular fave, and I've never seen Fuller's BIG RED ONE screened large. However, one of my all-timers graces a screen tonight, a brilliantly black weave through underworlds both moneyed and eke. It was a passion project for star Tyrone Power, who was desperate for turns that would prove he was more than just a matinee idol. Indeed, he re-teamed with his director from the previous year's successful THE RAZOR'S EDGE, one Edmund Goulding, trusted collaborator for this journey that would take them to even darker corners. The result is an uncategorizable triumph, part noir, part supernatural take, part thriller, part psychological treatise, part con-man screed, part carny flick. It boasts fantastic perfs from its female cast, from Hele Walker's cool psychoanalyst, to the buoyant Colleen Gray's loyal love interest, to the indomitable Joan Blondell's weathered magician's assistant. The great Lee Garmes, veteran of films helmed by the great Howard Hawks and Joseph von Sternberg, to name but a couple, served as DP on this murky stalk through the dark, and it might've ben his finest 2 hours. In any event, treat yourself to a truly unique work from the Fox vaults that defied the norm of studio-era project. Goulding's NIGHTMARE ALLEY screens tonight at the Roxy Hotel Cinema in glorious 35mm! If anybody asks you for a personal item, something uniquely you, take the other stairs.
Saturday the 16th
IFC Center
THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK (1987) Dir; George Miller
EL TOPO (1970) Dir; Alejandro Jodorowsky
Metrograph
LOS TALLOS AMARGOS (1956) Dir; Fernando Ayala
THE PLASTIC DOME OF NORMA JEAN (1966) Dir; Juleen Compton
STRANDED (1965) Dir; Juleen Compton
HE WALKED BY NIGHT (1948) Dirs; Alfred Werker & Anthony Mann
TO SLEEP WITH ANGER (1990) Dir; Charles Burnett
Film Forum
TIME TO DIE (1966) Dir; Arturo Ripstein
THE DUMB GIRL OF PORTICI (1916) Dir; Lois Weber
Museum of the Moving Image
THE STEEL HELMET (1951) Dir; Sam Fuller
Roxy Hotel Cinema
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955) Dir; Charles Laughton
Film Society of Lincoln Center
AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE (1990) Dir; Jane Campion
SWEETIE (1989) Dir; Jane Campion
Today's Pick? Both Werker & Mann's HE WALKED BY NIGHT and Laughton's NIGHT OF THE HUNTER are ace examples of noir's growth and reach, and the great Lois Weber's DUMB GIRL OF PORTICI is a perfect entry to the gret auteur's legendary career. But I'm irrevocably drawn to Sam Fuller's STEEL HELMET, his insanely influential document of WW2 unspooling at Museum of the Moving Image, so chock full of what would become WW2 flick cliches you'll think the auteur kicked off the actual conflict personally! Never seen it screened large, and it promises to be a spectacular 35mm print. War is hell. Astoria, eh, no so much.
Sunday the 17th
IFC Center
THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK (1987) Dir; George Miller
Film Forum
THE RED PONY (1949) Dir; Lewis Milestone
TIME TO DIE (1966) Dir; Arturo Ripstein
DIARY OF A LOST GIRL (1929) Dir; G.W. Pabst
Metrograph
GOOD REFERENCES (1920) Dir; Roy William Neill
TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
SONS OF THE DESERT (1933) Dir; William A. Seiter
TO SLEEP WITH ANGER (1990) Dir; Charles Burnett
Museum of the Moving Image
FIXED BAYONETS (1951) Dir; Sam Fuller
FALKENAU, THE IMPOSSIBLE (1988) Dir; Emil Weiss
MERRIL'S MARAUDERS (1962) Dir; Sam Fuller
VERBOTEN! (1959) Dir; Sam Fuller
Today's Pick? Okay, today we're goin' with the Ernie; Lubitch's TROUBLE IN PARADISE screens at Metrograph as part of their excellent UCLA Festival of Preservation in, you guessed it, glorious 35mm! Let's hobnob with the amoral as they take down the immoral. Shall we?
Other notable screenings this week include Andrew Stone's STORMY WEATHER this Monday at BAM Cinématek, screening as part of the series Lena Horne 100; Joseph Sargent's THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE, my choice for greatest NYC flick all-time, at Metrograph this Tuesday as part of their wonderful Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z; Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins' WEST SIDE STORY, one of the few remaining outdoor screenings left this year in our fair metropolis, this Wednesday at Harlem Art Park in Manhattan; and ditto Blake Edwards' BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, screening this Thursday at Samuel Seabury Playground, Manhattan.
Once again, there you have it, my picks and pontifications regarding your next 3 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.
