September 22nd-28th: Feeding on Irony, Starved for Technicolor, and HAWKS!!! Proceed with Enthusiasm, Stockahz!
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New and continuing series this week include Warner Brothers: Tough Guys, Tough Dames...Tough Pictures at Film Forum; Modern Matinees: Directed by John Cassavetes at MoMA; the sadly timely Also Starring Harry Dean Stanton at the Quad Cinema; and Sam Fuller's War Films at Museum of the Moving Image. The flickering foofaraw be thus;
Friday September 22nd
IFC Center
RUMBLEFISH (1983) Dir; Francis Ford Coppola
RAZORBACK (1984) Dir; Russell Mulcahy
SHOCK TREATMENT (1981) Dir; Jim Sharman
Film Forum
Warner Brothers: Tough Guys, Tough Dames...Tough Pictures
I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (1932) Dir; Mervyn LeRoy
LITTLE CAESAR (1930) Dir; Mervyn LeRoy
MoMA
Modern Matinees: Directed by John Cassavetes
A CHILD IS WAITING (1963) Dir; John Cassavetes
Metrograph
ALIEN (1979) Dir; Ridley Scott
Quad Cinema
Also Starring Harry Dean Stanton
CISCO PIKE (1972) Dir; B.L. Norton
REPO MAN (1984) Dir; Alex Cox
PARIS, TEXAS (1984) Dir; Wim Wenders
Film Society of Lincoln Center
THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL (1962) Dir; Luis Buñuel
Nitehawk Cinema
FROM BEYOND (1987) Dir; Stuart Gordon
Today's Pick? It probably would've snagged my Pick anyway, but considering I've just witnessed Darren Aronofsky's apocalyptic house-bound melodrama mother!, I CANNOT in good conscience recommend a better option that Luis Buñuel's brilliant source material, 1967's THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, unspooling tonight at the Walter Reade Theater. In the very very slim subgenre of the cinema of unwanted guests, Aronofsky might still have some hill to climb, but if he inspires a second look at a masterpiece, he earns extra mensch status regardless.
Saturday September 23rd
IFC Center
RUMBLEFISH (1983) Dir; Francis Ford Coppola
RAZORBACK (1984) Dir; Russell Mulcahy
SHOCK TREATMENT (1981) Dir; Jim Sharman
Nitehawk Cinema
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) Dir; Ivan Reitman
FROM BEYOND (1987) Dir; Stuart Gordon
Film Forum
Warner Brothers: Tough Guys, Tough Dames...Tough Pictures
WHITE HEAT (1950) Dir; Raoul Walsh
HIGH SIERRA (1939) Dir; Raoul Walsh
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946) Dirs; Michael owell & Emeric Pressburger
Metrograph
ALIEN (1979) Dir; Ridley Scott
ALIENS (1986) Dir; James Cameron
Quad Cinema
Also Starring Harry Dean Stanton
DEATH WATCH (1979) Dir; Bertrand Tavernier
ALIEN (1979) Dir; Ridley Scott
WISE BLOOD (1979) Dir; John Huston
Museum of the Moving Image
CHINA GATE (1957) Dir; Sam Fuller
HOUSE OF BAMBOO (1955) Dir; Sam Fuller
Roxy Hotel Cinema
STALKER (1979) Dir; Andrei Tarkovsky
Today's Pick? No contest; my choice for 2nd greatest film ever made, Powell and Pressburger's unequivocal A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, making its long-awaited debut in a new 4K DCP resto, at that bastion of rep film bounty, West Houston's Film Forum! No better valentine has ever been filmed for the cause of love between two human beings, for the settling of old grudges that separate us, and for the dream of a future where paradise melds with earth, or as David Niven's seemingly doomed RAF pilot says, regarding the eternal realm, " I think it ends the old problems but presents new ones worth the solving!" Warning: if you're a romantic in the least, don't bring Kleenex, bring a to-do list. Inspiration doesn't get much more potent. Trust.
Sunday September 24th
IFC Center
RUMBLEFISH (1983) Dir; Francis Ford Coppola
Nitehawk Cinema
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) Dir; Ivan Reitman
Film Forum
Warner Brothers: Tough Guys, Tough Dames...Tough Pictures
HEROES FOR SALE (1933) Dir; William A. Wellman
TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944) Dir; Howard Hawks
THE BIG SLEEP (1946) Dir; Howard Hawks
Metrograph
ALIENS (1986) Dir; James Cameron
Museum of the Moving Image
PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (1953) Dir; Sam Fuller
HELL AND HIGH WATER (1954) Dir; Sam Fuller
Quad Cinema
Also Starring Harry Dean Stanton
PARIS, TEXAS (1984) Dir; Wim Wenders
COCKFIGHTER (1974) Dir; Motny Hellman
FOOL FOR LOVE (1984) Dir; Robert Altman
STARS AND BARS (1988) Dir; Pat O'Connor
Roxy Hotel Cinema
TOUCH OF EVL (1957) Dir; Orson Welles
Today's Pick? Hawks. 'Nuff.
Other notable screenings this week include John Carpenter's absolute masterful slow-burn CHRISTINE, screening Monday as part of the Quad Cinema's celebration of a great actor and soulful human being's life and career, Also Starring Harry Dean Stanton; Mervyn LeRoy's THEY WON'T FORGET and Archie Mayo's BLACK LEGION, doubled this Tuesday at Film Forum as part of their incredible Warner Brothers: Tough Guys, Tough Dames...Tough Pictures; a return to one of the touchstones of American Indie cinema, 1968's FACES, screening Wednesday as part of MoMA's essential Modern Matinees: Directed by John Cassavetes; and let's close the week out with a true masterpiece in a venue that's just newly dove into the deep end of the NYC rep film scene - Nick Ray's IN A LONLEY PLACE screening in 35mm this Thursday at the Roxy Hotel Cinema.Ya wanna week of classic film? YagottaweekofclassicfilmhelpIcan'tfindthespacebar!!!
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.
