JULY WEEK THREE. IT'S HOT. SEE A MOVIE.

These are the months when it gets tricky. The wintertime dreams dancing in the heads of repertory programmers in art houses, museums, rooftops, parks, virtually any space that can be termed a venue come to fruition under the sun's anvil; July.

But the Cinegeek remains a hearty breed. No amount of sweltering sepia will sway him from attending a communal screening of a fave flick. Forgetting to bring his Good-For-1-Free-Popcorn card though, well...

So let's focus on what's coming up this week. Film Forum's massive 100th anniversary celebration of Universal Pictures just kicked off over the weekend, and while you may have missed some gems, believe me, there's MUCH more to come. The listings below only cover July's screenings, which account for about just over 2/3 of the fest. For the remaining flicks wait until we get to the August update, or just go to the damn Film Forum site and check out all the awesome in one big massive mind consume. Don't blame us if it's too much at once for one tiny little mind. That's what we found.

The fest gives with Gilliam's famous for various reasons and all rightly so BRAZIL tonight at 9:15pm. For many of us addicted to comic books, SciFi and Monty Python back in 1984 this was our first example of nerd dissidence, of one of our heroes fighting to bring us one of our entertainments. And I think we were all just at that age where what he actually delivered not only entertained but sparked us to think about the real world, just like the best Orwell or Philip K. could do. By way of William Gaines. It's a work of art and as timely now of course as it's ever been.

Tuesday brings John M. Stahl's Doulgas Sirk blueprints, IMITATION OF LIFE and MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION. And Grant Williams beats the Swedes to the Higgs Boson particle by decades in THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN.

Wednesday gives with the kickoffs to two towering American auteur careers; Eastwood's PLAY MISTY FOR ME and Spielberg's THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS. Both excellent and both only hints.

One could read into Friday's fare a comment on current affairs, as MY MAN GODFREY presents the quality individual as depression era castoff, and THE BIRDS just wanna peck your fucking eyes out. Read deeper if you choose.

Saturday brings a pair of VASTLY different Jimmy Stewart westerns; the classic yet offbeat DESTRY RIDES AGAIN, where he rules with a stare and revives Marlene Dietrich's career, and WINCHESTER '73, in which he involves himself in affairs grim indeed, and helps start an almost immediate deconstruction of the Western myths Hollywood helped create.

Also on Saturday; YOU. ARE. SPARTACUS. And don't you forget it.

And closing out this Saturday the 21st is a fitting tribute to the recently passed Richard Zanuck, a little film gone way over budget and schedule, in which he trusted the instincts of his fledgling director and had his back all the way through delay after delay to post and ultimate release. If not for the multitude of films Zanuck midwifed into this world, if not for the fact that he saved the studio his dad created back in 1935, one 20th Century Fox, love him at least for this reason; he refused to shut down production on JAWS. He just believed in the skinny kid too much. Cinematic history was made, and you may witness such on the screen this weekend and I can't think of a single reason why you wouldn't.

Sunday brings THE BANK DICK, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN and perhaps the best comedy of the three THE DEER HUNTER, which has lessened in my esteem over the years and which I consider slight compared to HEAVEN'S GATE. Bring it.

My pick would be the lesser known of those but far superior, SCARLETT STREET, Fritz Lang's mid-40's return to form and one of the most visually arresting and baroquely plotted noirs of the era. Featuring Edward G. Robinson in one of his finest roles, as well as a career perf from the raven haired and ravenous Joan Bennett, this seamy entree takes the tropes of the genre and amps them to heights dizzying. It ends with murder, wrongful execution and madness. Lang would rarely be this jovial.

Also at the Forum, Annie and Alvy continue their lovely awkward that still resonates 35 years later. And Von Stroheim has cueballs for eyes. These two facts are related somehow...

Over at BAM the Grace Kelly fest continues its slow roll-out as REAR WINDOW spends a week at their Cinematek before the full CV unspools starting Friday. As good as HIGH NOON and TO CATCH A THIEF may well be, I think this single set and it's Greenwich Village courtyard perversions are the high water mark of the cool blonde's career as well as her director's. This is one you really shouldn't pass up.

The Walter Reade Theater continues to honor one of Hollywood's greats with its Gene Kelly @100! celebration. Amongst the many fine and even spectacular examples of what made Kelly so valuable to the MGM musical factory of the 40's, such as the immortal pairing of Kelly with Sinatra in ANCHORS AWEIGH, the gem of the week is undoubtedly AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, one of Kelly's first indulgences from his parent studio and a big payoff at the box office as well as the Oscars. It only won Best Picture. Lyrically directed by a Vincente Minnelli at the peak of his powers, it features the cream of the Gershwin catalog as well as a liberal but justified borrowing from Powell and Pressburger's THE RED SHOES at it's finale, which gets its own unmissable screening up ahead. Still as awe inspiring as the works of the great French masters it emulates. Flawless.

Walter Reade's also screening one of the great Phil Kaufman's early directorial efforts and iconic American youth films THE WANDERERS later today. Hugely influenced and hugely influential, if you're a fan of Kaufman, novelist and screenwriter Richard Price, or the genre in general, I'd say this is a must-see.

Bryant Park refuses to let Greg and Audrey return the scooter to the rental agency as ROMAN HOLIDAY screens tonight at Sunset. Love letter to postwar Italy, consumer existentialism, and a lush young Audrey Hepburn. That most romantic of films.

MOMA brings Love and Hate tattooed across the knuckles of Robert Mitchum's hands in THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER on Sunday. If there ever was a divine reason Lillian Gish was accorded fame in the film world it was to return to the medium to save the children. No better defender of the young existed on screen sez me! Haunting, beautiful. Makes you wonder what Charles Laughton would've done next.

Museum Of The Moving Image brings the great Bob Fosse's CABARET this Friday, probably the ultimate expression of his art. The weekend brings a pair of Powell and Pressburgers, the aforementioned THE RED SHOES and the recently fully restored THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP. I urge you, if you haven't thus far, to catch both of these recent restorations on the big screen this weekend. If you love film in general or The Archers in particular you owe it to yourself to view these films at MOMI's newly renovated screening spaces. Thelma Schoonmaker, Powell's widow and archivist and Martin Scorsese's long time editor will introduce the Saturday 7/21 screening of COLONEL BLIMP. Don't miss this. She's a doll.

The key screening this week, as it usually is with me whenever someone chooses to project this baby on the widescreen, is SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE at Hudson River Park this Friday night. As I always sum it up, my Dad used to say Errol Flynn's ROBIN HOOD was the one flick that always reverted him to the 8-year old he was when he first saw it. This is the film more than any other, even more than STAR WARS, that puts me back in the Loews Paradise in 1978 and turns me completely bugfuck that this dude was sailing through the air. With a cape. And no wires. As great as THE AVENGERS was, and it IS great, THIS remains for me the single greatest comic book superhero film ever made. Do yourself a favor; grab some snacks and plenty of bottled water, find a good spot early, and catch the opening credits against the sunset on the Hudson river while John Williams' score begins to surge. There are definitions of movie magic, and there are defining instances of movie magic. This is one of mine. Somewhere Christopher Reeve is walking, but for now and for here, he's still flying.

-Guiseppe

FILM FORUM

Universal Pictures: Celebrating 100 Years

BRAZIL Mon 7/16 9:15pm
Imitation Of Life Tue 7/17 3:30pm, 7:35pm
Magnificent Obsession Tue 7/17 1:30pm, 5:35pm
The Incredible Shrinking Man Tue 9:45pm
Sugarland Express Wed 7/18 1pm, 5:10pm, 9:20pm
Play Misty For Me Wed 718 3:05pm, 7:20pm
The Killers Thu 7/19 2:40pm, 6:20pm, 10pm
Criss Cross Thu 7/19 1pm, 4:40pm, 8:20pm
My Man Godfrey Fri 7/20 4pm, 8pm
Show Boat Fri 7/20 1:50pm, 5:50pm
The Birds Fri 7/20 9:50pm
Winchester '73 Sat 7/21 1pm, 4:40pm
Destry Rides Again Sat 7/21 7pm
Spartacus Sat 7/21 6:30pm
Jaws Sat 7/21 9:50pm
The Bank Dick Sun 7/22 2:35pm
Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein Sun 7/22 1pm
The Deer Hunter Sun 7/22 4:15pm
Scarlett Street Sun 7/22 7:40pm, Mon 7/23 2:50pm
The Big Clock Sun 7/22 9:40pm, Mon 7/23 1pm, 4:50pm
The Thing Mon 7/23 9:15pm
The Man Who Laughs Tue 7/24 3:50pm, 9:55pm
Broadway Tues 7/24 1:30pm, 6pm
The Goose Woman Tue 7/24 8:20pm
Imitation Of Life (1959) Wed 7/25 3pm, 7:05pm
All That Heaven Allows Wed 7/25 1:15pm, 5:20pm, 9:45pm
Phantom Lady Thu 7/26 2:40pm, 6pm, 9:20pm
The Suspect Thu 7/26 1pm,4:20pm, 7:40pm
The Bride Of Frankenstein Fri 7/27 1pm, 4:05pm, 7:10pm
The Black Cat Fri 7/27 2:30pm, 5:25pm, 8:40pm
It Came From Outer Space Fri 7/27 10:20pm in glorious 3D!!!
To Kill A Mockingbird Sat 7/28 3:10pm
American Graffiti Sat 7/28 1pm, 5:35pm
Charley Varrick Sat 7/28 7:45pm
The Big Lebowski Sat 7/28 9:50pm
The Wolf Man Sun 7/29 1pm, 5:25pm, 9:50pm Mon 1pm, 5:25pm, 9pm
The Invisible Man Sun 7/29 2:25pm, 6:50pm Mon 2:25pm
The Mummy Sun 7/29 3:50pm, 8:15pm Mon 3:50pm, 10:25pm
The Good Fairy Tue 7/31 1pm, 4:25pm, 9:35pm
Counsellor At Law Tue 7/31 2:50pm, 8pm
The Shakedown Tue 7/31 6:30pm

Also at Film Forum

Annie Hall 1:10pm, 3:10pm, 5:10pm, 7:10pm, 9:10pm all week til Thursday

The Von Stroheim Experience

Blind Husbands Mon 7/16 7:15pm
Foolish Wives Mon 7/23 7pm
Merry-Go-Round Mon 7/30 6:50

BAM

Grace Kelly Retrospective

Rear Window 4:30pm , 6:50pm*, 9:15pm all week til Thursday
(no 6:50pm show Mon 7/16)

High Society Fri 7/20 2pm, 4:30pm, 6:50pm, 9:15pm
High Noon Sat 7/21 2pm, 4:30pm, 650pm, 9:15pm
To Catch A Thief Sun 7/22 2pm, 4:30pm, 6:50pm, 9:15pm
Fourteen Hours Mon 7/23 6:50pm, 9:15pm
Mogambo Tue 7/24 6:50pm, 9:15pm
The Swan Wed 7/25 6:50pm, 9:15pm
The Country Girl thu 7/26 6:50pm, 9:15pm

Also at BAM

The French Connection Mon 7/30 4:30pm, 6:50pm, 9:15pm

WALTER READE

Gene Kelly @ 100!

An American In Paris Tue 7/17 3:45pm
Anchors Aweigh Wed 7/25 3:15pm
Brigadoon Sat 7/21 2:15pm, Tue 7/24 3:30pm
Cover Girl Sat 7/14 8:45pm
The Cross Of Lorraine Thu 7/19 8:30pm
For Me And My Gal Wed 7/18 3:15pm
Gigot Wed 7/25 6:15pm
A Guide For The Married Man Wed 7/25 8:30pm
Hello Dolly! Sun 7/22 2:30pm
Inherit The Wind Thu 7/26 6pm
Invitation To The Dance Fri 7/20 4:30pm
Les Girls Mon 7/16 8:30pm
Marjorie Morningstar Mon 7/23 6pm
On the Town Mon 7/16 4pm
Summer Stock Sun 7/22 6pm
Take Me Out To The Ballgame Sat 7/21 4:30pm
What a Way To Go! Mon 7/23 8:30pm
Xanadu Sat 7/21 9pm
The Young Girls Of Rochefort Sun 7/22 8:15pm, Thu 7/26 8:30pm

Also at Walter Reade

The Wanderers Mon 7/16 6pm

BRYANT PARK

Roman Holiday 7/16
The Maltese Falcon 7/23
Rebel Without a Cause 7/30

All films start at sunset.

MOMA

The Night Of The Hunter Sun 7/22 5:30pm
Days Of Heaven Tue 7/24 8pm, Mon 7/30 8pm
Bicycle Thieves Thu 7/26 8pm
Lord Of The Flies 7/27 4:30pm
Pixote 7/27 8pm, 7/30 4:30pm
The 400 Blows 7/28 5pm
M. Hulot's Holiday Wed 7/25, Thu 7/26, Fri 7/27 all showtimes 1:30pm

MOMI

Cabaret Fri 7/20 7pm
The Red Shoes Sat 7/21 3pm, Sun 7/22 3pm
The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp Sat 7/21 6pm, Sun 7/22 6pm
To Catch a Thief Sat 7/28 3pm, Sun 7/29 3pm
Vertigo Sat 7/28 6pm, Sun 7/29 6pm

NITEHAWK CINEMA

Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? Sat 7/21 & Sun 7/22 at Noon
The Red Shoes Sat 7/28 & Sun 7/29 at Noon

HUDSON RIVER PARK

Superman:The Movie Fri 7/20 showtime at sunset

TARRYTOWN MUSIC HALL

Pink Floyd The Wall Wed 7/18 7pm

For daily updates join the Facebook group NITRATE STOCK. Interactive calendar on the way, suckahz!