June 12th 2013. Pick Of The Day.

Jacques Rivette finally got to join the ranks of his Nouvelle Vague-creating Cahiers Du Cinema cohorts with his 1961 debut PARIS BELONGS TO US, begun while Truffaut's THE 400 BLOWS and Godard's BREATHLESS were mere ambitions in 1958 and screening today as part of MoMA's ongoing Auteurist History of Film series. This head-scratcher concerning a Shakespearian troupe rehearsing a play that never gets staged also serves as a nifty time capsule of bohemian Parisian life circa the late 50's /early 60's. Tempting for the latter reason alone, but misses as today's Pick.

Film Forum's exhaustive trib to master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu today offers up a double-feature of the director's EQUINOX FLOWER and WALK CHEERFULLY. The former's topic of arranged marriage and changing culture was a fave of the director's, and is also his first color feature. The latter is one of Ozu's rarer crime efforts and features live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner. Tempts mightily, but a different and equally massive retrospective unspools in our fair burg this day, so I choose to switch focus from Eastern artisan to Western pioneer. I'll be going back and forth all month, trust me.

The Mid-Manhattan Library's brand spankin' new summer series 1970's: New York City on Film rolls into its week 2 with a presentation of Alan J. Pakula's seminal thriller KLUTE. Donald Sutherland's private eye boasts the eponymous monicker, but it's Jane Fonda's Oscar winning perf as call girl Bree Daniels that earns top marks in an excellent ice-cold suspenser. The library only offers BluRay projection and that makes it hard for me to ever make them my Pick, but Fonda's essaying of the hard-nosed, complex, high-priced hooker who becomes the target of a killer nearly swiped top honors today. A different and no less remarkable actress also lights up the screen this eve, however, one whose celluloid charms date back nearly a century and remain as potent as ever. So Jane's gotta settle for the Academy's honor while missing out on mine. I'm sure she's firing her staff over this.

Over in harmonious, hirsute Billyburg the Nitehawk Cinema sets the placemats for their recurring Beer Dinner and a Movie series, featuring the venue's usually fine bill o' fare with beer pairings courtesy of the Captain Lawrence Brewing Company. Tonight Richard Donner's THE GOONIES is matched with the likes of braised veal tounge and pork mole tamales and the brewery's Sunblock and Sloth ales. The menu alone would make me overlook the mediocre flick (I know, I'm a terrible person), but a foodless theater beckons this eve, and I'm still waiting for the Nitehawk to screen Steve McQueen's HUNGER and see them build a menu around that! I'm waiting...

All fine choices but it's time I finally shine a light on a magnificent fest that's going on for a full month, dedicated to one of the pioneers of the industry whose career spanned the existence of the studio system, from his period at the helm of Flying "A" Pictures in 1911 to his retirement in 1961 as contract director for Republic Pictures. During those 50 years Allan Dwan worked with many of the great and iconic talents that made Hollywood the center of the filmmaking world, from Douglas Fairbanks, whose swashbuckling persona of the 1920's was in part shaped by the director, to the later likes of Tyrone Power, John Wayne and Barbara Stanwyck. Today MoMA offers a pair of the master's best; 1937's ONE MILE FROM HEAVEN features the always awesome Claire Trevor, but more importantly was the last onsceen work from Fredi Washington, the wonderful actress whose fair skin undid her career in a backward era; too dark to play leads, too white to play maids. She would go on to head up the Negro Actors League and help pry open doors still shut to her African-American colleagues, but for a few films we get the bittersweet chance to witness what might've been. This alone would be enough to snag my Pick, but the evening screening in the Dwan trib features an actress who actually, unfairly or no, achieved iconic status, and in two VASTLY different eras! Ya gotta go to baseball and Ted Williams for a comparison! Although everyone I believe is in agreement that Gloria Swanson is much easier on the eyes than the ex-Red Sox slugger.

The Chicago-born Swanson formally entered the movie biz after moving to Cali with her newly-separated mom in 1914. Working as an extra for Essanay Studios in her hometown had given her the acting bug, and being directed by Chaplin in HIS NEW JOB only worsened the affliction. On arriving in La-La Land she auditioned for leading roles but instead signed to Mack Sennett's comedy troupe. Her prospects as movie star material weren't too bright until Paramount Pictures signed her in 1919 and she graduated to the female lead for Cecil B. De Mille's DON'T CHANGE YOUR HUSBAND. A star, as they say, was born. Actually unleashed would be a more fitting description, as Swanson went on to become a box office behemoth so crucial to the company's fortunes they inevitably bent to her every whim. In 1923 she made her first of 8 films with Allan Dwan, who encouraged the star's preoccupation with elaborate costume design for her role as a Parisian dance hall girl involved with a married man. C'est un scandale! The premise may be the oldest story known to man but the panache of the director and the sheer gleaming star power of the actress make this unmissbale fare 90-count-'em-90 years after its release. So my advice is to spend this warm, clear-skied June eve with a beautiful doll. Thank me later.

Gloria Swanson stars as ZAZA as part of the retrospective Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios tonight at 8pm. They had faces then, I tells ya.

Follow me on Twitter @NitrateStock!

Like the page at Facebook.com/NitrateStock!

Check with the good folks at Occupy Sandy to see if you might still be able to volunteer/donate! The weather's warming but some of our NYC brethren still need your help!

Be safe and sound and make sure the next guy/gal is too, knucks! Back tomorrow with a new Pick. MAN OF STEEL's gonna suck. Spread tha woid.

-Joe Walsh

joew@nitratestock.net