June 15th 2013. Pick Of The Day.
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Film Forum enters week two of its comprehensive trib to master filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu with a pair of the auteur's best. THE END OF SUMMER
concerns Ganjiro Nakamura's age-defying sake brewer and his quest to outrun a heart attack and wind up in the arms of his mistress. A STORY OF FLOATING WEEDS revolves around a Kabuki theater troupe's effect on a sleepy seaside village, and was one of the only silent B&W efforts he remade in the sound and color era. Both essential viewings, but a far different type of Japanese auteur graces the big screen this day, and I never take sides against him.
MoMA's equally towering trib to a film pioneer, Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios, also enters its 2nd week with a trio of classics. Victor McLaglen's escaped convict searches out the daughter who's given him up for dead in WHILE PARIS SLEEPS. Randolph Scott and Ceasar Romero match up squarely wih every other actor who've assesed the roles of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday in FRONTIER MARSHALL. Finally the evening's screening, MANHANDLED, re-teamed the director with frequent collaborator Gloria Swanson, here profiting by her sin of posing as weallthy royalty then repenting to win back the heart of her dream lug! All winners, but none of the stars of these flicks, obviously, are on hand to discuss them. So I make another, more personal screening my Pick today. As with the Ozu fest, I got plenty of time.
At midnight the Nitehawk Cinema rolls out two vastly different type of horror film; John Schlesinger's adap of Nathaniel West's THE DAY OF THE LOCUST, a scathing takedown of Hollywood circa the 1930's that stars cult icon Karen Black in one of her best roles, and James Cameron's ALIENS, which is both sequel to Ridley Scott's original and a remake of THEM! No knock there. Also at midnight IFC Center presents Alejandro Jodorowsky's headscratcher THE HOLY MOUNTAIN, which is good news to some and meh to the unmedicated. Kiddin'. Love A-Jo. But today a screening is scheduled that leaves all others in it's wake. As with yesterday's Pick it involves a key attendee who will intro and discuss the feature, and as with yesterday it involves one of the greatest filmmakers who ever graced the world's screens. Every summer I re-spin the bulk of this cinematic sensei's CV, so this screening is conveniently timed to my particular needs. Even were it not so no other screening today short of Ozu's ghost intro'ing his films and boo-ing the audience would take precedence. No, even that wouldn't do it probably. This is one of my all-time fave directors and his late career masterpiece. Let's just do this, shall we?
Akira Kurosawa's RAN unspools this afternoon at 2pm at Astoria's Museum of the Moving Image, and the film's star Tatsuya Nakadai will be on hand to discuss his career, working with AK, and the price of sushi in Japan. I hope plenty of my fellow Cinegeeks indulge in this rare event. Domo arigato, MOMI.
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Be safe and sound and make sure the next knucklehead is too! Back next Wednesday with a new set of Picks! Follow the Tweets and Facebook updates in the meantime to see what classic screenings are afoot! I see MAN OF STEEL on Monday. Wish my inner 8-year old luck at that screening Stockahz! Excelsior!
-Joe Walsh
