AUGUST 2013! Herzog, Harryhausen, and the Last Movies Under the Stars!

For some unexplained reason the programmers at the various rep houses that serve our movie-mad metropolis have chosen this year and this month to flat-out lose their collective cotton-pickin' minds. How else to explain this month's rep calendar, which is so jam-packed with with classic screenings it threatened at times during its construction to buckle and break under the burden. Film Forum, Moving Image and Lincoln Center all boast massive retrospectives dedicated to specific genres, studios and talent. Anthology Film Archives alone has 3-count-'em-3 series unspooling this month, as well as short 2 and 3 day tribs to a selection of great directors, so its usual August status as haunted house/psych outpatient center has been cancelled. Adjust you plans accordingly.

I'll begin though with the most time sensitive listings, as the warm weather that currently caresses our burg is soon to depart. Summer 2013, we hardly knew ye. The last of the outdoor screenings that grace us this year include NORMA RAE, THE WOMEN and E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL at Bryant Park, ROMAN HOLIDAY, ROCKY and VERTIGO at Brooklyn Bridge Park, THE KARATE KID at the Intrepid Air & Space Museum, THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS at Riverside Park, NORTH BY NORTHWEST at Cunningham Park, and BEETLEJUICE at Hudson River Park. I implore all film lovers in the 5 boroughs to catch at least one outdoor flick each summer. Yes, they can be annoying, sometimes infuriating affairs, mostly due to the fact that people actually show up for these things, but a communal viewing under a clear, vaguely starry nighttime sky can be magic as well. Choose form the remaining opportunities above.

Now to the indoor magic. It's a close call as to which rep house can claim Big Dog status this month, but considering that the Film Forum has wrapped a tribute to the recently passed FX pioneer Ray Harryhausen into its series SON OF SUMMER SCI-FI, FANTASY AND HORROR, I'm tossing Bruce Goldstein and company the oversized edition of the Daily Growl. It would be easier to list the films considered integral to the history of the aforementioned genres that AREN'T screening as part of this fest, as they've programmed 67, SIXTY SEVEN films in four weeks! 50's Sci-Fi Red Scare efforts like Howard Hawks' THE THING, William Cameron Menzies' INVADERS FROM MARS, and Fred F. Sears' EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS! Paranoia gems like Don Siegel's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, Jack Arnold's THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, and David Cronenberg's DEAD RINGERS! Exceptional two-fers like Hitchcock's PSYCHO paired with Micheal Powell's PEEPING TOM, Robert Wise's THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL coupled with the George Pal-produced WAR OF THE WORLDS, and the aforementioned Ray Harryhausen's JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS shacking up for a day with his equally brilliant THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD! It's futility on my part to try to impress the scope of this fest upon you, the humble reader. Just head over to the Forum's page, or check my interactive calendar of course, for the entirety of the proceedings. This is the type of event the term geekgasm was invented for.

Also at the Forum this month Rene Clair's LE BEAUTE DU DIABLE, the filmmaker's take on the Faust legend, and D.W. Griffith's INTOLERANCE, his quasi-apology for the blatant racism of BIRTH OF A NATION, screen concurrently for a week. The former is a late-innings classic of fantasy filmmaking for one of the medium's masters, while the latter is simply one of the most influential films ever made. You complete me, FF!

Next up is Anthology Film Archives, which has recently seemed hell-bent on making up for past repertory opportunities missed. This month they get ridiculous though. Over-stacking their cinematic plate this month are retrospectives dedicated to novelist Georges Simenon, the films of Russ Meyer, and an appreciation of the "sexploitation" circuit of the waning Hays Code era that found interesting ways to remain relevant in the MUCH more permissive 70's. Interspersed within these are short-term tribs to Chaplin (THE GOLD RUSH, LIMELIGHT), Luis Bunuel (L'AGE D'OR, LOS OLVIDADOS) and Carl Theodore Dreyer (VAMPYR, THE PASSION OFJOAN OF ARC, ORDET). So the AFA's not just a place to sit behind the guy who brings his own mattress anymore. I'm looking forward to Casa De Mekas' new focus on mainstream rep screenings.

Uptown at Lincoln Center the Film Society has been no less busy, as evidenced by their currently underway retrospective to the screen work of David Bowie. The really rich stuff, though, comes later this week, as their series dedicated to the films of 20th Century Fox, Fasten Your Seatbelts!, kicks off with a screening of BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE
SUNDANCE KID. Other classics including John Ford's THE GRAPES OF WRATH, William Freidkin's THE FRENCH CONNECTION and Anatole Litvak's ANASTASIA fill out the dance card until the trib closes with John Hough's 70's car chase classic DIRTY MARY CRAZY LARRY. DCP sits harmonically side-by-side with 35mm in this series, so it'll be interesting to see if the more scrutinous amongst us can discern between the two formats, and how long it will take before they enthusiastically bitch about the inferiority of the former. Me, I'm there to judge the popcorn.

Closing out August at the Walter Reade theater is the Film Society's trib to Werner Herzog, genius filmmaker and digester of boiled boots. Starting with his debut EVEN DWARFS STARTED SMALL (yes, he's the proverbial German filmmaker who obsessed over dwarves), continuing with the Klaus Kinski-fueled WOYZECK and AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD, and closing with his finest two hours, the epic of obsessive determination FITZCARRALDO, the Teutonic provocateur who helped usher in the 70's German New Wave is well repped by this look at the first 15 years of his output. I would hug him if not for the fact that he'd shoot me for it.

Astoria's awesome Museum of the Moving Image has been greasing its repertory wheels as well lately, and this month they bring us the J. Hoberman curated Fun City: New York in the Movies 1967-1975. Choosing as its starting point Francis Ford Coppola's studio debut YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW! and concluding with Sidney Lumet's era-defining DOG DAY AFTERNOON, the fest offers up iconic works of the period like Friedkin's double-booked THE FRENCH CONNECTION and Joseph Sergeant's THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 alongside lesser screened gems like Lumet's BYE BYE BRAVERMAN, Jan Kadar's THE ANGEL LEVINE, and Alan Arkin's LITTLE MURDERS. The museum's newly-ish renovated space demands the attendance of the loyal NYC film geek, and this series presents as good a reason as any to finally hop on the R train and schlep over to the hallowed space. Deny Elliot Gould at your risk, my friend.

In the neighboring borough that also wishes desperately that it was The Bronx the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Cinematek offers up two special programs. Chaplin in 35mm screens large the Little Tramp's exploits in CITY LIGHTS and MODERN TIMES, while the auteur's despot-takedown THE GREAT DICTATOR and final appearance before the cameras in A KING IN NEW YORK round out not only the program but the cinematic pioneer's career. Coupled with AFA's earlier program this makes for a marvelous opportunity to watch some of the master's greatest achievements the way they were meant to be viewed.

Also at BAM their A Time For Burning series, dedicated to filmmaking during and concerning the Civil Rights era, has some choice efforts on display. Robert Mulligan's seminal TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD joins Robert Wise's ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW and Michael Roemer's NOTHING BUT A MAN in the service of connecting our contemporary, uniquely American ethnic conflicts with their too-recent forebears. Not a bad sentiment to wrap your arms around, methinks. Oh and the flicks themselves are awesome.

Back in Manhattan MoMA contributes to the repertory proceedings with their Auteurist History of Film series, this month offering Alain Resnais' HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR, Michelangelo Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA, John Cassavetes' SHADOWS, and Karel Reisz's SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING. Cheery August fare to be sure.

The Rubin Museum's excellent Cabaret Cinema series brings this month Sam Fuller's THE STEEL HELMET, Jean Negulesco's JOHNNY BELINDA, and Michael Powell and Emeric Presburger's BLACK NARCISSUS. The theme is Say a Little Prayer. Of course it is.

The newly acquired Bowtie Chelsea Cinema brings us Sydney Pollack's TOOTSIE and Alan Parker's FAME.

The IFC Center offers Steven Spielberg's JAWS, Nobuhiko Obayashi's HOUSE, and Stephen Frears' MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE.

The Mid-Manhattan Library's summer series 1970's: NYC on Film projects some BluRay love with Sidney Lumet's NETWORK, John Badham's SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, and Walter Hill's THE WARRIORS.

The Landmark Sunshine Cinema indulges its love of all things bugfuck with screenings of David Cronenberg's VIDEODROME and Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER. Both films royally screwed my childhood up in a most glorious fashion.

Finally my beloved Nitehawk Cinema in that most despised zip code of the Flobee salesman, one Williamsburg, Brooklyn, delivers the brunchtime and midnight love, the former offering Carl Reiner's THE JERK, Clarence G. Badger's IT, and Michael Schultz's CAR WASH, while the latter serves up Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE, John Carpenter's DARK STAR, and Harold Ramis' CADDYSHACK. Root beer and tater tots available during all screenings. I want to go to there.

Could that be it? Am I done listing August's classic screenings? Have I covered all the bases in the most germianl sense?

The answer is yep. Even if it ain't. If the above info isn't enough for ya I suggest you scour the interwebs like I do daily. Otherwise I'll do my damndest to update you on the continually changing and improving rep landscape in the five boroughs. As always I hope this overview aids you in your fight to conquer that monumental cinematic bucket list you're trying to reduce. We are siblings in that struggle, my faceless comrade.

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-Joe Walsh

joew@nitratestock.net