August 30th 2013. Pick Of The Day.
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As another August comes to a close, amid the stirrings of pre-season NFL, Back-To-School sales and Halloween displays emerging at the local Duane Reade in a timely fashion, I find myself still waiting for an entity conspicuous only for its glaring abscence; August 2013. Maybe we'll get 2 Augusts in 2014? Maybe I should stop complaining and just get to the day in classic film? Ongoing series this day include MoMA's Auteurist History of Film, the Rubin Museum's Cabaret Cinema, Museum of the Moving Image's Fun City: NYC in the Movies 1967-75, and Film Forum's tremendous Son of Summer Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror! The lowdown as follows;
Film Forum
DEMON SEEED (1977) Dir; Donald Cammell
ALIEN (1979) Dir; Ridley Scott
ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968) Dir; Roman Polanski
ALIENS (1986) Dir; James Cameron
MoMA
SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING (1960) Dir; Karel Reisz
Museum of the Moving Image
THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 (1974) Dir; Joseph Sargent
Rubin Museum
BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) Dir; Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
IFC Center
THE WILD BUNCH (1969) Dir; Sam Peckinpah
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
TAXI DRIVER (1976) Dir; Martin Scorsese
Nitehawk Cinema
FRANKENHOOKER (1990) Dir; Frank Henenlotter
Today's Pick? Joseph Sargent's THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 at MoMI, what may be my fave archetypal cinematic take on NYC all-time. So astute was its director, Jersey City product Sargent, at capturing the grit, grime and hey-get-outta-my-goddam-wayness of Manhattan life, so masterful his direction of the hangdog Walter Matthau, the fed-up Jerry Stiller, the whaddayawant? Martin Balsam, so expert his MacGuffin-like use of the damndest heist in film history as excuse to present the greatest city in the world and its residents amid the detritus it slogged through during the down decade of the 70's, that for a good number of years I was convinced it was a Sidney Lumet flick. That error was no small accolade. Plus the great Robert Shaw, who along with his criminal cohorts boasts one of cinema's most colorful code names (hear me, QT?), is afforded perhaps the most curt and charismatic exit any screen baddie ever enjoyed.
Oh, and geshundheit.
For more info on these and all the month's classic screenings feel free to click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. And be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Back tomorrow to comment on the day's doings in rep cinema. Til then stay safe and sound and make sure the next guy/gal is too. Excelsior, Knuckleheads!
-Joe Walsh
