September 15th 2013. Pick Of The Day.
New York City's premiere resource for classic film screenings in the metropolitan area. Offering reviews, recommendations, venues and a host of links keeping classic film and the silver screens alive.
Cinegeeks may forgive November's encroachment upon September's traditional weather this day to attend James Mason's excursion into Jules Verne territory, Gene Hackman's incursion into people's privacy, and Terry Gilliam's transcursion through the very fabric of space and time! See what I did there?
Ongoing series today include MoMA's Auteurist History of Film Reprise, Moving Image's Complete Howard Hawks, and Anthology Film Archives' John Zorn Selects. The rundown as follows;
Film Forum
JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959) Dir; Henry Levin
CONTEMPT (1963) Dir; Jean-Luc Godard
IFC Center
TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983) Dir; James L. Brooks
Nitehawk Cinema
TIME BANDITS (1981) Dir; Terry Gilliam
Museum of the Moving Image
PAID TO LOVE (1927) Dir; Howard Hawks
TRENT''S LAST CASE (1929) Dir; Howard Hawks
A GIRL IN EVERY PORT (1928) Dir; Howard Hawks
Anthology Film Archives
THE MECHANIC (1972) Dir; Michael Winner
THE CONVERSATION (1974) Dir; Francis Ford Coppola
INVESTIGATION OF A CITIZEN ABOVE SUSPICION (1970) Dir; Elio Petri
MoMA
THE GOLDEN COACH (1953) Dir; Jean Renoir
FRENCH CAN-CAN (1955) Dir; Jean Renoir
Today's Pick? I'm always happy to focus a spotlight on one of my all-time fave directors, he of impeccible eye and seemingly inexhaustible soul. Jean Renoir's career experienced many an up and down, but no matter his circumstances at any particular point he seemed perpetually on the verge of rebirth both commercially and artistically. After an unsatisfying decade working in Hollywood, the movie mecca he and numerous European filmmakers had fled to from the Nazi occupation, Renoir travelled to India to produce his first Technicolor film, an adap of Rumer Godden's THE RIVER. Reinvigorated by its success, he returned to Paris to create a loose trilogy of films about theater life, also shot in lavish Technicolor, beginning with THE GOLDEN COACH and finishing with ELENA AND HER MEN. The middle effort, the fabulist account of the theater impresario who revived and made indelible France's most famous dancehall hoofery, was as much about the method and madness of its lead character, essayed magnificently by star Jean Gabin, as it was about its director's. Some consider this a slighter effort from the genius who gave the world LA BETE HUMAINE, GRAND ILLUSION and THE RULES OF THE GAME. I consider it a thesis on his innermost creative process.
Jean Renoir's FRENCH CAN-CAN screens today at MoMA as part of their Auteurist History of Film Reprise series. And now, (clap, clap), the dancing!
For more info on this and all September's classic screenings 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 with more tomorrow, and as always be safe and sound and make sure the next guy/gal is too!
-Joe Walsh
