October 11th 2013. Pick Of The Day.

Rep cinema treats this day include John Hurt's unfortunate bout of upset stomach, Scheherazade's reinvention at the hands of Pasolini, and Jean-Luc Godard's ruining of two hours of your life. Continuing series include Film Forum's Jacques Demy retrospective, MoMA's Auteurist History of Film, To Save and Project, and Dante Ferretti trib, Moving Image's Complete Howard Hawks, and the Rubin Museum's Cabaret Cinema. The goods in total;

IFC Center

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971) Dir; Peter Bogdanovich

ALIEN (1979) Dir; Ridley Scott

Film Forum

MODEL SHOP (1969) Dir; Jacques Demy

THE PIED PIPER (1972) Dir; Jacques Demy

MoMA

WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (1961) Dir; Bryan Forbes

I AM SUZANNE (1933) Dir; Rowland V. Lee

ARABIAN NIGHTS (1974) Dir; Pier Paolo Pasolini

SMILE! (1975) Dir; Michael Ritchie - Special guest Bruce Dern!

Film Society of Lincoln Center

WEEKEND (1967) Dir; Jean-Luc Godard

SANDRA (1965) Dir; Luchino Visconti

Museum of Arts and Design

EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960) Dir; Georges Franju

Museum of the Moving Image

RED RIVER (1948) Dir; Howard Hawks

Rubin Museum

NETWORK (1976) Dir; Sidney Lumet

Nitehawk Cinema

THE VAMPIRE LOVERS (1970) Dir; Roy Ward Baker

Today's Pick? I'm always sorely tempted to choose mah boy Hawks whenever one of his gems screens, and RED RIVER is a tough proposition to turn down. I also feel like I haven't shown a lot of love to the Forum's Demy retrospective, which pulls into the end of it's first week with the intriguing MODEL SHOP, wherein Anouk Aimee reprises her Marlene Dietrich-inspired title role from Demy's earlier LOLA. The more obscure I AM SUZANNE from Rowland V. Lee (RKO's THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO & THE THREE MUSKETEERS) screens as part of MoMA's annual To Serve and Project series, and I'm told the Parisian puppeteer melodrama is quite something to behold, particluarly in its newly spitshined print. However another cinematic case that showcases one of my other all-time fave filmmakers is on the docket today, and I don't get enough chances to sing the praises of Sidney Lumet. I don't think enough opportunities could possibly present themselves ever.

Lumet began his career as a child actor in NYC's Yiddish theater, and faced a bright future on stage before signing up for service in WW2. He joined the signal corps, and discovered and developed a fastidious set of organizational skills that would serve him in his postwar career. Once back on his home turf he worked with the Actor's Studio before starting up his own Off-Broadway theater group, eventually finding directing work in the world of organized chaos known as live TV. He thrived in this system, often working on two or three projects at once, because of his affinity for pressure situations, the same cool calculating knack he'd honed in the war. When Henry Fonda expressed an interest in bringing Reginald Rose's Studio One teleplay 12 ANGRY MEN to the big screen he immediately considered the scrappy, detail-oriented Lumet, if only because Fonda's production company had little more than a small screen budget to work with. Lumet jumped in with glee, and helmed what is widely considered one of the all-time great directorial debuts in cinema history, netting his first Oscar nom in the process. It also begat what I argue would be the throughline theme of his career for the most part.

Lumet famously and repeatedly offered this assessment of the Auteur theory; "It's bullshit." Coming as he did from an apprenticeship in the theater and the laying-track-in-front-of-the-moving-train world of live TV he was only too glad to acknowledge the contribution everyone involved in his productions provided. As well he should, for he worked with some of the best, from composers, editors and screenwriters to line producers and 2nd unit directors. Lumet believed the credit should be shared. He also believed the same of the blame, and not just when it came to his box office results. As inclined as I am to agree with his take on the Cahiers Du Cinema crowd's assertion that the director was the sole author of any film, there does exist an overarching theme to Lumet's CV, perhaps unintended, perhaps only perceived by me, but I'd argue that most if not all of the man's films may be boiled down to this philosophy, one once offered by Jean Renoir as the most frightening realization to be had in this world; everyone has their reasons.

Lumet never provides a pure, unadulterated, unrepentant bad guy in his films. From Lee J. Cobb's brutish racist in 12 ANGRY MEN, to Richard Widmark's kidnapper/child-killer in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, to Philip Seymour Hofman's Worst Son Ever in BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, Lumet is always more interested in what makes these characters do the things they do than draping them in blanket condemnation for the sake of quick simple entertainment value. Even the U.S.S.R., during the height of the Cold War no less, is afforded humanity and shared culpability in the doomsday nightmare classic FAIL-SAFE. No, it wasn't until screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky came a'callin' with a script about corporate takeover of the American airwaves. That's the one time when Sidney found his bad guy. And he made it count.

Preparing to read for the role Faye Dunaway gave Lumet a ring. "I know what you're going to ask; where's her humanity?", he answered before she asked. "She has none." Duanway took the bait, and so did one of the great villians of modern cinema, so effective still for her plausibility and relevance, find her way to the big screen. The film entire actually, as has become the tired but true old saw, has never seemed more relevant as well. The once all-important Nielsen ratings may be on the verge of obsolesence, but the spectacle, the modern bread-and-circuses that caused some pithy sop somewhere to coin the term Idiot Box, its potential for good or harm has only increased fold by fold, until Today's Pick and its attendant paranoia seems quaint in comparison. Can't I just sell a flick?

So for what I believe is Lumet's lone out-and-out castigation of a soulless human being, as well as a kinder gentler take on the erosion of human identity in particular and world culture in general, 1976's NETWORK, screening as part of the Rubin Museum's Cabaret Cinema series, takes my Pick today. As always the price of a cocktail grants your admittance to the museum's swank screening lounge, but my advice is get there early. These events tend to be pretty popular.

For more info on these and all October 13'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 manana with mas tesoro, til then keep safe and sound and keep an eye out for the next knucklehead too!

-Joe Walsh

joew@nitratestock.net