October 20th 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.
The exceptional frivolities on display for the NYC Cinegeek today include Howard Hawks & William Faulkner's unique theory on the building of the pyramids, Robert Altman's acerbic reduction of the country music scene (whatehvz, everything he did was an acerbic reduction of something!), and the restoration of silent filmmaker Karl Brown's tale of love amongst the Rocky Mountains. Sigh. Continuing series include Film Forum's Jacques Demy retrospective, Museum of the Moving Image's massive Complete Howard Hawks, BAM's trib to the late great Karen Black, and MoMA's annual To Save and Project. The cinematic craic in full;
IFC Center
BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL (1965) Dir; Robert Mulligan
Nitehawk Cinema
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945) Dir; Albert Lewin
Film Forum
TOKYO STORY (1953) Dir; Yasujiro Ozu
THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG (1964) Dir; Jacques Demy
Museum of the Moving Image
LAND OF THE PHAROAHS (1955) Dir; Howard Hawks
HATARI! (1962) Dir; Howard Hawks
BAM Cinematek
NASHVILLE (1976) Dir; Robert Altman
MoMA
STARK LOVE (1927) Dir; Karl Brown
Today's Pick? Having just seen it last night for the first time and still drinking in all its charms I have to choose Jacques Demy's THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, my first foray into the French auteur's CV, whose endearing pastel color schemes and particular European twee have me suspecting this is Wes Anderson's favorite film of all time. Well, he's certainly seen it, I'm sure of that much. Remarkable to say the least is the film's use of recitative, an operatic technique that allows for little to no spoken dialogue. Almost every line in Demy's film, no matter how significant or throwaway, is sung, and the main theme, Michel Legrand's I Will Wait For You, recurs as both sweeping scene-stealer and background reminder. It's really a 60's pop jazz opera, and the film's style both enhances and underscores this lovable idiosyncrasy. However, while the film is largely a Nouvelle Vague pop confection it contains its fair share of legitimate heartache, and a young Catherine Deneuve serves up as perfect a portrait of apocalyptic teen anguish as I've ever seen. Yeah, she's a honey, but damn can this woman act.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic screenings for October '13 click the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. And be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter! Back tomorrow with more of the cinema ooh la la, in the meantime stay safe and sound and check in on the next knucklehead too!
-Joe Walsh
