November 8th 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.
Of note today are a couple of choice screenings in the slowly windng down To Save and Project series at MoMA, the kickoff to BAM's trib to Czech New Wave filmmaker Jan Nemec, his first-ever retrospective in the states, and continuing series like Anthology Film Archives Golden Age of Spanish Horror and the Rubin Museum's Cabaret Cinema. The rundown goes like this;
MoMA
THE LEOPARD (1963) Dir; Luchino Visconti
CARAVAN (1934) Dir; Erik Charell
RED DESERT (1964) Dir; Michelangelo Antonioni
Film Forum
SIDEWALK STORIES (1988) Dir; Charles Lane
THE FRESHMAN (1925) Dirs; Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
BAM Cinematek
DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT (1964) Dir; Jan Nemec
Anthology Film Archives
COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE (1972) Dir; Javier Aguirre
LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE (1974) Dir; Jorge Grau
Rubin Museum
SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
Today's Pick? How can I choose against what even Hitchcock regarded as his favorite of his films? SHADOW OF A DOUBT, Big Al's lone collaboration with the great Thornton Wilder, is not merely the transplanted Brit's blackly comic take on the eccentricities of small town Americana, but his thesis that truly dark stuff lurks beneath its humorous, quirky facade. Hume Cronyn's pesky neighbor, a crime fiction fan obsessing over the perfect literary murder, mingles with an actual murderer hiding in plain sight, Jospeh Cotten's chillingly unforgettable Uncle Charlie, who himself is the antecedent of Teresa Wright's tumultous teen niece "Charlie". Indeed the disturbing thoughts and emotions she experiences suggest not merely the throes of adolescence but something more sinister that "runs in the family." To this end Tha Mahstah couldn't have cast two better actors to play these uncomfortable relatives; Joseph Cotten provides a master study in icy sociopathic menace, while no sunnier presence could have portrayed the troubled youth, first implicit in her uncle's sins then deperate to break his vice-like grip, than one Teresa Wright. Snake, meet dove.
Hitch may have enjoyed poking into the dusty corners of postcard suburban life, but he never quite mocks it. In fact what's interesting about this and his first Hollywood film, REBECCA, is their celebration of the wholly American idea of reinvention, of the ability to escape the sins of the past either married into or carried by one's surname. Wright's "Charlie" wrestles with her connection to Cotten's Charlie, guilty not merely over the blood relation but the fact that he is literally her namesake. Hitch's choice of victor in this struggle says a lot about his feelings for the U.S., and I'm sure David Lynch watched this flick about a million times before writing BLUE VELVET. Great, patriotic, twisted minds...
SHADOW OF A DOUBT screens tonight at 9:30pm at the Rubin Museum as part of their Cabaret Cinema series. The deal is thus; buy a beer/cocktail, get a free tik to the swank screening lounge, tonight intro'd by performance artist John Kelly. Seating is limited and the experience is a real treat, so make sure to get there early.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic screenings in November '13 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 with the Saturday Pick, til then count yer change before leaving the cab and make sure yer fellow passengers do the same. Excelsior!
-Joe Walsh
