November 10th 2013. Pick Of The Day.
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The blustery wind, the soft sky, the earthen leaf tones. Oh Sunday, November Sunday, how you glue me to my couch.
No it's not the spilt BBQ sauce and months-old sheets, it's the overwhelming ennui of November Sundays in NYC. It's a poetic thin-
Oh the hell with you, just keep reading. I'm getting more BBQ sauce.
Those efforts worthy of removing yourself from the confines of your autumnal sofa include the restoration of a Harold Lloyd classic at the Film Forum, Hal Ashby's directorial debut, and the star-making turn of Marilyn Monroe's career. New and continuing series today include MoMA's nearly finished To Save and Project, BAM's trib to Czech New Wave filmmaker Jan Nemec, Anthology Film Archives' Golden Age of Spanish Horror, and the final day of Moving Image's excellent Complete Howard Hawks. The results of the negotiations as follows;
Film Forum
STEAMBOAT BILL JR. (1928) Dir; Charles Reisner
SIDEWALK STORIES (1988) Dir; Charles Lane
THE FRESHMAN (1925) Dirs; Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Nitehawk Cinema
THE LANDLORD (1970) Dir; Hal Ashby
MoMA
CARAVAN (1934) Dir; Erik Charell
HEARTBEAT (1968) Dir; Alain Cavalier
PILLAGED (1967) Dir; Alain Cavalier
Mid-Manhattan Library
HOLIDAY (1938) Dir; George Cukor
Museum of the Moving Image
RED LINE 7000 (1965) Dir; Howard Hawks
GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953) Dir; Howard Hawks
THE BIG SKY (1952) Dir; Howard Hawks
BAM Cinematek
MARTYRS OF LOVE (1967) Dir; Jan Nemec
DIAMONDS OF THE NIGHT (1964) Dir; Jan Nemec
Anthology Film Archives
VAMPYRES (1974) Dir; Jose Ramon Larraz
NIGHT OF THE SEAGULLS (1975) Dir; Amando de Ossorio
THE CRAVING (1981) Dir; Paul Naschy
Today's Pick? I'll keep it short and sweet and give ya three reasons to boot. It's THE BIG SKY at Astoria's MoMI, because; 1.) it's a Hawks flick, 2.) I've never seen it, and 3.) this is the final screening in the museum's massive and exhaustive trib to one of the studio era's great individualist spirits and forward-thinking filmmakers. The egalitarian, meritocratic spirit shared by a small unit of elite professionals; the capable, resourceful and at least at par with the men Hawksian Woman; the eschewing of silent era melodramatic histrionics in favor of a cooler, more stoic style of dramatic interaction. These are just a few of the elements Hawks brought to his unique vision of popular filmmaking and helped pioneer in the sound era, and among those he influenced count Don Siegel, Sergio Leone, John Milius, Peter Bogdanovich, and, perhaps most famously, John Carpenter. He created prototypical guy flick cinema without denigrating women in the process, celebrated the individual while championing his choice to sacrifice himself for the greater good, and, as it is routinely but justly noted, made a masterpiece in just about every genre, even inventing a couple in the process. Some occasionally ask why I place Hawks in such high esteem, to which I can only ask in reply; do you know anything about the man and his work?
To anyone who missed this series but harbors any curiosity still I can only recommend you watch as many Hawks films as you can, and for further study pick up the only comprehensive biography posterity currently grants him, Todd McCarthy's excellent THE GREY FOX OF HOLLYWOOD. To those intrepid souls attending this final day of his tribute, I'll see you there. I think we're good enough.
For further details concerning 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 another dose of antiquated celluloid bliss, til then look both ways 'fore you cross the street and advise the other kids to do likewise. Yer tha goods, Suckahz!
-Joe Walsh
