November 24th 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.
Should you feel so inclined to brave these Frank Herbert-inspired windstorms this February afternoon you could do worse than patronize exceptional series such as the Film Society's trib to scribe Harold Pinter, BAM's retrospective of Bruce Dern's choicest turns (Hot Dern!), and Anthology Film Archives' Middle Ages on Film: Shakespeare. The full bill of fare;
Film Forum
MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET (1947) Dir; George Seaton
IFC Center
THE STING (1973) Dir; George Roy Hill
Nitehawk Cinema
THE LITTLE FUGITIVE (1953) Dirs; Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin
Film Society of Lincoln Center
THE SERVANT (1963) Dir; Joseph Losey
THE PUMPKIN-EATER (1964) Dir; Jack Clayton
THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1981) Dir; Karel Reisz
Mid-Manhattan Library
ROOM SERVICE (1938) Dir; William A. Seiter
BAM Cinematek
THE DRIVER (1978) Dir; Walter Hill
Anthology Film Archives
MACBETH (1982) Dir; Bela Tarr
THRONE OF BLOOD (1957) Dir; Akira Kurosawa
MACBETH (1971) Dir; Roman Polanski
MACBETH (1948) Dir; Orson Welles
Today's Pick? Hill's neo-noir exercise in minimalist macho THE DRIVER would normally run away with it today, except an even more testosterone-fuelled morality play is on display today, also equal parts action flick and character study. Akira Kurosawa was one of the first and brightest postwar voices on the world cinema stage, propelled there by the success of his critique of the veracity of the cinema itself, RASHOMON. He had leaned westward in his influences prior to this breakout but now he found himself judged as peer to Ford, Huston, Renoir. He almost instantly thrust himself into his ambitions, adapting Dostoyevsky's THE IDIOT a mere 12 months in RASHOMON's wake. In 1954 he returned to the samurai genre to create perhaps is finest iteration, SEVEN SAMURAI, and there is no lack of visual evidence over the course of those three-plus hours pertaining to his Hollywood proclivities.
The overwhelming international popularity of this transplanted genre Western led directly to three highly regarded Shakespeare adaps, two of which were ported over to samurai-era setting. Kurosawa's Ancestry.com page, which did not exist in his lifetime, boasts samurai heritage, and in the wake of his country's militarization, declaration of war, and subsequent surrender and occupation, AK committed a good deal of his CV to exploring his country's past, honor, soul. In his adap of MACBETH he was able to provide special focus on greed, abuse of power, cronyism, the betrayal a ruler may visit on his people. In short I view it as his opportunity to pillory those who betrayed what he believed to be his nation's ideals, however archaic they may have seemed by the mid-thirties. Star Toshiro Mifune, who owed his career to Kurosawa's efforts, inquired at one point as to the potential real-life danger of being "assassinated" by actual arrows fired by genuine marksmen for the film's finale. "Don't worry", Kurosawa is said to have replied, "they won't miss." Read into that what you will.
Akira Kurosawa's THRONE OF BLOOD screens tonight at Anthology Film Archives as part of their series The Middle Ages on Film: Shakespeare. I'm sure "Out damn the spot" will take on new meaning at Casa De Mekas.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film 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 more of what ya love, til then don't take any plug nickels and warn yer contemporaries off the same! Bon chance!
-Joe Walsh
