January 2014! Japanese Shadows, the No-Budget Auteur, and the Little Tramp Turns 100!

Welcome, classic film lovers in general and survivors of yesterday's Hercustorm in NYC in particular, to Nitrate Stock's first monthly overview of 2014! I hope the New Year has thus far been kind and full of positive portent. Lord knows I hope hope it's not old enough yet to offer the opposite!

As is usually the case the year begins slowly, as the previous 12 months ended with a bang on the rep film circuit, and this is the time traditionally when programmers hatch their diabolical schemes to fill out the current year's calendar. Though pickin's may be a sight slimmer this month the offerings are no less choice. I award January 2014's Big Dawg status to Film Forum for its comprehensive tribute to Charlie Chaplin, specifically focused on his iconic Little Tramp character in the year of his centennial. In the course of a week the Forum's THE TRAMP 100 offers up every surviving film featuring Sir Charles and the most famous splotch of greasepaint in film history. The trib began on New Year's Day with an all-day marathon of The Tramp's feature films, from 1921's THE KID to his daring anti-Hilter screed THE GREAT DICTATOR nearly two decades later. All of these recieve individual encore presentations over the course of the series, but the real treat on display is the unspooling of Chaplin's comedy shorts, from his first work at Mack Sennett's Keystone Pictures, to his first big payday at Essanay Studios, and then on to Mutual and First National before entering into Hollywood's most famous alliance of talent, with fellow titans Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith; the still-breathing United Artists. This is a rare opportunity to catch the evolution of what remains perhaps cinema's single most reconizable character on the big screen, beginning with Keystone's KID AUTO RACES AT VENICE (1914), the second film to feature the Little Tramp but the first released to the public. Ya can't go wrong buying a tik to anything screening as part of this series, and as is my wont I implore you once more to catch the master in the venue he intended his work be seen in.

Also on display at the Forum this month are weeklong screenings dedicated to Dino Risi's comic road trip IL SORPASSO, Nagisa Oshima's BOY, and John Ford's somber western masterpiece MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. The last day of the month kicks off a week of Orson Welles' bizarre & breathtaking noir suspenser THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, but as that belongs more to February's slate we'll catch up with it next month.

Further uptown MoMA sets its programming focus on early Asian cinema with their short series The Aesthetics of Shadow, Part One: Japan. The theme is the outside influence Weimar and Hollywood film of the 20's and 30's had on Japanese cinema of the same period, specifically in the areas of production design and lighting. German Expressionism, repped here by Joseph Von Sternberg's American-made THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK, and the Hollywood swashbuckler, exemplified by Doug Fairbanks' THE MARK OF ZORRO, both played a huge role in modernizing Japan's film industry, and influenced their melodrama and classic samurai swordfight films, or jidaigeki, respectively. Among the interesting works on the slate are Minoru Minata's SOULS ON THE ROAD (1921), Teinosuke Kinugasa's PAGE OF MADNESS (1926) and Hiroshi Shimizu's FIVE SCOUTS (1938). This series is also one of many tributes to the late great Japanese film scholar Donald Richie that have wended their way about the various rep screens in NYC since his untimely passing nearly a year ago, and its not even the only one this month!

Also at MoMA their ongoing Auteurist History of Film series offers up Martin Ritt's HUD (1963), Gavin Lambert's ANOTHER SKY (1960), Ingmar Bergman's PERSONA (1966), and Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS (1963).

Heading west to the Film Society of Lincoln Center their massive month-long trib to ace studio-era helmer George Cukor winds down with screenings of HER CARDBOARD LOVER (the legendar Norma Shearer's last feature film), Katherine Hepburn's tete-a-tete with fellow cinematic lion Laurence Olivier in LOVE AMONG THE RUINS, and Dame Maggie Smith's tour-de-force as Graham Greene's lively relation in TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT. Once Cukor takes his bow another director, perhaps lesser known but I'd argue more deserving of auteur status, gets a day in the sun. Edgar G. Ulmer began with great promise, serving as set designer to directors Max Rheinhardt and F. W. Murnau and graduating to director in Hollywood, where he experienced early success with his second feature, 1934's THE BLACK CAT. Unfortunately some cats just get hit with the bad luck stick, and despite his early promise he struggled over the course of his career with budgets that might just cover one of Orson Weles' dinner checks. He took work wherever he could get it and made the most of the meager tools he had to work with, but in doing he created one of the most eclectic yet cohesive careers ever to fly just below everyone's radar. He worked for both Yiddish film studios (GREEN FIELDS) and Hollywood's "race" studios (MOON OVER HARLEM). He made classy melodramas (RUTHLESS) and dollar-stretching sci-fi thrillers (BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER). He made one of the most famous film noirs in the decade that lovingly nurtured the genre for about a buck three fiddy (DETOUR), and it remains a classic not despite its limitations but becuause of them. Among the underappreciated gems on display at the Walter Reade's tribute to Ulmer are THE LIGHT AHEAD (1939), THE NAKED DAWN (1955) and MURDER IS MY BEAT (1955). He may not have the fame of a certain other Eddie G. from Hollywood, but he's well worth discovering.

Back downtown Anthology Film Archives makes nary a peep on the rep front this month, but what noise they do make begs attention; F. W. Murnau's SUNRISE, Jean Renoir's THE RULES OF THE GAME, Roberto Rossellini's THE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS, and Yasujiro Ozu's THERE WAS A FATHER and I WAS BORN, BUT... Casa de Mekas also advertises something called the TOTALLY 80'S MOVIE FREAKOUT!, a six-film marathon that costs ya all of 25 bucks to attend. I gotta admit I'm diggin' the friendlier overture the AFA is making to attract the rep film community in NYC, and this is a prime example of balancing the Maya Deren with the Mark L. Lester. Kudos, cats!

Across the pond in follically festooned Billyburg, the beloved Nitehawk Cinema offers up a variety of cinematic shenanigans to suit all tastes. Midnight Madness brings David Cronenberg's VIDEODROME, Joel and Ethan Coen's BLOOD SIMPLE, and Radley Metzger's THE OPENING OF MISTY BEETHOVEN. Benign Brunch Buffoonery includes the aforementioned Coen Brothers' RAISING ARIZONA and John Hughes' THE BREAKFAST CLUB. The Deuce, the monthly series dedicated to recreating Manhattan's 42nd street grindhouse era of the 60's-80's, brings the appropriately sleazy CAT PEOPLE. The Paul Schrader CAT PEOPLE, people. And the Film Foundation series, presented by Vice magazine, offers Barbara Loden's WANDA, the lone auteur effort from the wife of Elia Kazan. Combine these enticements with the Nitehawk's genuinely terrific food menu and what can I say? Even this Bronx boy needs to make the pilgrimage east at least once a month.

The Rubin Museum's ongoing Cabaret Cinema series kicks off another new screening series with the theme Mind Over Matter. This month's choices include Roberto Rossellini's THE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS (deja vu!), Irving Rapper's NOW, VOYAGER, Lewis Gilbert's EDUCATING RITA, Werner Herzog's FITZCARRALDO, and George Roy Hill's THE STING. The deal remains thus; the price of a cocktail serves as your tik to the screening, but get there early; seating's limited and these screenings are popular. I hear there's a whole museum attached to this joint as well...

Over at IFC Center the res ipso loquitor The Way He Was: Early Redford slowly winds down, as Sydney Pollack's THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, Jack Clayton's THE GREAT GATSBY, Michael Ritchie's THE CANDIDATE, and Alan J. Pakula's ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN close out the three-month trib to the New Hollywood's fave WASP. Midnight offerings include Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD, George A. Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, James Cameron's ALIENS (yeh, again) and Steven Spielberg's JAWS. Alfred Hitchcock's REBECCA, the first star turn from recently departed Hollywood royalty Joan Fontaine, screens as part of the venue's Queer/Art/Film series, and is always, but perhaps now more so, deseving of your big screen attendance.

At the tail end of the list, but by no means less worthy of your attention or attendance, are bookings of Mitsuo Yanagimachi's HIMATSURI at the Japan Society, as part of their ongoing Donald Richie trib (told ya!), David Lynch's classic children's fantasy ERASERHEAD at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, and the New York Historical Society's screenings of Robert Mulligan's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP.

That for the moment seems to be that, but the film skeds at the rep houses are an evolving, organic beast, and changes are made routinely during the month. So be sure to check back with the daily column and the interactive calendar on the upper right side of the page for the most up-to-date info on all NYC's classic screenings in 2014! Also be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter! Until tomorrow's new Pick, be safe and sound, stay warm and be sure to check in on the next knucklehead too! Stick together, Suckahz!

-Joe Walsh

joew@nitratestock.net