January 15th 2014. 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 lone series screenings this quiet January day both occupy space at MoMA; the limited run The Aestheics of Shadow, Part One: Japan, and the ongoing Auteurist History of Film. The slender thread be thus;
Film Forum
IL SORPASSO (1962) Dir; Dino Risi
MoMA
PERSONA (1966) Dir; Ingmar Bergman
JAPANESE GIRLS AT THE HARBOR (1933) Dir; Hiroshi Shimizu
FIVE SCOUTS (1938) Dir; Tomotaka Tasaka
Today's Pick? Like I'm gonna choose Bergman in January. Pfft. I'm going with Dino Risi's IL SORPASSO, winding down its run at Film Forum, and featuring the eternally effervescent Vittorio Gassman and the eh not so much so Jean-Louis Trintignant. Which is by no means to imply that we love the latter any lesser. Au contraire!; the stoic stoneface is much beloved, a treasure of the French cinema, and provides perfect foil to Gassman on this neo-realist/onda nuova road movie, concerning the existential ennui of two strangers, one desperate to make a phone call and the other anxious to return to his law studies, who embark on an impromptu spin from Rome to Tuscany, encountering much needed yuks in the process while also facing certain uncomfortable truths. Hey, it's a ROAD movie, you expect what exactly?
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in January '14 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. And be sure to follow me on Facebook, for further info concerning NYC's rep circuit and the occasional noteworthy birthday, and Twitter for my daily film sked feed and further jackassery. You get truth in advertising from moi. Back tomorrow with a new Pick, til then check with a reliable weather app before leaving your house today and poke/tweet/actually use your phone as a phone to make sure the other kiddos do likewise. Excelsior!
-Joe Walsh
