January 28th 2014. Pick of the Day.
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You want classic film screenings? We got classic film screenings! We got exactly THREE classic film screenings happening in our movie mad metropolis today! A plethora! A veritable cornucopia!
Alright, before ya crack wise, hear me out; what with the post-Holiday hangover, the Polar Vortex's imitation of the party guest that won't take the hint and leave, the lead up to another friggin' useless Super Bowl, and the Golden Globes awards and Oscar nominations being announced, let's all agree to give the repertory film programmers at the various screenig venues that we're lucky to be surrounded by a break for the month of January, and just dig the goodies we do have to choose from. The continuing programs amongst the pack tonight are the French Institute's CineSalon, celebrating decades of classic French cinema in newly restored iterations, and the monthly VICE Presents: The Film Foundation Screening Series at the beloved Nitehawk Cinema in follically festooned Billyburg, The breakdown looks like this;
French Institute/Alliance Francais
CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (1962) Dir; Agnes Varda
Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Music Center
BERLIN: SYMPHONY OF A GREAT CITY (1927) Dir; Walter Ruttmann
OUT WEST (1918) Dir; Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Nitehawk Cinema
WANDA (1970) Dir; Barbara Loden
Today's Pick? Lord knows I love me some kultchyah, and the French Institute is loaded with said. It is also, in my experience, one of the better kept secrets among the cinephile set in NYC. Their new CineSalon series is an attempt to make it a worse-kept secret, inviting the classic film lover to their excellent screening space to revisit some masterworks of French cinema in newly and beautifully restored versions, and all but demanding your attendance/interaction for post-screening vin and film discussion. However, much as I love this venue and their rep programming, I've been around long enough to know you don't take sides against Marty.
Marty.
Scorsese.
Oh, we're old friends...
Mr. S has long been passionate about film preservation, creating the Film Foundation in the early 90's and aiding greatly in the attempt to save as much cinema, especially those works created in the era of highly ephemeral nitrate stock (like how I snuck that in there?), as time, money and passion allow. When the collective revolt of European-influenced film school brats fully transformed old Hollywood to New Hollywood, the director became, should he have the stuff (and even then only for a brief time), the American verison of the Cahiers-crowd auteur; sole author of his work, regardless of contributions made by cast and crew. Key word there being his. As revolutionary as it may have seemed at the time, and as many barriers broken by the vim and vigor of youth, some very large groups were denied access to the new auteur club, sadly enough the usual left-behinds to this day; those whose skin color placed them in an ethnic minority (Charles Burnett made some headway, but Michael Schultz is long overdue a reappraisal), and women of any complexion. The remarkable Elaine May is the only fully fledged female auteur of the decade, and she was rewarded with the pitifully familiar designation "difficult". Joan Micklin Silver (HESTER STREET) quickly paid for the crime of having an intelligent and unique voice by being ingored by financiers and rarely getting to present her humble yet complex visions. Yet Brian De Palma still walks the earth. And people wonder why I deny the existence of a benevolent higher being...
Tonight VICE magazine, the Nitehawk and the Film Foundation present an even more obscure film than those of May and Silver, one filmed in 16mm in a largely improvisational style by a gifted artist who is still, regrettably, known more for her status as filmmaker Elia Kazan's wife than on her own creative terms. Those who have seen her lone work from behind the camera attest to the film's vitality, its inventiveness, its raw neorealist potency. Barbara Loden came from hardscrabble roots in the rural environs of North Carolina, and for her debut feature she chose to return there, albeit as thinly disguised Pennsylvania coal-mining territory. She made her way to NYC at the age of 16, took work as a dancer and pin-up model to pay the bills, and took advantage of a chance encounter with Kazan to spark an affair that became a relationship. The filmmaker cast her as Warren Beatty's sister in 1962's SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS to much acclaim, and subsequently in the stage production of Arthur Miller's AFTER THE FALL, for which she earned the Tony for Best Actress. Still, whatever desire drove her from the woods of North Carolina to the big city drove her to create something wholly hers, the artistic representation of her own voice, and she turned down many a role while seeking the vehicle for that expression. She finally got that opportunity, and made the best of it. While still decidely under-viewed by a wider circle of film fanatics, the film's rep has only grown year after year, testimonials from some of the great actors/writers/directors of our generation boosting its regard, and tonight the Nitehawk seeks to right a cinematic wrong by presenting the restored version of the only film Loden, who died in 1980, devised for our appreciation. Usually the tater tots n' root beer are enough to entice my passage from my more civilized side of the East River to the Nitehawk's warm embrace, but tonight I'm really just going to celebrate a solitary personal statement from a potential great.
Barbara Loden's WANDA screens tonight, 9:30pm at the Nitehawk Cinema, as part of the VICE & Film Foundation Screening Series. Something tells me I'm gonna start callin' Kazan MISTER Loden.
For more info on these and all NYC's remaining 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 both Facebook, where I provide further info and esoterica on the rep film circuit and star birthdays, and Twitter, where I provide a daily feed for the day's screenings and other blathery. Back with a brand new Pick tomorrow, til then Kazan's overrated. There, I said it. Put 'em up.
-Joe Walsh
(My thanks to Kate Taylor and her informative article fom the 8/27/10 edition of the NY Times for providing me with a great deal of this post's 5 W's)
