March 30th 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.
Today's continuing series include Tout Truffaut at Film Forum, See It Big! Comedies at Museum of the Moving Image, and Auteurs Gone Wild at Anthology Film Archives. Sound excuses to open an unsound umbrella look a little somethin' like this;
Film Forum
THE 400 BLOWS (1959) Dir; Francois Truffaut
JULES AND JIM (1961) Dir; Francois Truffaut
Nitehawk Cinema
STRIPES (1981) Dir; Ivan Reitman
LABYRINTH (1986) Dir; Terry Jones
Museum of the Moving Image
ANIMAL HOUSE (1978) Dir; John Landis
Mid-Manhattan Library
SUMMER STOCK (1950) Dir; Charles Walters
Anthology Film Archives
A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG (1967) Dir; Charles Chaplin
A WOMAN OF PARIS (1923) Dir; Charles Chaplin
BROKEN LULLABY (1932) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
Today's Pick? The wind down of Anthology's Auteurs Gone Wild tempts, as does the Truffaut series, but I've only just chosen SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER yesterday. So let's take one more opportunity to celebrate the life and work of the recently and criminally deceased comedy giant Harold Ramis. If showtimes accomodated I'd offer this as a cross-borough two-fer, starting out at Williamsburg's Nitehawk Cinema as they unspool his brilliant co-starring perf in STRIPES. But sadly that'd be cutting it too close with another, arguably more influential film, one that first and fully exploited Ramis' comedic sensibilities, a shoving of the vaudeville and borscht belt humor of the Marx Brothers, Sid Caesar and Ernie Kovacs through the meat grinder of late 60's and 70's counterculture provocation. As anarchic the sensibilites might be that he embraced and went to war with, there never ever seemed a meanspirited note reached for; indeed it was this constant brotherly smirk that endeared him to audiences whether he worked before or behind the cameras. Ramis was one of those talents we took for granted, or thought would live for what would seem forever. All the more of a drag to watch Bill Murray eulogize him at the Oscars. So I'm making my Pick today his first significant contribution to Hollywood comedy, one that would lead to his immortal CADDYSHACK and his onscreen pairing with Murray in STRIPES and GHOSTBUSTERS. A film that not only read the cinematic zeitgeist but informed it, changing the way audiences view the teen comedy subgenre for all time, and which coupled with the barbaric tendencies of fledgling director John Landis forever introduced audiences to Tom Hulce, Karen Allen, Kevin Bacon, an adult Tim Matheson, Peter Riegert, Bruce McGill, an up-and-coming blues guitarist named Robert Cray, and a 300lb ball of the original afterstuff of the Big Bang named John Belushi. It is impossibe to overstate the importance this film had on the comedic talent that would follow in its wake, and while Ramis is not in evidence onscreen his influence is felt throughout. Just as his smirk hovers over these and all future frat boy shenanigans. Damn he's missed.
John Landis' ANIMAL HOUSE unspools today at 2pm as part of Museum of the Moving Image's closing night of the See It Big! Comedies series. I can think of no better send off. Remember; we didn't give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in March '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 tomorrow with a brand new Pick, til then watch out for the fog! Keep looking! Keep watching! Be careful of the fog!
P. S. Should you be feeling charitable during this harsh weather period please remember to check in with the good folks over at Occupy Sandy. Some of our NY neighbors are still feeling the effects of the 2012 hurricane. Be a mensch.
