November 27th 2012. Pick Of The Day.

No one digs watching Luis Bunuel's unique unravelling of the plans of proper society more than myself, and it just so happens THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGIOSIE screens this week at the Walter Reade Theater. Just misses as my Pick today.

Sergio Leone is one of the few filmmakers, along with Max Ophuls, whose last work was a masterpiece, indeed one of the crowning achievements of their career. ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA is the culmination of his grand body of work, of all his themes and style, and screens these next three days in its new 8k restoration at the Film Forum. Not my Pick.

Anthology Film Archives' excellent From The Warner Archives series curated by Wiliam Lustig winds down these next few days, today offering encore screenings of THE SPLIT, wherein Jim Brown, Diahann Carroll, Ernest Borgnine, Julie Harris, Gene Hackman, Jack Klugman, Warren Oates, and Donald Sutherland plot a heist during a football game (what could go wrong?), and THE SLAM, wherein Jim Brown plots to bust outta tha hole to collect his hidden swag. There was nothing secretly dirty about the latter synopsis. Awesome double feature but falls just short.

Today is for the black plague, the Crusades, death and a relaxing game of chess. Nothing says December like the Spruce Goose himself, Max Von Sydow.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music devotes the next nearly three weeks to this living definition of the word sturdy, a word that could attest not merely to his continued longevity but the quality of his contributions. Who else has played both Father Merrin and Ernst Stavro Blofeld, both Jesus Christ and Ming the Merciless, and what other male actor served as Ingmar Bergman's muse through so many feats cinematic. You think that last part was easy? Seen Max Von Sydow lately?

The first teaming between the Scorsese/DeNiro of their day came in 1957 with the mamoth international hit THE SEVENTH SEAL. It was the Eisenhower 50's, the age of world cinema, when new voices sprang free from their country's borders, voices like Satyajit Ray, Akira Kurosawa, and Federico Fellini, and shared marquee space with each other around the globe and, most importantly, in American movie houses. As I've been told, if you wanted to seem brainy to your movie date back then you bought 2 tickets to an Antonioni or a Renoir. This is the flick that put Bergman and his star on the world stage properly. And for good.

What's it about? How the hell should I know? I've been watching this movie for years and I still couldn't tell you definitively what it's about. The true joy in drinkin' in this blackly comic goblet of pestilence is what MAY be about, and chewing over all the possibilities. So GO SEE IT FOR YOURSELF, knuckleheads, and stop looking to me for all the answers! I only have a few and you need to send your final payment of $19.95 and a SASE for them to be revealed to you. I digress.

THE SEVENTH SEAL screens today at BAM at 4:30pm, 6:50pm and 9:15pm. It's historic to the cinematic timeline, Sven Nykvist's DP work is awe-inspiring, it's enjoyable as Hell, and quite simply it doesn't get better than this. Hope you trudge through the snow to catch this because actually that's the optimum viewing experience. Stay safe and warm and make sure the next guy does too, Stockers! Excelsior!

-Joe Walsh