April 13th 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, American Hustlers at IFC Center, and The Aesthetics of Shadow Part 2: Europe and America at MoMA. Ah, a lazy April Sunday, what promise it offers. Or offers it may promise. Ah, semantics. Here's the rundown;
Film Forum
THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN (1984) Dir; Jim Henson
DAY FOR NIGHT (1973) Dir; Francois Truffaut
L'ENFANCE NUE (1968) Dir; Maurice Pialat
IFC Center
PAPER MOON (1973) Dir; Peter Bogdanovich
Nitehawk Cinema
FIELD OF DREAMS (1989) Dir; Phil Alden Robinson
BAM Cinematek
THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT (1967) Dir; Jacques Demy
Mid-Manhattan Library
THE 39 STEPS (1935) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
MoMA
THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940) Dir; John Ford
REBECCA (1940) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
Anthology Film Archives
THE TROUBLEMAKER (1964) Dir; Theodore J. Flicker
Today's Pick? One of the finest examples of meta filmmaking, a movie about itself, about the process of constructing a film, one which travels equally elevated strata with Vincente Minnelli's THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL and Federico Fellini's 8 1/2, and shares traits conventional and outré with both. Francois Truffaut basically portrays himself in his 1973 masterpiece DAY FOR NIGHT, unspooling as part of Film Forum's comprehensive but slowly winding down Tout Truffaut program. All the joy Monsieur F. gleaned from the cinema, which he then returned tenfold in his tenure as journalist at Cahiers du Cinema and master filmmaker in his own right, found as its perfect outlet this heartfelt valentine to the flickers, to the magic found not merely in the viewing of its completed form, but in its manufacture as well. Romance was all to Truffaut, specifically romance about the cinema, which saved him as a troubled, frustrated youth from a wasted future and instead helped elevate him to the ranks of the world's finest artists. There exists perhaps no greater example of celluloid gratitude.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in April '14 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. For the monthly overview listen in to the inaugural podcast! 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 golf? Really?
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.
