May 2nd 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.
A new broom sweeps clean, unless you apply that aphorism to my immediate surroundings. I'm referring rather to May 2014's power to potentially, hopefully, remove the bitter taste and chill of this most egregious of winters, one which seems to have been finally, mercifully put down. Mercifully regarding our well-being, not the foaming-mawed mad season that wreaked hell upon our rivers, streets, cars, skin, id, ego and superego lo these last 2400 months. Finally weather conducive to the patronage of our fine rep circuit screens arrives, Buddah willing, and in accordance the programmers at these precious venues have booked a wide and enticing variety of films to beckon the Cinegeek like a siren's call.
Today's new and continuing series include the Kenji Mizoguchi retrospective at Museum of the Moving Image, An Auteurist History of Film at MoMA, the Ellen Burstyn trib at BAM Cinématek, Justice in Film at the New York Historical Society, and the schmancy Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum. Here now is the rep film circuit's collective Ode to Spring;
Film Forum
OTHELLO (1952) Dir; Orson Welles
MoMA
THE FIREMEN'S BALL (1967) Dir; Milos Forman
BAM Cinematek
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971) Dir; Peter Bogdanovich
Anthology Film Archives
THE IN-LAWS (1979) Arthur Hiller
BIG TROUBLE (1986) Dir; John Cassavetes
New York Historical Society
THE FALLEN IDOL (1948) Dir; Carol Reed
Museum of the Moving Image
UGETSU (1953) Dir; Kenji Mizoguchi
Rubin Museum
THE DAMNED (1969) Dir; Luchino Visconti
IFC Center
ROBOCOP (1987) Dir; Paul Verhoeven
Nitehawk Cinema
PIECES (1982) Dir; Juan Piquer Simon
Today's Pick? The inaugural entry in Moving Image's comprehensive retrospective to master Japanese filmmaker Kenji Mizoguchi, the first such series to screen on our shores in nearly twenty years; the combo anti-war screed/ghost story UGETSU, one of the director's finest two hours and the winner of the Silver Lion at the '53 Venice Film Fest.
Known for his devout humanism and almost fierce empathy for his female characters, this within a culture and period of utter male chauvinism, Mizoguchi was first credited as a modern voice in Japanese cinema, showcasing his country's rapid catch-up with the 20th century from its recent feudal past, then just as quickly discarded as old-hat in the postwar period, losing ground to more dynamic voices, bext exemplified by Akira Kurosawa. However the Cahiers du Cinema crowd came to the rescue once more, and Mizoguchi found his esteem restored, and at exactly the point when he'd craft what some consider his greatest films.
As I noted in the May '14 podcast Mizoguchi usually runs a close third in conversations concerning the great Japanese filmmakers of the classical period, behind Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu. Whether you consider that evaluation valid or criminal you must, if you're a card-carrying Cinegeek, stomp monkey-style at the prospect of catching as many of KM's surviving works as your MetroCard will allow! The bulk of these prints, 35mm and 16mm, are on loan from the Japan Foundation, and once they're gone they're gone til who knows when. What is that famous phrase? See Astoria in the spring and die? It's something like that. Maybe I got the location wrong. Is it Throgg's Neck?
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in May '14 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. For the monthly overview listen in to the new podcast! For reviews of contemporary cinema and my streaming habits (keep it clean!) check out my Letterboxd 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 safe, sound, make sure the next knucklehead is too! Excelsior!
-Joe Walsh
P. S. Should you be feeling charitable during this still 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.
