May 10th 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.
The final collaboration between the once mighty production duo known as The Archers, a full day of the surviving works of a titan of World Cinema, and a film once all but banned from US screens that nearly derailed its maker's career for good. Much to be prized in the world of NYC's classic screenings, but there can be only one! (Cue dramatic music!)
Ongoing series today include the Kenji Mizoguchi trib at Museum of the Moving Image, The Silent Clowns' Mary Pickord retrospective at the Library for the Performing Arts, and Cool Worlds: The Animation of Ralph Bakshi at BAM Cinématek. The repertory hijinks be thus;
Nitehawk Cinema
THE BOY WHO TURNED YELLOW (1972) Dirs; Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
MOTHER'S DAY (1980) Dir; Charles Kaufman
Museum of the Moving Image
HOMETOWN (1930) Dir; Kenji Mizoguchi
HELLO DOLLY! (1969) Dir; Gene Kelly
WHITE THREADS OF THE WATERFALL (1933) Dir; Kenji Mizoguchi
MUSASHI MIYAMOTO (1944) Dir; Kenji Mizoguchi
THE STORY OF THE LAST CHRYSANTHEMUMS (1939) Dir; Kenji Mizoguchi
Mid-Manhattan Library
THE REDHEAD FROM WYOMING (1953) Dir; Lee Sholem
Library for the Performing Arts
LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY (1921) Dir; Alfred E. Green
BAM Cinématek
COONSKIN (1975) Dir; Ralph Bakshi
IFC Center
GODZILLA (1954) Dir; Ishiro Honda
ROBOCOP (1987) Dir; Paul Verhoeven
Today's Pick? Moving Image's Mizoguchi retrospective is clearly the event to beat today, and the admission price of 12 bucks not only gains you entry to all 4 films in their recently renovated, state-of-the-art screening space, but allows you to wander about the awesome museum itself, where you can gaze in awe at items from the medium's history as minute as the dentrifice Brando employed for his Corleonized jowls, to Doug Trumbull's Tyrell Pyramid from BLADE RUNNER. It's nearly impossible to best this event today. HOWEVER: I've long made futile, in all honesty half-hearted attempts to attend the ace silent film unspoolings offered by the Silent Clowns, the trio of Ben Model, Bruce Lawton and Steve Massa, mostly because Lincoln Center on a Saturday afternoon. You'll understand if you've ever been.
Today though, the combination of my truancy and the kickoff of their summer series dedicated to silent era superstar Mary Pickford, an actress I'm woefully underexposed to (keep it clean!) demands my focus, my appearance finally in the flesh, for a screening of Alfred E. Green's LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY at the Library for the Performing Arts. I will fight baby strollers the size of SUV's, gawkers both native and foreign, and whatever weather biblical the skies have in store for us all, to be able to finally say I saw these top notch archivists and presenters ply their trade, and a film by Pickford on the big screen instead of YouTube for a change. If no one hears back from me by 5pm, it'll mean the Upper West Side finally won our war of attrition. Give my DVD collection a Viking funeral.
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, and follow me on SoundCloud! 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.
