May 25th 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.
It's Memorial Day weekend once more, and it would appear weather amicable to activities routine to this holiday is finally, perhaps formally, taking hold in our fair metropolis. Park and backyard BBQ's, picnics, mass consuming of beer, liquor and sizzurp, beach and boardwalk hijinks, all these endeavors are worthy tickings-off of our collective clocks today, having no greater order of biz mañana than to wake whenever, scratch whatever body area needs such attendance, and spend the remainder of the day watching the HBO GO we're piggybacking on our pal's account. America, fuck yeah.
At the risk of injecting what might seem maudlin sentiment to these happy-happy-joy-joy proceedings, however, I suggest we give at least a moment's pause to the men and women who have served and are serving in the U. S. military, an observance this holiday has come to epitomize, so we can freely Citibike, stream Netflix and blog whatever blathery we deem crucial to the social health of the cyberverse. We have selfless protectors, folks, let's take one minute of one day at the very least to acknowledge them.
Continuing series today include Film Forum Jr. at Film Forum (who'da thunk?), Original Gangsters at IFC Center, the excellent, comprehensive Kenji Mizoguchi retrospective at Museum of the Moving Image, An Auteurist History of Cinema Reprise, Part Two at MoMA, Fassbinder: Romantic Anarchist (Part One) at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, and the absolutely essential Jerry Lewis: The Completed Retrospective at Anthology Film Archives. Try me on that last one. The shenanigastic cinematics apear thusly;
Film Forum
MR. MAGOO AND FRIENDS (1948-59) Dir; John Hubley
ACCIDENT (1967) Dir; Joseph Losey
IFC Center
SCARFACE (1933) Dir; Howard Hawks
GODZILLA (1954) Dir; Ishiro Honda
PURPLE RAIN (1984) Dir; Albert Magnoli
STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME (1986) Dir; Leonard Nimoy
Nitehawk Cinema
THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH (1970) Dir; Chuck Jones
Museum of the Moving Image
THE 47 RONIN (Parts 1 & 2) Dir; Kenji Mizoguchi
ALTERED STATES (1981) Dir; Ken Russell
MoMA
YOJIMBO (1961) dir; Akira Kurosawa
A TASTE OF HONEY (1960) Dir; Tony Richardson
Film Society of Lincoln Center
THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (1972) Dir; Rainer Werner Fassbinder
WORLD ON A WIRE (1973) Dir; Rainer Werner Fassbinder
ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL (1974) Dir; Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Anthology Film Archives
HARDLY WORKING (1980) Dir; Jerry Lewis
ORPHEUS (1950) Dir; Jean Cocteau
WHICH WAY TO THE FRONT? (1970) Dir; Jerry Lewis
ONE MORE TIME (1970) Dir; Jerry Lewis
Today's Pick? I'm going with an honest-to-goodness homegrown original, a singular American talent that could have found nurture in no other nation. Part Chaplin, part Lou Costello, part gremlin from the Bugs Bunny cartoon. It's often been remarked that his stage and screen persona is that of the unbridled adolescent, perhaps even the infant. I think this is a slight simplification; his bread-and-butter anime is that of the unfettered id, of any age. What Freud would've made of his oeuvre! Once again I find myself recommending a three-fer that doesn't accomodate the wallet, as the venue never offers discounts for multiple screenings in a series. And once more I find a subject worthy of that expenditure. He still walks among us, a creature from another era, perhaps humbled, perhaps slowed. Still, he remains the first, last and only of his kind; unique, innovative, inspirational, a mighty beast who can still perform a spit-take whose reach is seismic. I lament the fact that it will only be fashionable to exalt him once more after he's passed. Thankfully he's never gonna die.
Jerry Lewis' HARDLY WORKING, WHICH WAY TO THE FRONT?, and ONE MORE TIME screens tonight at Anthology Film Archives as part of their Completed Retrospective to the filmmaker. Clothing optional.
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 and other audio tomfoolery check out the 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 foin laben. De hoiven vaigen. HEY LAYDEEEE!!!
-Joe Walsh
P. S. Even though we're coming into the summer months and therefore not often as mindful of the displaced, some of our fellow NY'ers are yet to be made whole since Hurricane Sandy hit nearly two years ago. Check in with the good folks at Occupy Sandy to see if you can't still volunteer/donate to our neighbors in need. Be a mensch.
