June 3rd 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.
After a full-to-bursting weekend sked on the rep film circuit, we encounter another lull. Paucity, however, can instead be viewed as an opportunity for greater focus. Yes, there are but three screenings that fit the site's criteria today, but they are all deserving of our attendance.
Today's lone continuing series are also its concluding ones; An Auteurist History of Film Reprise, Part Two at MoMA, and Cool Worlds: The Animation of Ralph Bakshi at BAM Cinématek. The nutty koo-koo as follows;
Film Forum
SORCERER (1977) Dir; William Friedkin
MoMA
BLACK GIRL (1965) Dir; Ousmane Sembene
BAM Cinématek
THE LORD OF THE RINGS (1978) Dir; Ralph Bakshi
Today's Pick? I still have a couple of days to choose Friedkin's 70's updating of Clouzot's THE WAGES OF FEAR, and I don't now enough about the work of Senegalese filmmaker Sembene, which normally would be enough reason to select his debut feature as today's unmissable big screen viewing. However, I'm going to choose the flick that combines the critical reevaluation of the former with the obscure standing of the latter, Ralph Bakshi's ambitious but commercially unsuccessful fantasy epic, the first celluloid realization of Tolkien's magnum opus, 1978's THE LORD OF THE RINGS.
Bakshi began his directorial career with a bang, adapting Robert Crumb's underground comic FRITZ THE CAT to both boffo box office and critical acclaim, and found similar results with follow-up feature HEAVY TRAFFIC. It seemed for a hot minute that a new subgenre of film was taking root, one that merged live action and animation in the service of a new type of narrative, a melding of the so-called realistic with the obviously abstract, detailing the grim everyday real world by employing the medium of Woody, Daffy and Bugs. The momentum of this New Hollywood ink & paint movement was irreparably wounded, as was its progenitor's career, when his Baxploitation-themed third effort, 1975's COONSKIN, drew the ire of Al Sharpton's Congress of Racial Equality. Sharpton's protests proved lethal to the film, and Paramount sold the it in a panic to ex-porn distributors Bryanston Pictures, who went bankrupt weeks later.
Bakshi's next feature, HEY GOOD LOOKIN', was a return to seemingly safer HEAVY TRAFFIC territory, but upon its critical and commercial failure Bakshi attempted to rebound by venturing into the fantasy realm, concocting WIZARDS as a family-friendly work with edge. During that film's production Bakshi learned of a looming adap of Tolkien's trilogy, and offered his services as director. His name still held enough commercial clout with the suits at UA to garner the greenlight, and after 30 years of failed attempts, Frodo, Aragorn and Gollum were finally on their way to the big screen. Ironically, Bakshi's initial plan was also Peter Jackson's; to turn the trilogy into two films (Jackson's austerity was famously met with New Line's indulgence). Unlike Jackson, Bakshi's film was released without any indication that a second, concluding film was to be had, and most ticket-buyers left the theater indifferent. In a fit of self-fulfilling prophecy the studio shut down the sequel, and Bakshi's film drifted into obscurity, another missed opportunity from the once-promising animation auteur.
Well, in another case of irony Jackson's success merited a revisit to Bakshi's Middle-Earth. And current consensus is most positive indeed. Flaws and all Bakshi's film is now considered a minor classic of fantasy animation, and the mind reels at the thought of the 75-year old filmmaking legend mounting his concluding chapter. In any event it screens VERY rarely, so tonight get off your damn couch and head to Brooklyn. Consider it a quest ba dum I'm here all week try the veal!
Ralph Bakshi's THE LORD OF THE RINGS unspools twice today, 4:30pm and 8pm at BAM Cinématek, as the concluding entry in the series Cool Worlds: The Animation of Ralph Bakshi.
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 safe, sound, look out for the next knucklehead!
-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.
