June 20th 2014. Pick of the Day.

Say what you will about the state of the world at the moment, any day that serves up two Ealing comedies, a pair of crime films from Elio Petri and Fernando di Leo, and caps itself off with a couple of midnight screenings from Kubrick and Carpenter, well let me jut say I still have hope for humanity on such a day. Optimist me.

Today's continuing series include Original Gangsters at IFC Center, Alec Guinness 100 at Film Forum, An Auteurist History of Film and Carte Blanche: MK2 at MoMA, The Italian Connection: Poliziotteschi and Other Italo-Crime Films from the 60's and 70's at Anthology Film Archives, The Works - Kurt Russell at the Nitehawk Cinema. The lunacy looketh thus;

IFC Center

CITY STREETS (1931) Dir; Rouben Mamoulian

Film Forum

THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951) Dir; Charles Crichton

THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (1951) Dir; Alexander Mackendrick

MoMA

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971) Dir; Peter Bogdanovich

EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF (1982) Dir; Jean-Luc Godard

Anthology Film Archives

WE STILL KILL THE OLD WAY (1967) Dir; Elio Petri

CALIBER 9 (1972) Dir; Fernando Di Leo

Nitehawk Cinema

LIQUID SKY (1982) Dir; Slava Tsukerman

BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986) Dir; John Carpenter

Landmark Sunshine Cinema

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) Dir; Stanley Kubrick

Today's Pick? It's been some time since I've had the pleasure to shine a little light on one of my fave arthouses in Manhattan, East Houston Street's very own Landmark Sunshine Cinema, and tonight they're screening one the living definitions of a Midnight Movie at the witching hour, a film whose infamy still holds strong to this day, even as mainstream cinema has ostensibly grown more permissive, gratuitous and flat-out brutal. The reason it stands up so strongly as both a work of art and a work of exploitation is that it may have joined the two pursuits more perfectly than any other work of cinema before or since. The violence still impacts for those with even an ounce of empathy, but the technical bravura and ethical abandon with which it's presented, against a lovely classical soundtrack whose meaning is either altered or enhanced by the pairing, depending on your bent, commands no less of our awe lo these 40 years hence. It may also have been a criminal act in and of itself to cast so charming and energetic a character as young, spiky, malevolent Malcom McDowell as one of the worst and most soulless of screen cretins, yet I defy you to take your eyes off his drencrommed droogie for even a second of his screen time. It's one of the top ten perfs in film history. And yeah, I still feel a litle guilty about admitting that, but to that sentiment I offer the following; great bolshy yarblockos to you.

Stanley Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE screens at midnight at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema. Go get cured, all right?

For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in June '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 I'll meet you with knife or chain or britva or whoah, guess I been hittin' the milk plus a little too hard, huh?

-Joe Walsh

JoeW@NitrateStock.net

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.