June 27th 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.
Is this really the last freakin' day of June '14? Did this month really just brazenly speed past us doin' 95 while February pulled a Zamboni cruise? Am I to eternally curse the gods over this injustice at only increasingly alarming rates? Have you gotten sick of me leading off this blog by complaining about the weather? COMMENT, ya bastidz, COMMENT!
Today's continuing series include Original Gangsters at IFC Center, Alec Guinness 100 at Film Forum, An Auteurist History of Film at MoMA, The Italian Connection: Poliziotteschi and Other Italo-Crime Films of the 60's and 70's at Anthology Film Archives, See It Big! Science Fiction (Part Two) at Museum of the Moving Image, Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum, and the New York Asian Film Fest at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
IFC Center
ANGLES WITH DIRTY FACES (1938) Dir; Michael Curtiz
Film Forum
THE LADYKILLERS (1955) Dir; Alexander Mackendrick
MoMA
AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (1973) Dir; Werner Herzog
New York Historical Society
PAISAN (1946) Dir; Roberto Rossellini
Anthology Film Archives
GRAND SLAM (1967) Dir; Giuliano Montaldo
WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? (1974) Dir; Massimo Dallamano
Museum of the Moving Image
ROBOCOP (1987) Dir; Paul Verhoeven
Rubin Museum
THE CRANES ARE FLYING (1957) Dir; Mikhail Kalatozov
Film Society of Lincoln Center
SEEDING OF A GHOST (1983) Dir; Chuan Yang
Nitehawk Cinema
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973) Dir; Alejandro Jodorowsky
THE THING (1982) Dir; John Carpenter
IFC Center
THE TERMINATOR (1984) Dir; James Cameron
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974) Dir; Tobe Hooper
ERASERHEAD (1977) Dir; David Lynch
Landmark Sunshine Cinema
VACATION (1983) Dir; Harold Ramis
Today's Pick? Where to begin, where to begin? Let's narrow down the list; both the Alec Guinness and Poliziotteschi series are recent picks, and I just chose Herzog's chaotic trundle down the Amazon days ago, so I'll shine the light elsewhere today. The Curtiz flick unspooling it's 1's and 0's as part of IFC's Gangsters series tempts, but as always the prospect of waking for an 11am screening, particularly when the weather is thusly Elysian, is met by me with a vigorous zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Moving Image's SciFi series boasts their usual exemplary programming, however Verhoeven's ROBOCOP, viewing rendered even more essential in the wake of its recent anemic remake, screens on a routine basis in our fair metro, so I pass it up but thank them for their co-operation. What we're left with is late & midnight fare, which consists of welcomely bizarre envelope-pushers like Carpenter's Hawks remake and Tobe Hooper's still-effective filmed nightmare, to the truly indescribable world of David Lynch's ERASERHEAD, which is very nearly my Pick today. Except that the NY Asian Film Fest has booked its first rep screening this eve just before the witching hour, and it sounds like a type of batshit all its own, a meshing of soft-core porn and surreal horror that involves black magic, necrophila, and the hellish issue of human/demon procreation. Let's get real; anyone who knows me knows I wouldn't pass this up for all the sizzurp in Bieber's dufflebags. Yep, that's the commensurate yardstick.
Chuan Yang's SEEDING OF A GHOST screens tonight at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater as part of the 2014 New York Asian Film Festival. I love making new friends.
For more info on these and all NYC's remaining 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 safe, sound, make sure the next knucklehead is too. Excelsior!
-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.
