July 11th 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.
Lots going on on NYC's rep film circuit this weekend, essential works of noir, neorealism and cheapie exploitation. New and continuing series today include Original Gangsters at IFC Center, Lady in the Dark: Crime Films from Columbia Pictures, 1932-57 at MoMA, part one of BAM Cinématek's Luis Buñuel retrospective, the Elmore Leonard trib at Anthology Film Archives, the sleek Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum, and the edgy Freaky Fridays at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Let's take the deep, penetrating dive into the plasma pool;
IFC Center
THE PETRIFIED FOREST (1935) Dir; Archie Mayo
Film Forum
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (1964) Dir; Richard Lester
MoMA
THE MAGIC FLUTE (1975) Dir; Ingmar Bergman
I LOVE TROUBLE (1947) Dir; S. Sylvan Simon
BAM Cinématek
LOS OLVIDADOS (1950) Dir; Luis Buñuel
Anthology Film Archives
VALDEZ IS COMING (1971) Dir; Edwin Sherin
JOE KIDD (1972) Dir; John Sturges
Rubin Museum
NIGHT NURSE (1931) Dir; William A. Wellmann
Film Society of Lincoln Center
SQUIRM (1976) Dir; Jeff Lieberman
Nitehawk Cinema
DEATH RACE 2000 (1975) Dir; Paul Bartel
Today's Pick? Luis Buñuel had one of those film careers that almost shouldn't have happened, it contained so many fits and starts and reinventions. He schooled with Salvador Dali and Federico Garcia Lorca at the University of Madrid, and the three formed the vanguard of the Spanish Surrealist movement. After spending time as filmmaker Jean Epstein's assistant he collaborated with Dali on the first masterpiece of surrealist cinema, the groundbreaking and still insanely influential UN CHIEN ANDALOU. The two quickly fell out on their second film, L'AGE D'OR, but while Dali retreated into an art world that danced to his tune, Buñuel had greater difficulty finding himself.
After spending some time in Paris working in the dubbing department at Paramount Pictures, and then assisting Spain's Republican government in various aspects during his country's Civil War, he accepted an offer to come to Hollywood, his communist sympathies attractive to some of the the Left Wing members of the establishment. He mostly bounced around in a menial capacity, ever looking to step back behind the camera to create. After some months of futilty he accepted an offer of work at NYC's Museum of Modern Art, as part of a committee formed to explore and explain the propagandist use of cinema. He was denied his request for citizenship after Dali, in his autobiography, publicly excoriated him as a Communist and an atheist. None other than Cardinal Spellman decried MoMA for employing such a subversive. He left NY to finish out the few remaining months on his Warner Brothers contract in L.A. Then, he exiled himself to Mexico, to live out his self declared life's ambition, "to do nothing for a year".
Which is where, ironically, he blossomed finally. Mexico's film industry was booming at the time, and financiers came knocking on Buñuel's door. After one flat out fiasco, a completely unironic musical titled GRAN CASINO, he mostly picked up day work on various projects, still plotting his return to the forefront of surrealist filmmaking, when it struck him that perhaps it was neorealism where his best efforts lie.
Buñuel scouted the slums of his Mexico City home and found his new inspiration, fully in line with his long held communist sympathies. The horrid poverty, the squalor that the denizens of these backalleys had to endure and scheme to survive within, was more surreal than he could imagine; it was real life. He quickly set about cobbling together his scenario, and the whole project fell together rather quickly soon after. While horribly received by its native audience, the finished film was entered into the 1951 Cannes Film Fest, and Buñuel was awarded the Best Director's prize. He would go on to make twenty more films in Mexico, before retuning to Europe for a further reinvention in the 60's. It all began with this tale of street urchins, none pleasant, none gifted of a future. It's still harsh stuff, to be sure, but it's the stuff of life, and remains so.
Luis Buñuel's LOS OLVIDADOS screens today at BAM Cinématek as kickoff to part one of their exhaustive tribute to the filmmaker. Ya might think it's his best film, ya might not, whatever, I'm not spliting eyeballs over it ba dum I'm here all week try the veal.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in July '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 net knucklehead is too. Excelsior!
-Joe Walsh
P. S. Even though we've fully entered 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.
