August 8th 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.
I'm doin' my damndest to refrain from kicking these posts off with non-movie related kvetching, such as the Yankees record at this stage of the season, the fact that weather-wise it's been autumn since the end of May, and my firm & concrete denial that BREAKING BAD ended. Season 6 is starting any day now. Don't wake a sleepwalker.
Like I said. I'm doin' my damndest.
New and continuing series today include The Great War: A Cinematic Legacy, A Fuller Life, and An Auteurist History of Film at MoMA, If You Meet Klaus Kinski, Pray For Your Death at Anthology Film Archives, the Film Society's Freaky Fridays at the Howard Gilman Theater, and the 2nd 1/2 of the comprehensive Luis Buñuel trib at BAM. Let us go then, you and I;
Film Forum
BOY MEETS GIRL (1984) Dir; Leos Carax
MoMA
DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978) Dir; Terrence Malick
SHIFTING SANDS (1918) Dir; Albert Parker
MERRILL'S MARAUDERS (1962) Dir; Sam Fuller
THE MYSTERIOUS LADY (1928) Dir; Fred Niblo
BAM Cinématek
THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE (1977) Dir; Luis Buñuel
Anthology Film Archives
IVAN THE TERRIBLE PARTS 1 & 2 (1942-46) Dir; Sergei Eisenstein
JACK THE RIPPER (1976) Dir; Jess Franco
Film Society of Lincoln Center
THE NIGHT PORTER (1973) Dir; Liliana Cavani
Nitehawk Cinema
ENTER THE DRAGON (1973) Dir; Robert Clouse
Today's Pick? The sked today overflows with choice screenings. In terms of romantic cinema we have examples fractured (BOY MEETS GIRL), lyric (DAYS OF HEAVEN), and absurd (OBSCURE DESIRE). In the realm of lurid melodrama we have the damager (JACK THE RIPPER) and the damaged (THE NIGHT PORTER). And action cinema is repped by two fine pre-'xplosploitation paradigms in both the war (MERRILL'S MARAUDERS) and martial arts (ENTER THE DRAGON) genres. In the face of this bounteous yield, what choice do I possibly have?
Hm. Yield. Workers. Farms. Crops. Productivity. Mother Russia. By Yuri's tractor, I'VE GOT IT!
Sergei Eisenstein's IVAN THE TERRIBLE PARTS ONE & TWO screens tonight back to back at Anthology Film Archives. As AFA provides the most fully austere & autocratic Stalin-era experience, I can fully attest there exists no more immersive to-do to be had in any NYC theater this eve. Real3D IMAX can only blush with envy.
For more info on these and all NYC's classic film screenings in August '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, hey, Yuri, I bet these Uzbek's I could get more than 2 words out of you!
-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.
