August 19th 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.
To be honest with you cats, I needed this last weekend just to decompress after the back-to-back bad news regarding Robin Williams and Lauren Bacall, plus the processing of Philip Seymour Hoffman's last lead perf in the excellent A MOST WANTED MAN. Yeah there are far worse and more tragic circumstances happening in the world, but we expect these grim cracks in the facade of what we otherwise believe to be a more-often-than-not adequately functioning planet. It's the irony of the whole megillah that the seemingly superfluous stuff, the suicide of a mutli-millionaire, the passing of a fully-lifed woman in her early 90's, and the perhaps accidental death of an otherwise well-priveleged fixture, may tear such a devastating wound in our hulls. The reason is simple enough; our icons are supposed to alleviate suffering, not cause it. Ultimately, obviously, their true sorrow belonged to themselves first, to their immediate loved ones second. But we the devoted are a close and very exposed third. I thank them for their contributions to my happiness. And bid farewell.
Continuing series today include Red Hollywood and the Blacklist at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, The Great War: A Cinematic Legacy at MoMA, and Classics in HD at Symphony Space. The cinematic dilly dally looks thus;
Film Forum
GUN CRAZY (1949) Dir; Joseph H. Lewis
THE KILLING (1956) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Red Hollywood and the Blacklist
HELL DRIVERS (0) Dir; Cy Endfield
ZULU (1964) Dir; Cy Endfield
MoMA
The Great War: A Cinematic Legacy
FOUR SONS (1928) Dir; John Ford
COMRADESHIP (1931) Dir; G. W. Pabst
Symphony Space
MODERN TIMES (1936) Dir; Charlie Chaplin
Tony Dapolito Recreation Center
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) Dir; Steven Spielberg
Today's Pick? Even though Kubrick's KILLING and Lewis' CRAZY just passed through our fair metropolis, I think we can never quite get enough of noir deconstruction. Especially examples of this caliber. I shone the Kleigs on the Film Society's fantabulous Blacklist series, which passes its torch to Anthology Film Archives this weekend, for that venue's focus on the scribes who were assigned pariah status under McCarthyism's bullying false morality. And MoMA's Great War series was also my Pick recently, however worthy it may be of that highly desirable 24-hour stauts once more. Really, there are no gimme's today, every screening and series worthy, nay demanding of your attendance. So to split this Gordian Knot I'm going with what promises to be the most pleasant experience, one with the best potential to be a favored memory of summer '14, if for no other reason that it screens in slightly rarefeied circumstances. About 4 stories up, to be exact.
Steven Spielberg's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK gets the @NYParks a.v. club treatment tonight at the Tony Dapolito Rec Center rooftop, corner of Varick and Clarkson streets. Is it 35mm? 16mm? DCP? Mercy knows, most probably not, at best a decent DVD projection on a hopefully none too wind-blown screen. But it's gonna be 72 degrees tonight, with a mild breeze, and you can mark your territory by sprawling out in a folding chair, with whatever food and grub you deign to carry, and delighting to Indy's antics under the wondrous Manhattan sky. The first 50 people who arrive are guaranteed entry, and the doors open at 6:45pm. Do not ask why the floor moves. You're on a rooftop in NYC, act like you've been here before.
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 safe, sound, make sure the next knucklehead is too.
-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.
