August 21st 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.
The month's hardly over but a slight lull has visited the repertory film circuit. A final August afterburn kicks in tomorrow, but for tonight let's prize what treasure there is to be had; criminal lovers on the run, heists gone wrong, winged nature run amok, and dogs and cats living together. In other words, mass hysteria.
Ongoing series today include An Auteurist History of Film at MoMA, and Red Hollywood and the Blacklist at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. The tomfoolery be thus;
Film Forum
GUN CRAZY (1949) Dir; Joseph H. Lewis
THE KILLING (1956) Dir; Stanley Kubrick
MoMA
RAGING BULL (1980) Dir; Martin Scorsese
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Red Hollywood and the Blacklist
THE PROWLER (1951) Dir; Joseph Losey
THE BIG NIGHT (1951) Dir; Joseph Losey
Brooklyn Bridge Park
THE BIRDS (1963) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
Central Park, North of Sheep's Meadow
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) Dir; Ivan Reitman
Today's Pick? I'd normally take either outdoor screening based simply on its status as outdoor screening, with a preferential eye cast towards Big Al's modern fable, concerning nature's challenging of man's place in the food chain. Sadly it seems nature invokes revenge of another sort tonight, as rain threatens these unspoolings that four walls could not contain. So I'm going with the two-fer up at Lincoln Center, an observance of a particularly shameful period in our modern history, where ego and greed masqueraded as pious patriotism, and careers were ruined because the men who owned them would not bend to bureaucratic bullying. The series winds down on the Upper West Side tonight, to be passed down to the Lower East Side's Anthology Film Archives tomorrow, boasting an equally unmissable lineup. Before that shift in subway direction occurs, take advantage of the doings uptown. What could be more non-conformist, and therefore more damning of faux anti-communist witch-hunting, than heading to Lincoln Center without a stroller or a map, I ask? Heh? Heh? Gotchyatheh, don't I?
Joseph Losey's 1951 output, THE PROWLER and THE BIG NIGHT screen tonight at the Walter Reade Theater as the final rep entries in the Film Society's Red Hollywood and the Blacklist series. Whaddaya mean who programmed the series? I dunno who programmed the series! Do I have a personal relationship with the programmer? What kind of question is that? NO, I don't have any knowledge of the programmer or his family's daily activities! WHO THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE?!?!?
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.
