December 15th 2012. Pick Of The Day.
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Sean Connery follows Hitchcock's lead into MARNIE's dark places. Screens this afternoon at the Nitehawk in Brooklyn.
Ben Gazzara is repped twice this day as part of Anthology Film Archives' trib to the gruesome grimace, both efforts directed by his drinkin'/swearin'/not-guitly-yer-honorin' partner in crime John Cassavetes. HUSBANDS is a glorious snapshot of the crossover from 60's exuberance to 70's flatulence, umbrella'ed by the newly termed Peter Pan syndrome. In other words JC, The Gazz and 3rd man Peter Falk get loaded, run out on their wives and wind up in the UK. Like ya do. Things grow darker with the late 70's character study THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE, whose title pretty much says it all. Gazz plays a nightlife impresario/fixer, who finds only one solution to his gambling debts. I know, it sounds like a lark, but trust me ...
Marcel Carne's love letter to the source of the creative spark, which ends in a way with a disconsolate sperm seeking its favored egg, screens in its new DCP format as part of Moving Image's See It Big series! Made during the Nazi occupation it featured subject matter that made their temporary overseers none too happy by far, yet the entire jubilant romance was commited to celluloid and delayed until the liberation for its premire! CHILDREN OF PARADISE screens today at Movng Image at 6:30pm. Saw it for the first time last night in Astoria's hallowed venue, I can't recommend it enough.
BAM invites Joe Dante's GREMLINS to infest its halls for a night of unconventional Holiday cheer. Keep the bottled water capped tight is what I'm sayin'.
And the IFC Center unspools Capra's Xmas masterpiece IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE for its annual weeklong yuletide run, and offers a second midnight featuring John Carpenter's THEY LIVE, his last genre hurrah, and Ridley Scott's ALIEN, his first. Yes, both men have since gone on to, respectively, THE WARD and PROMETHEUS, but let's remember them as we should, shall we not or shan't we? Shiznit.
Pick Of The Day status, however, is reserved for an truly undersung masterpiece indeed.
Jerry Lewis was emceeing the nightclub equivalent of funeral masses when he was first teamed up with a cocky crooner named Dean Martin. Then all Hell broke loose. They couldn't make money fast enough, their chemistry proving so strong that nightclub appearances, televised specials and the eventual gallop toward Hollywood stardom seemingly thrust wings upon their heels. Nothing was in their way but themselves. Then themselves got in the way. The act broke up, Dean struggled to get a serious role and/or a ht single, both of which would come in troves, while Jerry seemed to simply glide in his solo career. Though he would maintain deep regrets for the duo's split, even to this day, he thrived instantly and for a long time, being the sole member of the team fascinated by the process, the Hollywood machine, the work.
It's been a long running joke that Jerry Lewis is a revered film auteur in France, mostly because we choose to largely regard France as a joke. Not paying into NATO has a lot to do wth this I'm thinking. But Jerry Lewis DID study the techniques of Hall Wallis' production machine, and particularly of mentor Frank Tashlin, whose animation background helped define his 50's pop-culture skewering classics like THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT. Jerry utilized this formula and its personnel to crank out hit after hit, in time under his complete control, final cut included. Then he dared make his masterpiece, one which may or may not feature the "return" of Dean Martin, depending on who you ask...
THE NUTTY PROFESSOR harnessed the DNA of all the silent greats, of Chaplin and Keaton and Lloyd, and blew it up to 35mm Technicolor glory, replete with a bop soundtrack and the recipe for the Alaskan Polar Bear Heater. Conjecture abounds over the true identity of Buddy Love; some say it's Martin revealed, some suggest it's the worst of Lewis let loose, but what man amongst us would deny ourselves the monumentally cool entrance this iconic film charcater is awarded? Anybody? Hm? That's what I thunk.
THE NUTTY PROFESSOR screens today at 3pm as part of Moving Image's The Cinema and its Doubles series.
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Get behind us, Cinegeeks! Excelsior! Walsh out!
-Joe Walsh
