June 21st 2016. 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.
Yo Stockz! Once more, sorry I been in the wind so much tis month, so much real life interferes with reel life sometimes that it becomes impossible sometimes to pay full attention to both. Hope you accept the Mea Culpa, and I'll do my best to walk out the month with you in better style. For now, to the sked!
No series this day, and all activity appears to be centered in one venue, so here 'tis;
Film Forum
HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1943) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
THE PASSIONATE THIEF (1960) Dir; Mario Monicelli
I KNEW HER WELL (1965) Dir; Antonio Pietrangeli
Today's Pick? The twin slices from the Italian New Wave draw like the smell of fresh bread, cheese and sauce at a great restaraunt, but I feel like I gotta steer ya today toward a newly-restored gem, one I was lucky enough to view in its new 4K spitshine at last year's NYFF. It boasts some of the best work from the otherwise little-remembered Don Ameche (unless you'e talking TRADING PLACES & COCOON), some wonderful evidence that Gene Tierney was more than mere beauty and charm, and its maker's trademark examining, championing perhaps, of the scoundrel, the morally questionable, that most intriguing of roles from time immemorial: the unrepentantly sinful. You get three more days and 15 more chances by my count to catch this whimsical work, and you will no doubt fall in love not merely with the rich Technicolor, but the flawed charcaters who form the story's center. Live vicariously through Don, I tell ya. You'll thank me!
Ernst Lubitsch's HEAVEN CAN WAIT, what is arguably the influential & beloved autuer's last quality work, unspools its digital 1's and 0's today at Film Forum. Wrongdoing never looked so divine.
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in June '16 click on the interactive calendar on the upper right hand side of the page. 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 soon with new Picks 'n Perks, til then safe, sound, make sure the next knucklehead is too!
P. S. Summer seems to have finally graced our fair metropolis, but milder weather aside some of our fellow NY'ers have still yet to be made whole in the wake of the 2012 storm. Should you be feeling charitable please visit the folks at OccupySandy.net, follow their hammer-in-hand efforts to restore people's lives, and donate/volunteer if you have the inclination and availability. Be a collective mensch, Stockahz!
