July 15th 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.
New and ongoing series this day include the European Tough Guy celebré entitled Les Durs at Film Forum, the kickoff to Seriously Funny: The Films of Leo McCarey and the continuance of the fabulous Modern Matinees: Summer with Judy Holliday, the politically charged Four MoreYears: An Election Special at BAM, Voyeurism, Surveillence and Identity in the Cinema at Anthology Film Archives, and Eternity and History: The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos at Museum of the Moving Image. The filmic foofaraw be thus;
BREATHLESS (1959) Dir; Jean-Luc Godard
LES DOULOS (1962) Dir; Jean-Pierre Melville
MoMA
Modern Matinees: Summer with Judy Holliday
THE MARRYING KIND (1952) Dir; George Cukor
Seriously Funny: The Films of Leo McCarey
BATTLE OF THE CENTURY (1927) Dir; Leo McCarey
BAM Cinématek
Four MoreYears: An Election Special
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962) Dir; John Frankenheimer
Anthology Film Archives
Voyeurism, Surveillence and Identity in the Cinema
REAR WINDOW (1954) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
PEEPING TOM (1960) Dir; Michael Powell
Museum of the Moving Image
Eternity and History: The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos
THE HUNTERS (1977) Dir; Theo Angelopoulos
Riverside Park, Pier One
UN FLIC (1972) Dir; Jean-Pierre Melville
Syndicated
SUSPIRIA (1978) Dir; Dario Argento
Today's Pick? Godard's debut, one that many feel authentically broke the French Nouvelle Vague proper, tempts, but it also happens to screen fairly often in our movie-mad metro. @ by Melville also draw my loyalty, yet fail to win me over. The real tractor beams are Hitch & Powell, who today should be joined by PSYCHO & PEEPING TOM but instead are paired with Hitch's REAR WINDOW, what I deem his finest two hours, but short of the perfect double-bill. Which AFA doesn't offer anyhoo. So whatever. I'm cutting to the chase once more.
John Frankenheimer's masterpiece, 1962's THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, unspools tonight at BAM in its newly minted 1's and 0's as a pristine DCP resto, as part of the series Four MoreYears: An Election Special. It didn't merely elevate its helmer to the front ranks, nor graduate the political thriller to its adulthood. It provided perhaps the finest showcase for stars Frank Sinatra and Lawrence Harvey. It certainly gifted the great Angela Lansbury her signature role. It's knowing, prescient even, and it contains one of the all-time unforseeable, mind-blowing twists the cinema has to offer. Beneath its potboiler surface also lies a commentray on the fragility of American Democracy, which couldn't be more timely were it produced last week. So it's not merely a crackerjack thriller, it's a warning signpost heading into november '16. Try me.
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in July '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!
