July 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.
For the record, and because it concerns a classic film from over 30 years ago, I just wanna officially weigh in on the GHOSTBUSTERS reboot. It's terrific. And hopefully they'll get the sequel as right as this restart. Something the original creators failed to do. Hollywood gets so few chances at these things, when it works it feels nearly miraculous. So support, movielovers worldwide. And enjoy.
Continuing series this day include the trib to three French toughs, Les Durs at Film Forum, Modern Matinees: Summer with Judy Holliday and Modern Matinees: Summer with Judy Holliday, both at MoMA, and the slowly unwinding Cassavetes/Rowlands brilliance at the Metrograph. The filmic foofaraw be thus;
Film Forum
STAVISKY (1974) Dir; Alain Resnais
PIERROT LE FOU (1965) Dir; Jean-Luc Godard
LE DOULOS (1962) Dir; Jean-Pierre Melville
PEPE LE MOKO (1937) Dir; Julien Duvivier
THE BURGLARS (1972) Dir; Henry Verneuil
MoMA
Modern Matinees: Summer with Judy Holliday
THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC (1956) Dir; Richard Quine
Modern Matinees: Summer with Judy Holliday
RALLY 'ROUND THE FLAG, BOYS! (1958) Dir; Leo McCarey
MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW (1937) Dir; Leo McCarey
Metrograph.
LOVE STREAMS (1984) Dir; John Cassavetes
Syndicated
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION (1983) Dir; Harold Ramis
Brooklyn Bridge Park
PURPLE RAIN (1984) Dir; Albert Magnoli
Today's Pick? Leant towards the Prince magnificenece, but chose it back in April, so I'm not quite ready to revsit the pain. Not yet. Ramis' VACATION represents a second tier effort from both its director and the burgeoning screenwriter John Hughes. And I've recently done the Cassavetes series at Metrograph and McCarey series at MoMA. So let's go tough guy. European tough guy. French tough guy, to be specicfic. Jean Gabin served as the model for hardcsrabble European macho for the bulk of his career, the French counterpart to Jimmy Cagney & Humphrey Bogart spanning the 30's. 40's and 50's. He may boast several roles defining, most for director Jean Renior, such as LA BETE HUMAINE, GRAND ILLUSION and THE RULES OF THE GAME. His other gems include TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI, directed by Jacques Becker, LES PLAISIR directed by the great Max Ophuls, and THE TRIP ACROSS PARIS, helmed by Claude Autant-Lara. But I maintain his defining 2 hours arrived under the oversee of director Julien Duvivier. Gabin maintained his macho while displaying weakened characters in desperate situations. He managed to balance a healthy mix of faded aristocracy and peasant upstart. He was both gruff and graceful. He arrived onscreen as not fully molded clay and left that way. But over the course of his magnificent career he wove such beautiful definition into that seemingly unformed mass. Gerard Dépardieu is unthinkable without him. Vincent Cassell is unthinkable without him. So, wanna see one of the prototypical tough guys the cinema has to offer? Then regard!
Jean Gabin's essaying of the title role in Jean Duvivier's PEPE LE MOKO unspools in glorious 35mm at Film Forum as part of their spectacular series dedicated to Belmondo, Venturo & Gabin, Les Durs, which continues til August 2nd. Feel free to sneer, admonish and generally disdain everyone around you whilst you watch this flick. It is French, by the by.
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's canine dusk-til-dawn's have soundly parked themselves over our fair metropolis like the giant saucers from INDEPENDENCE DAY, but warmer weather notwithstanding 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!
