September 2016! Female Filmmakers, Kurosawa x 11, and Hail Hail Freedonia!

Happy September '16 Stockahz! Believe it or not, we've seen one more summer come and go, and are going about the usual biz of prepping final BBQ's, cementing our Fantasy Football picks, and scratching our heads over where exactly the hell the last three months went? Whether you enjoyed the season's popcorn fare or not, it wasn't, in my opinion, the worst summer at the multiplex, as many have maintained. There were some big-money projects that hit it out of the park, like the much-maligned GHOSTBUSTERS reboot and the 3rd of the new STAR TREK flicks, while such sleeper fare as OUR KIND OF TRAITOR, THE INFILTRATOR and HELL OR HIGH WATER impressed greatly. Sized somewhere inbetween those scales was Shane Black's THE NICE GUYS, which should have done better at the box office. And I'm still figuring out what to make of SAUSAGE PARTY. I mean, I liked it, but what the hell WAS it?

The NYC rep film circuit fared much better of course, with spectacular series like MoMA's trib to Carl Laemmle Jr.'s brief reign as head of Universal Pictures, Film Forum's featuring of 4K restos like Lubitch's HEAVEN CAN WAIT, the Coen Brothers' BLOOD SIMPLE, and Malle's ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS, the Film Scoiety's ode to charcater great Warren Oates, BAM Cinématek's Election Special series, and the ongoing A to Z fest at NYC's newest rep screen, the LES' Metrograph. So while summer might be slowly winding down, the usual excellent fare at these fantastic venues goes on. Let's explore that case in point;

Those of you who regularly visit this site know that I like to confer what I refer to as Big Dawg Status to that screening or series I deem the month's most unmissable. Last month that esteemed honor went to Astoria's big, bright and beautiful Museum of the Moving Image, for their annual See it Big: The 70mm Show!, which featured titles like Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH, Robert Wise's STAR!, and two masterpieces from the great stanley Kubrick: 1960's SPARTACUS and 1968's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, all presented in their native 70mm celluloid format. If you missed this series take heart: Moving Image doesn't wait very long to book at least a few 70mm films over the calendar year, and it is one of the most magical experiences a film fanatic might witness.

It's a tight contest to be sure, but this month's edition of the Daily Growl goes to a program that is not only exceptional, but essential. Anthology Film Archives, the NY film fanatics' fave haunted house, presents the series Woman with a Movie Camera: Female Film Directors Before 1950, exploring the careers of some pioneering women who worked both before and after the creation of that glass ceiling still too in evidence to this day. On view will be the works of Alice Guy Blaché, an innovator behind the lens who has only recently joined the larger film conversation in the same breath as Porter and Meliés; Lois Weber, who at more than one point was Universal Pictures' top-moneymaking director; Gene Gauntier, who wrote, directed and starred in a series of action cliffhangers before they were called that; animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger, repped by her most famous film, the silhouette masterpiece THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED; and of course the legendary Dorothy Arzner, the only name on this list, perhaps, that will seem familiar to the casual film fan, as her career survived the silent era by a decade-plus into the talkies. Amazingly enough, as some of these films date back over a hundred years, almost all titles in the series will screen in 35mm, with the rare exception being a DCP resto or two. I cannot stress enought the importance of this program, nor express enough gratitude toward the institution hosting it. I'll see you all there.

Also at AFA this month is part two of their series Voyeurism, Surveillance, and Identity in the Cinema, offering Jim McBride's groundbeaking mockumentary DAVID HOLZMAN'S DIARY. And Buster Keaton's masterpiece THE GENERAL unspools in 35mm on the 18th. Anthology Film Archives is located at 32 2nd Avenue in Manhattan.

One of the kah-LOSE runners-up this month unsppols at the newly unboxed Metrograph theater, who hit the ground running back in March and haven't slowed down since! On their top shelf this month is a series dedicated to one of my all-timers, the man who pretty much broke World Cinema onto the global stage in the early 50's, the great sensei Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa x 11 offers exactly that; a one-shy-of-a-dozen of the master's best, which is a fairly large large pool to draw from to be fair. Titles such as Scottish Play adap THRONE OF BLOOD, Ed McBain crime potboiler HIGH & LOW, Star Wars-table setter THE HIDDEN FORTRESS, life meditation IKIRU, and the folklore ressurecting SEVEN SAMURAI screen over the course of the next week, and all in 35mm! Yeah, the immortal AK is a routine visitor to our rep screens, but you've never seen him at this pristine new venue! Must see stuff!

Metrograph's ongoing A to Z series brings this month Orson Welles' truncated masterwork THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, Jacques Demy's MODEL SHOP, and George Miller's original MAD MAX. The Old & Improved series, offering newly restored versions of studio clasics and lost gems, brings us Frank Capra's DIRIGIBLE, Luchino Visconti's SANDRA, and Tom Buckingham's COCK OF THE AIR. Yo, I don't name these things...

Finally, sadly, the 'Graph's smile-inducing Roald Dahl series puts an unwanted period on a career in a case of coincidental yet eerily prescient booking. The great Gene Wilder left us this week at the too-young age of 83. Already long on their sked was a screening of the children's classic WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, perhaps the role for which the late actor is most-fondly remembered. Should you want to pay your respects and say a proper goodbye I can think of no better way than to let the great thesp put some cheer in your heart anew. It would be a good deed, and it is indeed a weary world.

The Metrograph is located at No. 7 Ludlow St. on Manhattan's LES.

The other OTHER close runner-up for barking rights this month flickers away at that most hallowed temple for the Big Apple Cinegeek, NYC's very own Film Forum. The Marx Brothers & the Golden Age of Vaudeville celebrates the antics of the most anarchic set of siblings to ever grace the screen silver! In honor of brand spankin' new DCP restos of their 5 Paramount films, scrubbed and shined for an upcoming BluRay box release, the Forum screens the quintet (THE COCOANUTS, ANIMAL CRACKERS, MONKEY BUSINESS, HORSE FEATHERS & DUCK SOUP) alongside later beloved gems like A NIGHT AT THE OPERA and A DAY AT THE RACES, as well as the recently restored KING OF JAZZ and several odds and ends celebrating the Vaudeville from whence the brothers came. Several of these screenings are Two-Fers, so you get to back for seconds on the popcorn! The series runs from the 23rd to the 29th.

Also at the Forum this month their meticulously programmed and wildly popular Return of the Double Feature program, which runs til the 13th. Upcoming titles in the series include Terrence Malick's BADLANDS and DAYS OF HEAVEN, Jacques Demy's THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG and THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT, Gene Tierney in LAURA and LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN, Cary Grant in NOTORIOUS and HIS GIRL FRIDAY, Chaplin in CITY LIGHTS and MODERN TIMES, Brando in ON THE WATERFRONT and THE WILD ONE, and it all closes out with two adaps of ace noir scribe James M. Cain; Billy Wilder's DOUBLE INDEMNITY and Michael Curtiz's MILDRED PIERCE. One price gets ya two flicks, don't pass this up!

Closing out the month and extending into October the Forum fêtes the legendary teen idol and Method pioneer James Dean, unspooling the trio of greats he left behind; Nicholas Ray's REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, George Stevens' GIANT and Elia Kazan's EAST OF EDEN. Marathon screenings of all three films are scheduled with seperate admissions. And lastly this month sees the return of the very popular hook''em-while-they're-young Film Forum Jr., kicking off with Albert Lamorisse's childrens classic THE RED BALLOON, and including Franco Zeffirelli's ROMEO AND JULIET and closing the month with the aforementioned HORSE FEATHERS. Film Forum is located at 209 W Houston St. in Manhattan.

Okay, we're done with the 2nd runners-up. Now let's focus on the THIRD runner-up! MoMA has dedicated this month's Modern Matinees, their excellent series that focuses on particular actors and filmmakers, to the eternally cool and smokily iconic man we all collectively, simply refer to as Bogie. B is for Bogart brings us his breakout role in Archie Mayo's THE PETRIFIED FOREST, Raoul Walsh's THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT and HIGH SIERRA, Howard Hawks' TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, John Huston's THE MALTESE FALCON, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE and KEY LARGO, and a number of titles yet to be announced. This is by far one of the cooler series the museum has planned. MoMA is located at 11 W 53rd St. in Manhattan.

Puddle-leaping into Brooklyn we come to BAM Cinématek, who continue the brilliant trib to a studio that defined song and dance on film. That's Entertainment!: MGM Musicals Part One has already screened the timeless THE WIZARD OF OZ and the absolutely nuts MADAM SATAN, but we've still got a luminous program ahead, and who better to kick off the month than the man most associated with the genre? Vincente Minnelli is repped this September by screenings of MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, the Ethel Waters/Lena Horne-starring CABIN IN THE SKY, and the hypnotic Technicolor of THE PIRATE. Other notable screenings include Gene Kelly sharing the screen with Frank Sinatra in TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME, ON THE TOWN, and ANCHORS AWEIGH, Fred Astaire in YOLANDA AND THE THIEF, THE BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY, and EASTER PARADE, and a rare 35mm screening of the holiday classic MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS starring Laurel and Hardy! Just try and keep from dancing in the aisles during this series. JUST TRY! BAM Cinématek is located at the Peter Jay Sharp building, 30 Lafayette Avenue, in Brooklyn.

Hoverbearding into BK's hipster zone we skid stop at BillyBurg's exceptional Nitehawk Cinema, still, bar none, my fave new movie theater in the 5 boroughs. The usual tomfoolery courtesy of the venue's programmers include brunch fare, such as Friedkin's THE FRENCH CONNECTION and Boorman's POINT BLANK for the Bellini-besotted, and Gordon Parks Jr.'s SUPER FLY and Verhoeven's ROBOCOP at the Witching Hour. Roy War Baker & Chang Cheh collaborated for the Hammer/Shaw Brothers mashup THE SEVEN BROTHERS MEET DRACULA, screening as this month's entry in the Nitehawk's ongoing trib to Times Square's glory Grindhouse era, The Deuce. And this month's Booze 'N Books feature is Richard Brooks' seminal crime procedural IN COLD BLOOD. Plus root beer 'n tater tots I have no self-control. The Nitehawk is located at 136 Metropolitan Avenue, just a short stumble from the soon-to-be-a rumor L train but just about $4.92 from any point in the 5 boroughs via GETT. You just remember that.

September '16 proves to be a limited sort beyond those offerings. Astoria's Museum of the Moving Image offers two limited series: Meltdown - Nuclear Fears on Film boasts Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE and James Bridges' THE CHINA SYNDROME, while the Angès Varda program this month brings only1965's LE BONHEUR, which is no small promise to be damn sure. The Museum is located at 36-01 35th Avenue in Queens.

IFC Center continues and concludes its wonderful Fellini trib with screenings of three of the maestro's best: 1969's SATYRICON, 1980's CITY OF WOMEN, and what is perhaps the great man's finest moment, the glimmering, gleaming 8 1/2. And midnight alien invasion spectacle this month include two reboots/rethinks/the hell they callin' these things now?: John Carpenter's THE THING and Philip Kaufman's INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. IFC is located at 323 6th Avenue in Manhattan.

Bushwick's very own food, booze 'n film venue, the wonderful Syndicated , goes nearly the full-Lynch with screenings of Palm D'Or-winner WILD AT HEART, game-chnager BLUE VELVET, and the 24fps nightmare that set the whole revolution in motion, 1977's ERASERHEAD. Squeeze in his 1980 masterpiece THE ELEPHANT MAN and it would'a been a subversive's completist dream. Syndicated is located at 40 Bogart St. in Brooklyn. Maybe that last fact is a subversive's completist dream.

The French Institute/Alliance Française restarts its CinéSalon series with the theme Beyond the Ingenue, featuring this month Maurice Pialat's A NOUS AMOURS. The New York Historical Society starts a new series, Highlights of the Bernard and Irene Schwartz Classic Film Series, screening the already heavily booked THE MALTESE FALCON on the evening of the 16th. Cinépolis, the new title of the recently purchased Bowtie Chelsea Cinema, expands its classic film sked with Tuesday and Thursday screenings of films like Paul Brickman's RISKY BUSINESS, Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, Albert Lewin's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, Joey L. Mank's ALL ABOUT EVE, and Big Al's DIAL M FOR MURDER and NORTH BY NORTHWEST. The Mid-Manhattan Library continues their weekend series with cozy lil' DVD screeners of Curtis Bernhardt's THE MERRY WIDOW, John Farrow's THE SEA CHASE, and David Miller's DIANE. Finally the Silent Clowns, those merry makers of much mirth, continue their 2016 program Sophisticated (Silent) Scandals, with a 35mm screening of 1927's A GENTLEMAN OF PARIS, starring Adolphe Menjou, and featuring, as always, the golden fingertips of one Ben Model ticklin' the ivories of the grand piano at the Library for the Performing Arts. If you've never been to a Silnet Clowns screening it's one of the true joys of city living for the film fanatic. It's free admission, so get there early to snag yer real estate and keep from being a fire hazard.

So there it is, your rundown of the month in repertory cinema. Schedules are subject to change, and they do, so be sure to check back with this site to keep fully updated. And be sure to like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, observe me on Instagram, stalk me on Tumblr, measure me on Vine okay that's enough now. You know where to find me should ya wanna keep up with the rep film doings in NYC. So until next time, be safe and saound, Stockahz, and make sure the next knucklehead is too. Excelsior!

-Joe Walsh

JoeW@NitrateStock.net

P.S. The sun is taking its usual tempermental turn away from us for a spell, because you know how that fiery ball of gas that provides the perfect conditions for all life on this planet can get, y'know? Now I've been beating the drum for this organization for almost 4 full years now, but I still can't think of a better charity to stump for than OccupySandy.net, the practical hammer-in-hand organization that's been helping victims of the 2012 hurricane steadily and readily since it hit. Cold weather is coming, and our fellow NY'ers still need our help to become whole again. Please check in with this crew to see how you ca help and if you can, please do. We're all in this together.