September 16th -18th: Pirates, Knives, and Heads Made of...Yeah, We'll Just Have to Keep That Dialogue Gong. Read On!
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Hola, Los Stockahz! What a difference a week makes! How harshly absence affects the heart, how healing reconnection may prove. I recently shifted to a new format, reducing my workload without, I pray, backing off from what I consider my responsibility to tha lotta ya: presenting a comprehensive rundown of all repertory screenings in NYC's 5 boroughs and just beyond and offering up my suggestions for your attendance. I've gotten some positive feedback thus far, whilst observing a drop in numbers elsewhere, which means I'll have to manage this adjustment period accordingly, make changes, and if neccesary, re-adopt the old platform. Again, we're a week into the new dish, so any unnerve on my part is as premature as believing the Yankees need to win that next game in order to make it to the World Series. Which is not so farfetched as you might think. Yeah laugh all you want big man, they still got a shot! HEY, YOU WANNA TAKE THIS OUTSIDE?!?!?
Ahem.
Upcoming series this weekend include Modern Matinees: B is for Bogart at MoMA, That's Entertainment: MGM Musicals, Part One at BAM Cinématek, The Associates and Aldrich and Old & Improved at Metrograph, Women with a Movie Camera: Female Film Directors Before 1950 at Anthology Film Archives, Film Forum Jr. at you guessed it, Film Forum. Once more into the breach, mi amigos y amigas:
Friday September 16th
Film Forum
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1957) Dir; Louis Malle
LA NOTTE (1961) Dir; Michelangelo Antonioni
MoMA
Modern Matinees: B is for Bogart
YOU CAN'T GET AWAY WITH MURDER (1939) Dir; Lewis Seiler
BAM Cinématek
That's Entertainment: MGM Musicals, Part One
THE PIRATE (1948) Dir; Vincente Minnelli
Metrograph
ULZANA'S RAID (1972) Dir; Robert Aldrich
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962) Dir; Robert Aldrich
New York Historical Society
THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) Dir; John Huston
Anthology Film Archives
Women with a Movie Camera: Female Film Directors Before 1950
THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED (1926) Dir; Lotte Reiniger
LOIS WEBER PROGRAM (1913-16) Dir; Lois Weber
Nitehawk Cinema
SUPER FLY (1972) Dir; Gordon Parks Jr.
Today's Pick? As the first section of BAM's wonderful trib to the studio and the genre it made perfect winds down, how can I choose else but Vincente Minnelli's THE PIRATE, an absolutely perfect pairing of Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, and Technicolor. No joke, kiddos, if you get the chance to catch this at all on the big screen, let alone in 35mm, swash yer buckle to that venue and loudly proclaim your YAR!
Saturday September 17th
Film Forum
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1957) Dir; Louis Malle
LA NOTTE (1961) Dir; Michelangelo Antonioni
Nitehawk Cinema
GET CARTER (1971) Dir; Mike Hodges
Metrograph
THE BIG KNIFE (1955) Dir; Robert Aldrich
HUSH...HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964) Dir; Robert Aldrich
Mid-Manhattan Library
THE CHILDREN'S HOUR (1961) Dir; William Wyler
BAM Cinématek
That's Entertainment: MGM Musicals, Part One
THE PIRATE (1948) Dir; Vincente Minnelli
Anthology Film Archives
Women with a Movie Camera: Female Film Directors Before 1950
THE HOLY NIGHT (1922) Dir; Elvira Notari
ALICE GUY BLACHE PROGRAM (1906-13) Dir; Alice Guy Blaché
THE SEASHELL AND THE CLERGYMAN (1928) Dir; Germaine Dulac
Nitehawk Cinema
SUPER FLY (1972) Dir; Gordon Parks Jr.
Today's Pick? As an aficionado of all forms of performance drama I find myself an even more rabid fan of the industry exposé, perhaps best exemplified by MacKendricks' SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS and Mankiewicz's ALL ABOUT EVE, both covering the NYC theater/gossip column scene to close degrees. Robert Aldrich offeerd up a close second with THE BIG KNIFE, a Hollywwod evisceration from a play by Clifford Odets, who also provided the material from which SWEET SMELL bore such glorious rotten fruit. Screens at the Metrograph as part of their series The Associates and Aldrich!
Sunday September 18th
Film Forum
ROMEO AND JULIET (1968) Dir; Franco Zeffirelli
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1957) Dir; Louis Malle
LA NOTTE (1961) Dir; Michelangelo Antonioni
Nitehawk Cinema
GET CARTER (1971) Dir; Mike Hodges
BAM Cinématek
That's Entertainment: MGM Musicals, Part One
EASTER PARADE (1948) Dir; Charles Walters
Metrograph
COCK OF THE AIR (1932) Dir; Tom Buckingham
Mid-Manhattan Library
THE SEA CHASE (1955) Dir; John Farrow
Metrograph
APACHE (1954) Dir; Robert Aldrich
KISS ME DEADLY (1955) Dir; Robert Aldrich
Anthology Film Archives
Women with a Movie Camera: Female Film Directors Before 1950
BROADWAY LOVE (1918) Dir; Ida May Park
THE GIRL IN TAILS (1926) Dir; Karin Swanström
Syndicated
ERASERHEAD (1977) Dir; David Lynch
Today's Pick? I believe Bushwick was a neighborhood David Lynch was born for. Or vice versa. Anyway the key word in either correct/erroneous statement is "was", even though pairing is and was in a sentence seems as grammatically correct as pairing heaven with a broken radiator in terms visual. I digress. Or do I? Whatehvz, David Lynch's initial masterpiece ERASERHEAD screens at one of our newest film/food/frolic escapisms, the simply monickered Syndicated. Should you find a severed head uponst yer scramble between the subway exit and the venue, be warned: I'm in need of pencils.
Other screenings of note this week include Dorothy Arzner's MERRILY WE GO TO HELL, screening Monday the 19th and featured in the essential 2-week program Woman with a Movie Camera at Anthology Film Archives; the encore screening of Louis Malle's directorial debut, the highly influential bebop noir ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS, screening til Thursday in a pristine new 2K resto; Raoul Walsh's hybrid noir/expose/batshit melodrama THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT, unspooling Wednesday the 21st in 35mm at MoMA as part of their series Modern Matinees: B is for Bogart; and the aforementioned ALL ABOUT EVE, format unknown, yet part of a new tradition, we can only hope a promising one, at the newly christened Cinépolis.
For more info on these and all NYC's rep film screenings in September '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!
