February 2017! Black Women's Cinema, Universal in the 70's, and the Annual St. Valentine's Day Massacre! Let's break some hearts and some barriers!

Huzzah and Hooray, Stockahz! My longtime foe, that magnificent beast of fierce gusts inexhaustable and bitter temps to make glaciers blush, that venomous behemoth known as January, has found itself felled once more. Once more we outlast it, outlive it. Once more we emerge victorious against its horrid breath and grasp. Once more we y'know actually I gotta say not the worst January we've ever seen. Sorta mild actually. Not a lot of urgent need to curse and combat it, really. No call for its demonization. Look, as Januarys go, I'll take it. See ya next year kiddo. Oh, and we'll be READY for you, you bastard! Make no mistake!

Ahem.

Now, we face the second head of the dreaded Cerberus that kicks of each new calendar, the dread February. It's reach is deceptive, as its pages count a mere 28, yet men stronger than myself have succumbed to its seeming endlessness. Another Super Bowl awaits, as well as thermometer fracturing drops and a cycle of grey to black sky that punishes the soul. Have I mentioned Valentine's Day yet?

Yes, it's no doubt a drag, a slog, a climb uphill battering, bruising, potentially imposible. But NAH! We'll get through this ill-mannered bastard of a month as we always do, and the film fanatic and frenetic amongst us in the 5 boroughs will turn to that warm balm that always helps to smooth life along when even its roughest edges emerge; our very own repertory film circuit, which grows both in programming and edifice to provide such within. So let's look to this month's doings. It's exactly what February won't EXPECT us to do...

Those of you who regularly follow my blog and calendar and YouTube exploits know that I like to single out each month's most unmissable series or screening by conferring what I like to call Big Dawg Status on said unspool. Last month that dignified esteem went to MoMA, and their exceptional, essential program dedicated to obscure but inspiring works from the silent era, appropriately monickered Cruel and Unusual Comedy: Astonishing Shorts from the Slapstick Era. It featured recognizable talents like Oliver Hardy, Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel Norman, the Talmadge Sisters and the Our Gang scamps, mixed with today lesser known stars like Snub Pollard, Lupino Lane and Marcel Perez. It highlighted the many copycat Chaplins that sought to sail smooth in the wake of his success, it offered a look at ethnic representation from an era with less conscience. It was a potent rediscovery of our shared history, and it underlined the very important reasons why film preservation matters still. It was a beautiful series, and I eagerly await the next.

This month's Daily Growl gets tossed to that most worthy pooch on Manhattan's Upper West, the magnificent Film Society of Lincoln Center, for their upcoming trib to the recently departed master of Polish Cinema in the postwar era, the remarkable Andrzej Wajda. It was only a few years ago when I fianlly got the chance to experience the great man's work, beginning at his best's beginning, the enthralling yet brutal ASHES AND DIAMONDS and KANAL, both entries in his War Trilogy, revolving around WW2's last days. Nedles to say I was floored by both efforts, for their poetry, their humanity, and also for their hard truths, the ugly commentary on human weakness. Wajda was a bold voice in a country that found the USSR its new landlord, yet he was able to offer a free voice to his home culture, in its defense and furtherance of its survival. I look forward to exploring his CV at this fest, which includes titles like 1st feature A GENERATION, exploring his country's wartime resistance; INNOCENT SORCERERS, a lighter examination of post-Stalin thaw in Eastern Europe; the John Gielgud-led THE CONDUCTOR, his first U.S.-set feature; 1981's Palm d'Or-winning MAN OF IRON; and what I've read is considered to be the greatest Polish film of all time, 1975's THE PROMISED LAND, examining the Industrial Revolution in Poland. The series runs from February 9th til the 16th.

Also at the Film Society this month is a short series dedicated to another recent fallen giant of cinema, the iconic DP Raoul Coutard, who was as essential to the French Nouvelle Vague as the directors he worked with, name like Truffaut (JULES AND JIM) and Godard (BREATHLESS) and Demy (LOLA). Titles in the trib include lesser seen efforts like Raoul Lévy's HAIL MAFIA! and Fons Rademakers' THE DARK ROM OF DAMOCLES on the 19th, and Jacques Baratier's LA POUPEE on the 22nd. The latter of which translates to THE DOLL. So stop making 3rd grade level jokes, ya stunted adolescents. Hard to imagine that revolution in film without his involvement. This is a great way to honor his work.

Rounding out the month at the Film Society are 5-COUNT-'EM-5 adaps of Emily Bronte's perrenial. Heathcliff , it's Me: Adapting Wuthering Heights offers interpretations of the famous work of tortured love from the likes of Luis Buñuel, Jacques Rivette, Yoshishige Yoshida, Andrea Arnold, and, of course, the most famous screen iteration from Hollywood's Magic Year, the 1939 William Wyler version starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. The short series runs from the 24th to the 27th. The Film Society is located at the Walter Reade Theater at 165 W 65th st, and the Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center at 144 W 65th st, on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

Ubering downtown to the West Village we find ourselves at that most beloved coze for the NYC film fanatic, the venerable Film Forum, as usual beginning the year with few yet eminently desirable fare, before slowly catching fire in March then running positively ablaze for the calendar's remainder. This month we get the restoration of a classic long subject to public domain wear and tear. John Huston's BEAT THE DEVIL has been miraculaously returned to the closest intentions of its makers, the formidable John Huston and the mercurial Truman Capote, due to the efforts of Sony Pictures and Scorsese's Film Foundation. While I cannot wait to see the untruncated version, I cannot believe, inded I sincerely hope, that it makes no more sense than the version we've dug these last 64 years. Runs from the 17th to the 23rd.

Following that blessed event at the Forum comes a further 4K spitshine, in honor of its 30th anniversary. Billie August's PELLE THE CONQUEROR, boasting one of the towering perfs from the already mighty Max Von Sydow. It's been as long since I've seen it, so I'm eagerly awaiting a revisit with this Palm D'or winner. Screens from the 24th to March 2nd.

Also at the Forum this month is a screening of the great Joan Micklin Silver's HESTER STREET on the 19th, with the director herself in attendance to discuss her masterful debut. and Fred Zinnemann's THE NUN'S STORY, with star Patricia Bosworth on hand to engage in a conversation regarding the once-controversial film, Sunday the 26th. And of course, the venue's hook-'em-while-they're-young Film Forum Jr. offers up Terry Gilliam's TIME BANDITS, Frank Capra's IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, Ken Annakin's THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES, and Fred M. Wilcox's LASSIE COME HOME. Film Forum is located at 209 W Houston st. in the West Village.

Arriving with torches and pitchforks at the NYC film lover's fave haunted house we break the barricades at Anthology Film Archives, and it's a good thing 'cause they've got a lot to offer this month. The annual Valentine's Day Massacre returns, this time with a full 100% more Elaine May. The auteur was repped last year by the returning HEARTBREAK KID, a sly and dry comment on American love and desire. It's joined by the filmmaker's debut, the even blacker ad funnier A NEW LEAF, for which the legendary screenwriter and script-doctor provided the text. They make a great back-to-backer and you get two opportunities to catch it thus, on the 11th and 12th. Returning unromantics in the series are Maurice Pialat's WE WON'T GROW OLD TOGETHER, Albert Brooks' MODERN ROMANCE, and Andrzej Zulawski's POSSESSION. L'amour's undoing screens from the 10th til the 14th.

Also at AFA this month comes a series inspired by our current national nightmare. Gimme Shelter: Hollywood North is not just a comment on the options on the table, it focuses on an era in Canada's film scene when the government provided generous financing for fledgling filmmakers, in the hopes of stirring its cultural pot. It was met with disapproval from citizens, politicians, and perhaps most importantly the critics, yet it produced such gems as Bob Clark's genre-kickoff BLACK CHRISTMAS, Louis Malle's ATLANTIC CITY, and David Cronenberg's THE BROOD. Two important entries in animation's dark ages, Gerald Potterton's HEAVY METAL and Clive A. Smith's ROCK AND RULE, not only serve to rep but screen in 35mm! Series runs fro the 28th til March 8th.

Erich von Stroheim's gutted masterwork GREED gets two screenings on the 4th and the 5th, Jean Vigo's L'ATALANTE unspools on the 18th and 19th, and Robert Altman's masterpiece McCABE AND MRS. MILLER screens as part of the short series Darker: Celebrating Leonard Cohen. Anthology Film Archives is located at 32 2nd avenue in Manhattan's East Village.

Hulk-leaping uptown we land at MoMA, and we apologize for the damage. But hey, one more crater matters in Manhattan? This month their great Modern Matinees series focuses on Hollywood and the Great Depression, narrowing its concern to the specific year 1933. Titles in the series include well known fare, James Whale's still yet-to-be-topped adap of H.G. Welles' THE INVISIBLE MAN, Ernst Lubitsch's DESIGN FOR LIVING, Mervyn LeRoy's GOLDDIGGERS OF 1933, and Ernest B. Shoedsack's SON OF KONG, as well as deeper gems worth the digging like William Dieterle's ADORABLE, Frank Borzage's MAN'S CASTLE, and Rowland V. Lee's ZOO IN BUDAPEST. MoMA is located at 11 W 53rd st in Manhattan.

Faking our passports we cross the checkpoint into Brooklyn, where we find ourselves at BAM Cinématek! A great series looms there, but because of my site's restrictions on short and experimental films, I'm only listing Kathleen Collins' LOSING GROUND and Julie Dash's DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST as part of the essential series One Way or Another: Black Women's Cinema: 1970-1991. Nevertheless, you really should check their site for the full rundown of this series' offerings, and attend as many as possible. Pertinent, even crucial, today perhaps moe than ever. The series runs from the 3rd til the 23rd.

Also at BAM this month, Jordan Peele, he of the expected chortle and guffaw, has programmed a series not quite expected of the funnyman: The Art of the Social Thriller encompasses fantastical horrors like Polanski's ROSEMARY'S BABY and Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, with true life terrors repped by Kramer's GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER and, well, I guess Joe Dante's minor masterpiece THE 'BURBS counts in this category as well, no? Promising stuff. Runs from the 17th til March 1st.

Finally, BAM screens Yasujiro Ozu's TOKYO STORY and Leo McCarey's MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW as companion and comparison, two tales of vitality waned, of obsolesence and the indifference met by parents from children once the elder needs the tounger instead of the reverse. They are both heart-rending. They exemplify the common themes between otherwise unlike cultures. They screen over the weekend of the 10th, and you really should avail yourself of this opportunity. And don't just buy Kleenex, invest in their stock. BAM Cinématek is located at the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafyette avenue, Brooklyn.

Also in Brooklyn is my beloved Nitehawk Cinema, which gets up to their usual lovable rep shenanigans this month. Notable upcomings inlcude Robert Wise & Jerome Robins' WEST SIDE STORY on the 13th, Rupert Julian's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA on Valentine's Day, John Landis' COMING TO AMERICA on the 15th, Petey Bogz's WHAT'S UP DOC? on the 16th, and Mary Lambert's PET SEMETARY on the 24th & 25th. Plus, root beer 'n tots. Still the best. The Nitehawk is located a mere stumble from the Bedford Ave L train stop at 136 Metropolitian avenue. Make the trip. Trust me.

Parasailing back into Manhattan we land in the still-dusty and favorably desolate LES, smack dab in front of the soon-to-be-year-old Metrograph theater, who host a brillaint look at one major studio's reaction to the success of EASY RIDER and its tiptoe into the 70's New Hollywood. Universal in the 70's: Part One offers indelible brilliance like George Roy Hill's SLAP SHOT, George Lucas' AMERICAN GRAFFITI, John Casavettes' MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ, and, I argue, Michel Schultz's CAR WASH. The series is ongoing until the 8th.

The venue's ongoing Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z brings us Fellini's ROMA and Marcel Carne's LE QUAI DE BRUMES. And their Valentine's Day offerings are Preston Sturges THE LADY EVE and Nagisa Oshima's IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES. Metrograph is located at No. 7 Ludlow st. in Manhattan's LES yeah I said that already.

Beyond that the pickings get slim but no less substantial: IFC Center's Autocratic for the People features Gilliam's BRAZIL and McCarey's DUCK SOUP; the Rubin Museum offers Delmer Daves' DARK PASSAGE & McCarey's DUCK SOUP (whose increasingly frequent booking is quite telling?), as part of their elegant Cabaret Cinema series; and the esteemed Japan Society unspools Seijun Suzuki's template for Tarantino TOKYO DRIFTER as part of their monthly classics series. I can't think of a better, more warped way to acknowledge this month screwy in nature and calendar placement, than by attending this screening. Arigato.

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, and OH YEAH: check in with me via my brand-spankin'-new YouTube channel, NitrateStock TV! Face it, we're just stuck with each other. So until next time, be safe and sound, Stockahz, and make sure the next knucklehead is too. Let's do our damndest to make this new year of 2017 the best it can be! Ciao, Bebehz!

-Joe Walsh

JoeW@NitrateStock.net

P.S. My charitable push expands, because the forces for ill are making their grandest surge I've yet seen in my lifetime against he forces of the-other-guy/gal-counts-too: please continue to support the boots on the ground and hammer in hand eforts of Occupy Sandy, as they still work to restore families affected by Hurricane Sandy to their safe havens, but let's also support the victims of the Syrian crisis, the refugees who've come under attack by fearmongers worldwide and, most shamefully, here at home. Please either donate to agencies like DoctorsWithoutBorders, RedCross, and/or UnicefUSA, or post these addresses to your feed to involve your friends and followers in a noble cause. What are we if not a compassionate people? JFK once said, amd I'm paraphrasing, that America was great because it was good. Once the latter ceased to be the case, the former would evaporate like so much hot steam. Really, though, at the end of the day, wouldn't it feel great to know you helped improve someone's circumstance. particularly the desperate ones? Here's hoping you pitch in. Cheers, Stockahz.