May 26th-31st: Political Sport, Matino Idolo, and Von Sternberg's Muse. May Goes Not Quietly, Stockahz.
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 week include Border Crossings and Road Rage at IFC Center; Marlene at Metrograph; Modern Matinees: Mr. Cary Grant at MoMA; Immigrant Songs at Quad Cinema; Il Bello Marcello at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; and The Caan Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image. The four-perf foofaraw be thus;
Friday May 26th
IFC Center
TOUCH OF EVIL (1956) Dir; Orson Welles
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) Dir; William Friedkin
JAWS (1975) Dir; Steven Spielberg
STALKER (1979) Dir; Andrei Tarkovsky
Film Forum
RESERVOIR DOGS (1992) Dir; Quentin Tarantino
Metrograph
SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932) Dir; Josef von Sternberg
MoMA
Modern Matinees: Mr. Cary Grant
NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959) Dir; Alfred Hitchcock
Quad Cinema
HOLD BACK THE DAWN (1941) Dir; Mitchell Liesen
AMERICA AMERICA (1963) Dir; Elia Kazan
SCARFACE (1983) Dir; Not Sidney Lumet
Film Society of Lincoln Center
THE BEEKEEPER (1986) Dir; Theo Angelopoulos
MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE (1964) Dir; Vittorio de Sica
LA GRANDE BOUFFE (1973) Dir; Marco Ferreri
HENRY IV (1984) Dir; Marco Bellochio
Syndicated
JAWS (1975) Dir; Steven Spielberg
Museum of the Moving Image
ROLLERBALL (1975) Dir; Norman Jewison
Today's Pick? Many spools dedicated to the tales of refugees, emigrants and out and out strangers unravel this day, as is the case sadly in the real world currently, films like Welles' last masterwork boiling its pots on the US/Mexican border, Von Sternberg's multi-ethnic tale of flight and destiny set against the backdrop of bigotry and civil war, and Kazan's valentine to the very idea of our country, and what it reps to the world. However, in a week that saw such grand and awful and visceral butchery, and a response that has called for further viciousness and perhaps greater, unthinking & unfeeling harm toward those not like us, as release, vindication, worse even as scorekeeping and perhaps at its most nightmarish as sport itself, I cannot think of a more appropriate screening than Norman Jewsion's sadly prescient ROLLERBALL, already 42 years old but even older when you think about it. Screens as part of the otherwise buoyant celebration of the career of its star, craftily entitled The Caan Film Festival at Museum of the Moving Image. Timely as ever. How sad.
Saturday May 27th
Quad Cinema
SUPERMAN THE MOVIE (1978) Dir; Richard Donner
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976) Dir; Nicolas Roeg
THE BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET (1984) Dir; John Sayles
LIQUID SKY (1984) Dir; Slava Tsukerman
STRANGER THAN PARADISE (1984) Dir; Jim Jarmusch
IFC Center
TOUCH OF EVIL (1956) Dir; Orson Welles
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) Dir; William Friedkin
JAWS (1975) Dir; Steven Spielberg
STALKER (1979) Dir; Andrei Tarkovsky
Syndicated
E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) Dir; Steven Spielberg
Museum of the Moving Image
THIEF (1981) Dir; Michael Mann
MISERY (1990) Dir; Rob Reiner
Film Society of Lincoln Center
A SLIGHTLY PREGNANT MAN (1973) Dir; Jacques Demy
8 1/2 (1963) Dir; Federico Fellini
THE STRANGER (1967) Dir; Luchino Visconti
LA NOTTE (1961) Dir; Michelangelo Antonioni
Metrograph
MOROCCO (1931) Dir; Josef von Sternberg
THE BLUE ANGEL (1929) Dir; Josef von Sternberg
Today's Pick? Avail yerself of the opportnity to spend a day with one of the greats, the supreme Italain matinee idol in the postwar era and who I deem a very underrated actor as well, the great Marcello Mastroianni! Today you get his comic turn in Demy's PREGNANT MAN, Visconti's underseen Camus adap THE STRANGER, the newly DCP'd LA NOTTE, and, of curse, what might be his crowning achievement and that of its maker, Fellini's 8 1/2, all for the discount package price of fohtyfohbucks! C'mon, what are your other options this day? Rain and waiting for Monday's BBQ? Make the right choice. Ah, to live at Lincoln Center...
Sunday May 28th
IFC Center
TOUCH OF EVIL (1956) Dir; Orson Welles
STALKER (1979) Dir; Andrei Tarkovsky
Quad Cinema
EL NORTE (1985) Dir; Gregory Nava
AMERICA AMERICA (1963) Dir; Elia Kazan
THE ITALIAN (1915) Dir; Reginald Barker
LIQUID SKY (1984) Dir; Slava Tsukerman
Syndicated
HOOK (1991) Dir; Name Redacted
E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) Dir; Steven Spielberg
Metrograph
LOLA (1981) Dir; Rainer Werner Fassbinder
DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939) Dir; George Marshall
Film Society of Lincoln Center
DIVORCE ITALIAN STYLE () Dir;
CITY OF WOMEN (1980) Dir; Federico Fellini
THAT NIGHT IN VARENNES (1982) Dir; Ettore Scola
DARK EYES (1987) Dir; Nikita Mikhalkov
Today's Pick? Stick with me Stockahz; 9 years ago when I lost my dad I sought solace in one of the things we bonded over across the span of our time, indeed a pursuit which he set me on, my love of the movies. Weird omens popped up that summer when I said goodbye to him, like the release of the FORD AT FOX box set, or my discovery of Robert Sklar's History of World Cinema at The Strand Bookstore. The real kicker is that we got to watch STAGECOACH one last time together on TCM while he was in hospice. It was as if he and I had sent these pings out into the larger universe over this common interest and at this particular time, when I most needed reminding of them, they were somehow coming back to me in a time of need.
I found myself one night sometime in this wake at a friend's bar leafing through the local paper ogling their weekend recommendations. I came across a venue's mention for the first; the Landmark Jersey Loews, a renovated movie palace from the late 20's that was screening classic films in 35mm. After pestering my friends to make the trip and getting no committment, I said screw it and decided to venture alone, out into that deep ebon ether known as Jersey City. New Jersey. What greeted me sticks with me til this day, a brilliantly lit marquee, a tattered reminder of bygone swank in the foyer, a chandelier that'd make Erik blush, and a 50 ft screen with a lush print of a film that'd been introduced to me by my dad, one of his fave westerns. Every time you re-watch a film your recollection of it changes, your feelings toward it change, because you've changed, your circumstances have changed, in some cases your reasons for seeing it have changed. I went to the Jersey Loews that weekend not just to experience a miracle venue I'd never previously known about, but to soothe my pain by catching Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart battle for the soul of a one-horse town in the old west in George Marshall's DESTRY RIDES AGAIN. I left having watched it once more with my dad. So I ask you how in hell do I ever take sides against this film ever again? I thank ye. It screens today at a new miracle venue, the LES' Metrograph, as part of an exhaustive trib to its star, Marlene. Can't you see she's tired?!?
Other notable screenings this week include Steven Spielberg's ultimate trib to Memorial Day's inauguration of beach season and the ensuing meat feasts associated with them, 1975's JAWS screening Monday at Syndicated; the quiet yet sublime debut of the great Joan-Micklin Silver, 1975's HESTER STREET, unspooling in its native, luminous 35mm this Tuesday as part of the Quad Cinema's wonderful Immigrant Songs series; and the grand restoration/resurrection of Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky's STALKER emits its brand new 1's and 0's at the IFC Center this Wednesday, a fitting close to the month.
Once again, there you have it, my picks and pontifications regarding your next 7 days' worth of rep filmgoing! We'll check in again a week from now, in the early days of a whole new spin 'round the sun, for the purposes of once more rummaging through the reels and making the tough yet wonderful choices regarding our chosen love. Til then be sure to follow me on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, and be SURE to catch my new YouTube channel, Nitrate Stock TV, where I'll be checking in at screenings all over the city and giving my 2 cents on the film, the venue, the audience, any damn thing that comes to my mind. Which, as some of ya know, can be quite entertaining. . Til next time Stockahz, remember: be safe, be sound, and make sure the next guy and gal are too. Excelsior!
- Joe Walsh
P. S. As you know I like to beat the drum for what I consider worthwhile causes. Xenophobia has sadly always been present in our country, mostly dormant, but at times very awoken and tangible. Sadly, the latter is the present case, and the subject of Syrian refugees has become a veritable powderkeg. To those of you who believe we can aid these people, our fellow human beings who are desperate for our help, I suggest the heroic efforts of the good men and women at DoctorsWithoutBorders. They're providing boots-on-the-ground relief, everything from surgery and medicine to clean water. It's a small something to be sure in this maelstrom of madness, but it is just that: something.
