June 9th-15th: Jungle Fever, the Original Rosebud, and Outdoor Screenings Under a Purple Sky! Let's Go!
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Y'know, I get hacked by 5-count-'em-5 Russian hackers last February on a mission to undermine my efforts to provide the most comprehensive calendar and coverage of NYC's repertory film doings, and where's MY congressional hearing? I mean, I pay taxes for WHAT, exactly? Sheesh. Sheesh, I sez.
New and continuing series this week include The Lubitsch Touch and Film Forum Jr. at, you got it, Film Forum; Modern Matinees: Becoming Jennifer Jones at MoMA; Bresson Part II and Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z at Metrograph; Cross Dressing and Drag on Film at Anthology Film Archives; See it Big: Spielberg Summer! at Museum of the Moving Image; Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum; and the Silent Clowns Film Series at Library for the Performing Arts . Stockahz: to the Repmobile!
Friday June 9th
Film Forum
TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
THE MARRIAGE CIRCLE (1924) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
MoMA
Modern Matinees: Becoming Jennifer Jones
THE SONG OF BERNADETTE (1943) Dir; Henry King
Metrograph
THE DEVIL, PROBABLY (1977) Dir; Robert Bresson
MOUCHETTE (1967) Dir; Robert Bresson
Anthology Film Archives
Cross Dressing and Drag on Film
AN ACTOR'S REVENGE (1963) Dir; Kon Ichikawa
A MAN LIKE EVA (1984) Dir; Radu Gabrea
Museum of the Moving Image
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) Dir; Steven Spielberg
Columbus Park
EAT A BOWL OF TEA (1989) Dir; Wayne Wang
Herbert Von King Park
PURPLE RAIN (1984) Dir; Albert Magnoli
Rubin Museum
APUR SANSAR (1958) Dir; Satyajit Ray
Nitehawk Cinema
DRAGONSLAYER (1981) Dir; Matthew Robbins
IFC Center
WEEKEND (1967) Dir; Jean-Luc Godard
Today's Pick? The Lubitsch fête is the grand entree served this month, and both TROUBLE IN PARADISE and THE MARRIAGE CIRCLE are amongst his many must-sees. The Bresson progrm at Metrogram is a close second, and I'm also tempted t give Matty Robbins' D&D debut DRAGONSLAYER a 2nd chance on the big screen. However, it is the inaugural month for outdoor movie screenings, and when I combine that happy fact with the other happy fact that this star's birthday just passed 2 days ago, packaged with the decidely UNhappy fact that it's the 2 nd one he didn't live to see, how on earth can I choose sides against Albert Magnoli's PURPLE RAIN, screening at Herbert Von King Park in Brooklyn, and featuring, in his screen debut, the one and only Prince. The weather should be quite favorable for this event, and the sky will indeed be all purple.
Saturday June 10th
Film Forum
CLUNY BROWN (1946) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
THE STUDENT PRINCE* (1927) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
*Live piano accompaniment by Steve Sterner
Metrograph
MOUCHETTE (1967) Dir; Robert Bresson
THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC (1962) Dir; Robert Bresson
SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (19) Dir; Budd Boetticher
SORCERER (1977) Dir; William Friedkin
Mid-Manhattan Library
BUCK AND THE PREACHER (1972) Dir; Sidney Poitier
Library for the Performing Arts
SHOW PEOPLE* (1928) Dir; King Vidor
*Live piano accompaniment by Ben Model
Museum of the Moving Image
E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) Dir; Steven Spielberg
POLTERGEIST (1982) Dir; Tobe Hooper?
Anthology Film Archives
Cross Dressing and Drag on Film
THE DEVIL-DOLL (1936) Dir; Tod Browning
Nitehawk Cinema
DRAGONSLAYER (1981) Dir; Matthew Robbins
IFC Center
Road Rage
WEEKEND (1967) Dir; Jean-Luc Godard
Today's Pick? Any Tod Browning is worth a look, and his late quirk THE DEVIL-DOLL is no exception, especially as it screens in 35mm. Sidney Poitier's directorial debut, BUCK AND THE PREACHER, might be his best effort from the director's chair. And again, there's that pesky DRAGONSLAYER screening at Nitehawk. But really, any time the Silent Clowns are putting on a show? That's an unbestable proposition. They present King Vidor's SHOW PEOPLE at the Library for the Performing Arts, a rags-to-screen-stardom tale loosely based on the life of Gloria Swanson and starring Marion Davies and directed by King Vidor WHEW! Ya really need another excuse to attend? Well okay then, the film is screening in 35mm and accompanied by the ivory-ticklin' of the great Ben Model! Stick THAT in yer intertitles!
Sunday June 11th
Film Forum
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) Dir; Robert Wise
HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1944) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
THE MOUNTAIN CAT (1921) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
Metrograph
SEVEN MEN FROM NOW (19) Dir; Budd Boetticher
SORCERER (1977) Dir; William Friedkin
DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST (1951) Dir; Robert Bresson
THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC (1962) Dir; Robert Bresson
THE DEVIL, PROBABLY (1977) Dir; Robert Bresson
Museum of the Moving Image
POLTERGEIST (1982) Dir; Tobe Hooper?
Anthology Film Archives
Cross Dressing and Drag on Film
I DON'T WANT TO BE A MAN (1918) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
A MAN LIKE EVA (1984) Dir; Radu Gabrea
Today's Pick? I'm offering a makeshift double bill, unfolding in the same venue but requiring a separate admission. Both Budd Boetticher's SEVEN MEN FROM NOW and William Friedkin's SORCERER, tales of desperate quest and dehumanizing sacrifice separated by decades but connected by grit and greed and obsessive determination, unspool in glorious thertaefaye as part of the Metrograph's essential and eternally, one must hope, ongoing program Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z! The Friedkin concludes leaving you plenty of time to patronize the venue's incredible commisary, which boasts perhaps the finest steak frites to be had on the island. No better way to kill a Sunday. Or your cardiovascular system. Sez moi.
Other notable screenings this upcoming week include Babz's first shout from the director's chair with 1983's YENTL, screening in 35mm, Monday the 12th at Anthology Film Archives as part of their Cross Dressing and Drag on Film series; Ossie Davis' COTTON COMES TO HARLEM and Mark Warren's COME BACK, CHARLESTON BLUE, back-to-back adaps of the great crime fiction master Chester Himes, both starring Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques as the novelist's greatest creations, Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, at the newly reopened Quad Cinema as part of their newly begun tradition Two For Tuesdays; a terrific twin bill that means I can FINALLY make the essential series The Lubitsch Touch my Pick, 1933's DESIGN FOR LIVING and 1937's ANGEL, unspooling, and I do mean unspooling, this Wednesday the 14th at Film Forum; and my beloved Nitehawk once more goes the full grindhouse with a screening of Harry Bromley Davenport's bizarre XTRO, also in 35mm and screening as part of their excellent throwback series The Deuce, Thursday the 15th.
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, the outreach and safe haven offered by the International Rescue Committee, and the decades-old and ongoing good works from the folks at UNICEF. Collectively they're proving that the greatest investment we can make as a human race is in each other, and that helping to save someone else in troubled circumstances is indeed nothing more than saving ourselves. It's a small something to be sure in this maelstrom of madness, but it is just that: something.
