June 23rd-30th: Bad Blood, the Beat of the Boogie Down, and Tha Shpielz Tries on da Big Boy Pants! To the Rep Circuit!
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So that month happened. And a whole new lunar calendar looms with treats and surprises aplenty to be had on the NYC rep film circuit. And I look forward to posting the new calendar/overview in about a week. But let's give June '17 its due before she leaves the yacht, shall we? She's still got a few tricks up her sleeves. And no, one of them isn't yet another Tom Cruise film. Please, can we make this a teachable moment?
New and continuing series this upcoming week include Back By Popular Demand: Ozu at Metrograph; Film and Nothing But; Bertrand Tavernier at the Quad Cinema; See it Big: Spielberg Summer! at Museum of the Moving Image; Simian Vérité at Anthology Film Archives; Road Rage at IFC Center; and the hook-'em-while-their-folks-are-buyin' Film Forum Jr. at Film Forum. The sprocketed spelunk be thus;
Friday June 23rd
Film Forum
IL BOOM (1963) Dir; Vittorio de Sica
Metrograph
GOOD MORNING (1959) Dir; Yasujiro Ozu
Quad Cinema
Film and Nothing But; Bertrand Tavernier
COUP DE TORCHON (1981) Dir; Bertrand Tavernier
'ROUND MIDNIGHT (1986) Dir; Bertrand Tavernier
Museum of the Moving Image
THE COLOR PURPLE (1985) Dir; Steven Spielberg
WNYC Transmitter Park, Brooklyn
MAUVAIS SANG (1986) Dir; Leo Carax
Anthology Film Archives
MAX MON AMOUR (1986) Dir; Nagisa Oshima
Nitehawk Cinema
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973) Dir; Alejandro Jodorowsky
STREET TRASH (1987) Dir; Jim Dumo
IFC Center
THE ITALIAN JOB (1969) Dir; John Collison
Today's Pick? The Tavernier double is a good one, his Isabeele Huppert potboiler paired with his sojourn into bebop cool. But it's summer. Official-like. So while I may not be Leo Carax's biggest admirer, I do like his fractured romance from the mid-80's featuring an impossibly young Juliette Binoche in a thinly-veiled allegory on the then-emerging AIDS epidemic. Now that synopsis might not sound like picnic-blanket-in-the-park fare, trust me, this is eclectic and energetic filmmaking from a decade yearning for its own rebellion, and belongs in the convo with REPO MAN and LIQUID SKY. MAUVAIS SANG screens under the stars in WNYC Transmitter Park at sunset. C'est magnifique.
Saturday June 24th
Film Forum
IL BOOM (1963) Dir; Vittorio de Sica
Museum of the Moving Image
THE COLOR PURPLE (1985) Dir; Steven Spielberg
EMPIRE OF THE SUN (1987) Dir; Steven Spielberg
ALWAYS (1989) Dir; Steven Spielberg
Metrograph
GOOD MORNING (1959) Dir; Yasujiro Ozu
THE MISFITS (1960) Dir; John Huston
Anthology Film Archives
EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (1978) Dir; James Fargo
KING KONG (1976) Dir; John Guillerman
MONKEY SHINES AN EXPERIMENT IN TERROR (1988) Dir; George A. Romero
Quad Cinema
Film and Nothing But; Bertrand Tavernier
A WEEK'S VACATION (1980) Dir; Bertrand Tavernier
DEATH WATCH (1979) Dir; Bertrand Tavernier
Nitehawk Cinema
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973) Dir; Alejandro Jodorowsky
STREET TRASH (1987) Dir; Jim Dumo
IFC Center
THE ITALIAN JOB (1969) Dir; John Collison
Today's ick? I hate to say it but I'm going back indoors this day, and recommending three fascinating if imperfect works from a filmmaker who no doubt counts among the best the last 40 years ahve given the world, and yet they intrigue because, in my opinion, he was reaching for a cinematic adulthood still beyond his grasp. THE COLOR PURPLE was a step toward more mature fare, EMPIRE OF THE SUN his damndest attempt at Lean, and ALWAYS a try for studio era shucks with too much modern blockbuster onus attached. Still, the first offers some tremendous thesp work from Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and an actress who should've had a longer film career named Oprah Winfrey; EMPIRE is a visual dazzle and presented Christian Bale for the first; and ALWAYS gave us the last turn from the forever luminous Audrey Hepburn. It makes for a fascinating study of a storyteller in the lead-up to his grand maturity, which would come in 1993 with the masterpiece SCHINDLER'S LIST. Plus, Moving Image's admission of 15 bucks can be applied to tix to all three films. And I hear there's an absolutely phenomenal museum attached to the screening room. No better way to spend a lazy Saturday sez moi.
Sunday June 25th
Film Forum
SUMMER STOCK (1950) Dir; Charles Walters
IL BOOM (1963) Dir; Vittorio de Sica
ANNA BOLEYN (1920) Dir; Ernst Lubitsch
Metrograph
AN AUTUMN AFTERNOON (1962) Dir; Yasujiro Ozu
GOOD MORNING (1959) Dir; Yasujiro Ozu
Quad Cinema
Film and Nothing But; Bertrand Tavernier
A SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY (1984) Dir; Bertrand Tavernier
THE JUDGE AND THE ASSASSIN (1976) Dir; Bertrand Tavernier
COUP DE TORCHON (1981) Dir; Bertrand Tavernier
Museum of the Moving Image
ALWAYS (1989) Dir; Steven Spielberg
Anthology Film Archives
MAX MON AMOUR (1986) Dir; Nagisa Oshima
BYE BYE MONKEY (1978) Dir; Marco Ferreri
Metrograph
THE MISFITS (1960) Dir; John Huston
United Palace of Cultural Arts
COMING TO AMERICA (1988) Dir; John Landis
Saint Albans Memorial Park, Queens
BEAT STREET (1984) Dir; Stan Lathan
Today's Pick? Lathan's BEAT STREET at Saint Albans Memorial Park at sunset. Bronx boy, here, yer surprised?
Other notable screenings this end of June '17 include a screening of Don Siegel's original THE BEGUILED, a welcome compare/contrast to the new Sophia Coppola remake, unspooling at BAM Cinématek this Monday as part of the series Southern Gothic; Andrew L. Stone's THE DECKS RAN RED, which pits fledgling captain James Mason against mutineer Broderick Crawford while the magnificent Dorothy Dandridge looks on, admittedly a DVD projection Tuesday at the Mid-Manhattan Library but hey - let's show the NYPL some love, capice?; two from Ozu this Wednesday at Metrograph, 1956's EARLY SPRING and 1949's LATE SPRING, the latter featuring the recently-passed Setsuko Hara, and offering voluminous proof of the camera's affection for her; and let's close it out Thursday with, what else, a Xmas flick - Joe Dante's perrenial GREMLINS, unspooling in the out and open at the intriguingly minickered Electric Playground in Queens at sunset.
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.
