October '17: Overview and Weekend Picks! Miyazaki, Anna May Wong, and Mizoguchi! Let's Face East!
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Hale and Hello, Stockahz! I'z back once more to ring the alarm regarding NYC's busy rep film skematitazz! We got a lot going on this month, so let's get to the new monthly quickie-overview and weekend selections. For the lunar cycle, my Big Dawg award swooned between multiple candidates, including the series Boxing on Film Part Two at Anthology Film Archives, and the Mexican Horror program at BAM Cinématek. but really, come October, the newly introduced but now sacred ritual at my beloved Nitehawk Cinema, A Nite to Dismember, their overnight Halloween film fest, takes the gutted pumpkin. Believe me, there's a ton of treats within that pulpy husk. And some tricks. You won't be sorry.
New and ongoing series this week include Modern Matinees: Directed by John Cassavetes and Black Intimacy at MoMA; the Robert Mitchum Retrospective and Revivals at the Film Society of Lincoln Center; Imaginary Chinatown and Anna May Wong: Empress of Chinatown at Metrograph; Monthly Classics at the Japan Society; Cabaret Cinema at the Rubin Museum; and Film Forum Jr. at, gues where? Film Forum. The luminous loitery be thus;
Friday October 6th
Quad Cinema
THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) Dir; James Whale
MoMA
Modern Matinees: Directed by John Cassavetes
OPENING NIGHT (1977) Dir; John Cassavetes
STRAIGHT OUT OF BROOLYN (1991) Dir; Matty Rich
Film Forum
BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) Dir; Arthur Penn
Film Society of Lincoln Center
NYFF55: Robert Mitchum Retrospective
CROSSFIRE (1947) Dir; Edward Dmytryk
Metrograph
OUTSIDE THE LAW (1930) Dir; Tod Browning
Japan Society
PORCO ROSSO (1992) Dir; Hayao Miyazaki
Rubin Museum
ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) Dir; Elia Kazan
Roxy Hotel Cinema
REPO MAN (1984) Dir; Alex Cox
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) Dir; Ivan Reitman
Nitehawk Cinema
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974) Dir; Tobe Hooper
Today's Pick? Mostly standard fare on the menu today, with the exceptions of the new 4K resto of Whale's seminal DARK HOUSE and the screening of Matty Rich's debut BROOKLYN. I'm just feelin' Miyazaki today, and PORCO ROSSO is one of his trippier delights. So I'm Biebering my heart at the Japan Society tonight, one of our more precious venues. Catch the anime madness. You won't be disappointed.
Saturday October 7th
Nitehawk Cinema
THE FUNHOUSE (1980) Dir; Tobe Hooper
HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) Dir; William Castle
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974) Dir; Tobe Hooper
Film Forum
BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) Dir; Arthur Penn
Metrograph
ALICE (1990) Dir; Woody Allen
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA (1984) Dir; Sergio Leone
YEAR OF THE DRAGON (1985) Dir; Michael Cimino
Anna May Wong: Empress of Chinatown
SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932) Dir; Josef Von Sternberg
TOLL OF THE SEA (1922) Dir; Chester M. Franklin
DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON (1931) Dir; Lloyd Corrigan
MoMA
Modern Matinees: Directed by John Cassavetes
OPENING NIGHT (1977) Dir; John Cassavetes
SUNDAY ON THE RIVER (1961) Dirs; Gordon Hitches, Ken Resnick
LOOKING FOR LANGSTON (1989) Dir; Isaac Julien
Anthology Film Archives
THE GENERAL (1927) Dir; Buster Keaton
Roxy Hotel Cinema
PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID (1974) Dir; Sam Peckinpah
WILD AT HEART (1991) Dir; David Lynch
Today's Pick? Live at the Metrograph today, with one of my all-timers, an actor who did an end run around the race barrier of 20's & 30's Hollywood, the iconic Anna May Wong, deemed this fest by the venue as Empress of Chinatown. Separate admissions, yes, but for your buck you get 1922's TOLL OF THE SEA, her first lead and the earliest surviving 2-color Technicolor; 1931's DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON, perhaps her best starring role; and what might be her best remembered, Von Sternberg's SHANGHAI EXPRESS, where she serves as luminous rings to Marlene Dietrich's Saturn. I heart AMW tremendously. Get to know her.
Sunday October 8th
Film Forum
PAPER MOON (1973) Dir; Peter Bogdanovich
BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) Dir; Arthur Penn
Nitehawk Cinema
THE FUNHOUSE (1980) Dir; Tobe Hooper
HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959) Dir; William Castle
Film Society of Lincoln Center
SANSHO THE BAILIFF (1954) Dir; Kenji Mizoguchi
Metrograph
THE BOWERY (1933) Dir; Raoul Walsh
ALICE (1990) Dir; Woody Allen
Anna May Wong: Empress of Chinatown
OLD SAN FRANCISCO (1927) Dir; Alan Crosland
SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932) Dir; Josef Von Sternberg
MoMA
CLAUDINE (1974) Dir; John Berry
A WARM DECEMBER (1973) Dir; Sidney Poitier
Anthology Film Archives
THE GENERAL (1927) Dir; Buster Keaton
Roxy Hotel Cinema
PRETTY IN PINK (1986) Dir; Howard Deutch
COOL HAND LUKE (1967) Dir; Stuart Rosenberg
Today's Pick? I have to show some love to the New York Film Fest, it beats so soundly in my heart. While I'd normally nominate a cheerier flick for a brisk, perhaps even rainy October Sunday, I fully endorse the new 4K resto of Mizoguchi's absolutely shredding tragic masterwork, 1954's SANSHO THE BAILIFF, screening at the Howard Gilman Theater as part of the Revivals section of NYFF55. It is a veritable Voight-Kampff test. If you haven't you need to. If you have, you need to take the test again.
Other notable screenings this week inlcude a 35mm unspooling of Michael Cimino's last great film, 1985's YEAR OF THE DRAGON, Monday at Metrograph as part of the series Imaginary Chinatown; Howard Hawks' EL DORADO, also in 35mm, this Tuesday as part of the Robert Mitchum Retrospective at the NYFF55; Cassavetes' masterwork and Ben Gazzara's most iconic turn, 1976's THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE, Wednesday at MoMA as part of the series Modern Matinees: Directed by John Cassavetes; and Andrew Davis' THE FINAL TERROR, unspooling at the Nitehawk Cinema this Thursday as part of their brilliant celebration of old school Times Square sleaze, The Deuce!
Once again, there you have it, my picks and pontifications regarding your next 3 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.
