April revivals: second half

Hey, Mike here with a revival list for the rest of April. Let's not waste time, here we go:

9 To 5 for 7.50- Thurs April 19 at 7 and 9:30- Chelsea Clearview Cinemas- A cheap screening of the hit film that unexpectedly hit the cultural zeitgeist back in late 1980/ early 1981. A revenge comedy about three female office workers (the terrific trio of Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, and Dolly Parton) in a giant corporation who are subjected to a lot of crap by a chauvinist boss (played marvelously by Dabney Coleman). They entertain wild fantasies to get even and they seek to make their revenge a reality. But revenge alone doesn't make change, and when reality (and the vindictive boss) strike back, can they take it?

When the film came to theaters in time for Christmas 1980, it was one of that year's biggest hits. Not Empire Strikes Back high, but big enough to leave heavier advertised films like Popeye, Flash Gordon and First Family in its dust. And it was a hit not just because of the quality of the film, but because of the subject matter of women being treated fairly in the workplace struck a major chord while making the audience laugh as well. Yes, it begins to peter out at the end, but at that point we're at the story's home stretch, and we want to know how it ends. With Dolly's Oscar nominated title song. All for a cheap price. It's your choice if you want to see it either at 7 (with a pre-film opening by Hedda Lettuce), or at 9:30 (without Hedda):

http://clearviewcinemas.com/classics/classics-chelsea.shtml

WILD AT HEART- Fri April 20 and Sat April 21 at 11:55pm- IFC Center- An almost Midnight screening of David Lynch's picture. A road film/ romance with a few touches of Wizard of Oz, all through the filter of director Lynch. Cage and Laura Dern are screw-ups hot and heavy in love, who go on the road, much to the anger of Dern's mother, played by Dern's real life mother, Diane Ladd. Mom is more like the Wicked Witch, unleashing a gangster to use his methods to bring back her little girl, and kill the bastard who took her (and ignored Mom's drunken gropes years before. Oh yeah, that).

An arthouse hit from 1990, but I feel it took unnecessary hits when it was compared to Lynch's TV series Twin Peaks (a brief cultural phenomenon that year), as well Lynch's previous picture, Blue Velvet. Yes, not a lot of things matched the quality of the first six episodes of Twin Peaks, but why should it. Blue Velvet is closer to Twin Peaks then Wild At Heart, but even there, the comparisons of heavies is unfair. Yes, Willem Dafoe's repulsive villain, with the slicked hair, pencil thin mustache and nearly black teeth, doesn't match with Dennis Hopper's fully committed and committable psycho. But it works in Wild At Heart, with Dafoe's attempted seduction scene with Dern a standout.

Since 1990, the film has received more respect, though why some people love Mulholland Dr. than this is beyond me. Yes, the film can feel excessive, but it works, mainly because you want to see this pairing of Cage (in gentlemanly Elvis mode a good deal of the time) and Dern (who just seems ready to quiver whenever Cage is ready to touch her and when he does . . . . ) work and stay together. If you don't care about them, forget it. But luckily, you do. Besides, you would be watching this as a midnight movie. It's ok to watch something a little strange at that point. A supporting cast including Harry Dean Stanton, Isabella Rossellini, and several Twin Peaks alumni help. Oscar noms for Dern and Ladd for Actress and Supporting Actress, respectively:

http://www.ifccenter.com/films/wild-at-heart/

F/X- Sat April 21 at 7- 92ndY Tribeca- 200 Hudson Street- I've yet to catch a revival at the 92nd Y Tribeca. I've posted on a few occasions a few revivals from there, with no success. But now comes a personnel favorite of mine. And in this case, I mean a film that I've seen a bunch of times over the years, from start to finish or somewhere in the middle. Doesn't matter, I have fun with it always.

A little film from 1986. Bryan Brown plays a top special effects man, hired by Government agents to help fake a hit on a turncoat mobster (Jerry Orbach), so that he testify at a later date. But something goes wrong, and everyone is out to either arrest or kill Brown's character. He must rely on his FX and makeup gifts to survive and find out what's really going on his way, while NYPD detective Brian Dennehy must investigate his way. Not a hit at the box office outside NYC limits. But it did pretty well in New York, and became a sleeper hit thru VHS sales and rentals. At times funny with some good action scenes (a cool car chase that takes place not far from the site of 92Y Tribeca itself), good lead perfs from Brown and Dennehy and a talented supporting cast made up of character actors and NY theater people (Orbach, Diane Verona, Mason Adams, Gordon from Sesame Street, plus Angela Bassett in her film debut). For me, one of the best films of 1986, but that's mainly because I find there to be a lack of quality films from that year. Anyway, this film seemed to drop in terms of popularity after the mid 1990s, and you may not know it. Now's a good time to know it:  

http://www.92y.org/Tribeca/Event/F/X.aspx

CASABLANCA- Thurs April 26 at 7- AMC Empire 25, AMC Kips Bay, College Multiplex plus theaters in S.F., Denver, Miami, Columbus, parts of New Jersey, upstate NY and elsewhere- The 70th anniversary screening of Casablanca, sponsored by TCM, was so popular last month, it's being brought back again. In at least most of the theaters it played in last March, including AMC Empire in Times Square and AMC Kips Bay, plus elsewhere around the country. I believe it's a digital screening, but will definitely be shown in its original aspect ratio.

No point in breaking down the Bogart classic. On both AFI lists, (top 5 on both), Multiple Oscars including Best Picture, in my personal Top 15, and if it isn't in yours, what the hell is wrong with you. Preceding the film will be a special about the making and I believe history of Casablanca, hosted by Robert Osbourne and featuring some talking heads. So expect about 2 hr- 2hr 15 minute night:

http://www.fathomevents.com/classics/event/casablancaencore.aspx?utm_source=HumphreyBogartEstate&utm_medium=Banner&utm_campaign=CasablancaEncore

http://www.fathomevents.com/upcoming/alllocations.aspx?eventid=1081

BONJOUR TRISTESSE- Sat April 28, Mon April 30 and Wed May 2 at 5:30, 7:30 and 9:30- Film Forum- A new 35mm print An Otto Preminger film I've never seen. David Niven and Jean Seberg play play self-interested father and daughter who vacation on the French Riviera with his girlfriend. An Oedipus attachment develops between parent and daughter, but things get worse when old girlfriend Deborah Kerr comes to visit. Very curious and wouldn't mind trying it:

http://www.filmforum.org/movies/more/bonjour_tristesse

Let me know if there's interest. Later all.

April revivals: first half

Hey, Mike here with a small-ish of revivals for the first half of April. It would have been a little bigger, but I'm not posting Titanic in 3-D. I've caught this mediocre film once in theaters. Never again. Ok, I'm sure the sinking ship will look good in 3-D; if there's only 1 director out there who will take tender loving care with regards to the 3-D process, it's James Cameron. But the script itself, no thanks. I realized when it came out this wasn't for me, more for 12-18 year old girls (and the emotional equivalent) for whom this was their Star Wars back in 1997-98. Have fun, but I won't push this onto others, as opposed to these flicks. Here we go:

RUGGLES OF RED GAP- Wed Apr 4, and Tues April 10 at 7:30 and 9:30- Film Forum- Interesting timing for myself that this film comes along for a week-long run at the Film Forum. I've just come off from watching a production of The Man Who Came To Dinner. Watching it with an audience that not only gets a reference to actress ZaSu Pitts made in the classic play, but laughed long and loud at said reference. Unlike most people under 40 who didn't work in this production, I knew Pitts, if only from her appearances in It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Life With Father, the later as Elizabeth Taylor's mother. Now I have the chance to add a third film, a comedy, starting April 4th, and so can you.

Ruggles of Red Gap, not that different from say, Mr. Belvedere or Jeeves from Jeeves and Wooster, is based on a popular book from the mid 1910s. Charles Laughton plays Ruggles, a "gentlemen's gentleman". A butler whose master lost him in a poker game. No, that's not the worst part. Ruggles is now under the employment of an uncouth American (is there any other kind?). No, that's not the worst part either. Ruggles must move to Red Gap, Washington! Hardly the epicenter of society, especially back in 1908. But by having himself referred to as Colonel and making goo-goo eyes at wacky widow Pitts, things could change . . . 

Features Laughton performing his version of the Gettysburg Address, something Laughton would perform on TV, stage and radio for the rest of his career. Directed by Leo McCarey (Duck Soup, The Bells of St. Mary), and Oscar nominated for Best Picture. It plays from April 4 through April 10, the only nights I can make:   

http://www.filmforum.org/movies/more/ruggles_of_red_gap

ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)- Fri April 6 at Midnight- IFC Center- From IFC Center's retrospective of John Carpenter films at Midnight. Carpenter's second film, a mean and lean little B movie from 1976. A father kills a gang member who shoots his little daughter to death, a shooting that seems tame today but back in 1976 almost earned the picture an X rating for violence. The rest of the gang pursues the father. The dad hides in the nearest building, an old police precinct building scheduled to permanently close in a few hours. Inside the building is a newly promoted young Lieutenant, a veteran desk Sargent, two civilian workers, and a prison official guarding three prisoners, one of whom is a violent murderer on his way to Death Row. But they must all band together when the gang, with their silencers and automatic weapons, cut their power and lay an all night siege on the nearly empty precinct.

Wasn't warmly accepted when released in the States. A cheap ($100,000 budget) overly violent film with an unknown director and cast, who cares. But European audiences embraced the film, and as Carpenter's career grew, Assault on Precinct 13 received a critical re-evaluation and a cult following in America. Basically a re-working of the Howard Hawks film Rio Bravo, with a touch of the inside setup of Night of the Living Dead. Not a perfect film, mind you. The attempt at romantic sparks doesn't work. But as a straight up action film? It's a nice gritty little number, perfect for a Midnight screening:

http://www.ifccenter.com/films/assault-on-precinct-13/

BIRD- Mon Apr 9 at 8:30- Walter Reade at Lincoln Center- Part of Lincoln Center's series of films that made an impact at the New York Film Festival. Might be considered the best Jazz film ever made. A definite change of pace in Clint's career, where he gets to share his love of jazz, depicting the short life of Charlie "Bird" Parker. A radical change of pace for American film goers, when it came to Eastwood directed pictures. For the few who saw it in this country that is. In Europe, Bird placed Eastwood among the leading directors in film, as Bird won at Cannes. It took Unforgiven for the U.S. to feel the same way about him, though I get the change began when Bird played at the New York Film Festival.

Bird was going to be a tough sell. A two hour, forty-one minute film about one of the greatest jazz musicians, depicting his slide into alcohol and drug addiction, despite a wife who refused to leave his side no matter what, until his death at 35. This was before the Behind The Music style bio pics were in vogue, good luck selling this in 1988. Combined with the best known person involved with the film isn't on screen, and the lead wasn't box office, gulp. Clint made the film because he believed in the story, Warner Bros seems to have made the film to stay in the Clint Eastwood business. Maybe a few Oscar nominations might have helped, but only winning for Best Sound wasn't the plan I'm sure.

Speaking of sound, you get some lengthy scenes of Bird's music performed, restored back in 88 so they could sound great in Dolby Stereo. And years before Last King of Scotland earned him an Oscar, Forest Whitaker earned praise from critics for his performance in the title role. Pulling him up from a career of supporting roles (Good Morning Vietnam, Platoon, The Color of Money) to show he could carry a film in the lead, artistically at least. Forest even learned the proper breath control and finger playing to duplicate Parker's style, and the recordings did the rest. The love Bird had for his wife, family and friends are also shown , and how none of it was enough to stop him from sliding further into heroin addiction and an early grave.

So in Bird, I'm recommending a good film. Not a happy film, but a good one.

http://www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/nyff-88-bird

THE GRADUATE- Wed April 11, Sat April 14 and Mon April 16 at 7:30 and 9:30- Film Forum- A new 35mm print of the classic Dustin Hoffman-Mike Nichols film. On both AFI Top 100 lists and in my own personal top 40. An Oscar for Nichols for Director; nominations for Picture, Hoffman for Actor, Anne Brancoft for Actress, Katharine Ross for Supporting Actress, Buck Henry and Calder Willingham for Screenplay Adaptation and Robert Surtees for Cinematography. I could go on about the story, but if you look at revival lists like these, you probably know the story just as well as I do. So instead I'll take a different tack. I stumbled upon an online article a few weeks ago on the Flavorwire website: 12 Great Movies The Critics Got Dead Wrong by Jason Bailey. It featured mostly classic films like Wizard of Oz, All About Eve and Annie Hall, with a small piece from a contemporary critic, tearing the film a new one. I'll post a brief piece of what Pauline Kael wrote about The Graduate. I quoted her before when she got right regarding Purple Rain, I'll quote her again as she whiffed regarding her attack of The Graduate:

“The Graduate only wants to succeed and that’s fundamentally what’s the matter with it. There is a pause for a laugh after the mention of ‘Berkeley’ that is an unmistakable sign of hunger for success; this kind of movie-making shifts values, shifts focus, shifts emphasis, shifts everything for a sure-fire response. Mike Nichols’ ‘gift’ is that be lets the audience direct him; this is demagoguery in the arts.” – Pauline Kael, Harper’s

Nobody's perfect but oy vey Pauline, oy vey. Alongside the link to the Film Forum regarding The Graduate, I'll also post a link to Jason Bailey's article. The link leads you directly to The Graduate, but it's easy to navigate yourself to the rest of the article.

http://www.filmforum.org/movies/more/the_graduate

http://flavorwire.com/272219/12-great-movies-the-critics-got-dead-wrong#8

Now as for The Graduate, it plays for 9 days at the Forum. I'm 99% sure I can make, but two of those days kinda conflict with another revival posted below. . . 

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING introduced by director Philip Kaufman and author Annette Insdorf of "Philip Kaufman" on Wed April 11 at 7:30- or Sat April 14 at 3:30 with no intro- MOMA- The only film from the Philip Kaufman retrospective that I will have time for. I wish I had time for The Right Stuff; for me it's the best film of 1983 over stuff like A Christmas Story and Terms of Endearment. But no, I'll have to settle for The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which actually isn't a bad thing to settle for at all.

From 1988, though set in the 1960s. Young Daniel Day-Lewis' first starring role of note, and yes I'm not counting My Beautiful Laundrette so nobody give me any grief. Anyway, Day-Lewis is a doctor, with a beautiful girlfriend (Lena Olin), and an eye for the women. He leaves the big city for a spell, but comes back with a new girlfriend; a small town girl (Juliette Binoche) with whom he's equally passionate about. The potential difficult arrangement is pushed aside, because the big city I was talking about is Prague. It's 1968 Czechoslovakia, the three of them are together during the Prague Spring. Once the Soviet tanks begin rolling in however, nothing can ever be the same . . . 

An example of the kind of taste Philip Kaufman has in material (Unbearable Lightness is usually cited as one of the more successful book-to-screen adaptations), the kind of young actors he was willing to put into major roles, and the kind of film Orion Pictures liked to bankroll. If this was maybe 5 years later, Day-Lewis and Binoche would have been big enough names to maybe help this film's box-office chances. But this was 1988, and despite critical acclaim and Oscar nominations for Screenplay Adaptation and Cinematography, there was little audience for this ambitious picture. The respect for this film I feel has only grown, but not enough for consistent TV or revival screenings. It's age, lack of success, adult subject matter and nearly three hour length make screenings rare, so you should take advantage if you can.   

Your choice of two screenings. The first is on Wednesday April 11th, with an intro from Kaufman and Annette Insdorf, author of the new biography "Philip Kaufman". The second is on Saturday April 14th, without introduction. You tell me which one works best:

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/14873

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/14874

Let me know if there's interest. Happy Easter and Happy Passover, later all.