Hey all, Mike here with a revival list for the first half of February. A very short list of one. Partially because of my personal schedule and need to catch up with Oscar films, and partially because there isn't much else in this half of the month that excites me. I would have been ok skipping this part of the month and post a list of 2 or 3 films in two weeks. But the following film I will make an exception for:
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA- Sun Feb 9 at 3- Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria- A new DCP restoration. Part of the Museum's See It Big series. They were only scheduled to show movie musicals for this particular retrospective. But after Peter O'Toole's death, the Museum quickly scheduled his best and most famous film.
This is one of top 5 all time favorite films. That is TOP 5 all time. Whenever one of my top 5 or so is available to see, I must post it, no matter if I own it, or how many times I've seen it on screen. Arguably the best of the David Lean epics with some political relevancy even today, as officer T.E. Lawrence takes a routine mission into leading his own guerrilla army against the Turks, becoming more obsessed with every success. Yet the intimate moments are treated with as much care and respect as the epic scenes, the script deserves just as much respect as the visuals, and has there been a better leading debut for a star than O'Toole in the title role? Ok, Chaplin and Brando, but I can't think of any better lead debuts in color films.
On both AFI Top 100 lists. 10 Nominations, including Actor for O'Toole, the Screenplay, and Supporting Actor for Omar Sharif (don't get me started on his entrance!). 7 Oscars, including Picture, Score (maybe the best film score ever; not sure, but if you have better choices, let me know), and Director for Lean. If you haven't seen it, the big screen is THE way, there isn't a TV screen big enough to pull this entirely off. And the Museum's screen is certainly good enough to do the job. The Museum's website says there will be an intermission. That last time I went there for a film with a scheduled intermission, was The Right Stuff. There ended up being no intermission there, but I hope there's one for Lawrence. The film is too long without one:
Let me know if there's interest. Please let there be interest. Later all.
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