PLANET OF THE APES- Wed July 13 and Thurs July 14 at 5:30, 7:45 and 10- Film Forum- A reminder that there are 2 days left to catch this. Let's catch this please:
HUD- Fri July 15 at 7- AMMI in Astoria- Part of the Paul Newman retrospective, where he worked with one of his favorite directors, Martin Ritt. From 1963, Newman played the title role, one of his most famous anti-heroes, though far less likable than his character in Cool Hand Luke. Hud is reckless, brash, a part-time drunkard, full-time philanderer, who only loves himself. He has a principled father (Melvyn Douglas) who despises him, and a young nephew (Brandon De Wilde) who idolizes him. Hud tries to use this unrequited admiration to get the ranch of his father's control, especially after Father buys cattle that may have an infectious disease that might wipe out Hud's entire inheritance, er I mean the RANCH, might wipe out the ranch.
Oscars for Douglas for Supporting Actor and for the Black and White Cinematography. Also for an Oscar for Patricia Neal for Best Actress. She might have had the screen time one would more associate with a Supporting role. But her role, as the middle aged maid who is kind of motherly to the nephew yet has to constantly fight off the alternating crude lusty comments and insults from Hud, works best based on giving us further insight into the men around her.
Nominations for Screenplay, Art Direction, and Ritt for Director. Also a nomination for Newman for Best Actor. Didn't have a chance to win though; not up against the eventual winner, Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field. Never mind against the impact newcomers Albert Finney and Richard Harris had back then. Newman's time would come:
EL TOPO- Fri July 15 at 12:15AM- IFC Center- The start of Midnight movie screenings are usually traced back to this Mexican film, El Topo, from 1970. Starts off as a somewhat slow moving Spaghetti Western, as a man seeking revenge against bad guys, and then it gets progressively weirder. If you don't know what goes in the film, I won't spoil it for you. The swinging in tone, from comedy to action to drama to metaphysical to romantic to tragic and back to any of the other types I've just described, might drive you nuts. And because it was shot in the late 60s, it has a very trippy quality to it as well. But the episodic style and part-time trippiness does help as does, for me, what writer/director/star/ costume designer/production designer/co-composer Alejandro Jodorowsky said about it: "This is the story of a man searching for peace, and can never find it.". At the very least, you'll walk away from the screening saying, I've NEVER seen a film like El Topo before, never. And I don't think that's a bad thing. Screened in a beautiful looking digital restoration:
THE MUPPET MOVIE with appearance by Austin Pendelton and THE THIN BLUE LINE and/or HUD- Sat July 16 at 1 (Muppet), 5 (Thin) and 7 (Hud)- AMMI in Astoria- Up to 3 films playing on July 16th. Your museum admission lets you see up to all three, just ask when you pay up. It would be a long 8 hours if you do all 3, longer if you show up early enough to explore the museum.
The day starts with The Muppet Movie, which helps not only to launch the Jim Henson/Muppets film retrospective, but also to launch a 6 month long exhibit of Henson's work, puppets, Muppets, drawings, writing, etc. The first and best of the Muppet films gets a late night screening but for once, NOT at midnight. A sleeper hit of the summer of 1979, you might be surprised that it's more than just a kid's flick. You have a road film, with a stealth satire of Hollywood and what one might move too quickly to give up on to make it big. A satire not on the level of say, Sunset Blvd or The Player, but one that registers now that didn't back in grade school when you/we first saw this. Ok, was that too much? Fine, you got fun jokes, both good and groan inducing. You have enjoyable cameos, with Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, Charles Durning, Dom DeLuise, Richard Pryor, Bob Hope and Orson Welles among the cast. You've got practically every Muppet that ever appeared during the run of The Muppet Show. You also got the Oscar nominated song, The Rainbow Connection. What you'll have is fun.
Also with a supporting role is Austin Pendelton, who plays Durning's assistant. Pendelton will attend this particular screening. Not sure if he'll introduce the screening, or do a post film Q and A. My guess is that it'll be just an introduction, though the museum's website doesn't tell us.
Next, The Thin Blue Line, part of the Errol Morris retrospective. Morris is probably one of the most respected documentary film makers working today, and his reputation and film career was launched with this film. In 1976, Dallas police officer Robert Wood was murdered during a traffic stop. Dallas police had trouble finding the killer, until they received info about a juvenile talking about how he killed the cop. David Ray Harris, 16, when confronted by the police, not only brought them to the car from the crime scene, but gave them the .22 caliber revolver used in the crime, and identified 28 year old Randall Adams as the murderer. The film takes a Rashomon approach of re-enacting the testimony and interviews of Harris, Adams, and witnesses and detectives. Morris, a former private investigator whose father was an integrator during World War 2, tries to make the case of not only was Adams wrongly convicted, but that Harris was the actual killer. Morris also brings up why only Adams was facing the death penalty; Harris was a juvenile, so it would be a slam dunk to go after the adult Adams with execution.
The film was not a hit, even in the art house circuit. And some critics back in 1988, had major issues with the idea of using re-enactments, But most critics praised this to the hilt, placing it on quite a number of Top 10 lists, and the use of re-enactments have been used on screen and tv documentaries ever since. Morris's style of having his interview subjects speak directly into the camera also has had an influence on how some documentaries (and reality TV) are shot. This was also a critical feather in the cap of the fledgling Miramax Films company. The Thin Blue Line has also been credited with forcing Adams's case to be re-reviewed, his conviction overturned, and to eventually be released under an order of habeas corpus.
After Thin Blue Line is Hud, which I brought up before. For one admission, you can see up to all three films. It won't leave you with much time to see the Muppet exhibit, unless you come say, at 11AM or slightly after. It also won't leave you with much time to eat, especially between Thin Red Line and Hud. Remember, this is a museum not a multiplex, so no food or drink will be allowed in the screening rooms:
WAITING FOR GODOT with Film- Sat July 16 at 6:15- Walter Reade at Lincoln Center- A night of rarely seen Samuel Beckett works. Not the material necessarily, but how the material was performed. Waiting For Godot is not a film revival, but a TV revival. From 1961, this was part of Plays of the Week, committed to performing classic plays with theatre actors, on an independent New York/New Jersey TV station. Godot aired months before the station changed its call sign to WNET, as a precursor to PBS. Godot starred Burgess Meredith as Didi and Zero Mostel (after years of unemployment after he refused to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. ) as Gogo. Despite not liking the project, the production helped re-launch Mostel's career. The master of Godot was transferred from Columbia to UCLA to the CBS Media Exchange where it has been preserved, and will be screened for one night only at the Walter Reade.
receding Godot (and also preserved by UCLA) is Beckett's Film, the only project written exclusively for and on film. The 20 minute short from 1965, stars Buster Keaton in one of his last roles. Don't know much else about it, but I am curious:
THE MUPPET MOVIE and CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF and/or THE THIN BLUE LINE- Sun July 17 at 1 (Muppet), 4 (Cat) and 7 (Thin)- AMMI in Astoria- Another chance to see The Muppet Movie and The Thin Blue Line. However on this day, instead of the Errol Morris film, you can see Muppet Movie and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for one admission. From the Paul Newman retrospective, it's Richard Brooks' adaptation of the classic Tennessee Williams play. The story of the family members of Big Daddy, with an emphasis on alcoholic son Brick, his wife Maggie "The Cat", and Big Daddy himself, who rails against mendacity. Definetly with something to say regarding the propping up of lies, how social rules in Southern culture seems to allow that to flourish unless it is challenged, as well as one faces mortality and death.
All traces of homosexuality were removed from the transfer from stage to screen to comply with the Production Code, causing Williams to essentially say "Don't go". Best to think of this as a good Cliff Notes, so that if you come across a production or perhaps the out of print Jessica Lange-Tommy Lee Jones DVD for PBS' American Playhouse, you'll go in well prepared. Oscar nominations for Picture, Newman for Actor, Brooks for Director and Screenplay, Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie the Cat for Best Actress, and Cinematography. Ives accepted a Supporting Actor nomination for The Big Country instead of Cat. But that worked out, since he won the award that year:
12 ANGRY MEN or THE PAWNBROKER- Tues July 19 at 6:30 (Men) or 8:35 (Pawnbroker)- the Walter Reade at Lincoln Center- The start of a hastily put together Sidney Lumet retrospective. 2 films that you would have to pay 2 admissions to see on the same day, unless . . . I'll go into that a few paragraphs below.
First, 12 Angry Men. After the verdict in the Casey Anthony case was rendered, you probably noticed the internet ablaze with anger. One Facebook friend, who I'll leave anonymous, has something interesting to say, among those who did not:
. . . When it comes to small children and animals...expect that case to catch the attention of the country and to get people's blood boiling if they think justice hasn't been done. I'm not saying anything about the verdict one way or the other. I'm just saying that I've ceased to be surprised at what conclusion a jury come to in a case. This is why 12 Angry Men continues to be relevant. I'm not saying I agree with the verdict. I'm just saying that it is what it is...
12 Angry Men, Lumet's big screen debut after years of working on live TV. The story of twelve calmness-free humanoid males expressing displeasure, as they serve as jurors on a murder case. If you're reading this, then you know this courtroom drama, set during jury deliberations, so there's no need to go much further about the story. A fun potboiler of a film. The great acting isn't the amazing part to me; the fact that Lumet kept things cinematically interesting despite being confined to 1 or 2 small rooms is. 3 Oscar nominations, for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay Adaptation. But it was a flop in its day. Star/co-producer Henry Fonda was so disappointed, he would never produce another film again. But it's considered a classic today. On the second AFI Top 100 list.
Next, The Pawnbroker, a tough drama and another good NYC film. Rod Stieger plays the title role, a holocaust survivor, applying his trade in Harlem. Like Juliette Binoche in Blue, his character is suffering from loss and trauma, and despite (and perhaps abetted by) his profession, he wants no emotional contact whatsoever. But just like in Blue, life gives him no choice. Dark enough that despite critical praise, it didn't get the same love from that year as say, The Sound of Music or Dr. Zhivago. Stieger received his Oscar nomination, but most of the film's accolades came from overseas. Also notable for being both Morgan Freeman's screen debut, and being another film that defied the Production Code by being released, for a brief topless scene, without the Code's approval. Worth catching.
While I'm not thrilled about no such thing as a double feature at the Walter Reade, at least there's a 3 film pass available for 30 dollars for us ( less for its members, students and seniors). And any excuse to screen some of these Lumet films in the comfortable Walter Reade, with its large screen and good sound system, is worth it:
