Happy Birthday NYFF!

In 1962 Lincoln Center President William Schuman had the bright idea to ask film critic Richard Roud to program a film festival to be held in Lincoln Center that would highlight the best of American and international films. And on September 10th, 1963 Roud opened the very first New York Film Festival with Luis Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel. That unique choice would start a trend for the festival to highlight films that appealed to the intellectual film set, focusing on new filmmakers and international and Avant-Garde fare. Ever since, the festival has been a high-water mark for cinema that highlights the work of top directors like Polanski, Tarantino, Altman, Demme, Jarmusch, the Coen Brothers and- oh hell. The list is too long. Just check it out here.

To honor NYFF's 53rd birthday, here are my Top 5 New York Film Festival films:

The Battle of Algiers (1966) 

In 1966 the first NYFF Selection Committee chose Gillo Pontecorvo's Italian neorealism war classic The Battle of Algiers as the opening film. The film takes place during the Algerian War of Independence in the mid-50's. Unlike conventional war movies, Pontecorvo shot Battle in a quasi-documentary style in black-and-white with non-professional actors. So on the one hand- it looks like it's real. On the other, it's not. It's the perfect sensibility for a story about a group of freedom fighters (or terrorists) fighting against a country's government (or French imperialist occupiers) where there are villains and heroes- justice and injustice on all sides. The film becomes the uncertain truth of the war it is depicting. Ennio Morricone supplies the score- which is always a plus. Battle would go on to earn three Oscar noms including Best Foreign Film.

Badlands (1973) 

Terrence Malick closed the 1973 NYFF with his feature film debut, Badlands. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek are a 1950's Bonnie and Clyde who hightail it out of their South Dakota home after Kit (Sheen) plugs Holly's (Spacek) father. It's the start of a crime spree that leaves several dead and Holly questioning her newfound soulmate.

Malick's first film is as clear an indicator of his future work as you're likely to see. His grasp of shooting the unfettered horizons of nature and man's communing with and fighting within it are clear visual and thematic motifs that he uses time and time again in his works. The cinematography of the prairie is breathtaking- although none of the three primary photographers on the film would work with Malick again. Sheen and Spacek are electric in their youth and their naturalness.

As with all Malick scripts, the focus is not on dialogue. What is used is spare and feels improvised creating a sense of a moment-to-moment existence for these two screwed-up kids. Malick was a student of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) director Arthur Penn- so some have drawn comparisons between the two films. For me, Malick's brutal and beautiful Badlands emerges as a unique cinematic image from B&C's shadow.

Chariots of Fire (1981) 

For most of 1981 you couldn't go anywhere without hearing the strains of Vangelis' Oscar-winning Theme to Chariots of Fire and picture guys running on a beach in slow motion. It was odd that a British movie about track would grab ahold of the American zeitgeist- but for that one year, it did.

Chariots tells the true story of two British athletes- Eric Liddell (Ian Charleston) a Scottish Christian and Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) an English Jew who are competing for gold in the 1924 Paris Olympics. It's 1924, so being Jewish meant harassment and outright antisemitism in the halls of Cambridge. And for Liddell, being a devout Christian meant he couldn't run a race on the Lord's Day.

So Chariots in a very British way pits two of the world's religion against each other in a race that ultimately becomes a team effort for the good of the country. The film wound-up raking in four Oscars, including Best Picture, but director Hugh Hudson stumbled in his following films and never regained his Oscar stride.

Chariots is the quintessential British movie. Not a lot happens. The tensions and turmoils burble under the surface until they can no longer be contained underneath a proper stiff upper lip. But that's what makes British cinema so interesting- looking for what lies beneath. I would have liked for the beach running scene to be shot sans shirts so I would be able to look beneath their tops- but maybe that's just me.

Bullets Over Broadway (1994) 

The argument over what is the funniest Woody Allen film is more violent than the opening of  Saving Private Ryan. But if I can dodge the shrapnel of Bananas (1971) and Annie Hall (1977), my vote lands squarely with Bullets Over Broadway.

This centerpiece of the 1994 NYFF is an all-star laughfest about playwright David Shayne (John Cusack playing Woody Allen- without the obvious character twitches) whose new play gets a Broadway run and all the selling-out that goes along with it. Shayne in his attempts to make his play more commercial discovers that the botchagaloop bodyguard (Chazz Palminteri) of moll/actress Olive (Jennifer Tilly at her finest) is an undiscovered genius writer whose ideas are even better than his. What's a neurotic New York writer to do?

Allen has always been good at including lively characters other than himself in his work- but Bullets really showcases other performers spectacularly. Oscar-winning Dianne Wiest is an absolute revelation as revered Broadway actress Helen Sinclair whose catchphrase, "Don't speak!" can still be heard whenever one wishes to silence someone. Palminteri received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the mobster with the heart of Eugene O'Neill as did Tilly for her ridiculously funny stage-struck floozy.

The rest of the cast is a who's-who of character actors hitting their marks brilliantly: Tracey Ullman, Jim Broadbent, Rob Reiner, Mary-Louise Parker, Jack Warden, and Annie Joe Edwards who practically steals her scenes as sassy maid Venus. Allen was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay proving that he is a comedy master who doesn't have to be in a movie to make it funny.

Bad Education (2004) 

NYFF loves Pedro Almodovar. His films have been chosen for the festival seven times. And why shouldn't they? Almodovar has become the defacto face of modern Spanish cinema with his unique character-driven mixture of comedy and drama.

Much like Almodovar's thriller The Skin I Live In (2011), Bad Education (which was the Festival's centerpiece film in 2004) relies on some pretty substantial plot twists, so I'll not go into the plot too extensively so as not to become an Almodovar spoiler. But needless to say, the film is an intense exploration of same-sex first-love, transgenders, the Catholic Church sex abuse, drug use, and how our art exposes secrets from the past.

Almodovar has always been interested in sexual expressions outside the norm and the secrets and masks that come with being an outsider. Bad Education takes these questions one step further by questioning how art and artists communicate truths. Is the script that Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal) gives to Enrique (Fele Martinez) a true story hidden behind a movie? What are the truths in Bad Education hidden behind an Almodovar movie?

Bernal is fantastic, with that dangerous sexiness that makes you question whether you should trust him or not. That being said, I wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating paella.




What NYFF films are your favorites?

Early Christmas Present Ideas

The first person who puts Marilyn's JFK Birthday dress  under my Christmas tree gets more than a kiss under the mistletoe.

The auction is November 17th, so you have time to come up with the dough.

Could it be... Madame Satan?!

One of my favorite things in life is to discover a cinematic gem that makes me ooh and aah and forget the popcorn in my lap. And courtesy of BAM's MGM Musical Festival, I was seduced by Madame Satan (1930).

Cecil B. DeMille is usually remembered for his biblical epics with lots of costumes, sets for days, and special effects that make the wrath of God plausible- and fun! So when I saw that he directed this very early sound musical romantic comedy, I was intrigued.

Madame Satan starts out like a lot of romantic comedy movies from the era. Angela (Kay Johnson) discovers her husband Bob (Reginald Denny) has a chippie named Trixie on the side (notorious I'll Cry Tomorrow songbird Lillian "Butterfingers" Roth). After Ang's maid sings her a song about fighting for love (I think that's what it was about. It was very hard to make it out through the sound snow of the old recording), she goes to Trix's sex-den to confront her.

The film becomes a clumsy bedroom farce of mistaken identities, locked doors, and women hidden under sheets. It was at this point that I thought, "Is this really a DeMille film? I haven't seen a single loincloth yet." There is none of the grandness that DeMille was legendary for- and the camerawork was basic static framing- with people literally walking into frame rather than the heavy sound camera moving. I was feeling duped. But the DeMilleness was about to begin.

Ang decides to battle for Bob's affections on Trixie's level and follows the couple to a masquerade ball being held on- wait for it- A ZEPPELIN! From this moment on, consider my mind blown. The party scene is one long bacchanal of over-the-topness.

From the decco design of the blimp, to the outlandish costumes, to the Denishawn-esque ode to electricity dance break, the rest of this movie creates a pre-Depression fantasy world that I was practically leaping from my seat to be part of.

The silly plot of Ang pretending to be a masked French seductress named Madame Satan to regain Bob's love is luckily overshadowed by the feathers, fans, and wigs of costume designer Adrian. The costumes are dreams made reality with whimsy fighting gravity at every turn. You have never seen costumes like this in your life- unless it is in another Adrian film.

DeMille's style arises with gliding tracking and point-of-view shots that make the dirigible feel like an entire world unto itself. When a thunderstorm strikes the airship the special effects are harrowing- turning what was a night of music and dancing into The Poseidon Adventure in the sky. The shots of the garishly dressed passengers leaping from the decks with parachutes are dreamlike and gorgeous with the double print technology teetering between reality and fantasy. Here is DeMille giving us the bang for our cinema buck.

There are probably lots of reasons for why this film's two parts are so disparate. Perhaps it is meant to support Ang/Madame Satan's duality and the two separate worlds of marriage and sexual freedom. Maybe DeMille was cleverly showing the limitations of the new sound film and its possibilities in the same movie. Or maybe it was just that it was only his second talkie. Whatever the reason, the second half of the film makes Madame Satan unforgettable.

BAM's tuneful festival continues this weekend with Vincente Minnelli's iconic musical Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). There's not a blimp- but there is a trolley.

The Big Screen in the Sky: Gene Wilder

One of the greatest comic actors has passed. Gene Wilder was a rare type of comic actor- he was an actor first. Starting with his appearance in Bonnie and Clyde (1967) Wilder created characters who took the world very seriously- too seriously. Whether he is the by-the-books accountant in The Producers (1967) who loses it cradling his baby blanket, or Dr. Frankenstein realizing that his ancestor was right and that you can use science to create life in Young Frankenstein (1974), or a mysterious chocolate magnate who is annoyed with children in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)- Wilder delighted with his explosions of joy and frustration- finding comedy in the character and not the joke. His hilarious performances based on big emotional displays are purgatives expelling the poisons of everyday life. If you couldn't be a Wilder character, you could at least laugh at them.
Wilder was 83.

Happy Double Birthday Sean Connery and Tim Burton

One is known for playing the world's greatest spy, and the other for directing dark kitsch. So it may come as no surprise to you that Sean Connery has never appeared in a Tim Burton movie.
On this celebration of their birthdays (86 and 58 respectively)- let's pretend the two had a long and prolific partnership making movies together.

Imagine these Burton/Connery classics:





Goldscissorfinger (1964)

007 (Connery) goes up against his most lethal enemy yet. Wealthy goth financier (Johnny Depp with a German accent and one sharp golden digit) Goldscissorfinger is determined to corner the chocolate market and hatches a plot to put the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania asleep and steal its stockpile of solid chocolate bars. With the help of sweet Bond girl Cocoa Galore (Diahann Carroll), Britain's most famous spy takes on Goldscissorfinger and his henchman Oddbod (who can  take off his bodyparts and throw them with deadly accuracy).
"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to get a cavity."
It's sugar-coated excitement!

Zardoz (1974)

This strange John Boorman sci-fi cult hit is one of the great weird films of the Seventies. Its vision of the future is part tribal, part groovy vest convention, part LSD trip. So it's easy to imagine Burton's twisted sense of design applied to this bizarre story of how savage Zed (Connery) encounters a protected village of immortals and challenges the cultural divisions of the future.

Picture the great stone face of Zardoz in Burton's hands. It would become a Hawaiian tiki mug that munches up food and dispenses ray guns. Connery's infamous costume in the hands of frequent Burton collaborator Colleen Atwood can only be improved, and her re-imagination of The Eternals get-ups would make Charlotte Rampling more than just a translucent scarf model. Zardoz was mainly an experiment in style- and no one knows more about cinematic styling than Burton.



Pee-Wee's Scotch Adventure (1985)

When Pee-Wee's (Paul Reubens) bicycle is stolen by neighborhood meanie Francis (Mark Holton) and sent to Scotland to get a new plaid seat, Pee Wee has to cross the Atlantic and search for his beloved two-wheeler amongst the heather-covered hills. Adventures include a run-in with Bagpipe Seamus (Connery sporting musical pipes and a kilt) and famous loch monster Nessie who has to convince Pee Wee not to swim with his shoes on.

Will Pee Wee rescue his bike? Will Scotland leave England and join the EU? All this and a cameo by Johnny Depp playing Donald Trump trying to outsmart gophers on his golfcourse.


Batman (1989)

When Burton first announced he was making Batman, the only question more likely to cause geek conniption fits than, "Who is playing Batman?" was, "Who is playing The Joker?" The list of possible Jokers was starry and interesting: Harrison Ford, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Cruise, Tom Selleck (imagine the makeup needed to cover that mustache), and Pierce Brosnan. The role ultimately went to Jack Nicholson, who I think did a fantastic job playing the mad qualities of this twisted psycho- but there are those who found the stunt-casting unbearable. You can't please all the fanboys.

But what about Sean Connery? Imagine that mad Scottish growl on lines like "Wait'll they get a lood o' me." or "Where does he get those woonderful tooys?" or "Yoo evr dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?" Connery's physical presence would certainly be more intimidating than Nicholson's, but maybe he couldn't master the Joker's signature comic book cackle. Oh well.

Connery would go on to play a comic-book-esque villain in the TV-to-big screen outting The Avengers (1998). Sir August de Wynter tries to use a weather machine to wreak havoc on Mother England. And he did it without any clown white.

Sean Attacks! (1996)

An all-star cast faces an alien invasion when Martians attack Earth with an army of clones of Sean Connery characters. Will the forces of Earth be a match for Bonds; Dr. Joneses; Irish cops; various kings, princes and knights; Russian sub commanders; and "There can only be one" immortal swordsmen? It's all the Connery you can handle in this hirsute, sci-fi spoof.

While Mr. Connery has been in retirement since 2003's comic book-to-screen misfire League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (which might have benefited from Burton's talents), Burton's latest cinematic exploration of the strange and unusual, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children opens at the end of next month.

One place where Connery and Burton have appeared together was this year's Father's Day post with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Big Fish (2003) getting some fatherly props. Check it out!

Top 10 - 21st Century Films

My invitation to take part in the BBC's survey of film experts' top picks for best films of the 21st Century so far must have gotten lost in the mail, so I thought I'd share with my readers my top picks:

1. Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

2. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

3. Far From Heaven (2002)

4. Dancer in the Dark (2000)

5. Weekend (2011)

6. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

7. The Tree of Life (2011)

8. Big Fish (2003)
9. Up (2009)

10. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Those are mine. Show me yours.

Film Forum's Return of the Double Features

Double features. These wonderful cinematic dinosaurs roamed the earth back before megaplexes hit and caused the great extinction. In order to sell as much of their film product as possible to exhibitors, the studios would often sell their top movies along with other B movies to force theaters to show both. This meant movie audiences often would see two movies back-to-back- the double feature! Moviegoers could sit back and eat popcorn, mello-rolls, drink original Original Coke, heavy pet, and watch two movies for the price of one.

As time went on the studios were legally prevented from these block booking tactics, and television ate into movie screening time. Most people no longer went and sat in the movie theater for a whole day anymore. So theaters moved towards showing one A-level movie over and over (on however many screens they had) to maximize the audience. Double features were relegated to drive-in movie theaters and second-run houses that specialized in film festivals- making the double feature a rare connoisseur's delight. Well, for the next 3 1/2 weeks, New York's Film Forum is showing a Double Feature Festival, hooking-up movies like a cinematic Grindr.

Here are my recommendations that are guaranteed to double your fun:

Friday 8/19
Vertigo (1958) & Rear Window (1954)

Two well-known Hitchcock classics. Personally I would show Rear Window first because Vertigo feels a little long- but no matter. Seeing both of these on the big screen is a must. Vertigo because it's an effective psychological use of color and image and Rear Window because it's a wonderful use of camera perspective... and because they both star the lovable Jimmy Stewart.

Monday, 8/22
Sunrise (1927) & Nosferatu (1922)

The silent film era was uniquely able to innovate storytelling through the use of images and F.W. Murnau was masterful at it. His Oscar-Winning romantic drama Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans is beautiful and touching to look at, and its vision of The City makes me want to move to this crazy, magical place.

Earlier, Murnau went for the dark side of the film image with his Dracula (1931) progenitor, Nosferatu. Some people love Bela Lugosi's Dracula, but I put my money on Max Schreck's Count Orlok. Creeparific.


Friday 8/26
Psycho (1960) & Repulsion (1965)

Let's go crazy! Whether it's the shower scene or Mama Bates in the basement, Psycho is one of Hitchcock's best shockfests. Anthony Perkins' portrayal of Norman Bates became iconic, creeping around the edges of "normalcy", hiding his true proclivities away in that famous hotel.

In Repulsion, poor Carol (Catherine Deneuve) also has a problem relating to other people, but for her, hiding away in her sister's apartment doesn't help. It intensifies her madness until the walls are reaching out to her. Literally. Polanski's impressive first English-speaking film is terrific and hints at ideas he would explore later in his horror classic Rosemary's Baby (1968). This film duo may give you nightmares. I'm just sayin'...

Sunday, 8/28
Singin' in the Rain (1952) & The Band Wagon (1953)

Two musicals made a year apart covering two eras of the movies.
Singin' has Gene Kelly & Co. dancing through the birth of the talkies, and Band Wagon has Fred Astaire dancing through the end of his character's movie musical career.

Directors Stanley Donen and Vincente Minnelli both excelled at filming musicals: Donen and Kelly's athletic dancing perfectly capture the excitement of the beginning of the sound era when musicals could finally take flight; and Minnelli's sensitive filming style and Astaire's graceful movements make us empathize with endings as well as beginnings. And both feature the excellent writing of Betty Comden and Adolph Green and the unparalleled hoofing of Cyd Charisse.

Monday, 8/29
The Bicycle Thief (1948) & Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985)

Two movies- two important bikes. Bicycle Thief is pure Italian neo-realism and Pee Wee pure '80's escapism. Two great tastes that taste great together.

On a persnickety side note, I prefer the title Bicycle Thieves to the oft-used The Bicycle Thief. It represents the central relationship of the film of the father and his son better than the singular version. But that's just me.


Friday, 9/2
Ed Wood (1994) & Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)

First watch the touchingly wacky Tim Burton-directed bio-pic of the infamous B-movie director and then watch one of Wood's best-worst films. Look for Bela Lugosi's stand-in through most of the latter.


Saturday, 9/3
Badlands (1973) & Days of Heaven (1978)

If it's possible to overdose on too much breathtaking natural cinematography, these two might just kill you. Terrence Malick's two movies about couples who break the law are very different in tone- but oh-so gorgeous to see on the big screen. As usual, Malick's visuals link man and nature and our baser instincts.

Sunday, 9/4
City Lights (1931) & Modern Times (1936)

Hands down these are my two favorite Chaplin films. City Lights in particular is such a beautiful blend of comedy and touching romance, that I dare you not to cry at the end. I dare you!
You can cry at the end of Modern Times too if you like- it's just not required- especially since the song playing at the end is "Smile."

Thursday, 9/8
The Maltese Falcon (1941) & The Thin Man (1934)

Dashiell Hammett is known as one of the fathers of the modern crime novel- so it's natural that his work would be the basis for some of Hollywood's best film noirs. The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man take two different approaches to his material, however. Falcon is a dyed-in-the-wool crime movie with a conflicted hero, shadowy criminals, and twists and turns.

Thin Man takes a more urbane and comical look at the crime story with Nick and Nora Charles (the sublime William Powell and Myrna Loy) bantering and drinking their way through the first of a series of hit films. So whether you like your men thin or fat (Sydney Greenstreet in Falcon is a rotund masterpiece), these two crime-classics are the stuff that dreams are made of.

Friday, 9/9
Notorious (1946) & His Girl Friday (1940)

If I were forced to choose the two best Cary Grant movies out of his long Hollywood career, I could not settle on just two. So Film Forum made the task easier by selecting the two best Cary Grant movies written by Broadway playwright and screenplay doctor extraordinaire Ben Hecht. Notorious pairs Grant with Ingrid Bergman in Hitchcock's tale of a party-girl who marries a suspected German spy (the very suspectable Claude Rains) in order to catch him in the act of espionage. Is she doing it for love of country, or for love of Grant? Just don't drink the coffee.

In His Girl Friday Grant and Rosalind Russell verbally rat-a-tat Hecht's sharp dialogue like a couple of fencing pros, creating one of the smartest romance films of the Forties. Grant and Hecht also worked on Gunga Din (1939) and Monkey Business (1952) but that's for another double feature.

Sunday 9/11
Laura (1944) & Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Gene Tierney was one of the most beautiful leading ladies of the Forties and these two movies show her off at her best. In Laura she is the beguiling girl in the painting at the center of one of the best murder mysteries ever made, and in Leave Her to Heaven, she is the woman who will do anything to keep her man- even if it means giving Darryl Hickman a swimming lesson. Whether in black and white or blazing Technicolor, Tierney was gorgeous- and if you like Vincent Price, he's in both movies too.

Tuesday, 9/13
Double Indemnity (1944) & Mildred Pierce (1945)

Hollywood loved making movies out of James M. Cain's novels, and these are two of his best. Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck headline the Billy Wilder noir classic Double Indemnity as a couple who can't keep their hands off each other. That spells trouble for Babs' husband.

Mildred Pierce came along a year later and because Cain's Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice were such successful murder novels, director Michael Curtiz decided to turn Mildred Pierce into a noir film too- even though the murder that opens the movie never happens in Cain's book.

Mildred Pierce the movie is an exquisite blend of noir and women's film and Joan Crawford's performance was career-defining- even if she'd already had a hugely successful career for almost twenty years before she made Mildred. If you wanted to add a third Cain marital murder movie, Lana Turner and John Garfield in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) should finish off the night nicely. But that might be overkill.

So those are the Film Forum's choices. What's your dream double-feature?