this week in film and television

VITTORIO DE SICA: MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE

Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni star as lovers in a rather tempestuous relationship in MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE

MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE (Vittorio De Sica, 1965)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Sunday, September 20, and Monday, September 21
212-727-8110
filmforum.org

Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren have a blast playing off their reputations in Vittorio De Sica’s Oscar-nominated romantic farce, Marriage Italian Style. The colorful 1964 film is a kind of follow-up to Pietro Germi’s 1961 comedy, Divorce Italian Style, which earned Mastroianni an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. In Marriage, which is based on Eduardo De Filippo’s 1946 play, Filumena Marturano, Mastroianni stars as Domenico Soriano, a well-to-do businessman who takes an instant liking to seventeen-year-old prostitute Filumena (an Oscar-nominated Loren) in a Naples brothel during a WWII air raid. Their relationship secretly blossoms, but when Filumena grows tired of being hidden by Domenico, treated more like a maid than a lover, she decides to take matters into her own hands, with more than a few surprises. Mastroianni is exceptional as the smooth-talking, dapper, and elegant Domenico, who can’t keep away from beautiful young women, while Loren, who previously worked with De Sica in The Gold of Naples and Two Women, winning an Oscar for Best Actress in the latter, is at her fiery best as the hot-blooded hooker trying to raise her station in life. Produced by Carlo Ponti during the brief annulment period in his marriage to Loren, the film, which is told partly in flashback, also features Tecla Scarano as Domenico’s maid, Rosalia, and Aldo Puglisi as Domenico’s right-hand man, Alfredo, who takes quite a shine to Filumena. Armando Trovajoli’s lush, romantic score adds wonderful irony to the comic proceedings. And just wait till you see Loren in that mind-blowing black lingerie. Marriage Italian Style is screening September 20 & 21 as part of Film Forum’s twenty-four-day retrospective of elegant actor-director De Sica, one of the great Italian neorealists; the series continues through October 8 with such other seminal works as Bicycle Thieves, Miracle in Milan, Umberto D., General Della Rovere, Shoeshine, Two Women, and The Earrings of Madame De . . .

BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING

Stephen (Keir Dullea) tries to comfort his sister, Ann (Carol Lynley), in BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING

BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING (Otto Preminger, 1965)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Sunday, September 20, $7, 5:30
212-727-8110
filmforum.org

“I had heard all the rumors about Preminger, but I felt he wouldn’t do that to me. I was wrong, oh so wrong,” Keir Dullea told Foster Hirsch in the 2007 biography Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King, referring to the making of the 1965 psychological noir thriller Bunny Lake Is Missing and Otto Preminger’s notorious treatment of actors. “I was playing a crazy character and the director was driving me crazy. . . . About halfway through the shoot, I began to wonder, Who do you have to f&ck to get off this picture?” On September 20, Dullea and Hirsch will be at Film Forum for a one-time-only screening of the fiftieth anniversary 4K digital restoration of Bunny Lake, which will be introduced by Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey, David and Lisa) and followed by a Q&A with the actor, moderated by Hirsch. In the intensely creepy film, loosely based on the novel by Merriam Modell (under the pseudonym Evelyn Piper), Carol Lynley stars as Ann Lake, a young woman who has just moved to London from New York. She drops off her daughter, Bunny, for her first day of school, but when she returns later to pick her up, there is no evidence that the girl was ever there. When Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) and his right-hand man, Sergeant Andrews (Clive Revill), begin investigating the case, they are soon wondering whether Bunny really exists, more than hinting that she might be a figment of Ann’s imagination.

Television veteran Lynley, who seemed on the verge of stardom after appearing in such films as Return to Peyton Place, Bunny Lake Is Missing, Shock Treatment, and The Poseidon Adventure but never quite reached that next level, gives one of her best performances as Ann, a tortured woman who is determined to stop her world from unraveling around her. Dullea is a model of efficiency as the cold, direct Stephen, a character invented by Preminger and screenwriters John and Penelope Mortimer. Shot in black-and-white by Denys N. Coop on location in London, the film also features cameos by longtime English actors Martita Hunt, Anna Massey, and Finlay Currie as well as the rock group the Zombies and Noël Coward, who plays Ann’s very kooky landlord, Horatio Wilson. Saul Bass’s titles, in which a hand tears paper as if the story is being ripped from the headlines, set the tense mood right from the start. The ending offers some neat twists but is far too abrupt. “No actor ever peaked with him. How could you?” Dullea added to Hirsch about Preminger (Laura, Stalag 17). “The subtlety that I felt I was able to give to my work in 2001, because Stanley Kubrick created a safe atmosphere where actors were not afraid to be foolish or wrong, was missing on Otto’s set. I don’t hate him; it’s too long ago. But the experience was the most unpleasant I ever had.” It should be quite fascinating to hear more from Dullea and Hirsch at Film Forum on September 20.

BARBARA FELDON: ALWAYS IN CONTROL! 50 YEARS OF GET SMART

Barbara Feldon will be at Theatre St. Marks on September 16 to help celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of GET SMART

Theatre 80 St. Marks
80 St. Marks Pl. between First & Second Aves.
Wednesday, September 16, $25-$50, 7:00
212-388-0388
theatre80.wordpress.com
www.wouldyoubelieve.com

Would you believe that Get Smart is turning fifty years old? On September 18, 1965, NBC premiered a new television series starring comedian Don Adams as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, an ingenious combination of James Bond and Inspector Clouseau, and Barbara Feldon as his partner, the lovely and patient Agent 99. Together they formed a kind of alternate version of John Steed and Emma Peel from the hit British show The Avengers. On September 16, 2015, Feldon, who earned two Emmy nominations for her role, will be at Theatre 80 St. Marks to celebrate the golden anniversary of Get Smart, sharing inside stories in a benefit for the HoFoPro (Howard Otway and Florence Otway Opportunity) Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “the promotion and development of theater by making grants to artists and artistic companies needing funds to complete their projects and providing a venue for the performance of their works.” Created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, the Cold War spy spoof, which pitted the good guys of CONTROL against the nasty villains of KAOS, also featured Edward Platt as the put-upon Chief, Bernie Kopell as evil mastermind Siegfried, Robert Karvelas as the hapless Larabee, Victor French as Agent 44, Dick Gautier as Hymie the Robot, and an endless stream of guest stars and up-and-comers, from Jack Gilford, James Caan, Ernest Borgnine, Don Rickles, Alice Ghostley, Billy Barty, Ted Knight, and Leonard Nimoy to Carol Burnett, Farley Granger, Larry Storch, Tom Bosley, Cesar Romero, Maury Wills, Julie Newmar, Broderick Crawford, Wally Cox, Milton Berle, Phyllis Diller, and Hugh Hefner. The show, which inspired the cartoon series Inspector Gadget, spawned such catchphrases as “Would you believe,” “Sorry about that, Chief,” and “Missed it by that much,” and introduced the world to the shoe phone and the Cone of Silence, ran for five seasons (four on NBC, the last on CBS) and won seven Emmy Awards, including twice for Outstanding Comedy Series. Feldon, whose character never revealed her real name (in one episode it is given as Susan Hilton, but it’s a ruse), will be joined by Joseph Sirola, who appeared in the episodes “Bronzefinger” and “Satan Place,” Get Smart experts Carl Birkmeyer and Nathan Sears, film journalist Lee Pfeiffer, and cinema historian Paul Scrabo. “A lot of women have said 99 was a role model for them. Because she was smart and always got the right answer,” Feldon says in The Get Smart Handbook. “And that was one of the first roles on television that showed women that way.” It should be quite a special treat to see Feldon talk about this all-time classic; unfortunately, Adams is no longer with us, having passed away in 2005 at the age of eighty-two.

THE WARRIORS CONEY ISLAND REUNION

You can come out and play with the Warriors as many of the actors return to Coney Island for a special reunion on September 13

THE WARRIORS (Walter Hill, 1979)
Surf Pavilion
3029 Stillwell Ave., Coney Island
Sunday, September 13, $20-$25, 10:00 am
surfpavilion.com
www.warriorsmovie.co.uk

In the classic cult film The Warriors, a Coney Island gang has to return home after a disastrous gathering in the Bronx. On September 13, many of the actors from the film will be returning to Coney as well for a special reunion screening taking place at Surf Pavilion on Stillwell Ave., including Michael Beck (Swan), Dorsey Wright (Cleon), David Harris (Cochise), Bryan Tyler (Snow), Thomas G. Waites (Fox), Terry Michos (Vermin), Deborah Van Valkenburgh (Mercy), Jery Hewitt (Furies leader Muson), Apache Ramos (of the Orphans), and others. The film opens at a huge gang meeting in the Bronx (actually shot in Riverside Park), where the Warriors are wrongly accused of having killed Cyrus (Roger Hill), an outspoken leader trying to band all the warring factions together to form one huge force that can take over New York City borough by borough. The Warriors then must make it back to their home turf, Coney Island, with every gang in New York lying in wait for them to pass through their territory. This iconic New York City gang movie is based on Sol Yurick’s novel, which in turn is loosely based on Xenophon’s Anabasis, which told of the ancient Greeks’ retreat from Persia. Beck stars as Swan, who becomes the de-facto leader of the Warriors after Cleon gets taken down early. Battling Swan for control is Ajax (James Remar) and tough-talking Mercy. Serving as a Greek chorus is Lynne (Law & Order) Thigpen as a radio DJ, and, yes, that young woman out too late in Central Park is eventual Oscar winner Mercedes Ruehl.

Among the cartoony gangs of New York who try to stop the Warriors are the roller-skating Punks, the pathetic Orphans, the militaristic Gramercy Riffs, the all-girl Lizzies, the ragtag Rogues, and the inimitable Baseball Furies. Another main character is New York City itself, especially the subway system. Presented by the LSRR Tour and the Village Voice, the special conclave will include autograph signings, meet-and-greets, a cosplay contest, and live performances by the Gotham City Mashers and Sick of It All. If you can’t come out and play-ee-ay on September 13, The Warriors is also having its annual Coney Island Film Festival screening on September 19 at Sideshows by the Seashore ($10, 10:30 pm).

CINEMA AT MAD: REMEMBER FILM?

Work It Kitty is part of Internet Cat Video Festival at Museum of Arts & Design (photo courtesy Walker Art Center)

Museum of Arts & Design
2 Columbus Circle at 58th St. & Eighth Ave.
Friday nights through October 30, free but tickets required, 7:00
800-838-3006
madmuseum.org

The Museum of Arts & Design follows up its intense eight-week Andrei Tarkovsky retrospective with something a little less demanding. Running on Friday nights through October 30, the free “Remember Film?” series kicks off with “I Don’t Want My Pizza Burning: Comedy Came from the Internet,” comprising more than three dozen comic clips from the Web, and continues with such other unique programs as back-to-school episodes of Art Thoughtz with critic extraordinaire Hennessy Youngman; the 2015 Internet Cat Video Festival, a collection of crazy feline shorts that originated at the Walker Art Center; Phil Solomon’s In Memoriam trilogy, made from Grand Theft Auto footage; Sophie Fiennes’s 2006 The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, in which Slavoj Žižek takes a unique look at the history of the movies; Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut, consisting of a shot-by-shot re-creation of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope made by more than 1,500 people from around the world; 99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film, a documentary of the grass-roots movement featuring such folks as Matt Taibbi, Naomi Wolf, and Boots Riley; and “Early Works of Ryan Trecartin,” which are just that, early videos made by the popular artist, primarily when he was still an undergraduate. The series was prompted by Fujifilm Global’s 2012 announcement that it was no longer producing motion picture film stock and the bankruptcy of Eastman Kodak, two major signals that digital video was defeating film, making everyone with a camera or cell phone a director.

WELCOME TO LEITH

Documentary looks at issues of hate and free speech in rural North Dakota town

WELCOME TO LEITH (Michael Beach Nichols & Christopher K. Walker, 2015)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Third St.
Opens Wednesday, September 9
212-924-7771
www.welcometoleithfilm.com
www.ifccenter.com

In 2012, white supremacist leader Craig Cobb began buying up plots of land in Leith, North Dakota, a rural community of twenty-four people in the middle of nowhere, with the intention of taking over the local government and spreading his message of hate. Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker document the ensuing battle between the interlopers and the town residents in Welcome to Leith, which opens September 9 at the IFC Center. Inspired by an August 2013 New York Times article about Cobb and Leith, director, producer, and cinematographer Nichols and director, producer, and editor Walker headed to North Dakota, where people on both sides of the escalating controversy gave them remarkable access. As Cobb — and instigator, inciter, manipulator, and provocateur — his right-hand man, Kynan Dutton, Vanguard News Network operator Alex Linder, White Aryan Resistance founder Tom Metzger, Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement, and members of other hate groups support what they believe is essentially a legal coup, Mayor Ryan Schock, Sheriff Steve Bay, photographer Gregory Bruce, Southern Poverty Law Center journalist Ryan Lenz, prosecutor Todd Schwarz, and the citizens of Leith examine their options to fight Cobb, who has brought fear and the concrete threat of potential violence to the small, peaceful community, reminiscent of what a group of neo-Nazis did in Skokie in 1977-78. Nichols and Walker, who previously collaborated on Flex Is Kings, incorporate archival footage, town meetings, courtroom scenes, new interviews, and scary video shot by Dutton’s girlfriend, Deborah Henderson, to create a frightening look at race-baiting, the First and Second Amendments, the U.S. legal system, and, most of all, the rising issue of hate in modern-day America. The film plays out like an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but it’s all too real. Leith might seem a long way away geographically, but it’s a lot closer than you might think.

THE LEGACY OF PARAGRAPH 175: DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS

The devastating effects of Germany’s Paragraph 175 endangers the relationship between Paul Körner (Conrad Veidt) and Kurt Sivers (Fritz Schulz)

DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS (ANDERS ALS DIE ANDERN) (Richard Oswald, 1919)
Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust
Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Pl.
Thursday, September 10, $12, 7:00
646-437-4202
www.mjhnyc.org

In 1871, Germany adopted Paragraph 175, an antihomosexual provision in the criminal code that called for the imprisonment of any “male who commits lewd and lascivious acts with another male or permits himself to be so abused for lewd and lascivious acts.” For decades, it led to blackmail, suffering, and often suicide for German homosexuals. In 1919, Austrian writer-director Richard Oswald (Tales of Hoffman, The Picture of Dorian Gray) teamed with noted sexologist Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (The Homosexuality of Men and Women, Sex in Human Relationships) to make Different from the Others, one of the first films to treat the subject of homosexuality with sympathy and compassion. Conrad Veidt (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Casablanca) stars as Paul Körner, a violin virtuoso who falls for his young student, Kurt Sivers (Fritz Schulz), while Kurt’s sister, Else (Anita Berber), falls for Paul. But when the conniving Franz Bollek (Reinhold Schünzel) sees the two men together, he blackmails Paul, who struggles against ever-growing odds. Written by Oswald and Hirschfeld, who also plays the doctor in the story, the film explores the social and psychological impact of homosexuality and gender identity with care and intelligence, which was among the reasons why the movie was banned in Germany; copies of it were later burned by the Nazis, and today it exists only in a partial fifty-minute version to which text has been added to fill in the destroyed footage. In 2012, flutist and composer Yael Acher Modiano performed an original live score accompanying the film at the Spectacle theater in Brooklyn, and she’ll be at the Museum of Jewish Heritage on September 10 for an encore performance, held in conjunction with the exhibition “Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945” and the related film series “The Legacy of Paragraph 175,” which concludes September 30 with a free fifteenth-anniversary screening of the 2000 documentary Paragraph 175, preceded by a discussion with Dr. Dagmar Herzog.