Walter Matthau tries to get to the bottom of a bizarre subway heist in THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE
THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (Joseph Sargent, 1974)
92YTribeca
200 Hudson St. at Canal St.
Saturday, March 16, $12, 7:00
212-415-5500
www.92y.org
www.cinebeasts.com
Loosely adapted from the book by John Godey, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three wonderfully captures the cynicism of 1970s New York City. Four heavily armed and mustached men — Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw), Mr. Green (Martin Balsam), Mr. Gray (Hector Elizondo), and Mr. Brown (Earl Hindman), colorful pseudonyms that influenced Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs — hijack an uptown 4 train, demanding one million dollars in one hour from a nearly bankrupt city or else they will kill all eighteen passengers, one at a time, minute by minute. The hapless mayor (Lee Wallace) is in bed with the flu, so Deputy Mayor Warren LaSalle (Tony Roberts) takes charge on the political end while transit detective Lt. Zachary Garber (a great Walter Matthau) and Inspector Daniels (Julius Harris) of the NYPD team up to try to figure out just how in the world the criminals expect to get away with the seemingly impossible heist. Directed by Joseph Sargent (Sybil), the film offers a nostalgic look back at a bygone era, before technology radically changed the way trains are run and police work is handled. The film also features a very funny, laconic Jerry Stiller as Lt. Rico Patrone and the beloved Kenneth McMillan as the borough commander. The film was remade as a television movie in 1998, starring Edward James Olmos, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Lorraine Bracco, and as an embarrassingly bad big-budget bomb in 2009 by Tony Scott. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is screening March 16 at 92Y Tribeca and will be followed by a discussion with Pelham sound mixer Chris Newman and special subway-related giveaways, kicking off the eight-week Cinebeasts program “The Subway Series,” consisting of subway busking and films set in the New York City underground.
La Fabuleux Destin d’Amélíe Poulain is already a treat for the eyes and ears, but now Williamsburg’s Nitehawk Cinema is making it special for the rest of the senses as well. In Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s wildly inventive romantic comedy, Audrey Tautou plays one of the most delightful, charming characters since, well, dare we say it? Audrey Hepburn, especially from Roman Holiday. Everybody in this film is nuts; Amélíe wanders — always with some strange, curious purpose — through offbeat and humorous situations filled with obsessive-compulsive oddballs doing bizarre things while sharing their crazy likes and dislikes with the audience. A difficult childhood left the grown-up Amélíe unable to interact “normally” with people, so when she discovers a boy’s treasure box hidden in her apartment, she decides to track down the owner, leading to a series of very complex and emotional good deeds she does for others while she cannot figure out her own life, which undergoes a major change when she meets Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz) — who collects ripped-up pictures people throw out after using public photo booths — and becomes friendly with the Glass Man (Serge Merlin), who cannot go outside because his bones are too brittle, so he remains in his apartment, copying the same Renoir painting year after year, unable to capture one girl’s face properly. Jeunet’s (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children) aural and visual style is reminiscent of such Coen brothers films as Raising Arizona, with fast-moving shots, sudden close-ups, and blasts of sound that enliven this masterful film. Amélíe will be shown at Nitehawk as part of its second Film Feast, accompanied by a traditional French menu prepared by Chef Sara Nguyen, with drink pairings courtesy of Pernod Absinthe. The first course includes Croque Madame, Gruyere, Farm Egg, Mushroom, and Black Truffle; the second Pork Rillete, Apple Mustard, Curry Aioli, and Baguette; the third Mussels, Fennel, Sausage, and Absinthe; the fourth Crepe, Duck Confit, Orange, Crème Fraiche, and Radish; and, for dessert, Angel Food Cake, Plum Jam, and Absinthe Cream. In addition, the screening will be preceded by a free Fluent City French slang workshop at 7:00.
”Words can’t really express a person’s emotions. They’re too inert.” So says Andrei Tarkovsky in his dream-filled, surreal classic The Mirror, which features long scenes with little or no dialogue. Tarkovsky turns the mirror on himself and his childhood to tell the fragmented and disjointed story of WWII-era Russia through his own personal experiences with his family. Tarkovsky was obsessed with film as art, and this nonlinear film, which shifts back and forth between color and black-and-white, is his poetic masterpiece; he even includes his father’s (Arseny Tarkovsky) poems read over shots that are crafted as if paintings. Many of the actors (which include his mother, Maria Vishnyakova, and his wife, Larisa Tarkovskaya, in addition to Margarita Terekhova, Ignat Daniltsev, and Anatoli Solonitsyn) play several roles; have fun trying to figure out who is who and what exactly is going on at any one moment. The Mirror is screening for free March 13 at the Mid-Manhattan Library as part of the series “Three Auteurs of World Cinema,” which began with six films by Wong Kar-wai and continues with Tarkovsky’s Stalker and The Sacrifice before presenting eight works by Federico Fellini beginning April 10 with I Vitteloni.
“Poetry should be dissident, and subversive, and an agent for change,” poet, publisher, painter, activist, and military veteran Lawrence Ferlinghetti says in Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder, a refreshing and revealing documentary about the author of A Coney Island of the Mind and owner of the famous 
Inspired by a true story detailed in a pair of nonfiction novels by Romanian journalist Tatiana Niculescu Bran, Cristian Mungiu’s Beyond the Hills is a powerful, emotional study of love, friendship, dedication, devotion, and sexual repression. In a barren section of modern-day Romania, Alina (Cristina Flutur) arrives at a poverty-stricken Orthodox monastery, where her childhood friend Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) has become a nun. Both young women grew up in a poor orphanage, and both still have no real place in society. Alina has come to try to convince Voichita — possibly her former lover — to leave the flock and go with her to Germany, where they can live and work together freely. Early on, Voichita rubs a tired Alina’s bare back; when Alina turns over, Voichita just stops short of massaging her friend’s chest, the sexual tension nearly exploding in a scene of quiet beauty that speaks volumes about their relationship. Despite Alina’s pleading, Voichita, apparently filled with deep inner guilt, refuses to turn her back on the priest (Valeriu Andriuţă), whom all the nuns refer to as Pa, and her newfound vocation. Unable to accept her friend’s decision, Alina begins acting out in threatening ways to both herself and the true believers, leading to shocking, tragic consequences. Mungiu’s feature-film follow-up to the 2007 Palme d’Or winner 