Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins, and Herbert Marshall are caught in quite a pickle in risqué Ernst Lubitsch classic
TROUBLE IN PARADISE (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Friday, August 10, 4:30 & 9:15
Series runs through September 17
212-415-5500
www.bam.org
“Beginnings are always difficult,” suave thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) says at the beginning of Trouble in Paradise, but it’s not difficult at all to fall in love with the beginning, middle, and end of Ernst Lubitsch’s wonderful pre-Code romantic comedy. It’s love at first heist for Gaston and Lily (Miriam Hopkins) as they try to outsteal each other on a moonlit night in Venice. Soon they are teaming up to fleece perfume heir Madame Mariette Colet (Kay Francis) of money and jewels as the wealthy socialite takes a liking to Gaston despite her being relentlessly pursued by the hapless François Filiba (Edward Everett Horton) and the stiff Major (Charles Ruggles). Displaying what became known as the Lubitsch Touch, the Berlin-born director has a field day with risqué sexual innuendo, particularly in the early scene when Gaston and Lily first meet (oh, that garter!) and later as Madame Colet’s affection for Gaston grows, along with Lily’s jealousy. Loosely based on the 1931 play The Honest Finder by Aladár László, which was inspired by the true story of Romanian con man George Manolescu, the 1932 film remained out of circulation for decades during the Hays Code, and it’s easy to see why. Trouble in Paradise is screening August 10 in the BAMcinématek series “American Gagsters: Great Comedy Teams,” which runs through September 17 and consists of fifty films (all but one in 35mm), including such other classics as Some Like It Hot, Sullivan’s Travels, Born Yesterday, Blazing Saddles, Airplane! and multiple movies starring Cary Grant, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Steve Martin, and Bill Murray.
Liberally adapted from Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s 2006 graphic novel, Cowboys & Aliens is a summer popcorn slice-and-dice mash-up of just about every Western and sci-fi flick you’ve ever seen. Boasting the producing talents of Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Steven Spielberg, Jon Favreau (who also directed), and others, the film pays tribute to its match-made-in-heaven dueling genres with references to such classic tales as The Searchers, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Unforgiven, Aliens, Blazing Saddles, War of the Worlds, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Stagecoach, Star Trek, The Magnificent Seven, Avatar, High Plains Drifter, Blade Runner, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Predator, True Grit, The Poseidon Adventure, and many more. Heck, they even throw in some zombies for good measure. In the dry, hot desert shortly after the Civil War, a stranger (Daniel Craig) with amnesia arrives in the small town of Absolution, sporting a six-shooter and a weird bracelet manacled to his left arm. Soon identified as wanted outlaw Jake Lonergan, he gets himself into trouble with Percy (Paul Dano), the bully son of wealthy cattle baron Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). But before Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine) can turn over Jake and Percy to the federal marshals, a massive attack comes down from the sky as flying machines start blowing everything up and stealing many of the town’s residents, including María (Ana de la Reguera), wife of the weak-willed Doc (Sam Rockwell), and Percy. So sworn enemies are forced to band together, along with the mysterious Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), to figure out just how they can get their loved ones back. Sure, the meandering plot gets unhinged time and time again — it’s never a good sign when half a dozen writers are attached to the story and screenplay — and the film lacks any James Bond–like, Han Solo/Indiana Jones–esque catchphrases, but Favreau (Elf, Iron Man) manages to hold it all together just enough to make Cowboys & Aliens a fun, out-of-this-world oater, even if it should have been better. Cowboys & Aliens is screening August 8 at Hudson River Park’s Pier 63 as part of the free River Flicks for Grown-Ups series, which continues with Crazy, Stupid Love on August 15 before concluding with Horrible Bosses on August 22. For a day-by-day listing of free summer movie screenings in New York City, go 
Shot in sharp black-and-white that makes the characters virtually jump off the screen, George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck., which opened the 2005 New York Film Festival, is a thrilling behind-the-scenes look at the early days of television journalism at CBS News. David Strathairn is outstanding as Edward R. Murrow, a dedicated reporter who took on Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunt in the mid-1950s. As the junior senator continued bringing innocent people down, Murrow challenged him on live TV, walking a fine line between fact and opinion, between staying neutral and injecting personal beliefs into the story. Mixing in plenty of original footage, Clooney captures the mood of the era which was primarily fear while also questioning the importance of television as a form of serious journalism, both things that are extremely relevant in today’s mass-media-driven political culture. Clooney, who cowrote and directed the film, plays legendary CBS producer Fred Friendly in a cast that also features Robert Downey Jr. (Joe Wershba), Patricia Clarkson (Shirley Wershba), Ray Wise (Don Hollenbeck), Frank Langella (William Paley), Jeff Daniels (Sig Mickelson), cowriter Grant Heslov (Don Hewitt), and Dianne Reeves as a jazz singer who often links scenes. Sports fans, take note: Among the executive producers of this low-budget triumph is Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Nominated for six Oscars and winner of none, Good Night, and Good Luck. is screening August 9 and 16 at MoMA as part of the series “A View from the Vaults, 2012: Recent Acquisitions,” which continues through August 19 with such new films in MoMA’s collection as George Archainbaud’s Thirteen Women, Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin, and the Coen brothers’ True Grit.
New Jersey native Todd Solondz busted out of the gate with a trio of fascinating, dark films — Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), Happiness (1998), and Storytelling (2001) — that explored childhood and adolescence in controversial yet captivating ways, examining such subjects as bullying, child abuse, and burgeoning sexuality. But the eclectic writer-director goes way too far with Palindromes, a complex tale that makes for an extremely painful cinematic experience. Opening with the funeral of Dawn Wiener (the lead character in Dollhouse), the film tells the tale of a thirteen-year-old girl who is desperate to have a baby so she can share the love she feels inside her. Her parents (Ellen Barkin, who could use some hand cream, and Richard Masur, from One Day at a Time) adore her, but they can’t prevent her from pursuing her needs. As young Aviva ventures out into the world, she is played by very different actors in every scene (including Emani Sledge, Valerie Shusterov, Hannah Freiman, Rachel Corr, Will Denton, Sharon Wilkins, Shayna Levine, and Jennifer Jason Leigh), a tactic that ranges from being cute and clever to manipulative and annoying. Aviva is so dispassionate about everything in her life except wanting a baby, you’ll want to shake her out of her malaise and yell at her to speak faster. Stephen Adly Guirgis costars as a truck driver with a thing for young girls, and Debra Monk plays a Bible-lovin’ woman who runs a halfway house for children with physical and mental disabilities that is disturbing to watch — and not in a good way. We’d love to think of a palindrome (words or sentences that are the same backward and forward) to further knock this film, but it’s not worth our time, or yours. Palindromes is screening August 9 as part of the MoMA film series “Unaccompanied Minors: Views of Youth in Films from the Collection,” being held in conjunction with the new exhibit “Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000.” Running through August 14, the festival includes such other films about childhood as Irving Cummings’s Curly Top, Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter, Maria João Ganga’s Hollow City, Laslo Benedek’s Sons, Mothers, and a General, and Peter Brook’s Lord of the Flies.
