THE NAKED CITY is part of Universal Studios centennial celebration at Film Forum
THE NAKED CITY (Jules Dassin, 1948)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
Friday, August 3, 3:30, 7:00
Series runs through August 9
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
Jules Dassin’s police procedural was one of the first films shot on location in New York City, bringing to life the grit of the streets. Barry Fitzgerald stars as Lt. Muldoon, an Irish cop who knows the game, never allowing anything to get in the way of his sworn duty to uphold the law while never getting too emotionally involved. A model has turned up dead, and young detective Jimmy Halloran (Don Taylor) is heading up the investigation, which includes such suspects as swarthy Frank Niles (Howard Duff). Producer Mark Hellinger’s narration is playful and knowing, accompanying William Daniels’s great camerawork through Park Avenue and the Lower East Side, stopping at little city vignettes that have nothing to do with the story except to add to the level of reality. The thrilling conclusion takes place on the Williamsburg Bridge. The Naked City will be screening on August 3 at Film Forum in a double feature with George Sherman’s 1950 crime thriller, The Sleeping City, starring Richard Conte, as part of “Universal 100,” a celebration of the studio’s centennial, which continues with such other great twinbills as Monte Hellman’s Two-Lane Blacktop and Steven Spielberg’s Duel as well as Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.
There’s a reason why Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window keeps popping up all over town, at such venues as BAM, the IFC Center, and now the Guggenheim Museum. One of the Master of Suspense’s best films, it’s an unforgettable voyeuristic thriller starring James Stewart as temporarily wheelchair-bound photojournalist L. B. Jeffries and Grace Kelly as his society-girl friend (and extremely well dressed) Lisa Carol Fremont. Bored out of his mind, Jeffries grabs a pair of binoculars and starts spying on the apartments across the courtyard from him, each one its own television show, including a musical comedy, a lonely romance, an exercise program, and, most ominously, perhaps a murder mystery. Ever the reporter, Jeffries decides to go after the possible killer, Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), and he’ll risk his life — and Lisa’s — to find out the truth. Sensational from start to finish, Rear Window works on so many levels, you’ll discover something new every time you watch it. Rear Window is screening on August 3 at 1:00 as part of the Guggenheim series “Hollywood Films from the 1950s,” held in conjunction with the exhibit “Art of Another Kind: International Abstraction and the Guggenheim, 1949–1960.” The series continues August 10 with Nicholas Ray’s alienation classic Rebel Without a Cause, August 17 with Billy Wilder’s mad cross-dressing romp Some Like It Hot, and August 24 with Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s musical delight, Singin’ in the Rain.
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 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 is screening on August 1 at Pier 1 in Riverside Park as part of the Movies under the Stars series, which continues August 8 with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and concludes August 15 with Triplets of Belleville.
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