Tag Archives: bamcinematek

JOE DANTE AT THE MOVIES: THE BLACK CAT / A BUCKET OF BLOOD

Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff play longtime enemies in THE BLACK CAT

Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff play longtime enemies in Edgar Ulmer’s 1934 cult classic, THE BLACK CAT

THE BLACK CAT (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Tuesday, August 16, 4:30 & 8:00
Series continues through August 24
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

The BAMcinématek series “Joe Dante at the Movies” consists of films directed by the New Jersey native alongside selections that influenced him, from his own Gremlins, Piranha, and The Howling to Arthur Penn’s Mickey One, Jack Arnold’s The Incredible Shrinking Man, and Douglas Hickox’s Theatre of Blood. For August 16, Dante has chosen the deliciously demented double feature of Edgar Ulmer’s 1934 hit The Black Cat and Roger Corman’s 1959 cult favorite A Bucket of Blood. The former features the first pairing of Béla “Count Dracula” Lugosi and Boris “Frankenstein’s Monster” Karloff, and it’s a doozy. Through an unfortunate series of events, newlyweds Peter (David Manners) and Joan Alison (Julie Bishop) end up at the Art Deco home of architect Hjalmar Poelzig (Karloff), built atop the site of a bloody World War I battle where thousands of people died. The Alisons were led there by Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Lugosi), who believes his wife and daughter were killed by Poelzig and has returned from a long stint in jail to exact his revenge. Dr. Werdegast describes the creepy mansion as “a masterpiece of construction built upon the ruins of the masterpiece of destruction, the masterpiece of murder,” but little does he know that it might also be a place of Satanism, necrophilia, incest, and other decadent delights. Bishop does a lot of screaming and fainting, and Egon Brecher as Dr. Werdegast’s zombielike Majordomo and Harry Cording as Poelzig’s Igor-like assistant, Thamal, don’t exactly put on an acting clinic. The story, written by novelist Paul Cain under the pseudonym Peter Ruric, does tend to meander a bit, and don’t be fooled by the title or the opening credits, as it has nothing to do with Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” other than trying to capitalize on the name.

the black cat 2

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t both scary and a whole lot of fun, with a fab score by Heinz Roemheld that runs through the whole film, which was unique for its time. The Black Mass scene, with an uncredited B-list collection of all-star cameos (John Carradine, Paul Panzer, John George, Michael Mark, King Baggot, Symona Boniface, Virginia Ainsworth, Lois January, Harry Walker, Billie Burke, and Beatrice Lillie), is spectacular, as is a late fight between Poelzig and Dr. Werdegast. And just try to take your eyes off Karloff’s tremendous widow’s peak. “Ulmer’s dark masterpiece was his last studio movie, so grim that a third of it had to be reshot,” Dante explains about the film. “It’s still the creepiest and most poetic of all the early Universal horror films; certainly the finest collaboration between Karloff and Lugosi. Great classical music score, disturbing psychosexual underpinnings, and a pervasive atmosphere of evil that has latterly spawned literary works by Ramsey Campbell and Theodore Roszak.” Former set designer Ulmer would go on to make such films as The Strange Woman, Detour, Bluebeard, and The Man from Planet X; Karloff and Lugosi would team up for seven more films, including The Raven, Black Friday, and The Body Snatcher.

Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) shows off his debut artistic creation, “Dead Cat,” at the Yellow Door in A BUCKET OF BLOOD

A BUCKET OF BLOOD (Roger Corman, 1959)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
Tuesday, August 16, 4:30 & 8:00
www.bam.org

Writer Charles B. Griffith and producer and director Roger Corman skewer — and we do mean skewer — beatnik culture, the elitist art world, and their very own horror genre in the freaky-fun satire A Bucket of Blood. Inspired by Michael Curtiz’s 1933 The Mystery of the Wax Museum and André de Toth’s 1953 3D classic House of Wax and adding more than a dash of Macbeth, Griffith and Corman tell the lurid tale of one Walter Paisley (Dick Miller), a relatively simple-minded busboy at the Yellow Door, a smoky bohemian nightclub in San Francisco, where pre-Williamsburg hipster Maxwell H. Brock (Julian Burton) recites his poetry and hobnobs with his adoring fans. “I will talk to you of art, for there is nothing else to talk about, for there is nothing else,” Brock says over the opening credits, looking directly into the camera. “Swim on, you maudlin, muddling, maddened fools, and dream that one bright and sunny night some artist will bait a hook and let you bite upon it. Bite hard, and die!” Maxwell’s bloviating words impress Walter, who repeats them to himself as he is determined that he, too, will become an artist. Back at home, Walter is trying to make a clay bust of club hostess Carla (Barboura Morris, who later appeared in The Wasp Woman and The Trip), who he has a crush on, but he is interrupted by the meows of a cat trapped in the wall. In trying to free the cat, Walter accidentally stabs it to death, then decides to cover it in clay, leaving the knife in it, and show it off at the club so he can join the prestigious ranks of the art world. (No one quite gets the irony of his having killed a cat, hipster slang for a supposed cool person.) He is indeed celebrated by Maxwell, Carla, and most of the others, except for his boss, Leonard (Antony Carbone), who is suspicious of Walter’s sudden talent but doesn’t mind making a quick buck off his employee. Also keeping a close eye on things are undercover cops Art Lacroix (Peyton Place star Ed Nelson) and Lou Raby (game show host Bert Convy, billed as “Burt” Convy), who are looking to make some drug busts. Walter’s instant success goes straight to his addled little head, so soon he is creating disturbing statues of — well, let’s just say people start going missing in the neighborhood. Walter is determined to stay in the spotlight, no longer ignored, but it’s all liable to fall apart at any moment, like so much broken clay.

Shot in five days in black-and-white for $50,000 on existing sets (some of which would be used again for Griffith and Corman’s next comedy, the somewhat similarly themed Little Shop of Horrors), A Bucket of Blood suffers from the whirlwind production schedule and extremely low budget — Miller has since complained that there wasn’t enough time or money to prepare a proper finale, and he’s right — but it’s still a hoot, a playful stab at many of the genre conventions that Griffith (The Wild Angels, Eat My Dust!) and Corman (The Pit and the Pendulum, The Terror) established working for American International Pictures. This horror comedy is extremely creepy and very funny, with a superb lead performance by Miller, a distinctive, longtime character actor who would actually play men named Walter Paisley in several later films (including Joe Dante’s The Howling and Jim Wynorski’s Chopping Mall) as an homage to his triumph here. You can feel his every twisted emotion as he tries so hard to become an artist and capture Carla’s romantic attention and thereby help them and others reach immortality. Photographed by Jacques R. Marquette and featuring a Twilight Zone–like score and pace (the Rod Serling series began the same year), A Bucket of Blood well deserves its cult status as a camp classic. “The counterculture wit and wisdom of writer Charles B. Griffith, Roger Corman’s hipper-than-thou alter-ego, is in even fuller flower here than in his classic follow-up, Little Shop of Horrors, aided immeasurably by Dick Miller’s indelible performance as psychotic busboy Walter Paisley. Pretty good for five days and $50,000,” Dante says about the film, which is screening with The Black Cat on August 16 in the BAMcinématek series “Joe Dante at the Movies,” which continues through August 24, consisting of films by or that influenced Dante, including Gremlins, Cold Turkey, Innerspace, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, and, of course, The Howling.

FOUR MORE YEARS — AN ELECTION SPECIAL: THE CANDIDATE

Political newcomer Bill McKay (Robert Redford) runs for the Senate in THE CANDIDATE

THE CANDIDATE (Michael Ritchie, 1972)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Saturday, July 23, 2:00, 7:00, 9:30
Series runs July 15 – August 3
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Four years before playing real-life Washington Post investigative reporter Bob Woodward, who along with Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) blew the lid off the Watergate cover-up, in the Oscar-nominated All the President’s Men, Robert Redford found himself portraying the other side of the political spectrum, starring as a progressive legal aid lawyer who is chosen to run for the Senate in Michael Ritchie’s savvy, documentary-style film The Candidate. The Democratic Party needs someone to run against incumbent Republican Senator Crocker Jarmon (Gidget’s Don Porter), so political operative Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle) approaches McKay, an attractive, well-respected, and popular community activist whose father, John J. McKay (Melvyn Douglas), was California governor. At first the younger McKay has no interest in running for office, but when Lucas tells him he can say whatever he wants to get his message out — because he’ll have no chance to win — McKay signs on. He hits the streets shaking hands and spreading his philosophy, closely followed by media man Howard Klein (Allen Garfield), who is amassing footage for television advertisements promoting “the better way” with Bill McKay. (McKay’s ads are narrated by Barry Sullivan, who appeared with Redford in Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here, Jarmon’s commercials by Broderick Crawford, who won an Oscar for playing the Huey Long–like Louisiana governor Willie Stark in All the King’s Men in 1949.) It’s clear from the start that McKay is a political newbie while Jarmon is a seasoned pro who knows all the right things to say and do, but McKay’s grass-roots approach soon begins taking hold, and as the race heats up, the challenger is suddenly faced with tough decisions about taking power, compromising his principles, and falling in line with the party machine instead of fighting the good fight as he has done all his life.

Ritchie (Smile, The Bad News Bears) and Redford, who previously collaborated on the director’s first film, Downhill Racer, shoot The Candidate in a cinéma vérité style, blending fiction and reality with cameos by television newsmen Howard K. Smith and Rollin Post, reporter Mike Barnicle, actress Natalie Wood (who starred with Redford in This Property Is Condemned), and such politicians as Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Alan Cranston, and John Tunney, whom McKay is loosely based on (along with Jerry Brown). Ritchie had worked on Tunney’s 1970 Senate campaign, which was run by Candidate associate producer Nelson Rising. In addition, screenwriter Jeremy Larner, who won an Oscar for his script, had been the principal speechwriter for Eugene McCarthy’s 1968 presidential bid. (And as a bonus, Douglas’s wife, Helen Gahagan, was the first California Democratic woman to be elected to Congress and ran against Richard M. Nixon for Senate in 1950, losing while coining the nickname “Tricky Dick.”) The excellent cast also features Michael Lerner, Quinn Redeker, Morgan Upton, Kenneth Tobey as a union man, and Karen Carlson as McKay’s wife, Nancy. Photographed by Victor J. Kemper (Husbands, Dog Day Afternoon) and with a score by actor-musician John Rubinstein (son of concert pianist Artur Rubinstein), the film gets right to the heart of the faults of the two-party political system and the manipulation of the media, feeling as relevant as ever despite all the major changes in technology, the 24/7 news cycle, and the advent of social media over the ensuing forty-plus years. There have been many McKay-like candidates over the years, from Dan Quayle to John Edwards to even Barack Obama, with varying degrees of success. But especially with the 2016 Republican National Convention under way, The Candidate seems as fresh and alive, as believable and engaging as ever. “He’s got the name, the looks, and the power,” Nancy McKay says in the film, which concludes with one of the great lines in cinema history. The Candidate is screening July 23 in the BAMcinématek series “Four More Years: An Election Special,” which continues through August 3 with such other politically tinged works as Robert Altman’s Nashville, Barry Levinson’s Wag the Dog, D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus’s The War Room, and Mike Nichols’s Primary Colors.

FOUR MORE YEARS — AN ELECTION SPECIAL: ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN

Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) go to the phones in ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (Alan J. Pakula, 1976)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Saturday, July 16, and Sunday, July 17
Series runs July 15 – August 3
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

BAMcinématek follows up the opening film in its “Four More Years: An Election Special” series, John Frankenheimer’s conspiracy noir, The Manchurian Candidate, with a very different kind of political thriller, Alan J. Pakula’s analog conspiracy neo-noir, All the President’s Men. Adapted by William Goldman from the book by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the breathless procedural follows two young reporters who may have stumbled onto a national story with international impact. Woodward (producer Robert Redford) is sent to cover a hearing involving five men who broke into Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate complex and soon finds himself and fellow reporter Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) caught in a cover-up that begins with the Committee to Re-elect the President (appropriately known as CREEP) and may lead all the way to the Oval Office. The wily veteran newspapermen at the Post — editors Harry M. Rosenfeld (Jack Warden) and Howard Simons (Martin Balsam) and executive editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards) — keep a close watch on the youngsters to make sure they don’t screw things up, admiring their hunger but worrying about their lack of experience. Woodward and Bernstein, whom Bradlee calls “Woodstein,” are polar opposites; Woodward is a handsome, conservative WASP, Bernstein a somewhat funny-looking liberal Jew perpetually smoking cigarettes, even in an elevator. But they make one of the greatest detective teams in the history of cinema, armed with notebooks and typewriters instead of guns, knocking on doors and making phone calls. But Redford and Hoffman — an urban take on Redford and Paul Newman from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which was also written by Goldman (Marathon Man, The Princess Bride) — turn doorways and landlines into intense objects of suspense. Redford’s hand and eye movements during several calls from his desk are utterly mesmerizing; don’t miss how he shifts dialing from one hand to the other without missing a beat. (Try it on an old rotary phone; it’s nearly impossible.) As the names keep getting bigger — from Hugh Sloan (Stephen Collins) and Maurice Stans to Charles Colson and John Mitchell (voiced by John Randolph) as the White House is implicated — the film gets better and better, building almost unbearable suspense even though we know what’s going to happen. But All the President’s Men is one of those movies you can’t stop watching, can’t switch away from when you chance upon it on television; every aspect of it is that good.

The Washington Post keeps a close eye on a big story in Alan J. Pakula’s breathless procedural

Pakula, master cinematographer Gordon Willis — who had previously collaborated on Klute and The Parallax View, which with All the President’s Men form the director’s unofficial “paranoia trilogy” — and cameraman Michael Chapman (who would go on to become DP for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Fugitive) carefully craft each shot to deliver important information about the characters and the cover-up as the locations move from the brightly lit Post office to suburban Washington homes to a dark, dank garage where Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook) lurks to the Library of Congress, where Woodstein searches for a needle in a haystack, shot from above to highlight the absurdity of their quest. Redford and Hoffman play off each other with a magnificent naturalism that makes it easy to get behind them, while Warden, Balsam, and Bradlee add just the right amount of gruffness. The all-star cast also features Ned Beatty, Lindsay Crouse, F. Murray Abraham, Meredith Baxter, Dominic Chianese, an Oscar-nominated Jane Alexander (“If you guys could just get John Mitchell . . . that would be beautiful”), Robert Walden, Polly Holliday, and security guard Frank Wills as security guard Frank Wills, who discovered the break-in. The film is very much about words and added such phrases as “follow the money” and “non-denial denial” to the American lexicon. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Editing (Robert L. Wolfe), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Goldman) and winning for Best Art Direction, Best Sound, and Best Supporting Actor (Robards), the film pays homage to the way investigative journalism used to be done, with grit, determination, and cleverness rather than computers and cellphones, Twitter and blogs. The early scene in which Woodward and Bernstein run through the office in order to catch Bradlee before he leaves is as exciting as a good high-tech car chase. All the President’s Men is screening July 16 and 17, just before the Republican and Democratic National Conventions get under way; “Four More Years: An Election Special” continues through August 3 with such other gems as Emile De Antonio’s America Is Hard to See, Michael Ritchie’s The Candidate, Warren Beatty’s Bulworth, and Wolfgang Petersen’s In the Line of Fire.

FOUR MORE YEARS — AN ELECTION SPECIAL: THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) and Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) need to clear their heads in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Friday, July 15, and Saturday, July 16
Series runs July 15 – August 3
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

BAMcinématek is celebrating the craziness about to take place at this month’s Republican and Democratic National Conventions with the three-week series “Four More Years: An Election Special,” consisting of twenty fiction and nonfiction films (although it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference) set in the lunatic world that is American politics. The festival kicks off July 15-16 with one of the greatest political thrillers ever made, John Frankenheimer’s unconventional Cold War conspiracy noir, The Manchurian Candidate. Ten years after fighting in Korea, Maj. Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) remains in the military, working in intelligence. He is haunted by terrifying nightmares in which his unit, led by Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), is at a woman’s gardening club lecture that turns into a Communist brainwashing session orchestrated by the menacing Dr. Yen Lo (Khigh Dheigh) of the Pavlov Institute. Meanwhile, the decorated but clearly tortured Shaw has to deal with his power-hungry mother, Mrs. Iselin (Angela Lansbury), who is manipulating everyone she can to ensure that her second husband, the McCarthy-like Sen. John Yerkes Iselin (James Gregory), becomes the Republican vice presidential nominee. As Marco gets to the bottom of the mystery, the clock keeps ticking toward an inevitable crisis with lives on the line and the very future of democracy at stake.

Maj. Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) and Eugenie Rose Cheyney (Janet Leigh) have a rough go of it in John Frankenheimer’s Cold War cult classic

Written by George Axelrod based on the book by Richard Condon (Winter Kills, Prizzi’s Honor), The Manchurian Candidate is a tense, gripping work that feels oddly prescient when seen today. Frankenheimer (Birdman of Alcatraz, Seven Days in May, Seconds) keeps the suspense at Hitchockian levels, particularly as the finale nears, while throwing in doses of dark satire and complex romance. Shaw tries to reconnect with his lost love, Jocelyn Jordan (Leslie Parrish), daughter of erudite Democratic Sen. Thomas Jordan (John McGiver), while Marco is intrigued by Eugenie Rose Cheyney (Janet Leigh); their meeting scene in between cars on a train is an offbeat joy, thought to be impacted by Leigh’s real-life breakup with Tony Curtis that very day. Sinatra, whose previous films included From Here to Eternity and Suddenly — he played a presidential assassin in the latter — once again gets to show off his strong acting chops, especially in a long, uncut scene with Harvey (Room at the Top, Darling) and a fierce fight with Harvey’s servant, Chunjin (Ocean Eleven’s Henry Silva). Oscar nominee Lansbury relishes her role as Shaw’s villainous mother (in reality, she was only three years older than he was), manipulating her blowhard husband like a puppet. The dramatic music is by composer David Amram (Pull My Daisy), the moody cinematography by Lionel Lindon (All Fall Down, I Want to Live!), with narration by Paul Frees, who went on to voice such cartoon characters as Burgermeister Meisterburger in Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town and Santa Claus in Frosty the Snowman, in addition to many others. Among the New York City landmarks featured in the film are Central Park and the old Madison Square Garden. And you’ll never look at the Queen of Diamonds or play solitaire quite the same way again. The film’s cultlike status was enhanced because it was out of circulation for a quarter of a century until Sinatra, claiming he hadn’t known that he had owned the the rights since 1972, rereleased it in 1988. “Four More Years: An Election Special” continues through August 3 with such other gems as Franklin J. Schaffner’s The Best Man, Hal Ashby’s Shampoo, Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool, and Frank Capra’s State of the Union.

FREE SUMMER FILMS 2016

Prince will pull into Brooklyn Bridge Park for free screening of PURPLE RAIN on July 21

There’s nothing quite like catching a free movie in the summer in New York City, lying on a blanket in a park, gathering on an aircraft carrier, or huddling in an air-conditioned theater. Here are the day-by-day listings of favorites as well as lesser-known festivals; keep watching this space as more are announced. So far, you’ll find the following festivals below: the Intrepid Summer Movie Series, Movies with a View in Brooklyn Bridge Park, SummerScreen in McCarren Park, Films on the Green, SummerStage, RiverFlicks in Hudson River Park, Celebrate Brooklyn! in Prospect Park, BAMcinématek’s FAB Flicks at Putnam Triangle Plaza, Alamo Drafthouse’s free series in Fort Greene Park, Rooftop Films (advance RSVP required), the always-packed HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival, Outdoor Movie Night in Randall’s Island Park, Outdoor Cinema in Socrates Sculpture Park, Movies Under the Stars in numerous parks, Summer on the Hudson and Hudson RiverFlicks in Hudson River Park, and Movies on the Waterfront in Astoria Park. (Films without exact start times generally begin around sunset.)

Tuesday, May 31
Rooftop Films: The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2016), live music by the Q-Kidz, followed by a Q&A with Holmer, the Elevated Acre, 55 Water St., free with RSVP, 7:30

Movies Under the Stars: Happy Feet (George Miller, 2011), St. Mary’s Park

Wednesday, June 1
Movies Under the Stars: Creed (Ryan Coogler, 2015), Flynn Playground

Thursday, June 2
BAMcinématek: FAB Flicks — ’70s Black Cinema: Mahogany (Berry Gordy, 1975), Putnam Triangle Plaza, 22 Putnam Ave., 8:00

Friday, June 3
Alama Drafthouse Free Outdoor Movie Series: quote-along with Labyrinth (Jim Henson, 1986), Fort Greene Park

Movies Under the Stars: Captain America: The First Avenger (Joe Johnston, 2011), St. Mary’s Park

Arts, Culture & Fun: T-Rex (Drea Cooper & Zackary Canepari, 2016), followed by a Q&A with the producer, Tony Dapolito Recreation Center, 7:00

Tuesday, June 7
Films on the Green — A Summer in Paris: Breathless (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961), preceded by The Red Balloon (Albert Lamorisse, 1957), Cedar Hill, Central Park, 8:30

Thursday, June 9
BAMcinématek: FAB Flicks — ’70s Black Cinema: Cleopatra Jones (Jack Starrett, 1973), Putnam Triangle Plaza, 22 Putnam Ave., 8:00

Friday, June 10
Rooftop Films — Territory: Short Films about Turf Wars, preceded by live music and followed by a Q&A, Firefighter’s Field, Roosevelt Island, 8:00

Alama Drafthouse Free Outdoor Movie Series: Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich, 2003), Fort Greene Park

Movies Under the Stars: Inside Out (Pete Docter & Ronnie del Carmen, 2015), Crocheron Park

Films on the Green — A Summer in Paris: The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (Yves Robert, 1973), Washington Square Park, 8:30

Saturday, June 11
Rooftop Films: Sundance Short Films, live music by Alice Cohen, MetroTech Commons, 8:00

Wednesday, June 12
Rooftop Films — The Ties That Bind: Short Films about Families, preceded by live music, MetroTech Commons, 8:00

Monday, June 13
SummerStage: screening of Afripedia and music by DJ Hard Hittin’ Harry, Saratoga Park, 7:00

Thursday, June 16
BAMcinématek: FAB Flicks — ’70s Black Cinema: Claudine (John Berry, 1973), Putnam Triangle Plaza, 22 Putnam Ave., 8:00

Friday, June 17
Films on the Green — A Summer in Paris: Air of Paris (Marcel Carné, 1954), Washington Square Park, 8:30

Ferris Bueller will bring friends to several free outdoor screenings this summer in NYC

Ferris Bueller takes the day off so he can bring friends to several free outdoor screenings this summer in NYC

Monday, June 20
HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (John Hughes, 1986), Bryant Park Lawn, gates open at 5:00, film at dusk

SummerStage: Screening of In My Father’s House (Ricki Stern & Anne Sundberg, 2015), followed by Q&A with film subject Rhymefest, Saratoga Park, 7:00

Thursday, June 23
BAMcinématek: FAB Flicks — ’70s Black Cinema: Friday Foster (Arthur Marks, 1975), Putnam Triangle Plaza, 22 Putnam Ave., 8:00

Friday, June 24
Films on the Green — A Summer in Paris: Subway (Luc Besson, 1985), Transmitter Park, 8:30

Saturday, June 25
Rooftop Films: Living Stars (Mariano Cohn & Gastón Duprat, 2014), preceded by live music, Solar One, 8:00

Sunday, June 26
SummerStage: DJ Gringo and screening of Queen Nanny: Legendary Maroon Chieftainess (Roy T. Anderson, 2015), Betsy Head Park, 7:00

Outdoor Movie Night: Remember the Titans (Boaz Yakin, 2000), Randall’s Island Connector, Randall’s Island Park, 8:00

Monday, June 27
HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival: East of Eden (Elia Kazan, 1955), Bryant Park Lawn, gates open at 5:00, film at dusk

Tuesday, June 28
SummerStage: Lisa Simone and screening of What Happened, Miss Simone? (Liz Garbus, 2015), Herbert Von King Park, 7:00

Wednesday, June 29
SummerStage: Screening of A Ballerina’s Tale (Nelson George, 2015), with Jeremy McQueen’s Black Iris Project and preshow panel discussion, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 8:00

Thursday, June 30
BAMcinématek: FAB Flicks — ’70s Black Cinema: Shining Star: A Tribute to Maurice White, with Earth, Wind & Fire in Concert (Michael Schultz, 1981) and Earth, Wind & Fire Live on Soul!, Putnam Triangle Plaza, 22 Putnam Ave., 8:00

Friday, July 1
Films on the Green — A Summer in Paris: The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959), Transmitter Park, 8:30

Monday, July 4
HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival: Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986), Bryant Park Lawn, gates open at 5:00, film at dusk

Wednesday, July 6
SummerScreen: Scream (Wes Craven, 1996), McCarren Park, live music at 6:00, film at dusk

Outdoor Cinema — The River (USA): The African Queen (John Huston, 1951), Socrates Sculpture Park, live performance at 7:00, film screening at sundown

Summer on the Hudson — Pier I Picture Show: The Walk (Robert Zemeckis, 2015), Pier I, Riverside Park South

Hudson RiverFlicks — Big Hit Wednesdays: Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015), Pier 63 lawn, Hudson River Park

J. J. Abrams’s STAR TREK reboot will land on the Intrepid on July 7

Thursday, July 7
Summer Movie Series: Star Trek (J. J. Abrams, 2009), the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, gates open at 7:00

Movies with a View: Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen, 1952), Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Movie Nights in the Rockaways: Grease (Randal Kleiser, 1978), Beach 94th St. off Shorefront Pkwy, 8:00

Friday, July 8
Hudson RiverFlicks — Family Fridays: Minions (Pierre Coffin & Kyle Balda, 2015), Pier 46, Hudson River Park

Films on the Green — A Summer in Paris: April and the Extraordinary World (Christian Desmares & Franck Ekinci, 2016), Riverside Park, Pier I at 70th St., 8:30

Saturday, July 9
Movie Nights in the Rockaways: The Goonies (Richard Donner, 1985), Beach Channel Park, 8:00

Sunday, July 10
SummerStage: DJ Kool Herc, Little Shalimar, and screening of Rubble Kings (Shan Nicholson, 2010), Crotona Park, 7:00

Outdoor Movie Night: Selena (Gregory Nava, 1997),Touchdown of the 103rd Street Footbridge, Randall’s Island Park, 8:00

Monday, July 11
HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival: The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges, 1942), Bryant Park Lawn, gates open at 5:00, film at dusk

Wednesday, July 13
SummerScreen: Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (Danny Leiner, 2004), McCarren Park, live music at 6:00, film at dusk

Outdoor Cinema — The River (France): L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934), Socrates Sculpture Park, live performance at 7:00, film screening at sundown

Summer on the Hudson — Pier I Picture Show: Baquiat (Julian Schnabel, 1996), Pier I, Riverside Park South

Hudson RiverFlicks — Big Hit Wednesdays: Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow, 2015), Pier 63 lawn, Hudson River Park

Thursday, July 14
Summer Movie Series: Star Trek IV (Leonard Nimoy, 1986), the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, gates open at 7:00

Celebrate Brooklyn! Music & Movies: Triplets of Belleville (Sylvain Chomet, 2003), Jessica Fichot, Prospect Park Bandshell, 8:00

Movies with a View: Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (Danny Leiner, 2004), Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Friday, July 15
Films on the Green — A Summer in Paris: Un Flic (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1972), Riverside Park, Pier I at 70th St., 8:30

Hudson RiverFlicks — Family Fridays: The Peanuts Movie (Steve Martino, 2015), Pier 46, Hudson River Park

Monday, July 18
HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival: The Omen (Richard Donner, 1976), Bryant Park Lawn, gates open at 5:00, film at dusk

Wednesday, July 20
SummerScreen: The Fast and the Furious (Rob Cohen 2001), McCarren Park, live music at 6:00, film at dusk

Outdoor Cinema — The River (Iran/UK): Sonita (Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami, 2015), Socrates Sculpture Park, live performance at 7:00, film screening at sundown

Summer on the Hudson — Pier I Picture Show: Arthur (Steve Gordon, 1981), Pier I, Riverside Park South

Hudson RiverFlicks — Big Hit Wednesdays: Trainwreck (Judd Apatow, 2015), Pier 63 lawn, Hudson River Park

Thursday, July 21
Summer Movie Series: Galaxy Quest (Dean Parisot, 1999), the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, gates open at 7:00

Hudson RiverFlicks — Sing-Along Special: Grease (Randal Kleiser, 1978), Clinton Cove, Hudson River Park

Movies with a View: Purple Rain (Albert Magnoli, 1994), Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Friday, July 22
Hudson RiverFlicks — Family Fridays: Shaun the Sheep (Richard Starzak & Mark Burton, 2015), Pier 46, Hudson River Park

Films on the Green — A Summer in Paris: Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962), Tompkins Square Park, 8:30

Monday, July 25
HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival: Three Days of the Condor (Sydney Pollack, 1975), Bryant Park Lawn, gates open at 5:00, film at dusk

Movies on the Waterfront: Big Hero 6 (Don Hall & Chris Williams, 2014), Astoria Park Great Lawn, 8:30

Claudette Colbert has a unique way to get to Brooklyn Bridge Park to see IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT on July 28

Wednesday, July 27
SummerScreen: 10 Things I Hate About You (Gil Junger, 1999), McCarren Park, live music at 6:00, film at dusk

Outdoor Cinema — The River (Germany/UK): Rivers and Tides (Thomas Riedelsheimer, 2001), Socrates Sculpture Park, live performance at 7:00, film screening at sundown

Summer on the Hudson — Pier I Picture Show: Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975), Pier I, Riverside Park South

Hudson RiverFlicks — Big Hit Wednesdays: The Big Short (Adam McKay, 2015), Pier 63 lawn, Hudson River Park

Thursday, July 28
Rooftop Films: Animation Block Party, preceded by live music and followed by a Q&A, Waterfront Plaza at Brookfield Place, 8:00

Movies with a View: It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934), Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Friday, July 29
Summer Movie Series: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 1982), introduced by Nicholas Meyer, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, gates open at 7:00

Movies Across from Golden Pond: Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow, 2015), Crocheron Park

Hudson RiverFlicks — Family Fridays: Kung Fu Panda 3 (Jennifer Yuh Nelson & Alessandro Carloni, 2016), Pier 46, Hudson River Park

Films on the Green — A Summer in Paris: Boyfriends and Girlfriends (Eric Rohmer, 1987), Tompkins Square Park, 8:30

Saturday, July 30
Rooftop Films: In Pursuit of Silence (Patrick Shen, 2015), preceded by live music and followed by a Q&A with Shen, Waterfront Plaza at Brookfield Place, 8:00

Sunday, July 31
Outdoor Movie Night: The Goonies (Richard Donner, 1985), Touchdown of the 103rd Street Footbridge, Randall’s Island Park, 8:00

Monday, August 1
HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival: Harvey (Henry Koster, 1950), Bryant Park Lawn, gates open at 5:00, film at dusk

Movies on the Waterfront: Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, 1964), Astoria Park Great Lawn, 8:30

Wednesday, August 3
SummerScreen: The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2001), McCarren Park, live music at 6:00, film at dusk

Outdoor Cinema — The River (Australia): Girl Asleep (Rosemary Meyers, 2015), Socrates Sculpture Park, live performance at 7:00, film screening at sundown

SummerStage: Screening of Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (Michel Ocelot & Bénédicte Galup, 2005), Orisha’s Journey, DJ Djib Sayo, Clove Lakes Park, 7:00

Summer on the Hudson — Pier I Picture Show: The Royal Tenenbaums (Wes Anderson, 2003), Pier I, Riverside Park South

Hudson RiverFlicks — Big Hit Wednesdays: Creed (Ryan Coogler, 2015), Pier 63 lawn, Hudson River Park

Thursday, August 4
Celebrate Brooklyn! Music & Movies: Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer, 1999) with U.S. premiere of live score by the Bays, Joan as Police Woman, Benjamin Lazar Davis, Prospect Park Bandshell, 7:30

Movies with a View: American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973), Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Friday, August 5
Summer Movie Series: Big Hero 6 (Don Hall & Chris Williams, 2014), the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, gates open at 7:00

Movies Across from Golden Pond: Minions (Pierre Coffin & Kyle Balda, 2015), Crocheron Park

Hudson RiverFlicks — Family Fridays: Penguins of Madagascar (Eric Darnell & Simon J. Smith, 2014), Pier 46, Hudson River Park

Sunday, August 7
Movie Nights in the Rockaways: Goosebumps (Rob Letterman, 2015), Beach 17th St. & Seagirt Blvd., 8:00

Clint Eastwood is a mysterious man with a plan as he gallops into Bryant Park on August 8 for a screening of HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER

Monday, August 8
HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival: High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood, 1973), Bryant Park Lawn, gates open at 5:00, film at dusk

Coney Island Flicks on the Beach: Rooftop Shorts, West Tenth St.

Movies on the Waterfront: Minions (Pierre Coffin & Kyle Balda, 2015), Astoria Park Great Lawn, 8:30

Wednesday, August 10
SummerScreen: audience pick, McCarren Park, live music at 6:00, film at dusk

Outdoor Cinema — The River (China): Suzhou River (Lou Ye, 2000), Socrates Sculpture Park, live performance at 7:00, film screening at sundown

Celebrate Brooklyn! Music & Movies: Labyrinth (Jim Henson, 1986), Donny McCaslin Group, Prospect Park Bandshell, 7:30

Summer on the Hudson — Pier I Picture Show: audience vote, Mary and Max (Adam Elliot, 2009) v. Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015) v. The Warriors (Walter Hill, 1979), Pier I, Riverside Park South, 6:30

Hudson RiverFlicks — Big Hit Wednesdays: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (Francis Lawrence, 2015), Pier 63 lawn, Hudson River Park

Thursday, August 11
Movies with a View: Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014), Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Friday, August 12
Summer Movie Series: Star Trek (J. J. Abrams, 2009), the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, gates open at 7:00

Movies Across from Golden Pond: The Avengers (Joss Whedon, 2012), Crocheron Park

Hudson RiverFlicks — Family Fridays: Goosebumps (Rob Letterman, 2015), Pier 46, Hudson River Park

Saturday, August 13
Movie Nights in the Rockaways: Zootopia (Byron Howard, Rich Moore & Jared Bush, 2016), Broad Channel Park, 8:00

Sunday, August 14
Outdoor Movie Night: The Good Dinosaur (Peter Sohn, 2015), Randall’s Island Connector, Randall’s Island Park, 8:00

Monday, August 15
HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival: The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan, 1983), Bryant Park Lawn, gates open at 5:00, film at dusk

Coney Island Flicks on the Beach: Purple Rain (Albert Magnoli, 1984), West Tenth St.

Movies on the Waterfront: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (John Hughes, 1986), Astoria Park Great Lawn, 8:30

Wednesday, August 17
Outdoor Cinema — The River (Germany/Peru): Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Werner Herzog, 1972), Socrates Sculpture Park, live performance at 7:00, film screening at sundown

Summer on the Hudson — Pier I Picture Show: Auntie Mame (Morton DaCosta, 1958), Pier I, Riverside Park South, 6:30

Hudson RiverFlicks — Big Hit Wednesdays: The Martian (Ridley Scott, 2015), Pier 63 lawn, Hudson River Park

Thursday, August 18
Movies with a View: A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall, 1992), Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Friday, August 19
Hudson RiverFlicks — Family Fridays: The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987), Pier 46, Hudson River Park

Monday, August 22
HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 1982), Bryant Park Lawn, gates open at 5:00, film at dusk

Coney Island Flicks on the Beach: Creed (Ryan Coogler, 2015), West Tenth St.

Central Park Conservancy Film Festival: School of Rock (Richard Linklater, 2003), Marcus Garvey Park

Movies on the Waterfront: Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975), Astoria Park Great Lawn, 8:30

Tuesday, August 23
Central Park Conservancy Film Festival: The Last Dragon (Berry Gordy, 1985), Marcus Garvey Park

Wednesday, August 24
Outdoor Cinema — The River (Colombia): Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra, 2015), Socrates Sculpture Park, live performance at 7:00, film screening at sundown

Central Park Conservancy Film Festival: I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007), Central Park

Thursday, August 25
Movies with a View: public vote, Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park

Central Park Conservancy Film Festival: Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982), Central Park

Friday, August 26
Central Park Conservancy Film Festival: Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985), Central Park

Saturday, August 27
Movie Nights in the Rockaways: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J. J. Abrams, 2015), Beach 59th St., 8:00

Sunday, August 28
Outdoor Movie Night: Inside Out (Pete Docter & Ronnie del Carmen, 2015), Randall’s Island Connector, Randall’s Island Park, 8:00

Thursday, September 8
Films on the Green — A Summer in Paris: Girlhood (Céline Sciamma, 2014), Columbia University, 116th St., 7:30

LABOR OF LOVE — 100 YEARS OF MOVIE DATES: MASCULIN FÉMININ

Paul (Jean-Pierre Léaud) has his eyes on the prize in Godard’s MASCULIN FÉMININ

MASCULIN FÉMININ (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Friday, May 6, 2:00 & 7:00
Series runs May 4-17
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

In a 1966 interview with Pierre Daix about Masculin feminin, director Jean-Luc Godard said, “When I made this film, I didn’t have the least idea of what I wanted.” Initially to be based on the Guy de Maupassant short stories “The Signal” and “Paul’s Mistress,” the film ended up being a revolutionary examination of the emerging youth culture in France, which Godard identifies as “the children of Marx and Coca-Cola.” Godard threw away the script and worked on the fly to make the film, which stars Jean-Pierre Léaud as Paul, a peculiar young man who quickly becomes obsessed with budding pop star Madeleine, played by real-life Yé-yé singer Chantal Goya. (Godard discovered her on a television variety show.) Paul chases Madeleine, getting a job at the same company, going to the movies and nightclubs with her and her friends, and meeting her in cafés, where he wants to talk about the troubles of contemporary society and she just wants to have a good time. “Man’s conscience doesn’t determine his existence. His social being determines his conscience,” Paul proclaims. He continually argues that there is nothing going on even as strange events occur around him to which he is completely oblivious, including a lover’s spat in which a woman guns down a man in broad daylight. (Sounds of rapid-fire bullets can be heard over the intertitles for each of the film’s fifteen faits précis, evoking a sense of impending doom.) Paul has bizarre conversations with his best friend, Robert (Michel Debord), a radical who asks him to help put up anarchist posters. Posing as a journalist, Paul brutally interviews Miss 19 (Elsa Leroy), a young model with a very different view of society and politics. Godard has also included a playful battle of the sexes in the center of it all: Paul wants Madeleine, much to the consternation of Madeleine’s roommate, Elisabeth (Marlène Jobert), who also has designs on her; meanwhile, Robert goes out with another of Madeleine’s friends, the more grounded Catherine (Catherine-Isabelle Duport), who is interested in Paul. It all makes for great fun, taking place in a surreal black-and-white world dominated by rampant consumerism.

Brigitte Bardot makes an unexpected cameo in MASCULIN FÉMININ

In addition, Godard comments on the state of cinema itself. As they watch a Bergman-esque Swedish erotic film (directed by Godard and starring Eva-Britt Strandberg and Birger Malmsten), Paul dashes off to the projectionist, arguing that the aspect ratio is wrong. And in a café scene, French starlet Brigitte Bardot and theater director Antoine Bourseiller sit in a booth, playing themselves as they go over a script, bringing together the real and the imaginary. “I no longer have any idea where I am from the point of view of cinema,” Godard told Daix. “I am in search of cinema. It seems to me that I have lost it.” Well, he apparently found it again with the seminal Masculin feminin, which is screening with Agnès Varda’s 1975 eight-minute short, Women Reply: Our Bodies Our Sex, on May 6 in the BAMcinématek series “Labor of Love: 100 First Dates.” The festival, inspired by Moira Weigel’s new book, Labor of Love: The Invention of Dating, consists of great date flicks that are also about searching for a significant other. The lineup also features such favorites as Nora Ephron’s You’ve Got Mail paired with Edwin S. Porter’s 1904 How a French Nobleman Got a Wife through the New York Herald, Richard Brooks’s Looking for Mr. Goodbar, William Friedkin’s Cruising, Max Ophüls’s La Ronde, and Mary Harron’s American Psycho. Be careful which film you choose to see if you’ll be taking a date, as it will reveal a whole lot about you….

ANNA KARINA IN NEW YORK CITY

Anna Karina will be in New York City for three special presentations of films she made with onetime husband Jean-Luc Godard

Who: Anna Karina
What: Screenings and discussions in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens
Where: BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St., 718-636-4100
Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria, 718-777-6800
Film Forum, 209 West Houston St., 212-727-8110
When: BAM: Tuesday, May 3, $20, 7:30; MoMI: Wednesday, May 4, $25, 7:00; Film Forum: Friday, May 6, $14, 7:30
Why: Legendary Danish-French actress Anna Karina will be making three rare New York City appearances next week at a trio of special screenings of films she made with Jean-Luc Godard. On May 3, the seventy-five-year-old Karina, who was married to Godard in from 1961 to 1965, starred in seven of his films in addition to works by Agnès Varda, Roger Vadim, Jacques Rivette, Volker Schlöndorff, Tony Richardson, Benoît Jacquot, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Raoul Ruiz, and others, will be at BAM for a members-only screening of 1960’s A Woman Is a Woman, for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Berlin Film Festival, followed by a Q&A with Melissa Anderson. If you’re not a BAM member, you can see Karina on May 4 at the Museum of the Moving Image, where she will participate in a conversation with Molly Haskell after a screening of 1965’s Pierrot le fou. And on May 6, Film Forum will present 1964’s Band of Outsiders, with Karina taking part in a discussion and audience Q&A following the 7:30 show. Band of Outsiders continues there through May 12, alongside the series “Anna & Jean-Luc,” which also includes Vivre Sa Vie, Alphaville, Le Petit Soldat, Made in U.S.A., A Woman Is a Woman, and Pierrot le Fou.