Judges for ‘Crazy Hat Contest’ at Film Forum after holiday screening of 1948 musical classic “Easter Parade” flank Jeremy Juliano, who won second-place prize – a blu-ray of the film. To Jeremy’s immediate left is famed director Jerry Schatzberg, 85, who helmed “Panic in Needle Park” and “Scarecrow” with Al Pacino. The other two judges are fashion designers.
by Sam Juliano
Father Winter seems to have finally lost his grip, but he’s not going down without a fight. The milder weather still requires a light jacket, and April remains an unpredictable month. Easter Sunday in the metropolitan area was pleasant, and an opportunity to spend quality time with the family. Once again I must thank our dear friend Dee Dee for posting the holiday greetings and reference point on the sidebar.
I want to thank WitD readers for responding with so much enthusiasm for the British Desert Island post of mid-week, which was only intended as an amusing diversion. After sifting through the comment thread I can report that Carol Reed’s 1949 masterpiece The Third Man easily received the most reservations with 13 readers (including Yours Truly) promising to bring a DVD of the film on the Falklands trip. The runner-up was Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 Barry Lyndon with 11 reservations. The Third Man was actually named on all but one of the 15 lots posted.
The Tribeca Film Festival will be underway on April 17th, and the full schedule of features and shorts are now posted on-line. Lucille and I (and Broadway Bob for some) are gearing up for ten weeks of marathon involvement in a fest that has steadily risen in reputation since it was founded a decade ago by Robert DeNiro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff. The film event’s last day will be featuring a gloriously restored print of Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, which was recently named the Best Film of 1983 by WitD voters.
Lucille and I (and the kids for most of the venues) had a very busy week in advance of Lucille’s gall bladder procedure, scheduled for this coming Thursday. First up was a buffo performance at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center by the Distinguished Concerts Singers International – The Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps Symphonic Band, with Rene Clausen serving as composer and conductor for the second half centerpiece, a choral rendition of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s celebrated story poem The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. Clausen’s work was commissioned and premiered by Eastern New Mexico University in 2008. The composer used a great deal of text painting throughout the work to evoke the drama. Each of the five movements attempt to replicate the perceived excitement of the horse ride as well as the quiet of the streets, the beauty of the night, the history of the rickety old bell tower, and the breathless tension as the message is delivered. The choral ensemble delivered the piece with vocal precision, earning a deserved frenzied ovation at the end. The spirited orchestra performed four compositions during the first half – “A Weekend in New York” by Philip Sparke, “City Trees” by Michael Markowski, “A Tribute to Judy Garland” arranged by Bill Holcomb and including a medley of famous Garland songs like “The Boy Next Door,” “The Trolley Song” and “Over the Rainbow”, and “Second Suite in F major for Military Band,” a renownwed composition by Gustav Holst. Lucille, Broadway Bob and my younger daughter Jillian greatly enjoyed the show, and we had dinner afterwards at our favorite kitchen.
Barry Lyndon (1975) ***** (Tuesday night) Kubrick at IFC Film Center
Full Metal Jacket (1987) **** 1/2 (Wednesday night) Kubrick at IFC
Room 237 **** (Friday night) IFC Film Center
My Brother the Devil **** 1/2 (Saturday night) Landmark Cinemas
Easter Parade (1948) **** 1/2 (Sunday morning) Film Forum
Sammy and I took in Barry Lyndon on Tuesday night on DCP in the IFC’s magnificent first floor theater, as part of the week-long Stanley Kubrick retrospective run in advance of the documentary on The Shining, and then returned on Wednesday night along with Lucille and Danny for Full Metal Jacket. The first is a stone-cold masterpiece, while this latest viewing of the 1987 war film revealed that the picture (while not perfect) is considerably better than the false estimation that only the first forty five minutes are memorable. We did plan to watch The Shining on Thursday night, but Lucille, Sammy, Danny, Jason Giampietro and I were hit with a painful sell-out despite arriving to the theater about an hour early. The mistake was not picking up the tickets the night before. No harm done however, as we returned home to watch a late show of the film on blu-ray. This is one film we all have seen so many times, but another look before the documentary seemed like a good idea.
The long-awaited Kubrick documentary on The Shining, ROOM 237, which included an engaging Q & A afterwards by the director and producer posed some creative speculation for sure, and there were ample clips from Kubrick’s other films to make some persusive correlations, but it did seem that a few of the ”conspiracy theories” were stretching it, and others were pure conjecture. Still, the creators are passionate fans of the film, and for the most part the documentary is fun and provocative.
The British drama My Brother the Devil is nearly a five-star work, but for now I’ll rule on the side of caution and go with 4.5. I do have the feeling however, that this remarkable, almost operatic gangland re-invention by the talented British-Arabic director Sally El Hosaini will resonate for a very long time. Culture collision, sexual awakening and tough life on the streets on an infamous London neighborhood showcases the country’s ethnic diversity serviced by a sharply-written screenplay with a British language derivative that almost needs subtitling, but is supern in it’s authencity. The film is brilliantly acted and photographed.
Young Jeremy took second place in the Film Forum’s “Crazy Hat” contest held after the Sunday morning screening of the 1948 Easter Parade with Judy Garland and Fred Astaire. The hat, created by Jillian with late help from Lucille was Wizard of Oz themed and attracted the attention of the judges, which included famed director Jerry Schatzberg (Panic in Needle Park, Scarecrow) and Film Forum Programmer Bruce Goldstein, as well as a few others from the fashion industry. Jeremy won a blu-ray of Easter Parade, the Judy Garland-Fred Astaire musical classic that finished at #33 in the wildly-successful musical countdown held at WitD back in the fall of 2011. Musical specialist Judy Geater of Movie Classics wrote the stellar review of the film for the countdown and for an encore at her site which is linked here:
https://movieclassics.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/easter-parade-charles-walters-1948/
With the torrid week and the holiday, I was unable to do link updates. I will do everything I can to have complete updates next week.
Orchestra and Choral Society at Avery Fisher Hall concert and choral reading of Longfellow’s ‘The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere’
Screen cap from superb British gangland drama “My Brother the Devil”
Director Rodney Ascher and producer Tim Kirk lead after-film discussion at IFC Film Center on new documentary ‘Room 237.’
Screen capture from Stanley Kubrick masterpiece “Barry Lyndon”
Lee Emery mouthing off in “Full Metal Jacket”
