NYC Noir
Posted by: Katherine Dacey on July 31, 2007 at 3:49 pm
If you’ve exhausted the possibilities at your neighborhood multiplex, but still want a respite from that special form of summer misery known as August heat, you’ll want to check out Film Forum’s month-long tribute to New York City. Titles range from silent classics to seminal blaxploitation pics, with a healthy representation of vintage noir and gritty 70s realism. The best part of the festival: the awesome, film-fanatic-friendly double features. Below are some highlights.
Pickup on South Street ; Kiss of Death (August 2nd and 3rd)
Richard Widmark, baby, the O.G. of noir! So much better than the remake with Nicholas Cage and David Caruso you’ll wonder why the producers thought an update was warranted.
Taxi Driver ; Mean Streets (August 12th and 13th)
You lookin’ at me?
The Warriors ; Superfly (August 17th and 18th)
Everybody together now: “Oh Waaaarrriors, come out to plaaaaaaaaay.” (No word on whether Film Forum will let you bring your own Coke bottle castanets, but it’s worth a shot.)
Rear Window ; Rope (August 24th and 25th)
If you’ve ever wondered what life was like in New York City B.A.C. (that’s “before air conditioning,” a.k.a. before 1960), you’ll want to watch Hitchcock’s claustrophobic masterpiece. The cast alone is worth the price of admission, with Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, and Raymond Burr in the principal roles, but Rear Window also boasts great cinematography, crackling dialogue, and some very funny slice-of-life scenes that give the movie authentic Noo Yawk flava.
Other flicks worth a look-see include Klute (Jane Fonda as a boozy, Oscar-winning prostitute!), Wait Until Dark (Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman menaced by Alan Arkin!), and one of my all-time favorite good-bad movies, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974). With Walter Matthau as a grumpy cop, Jerry Stiller as a smart-mouthed transit employee, and Robert “Shark Hunter” Shaw as a terrorist who hijacks the No. 6 train for one million dollars ransom, Pelham is a valentine to New York in all its deteriorating, Ford-era glory. And speaking of 70s cinema, the final film in the NYC Noir schedule is The French Connection (1971), which closes out the festival with a one week run from August 31st to September 6th. For my money, the speeding-under-the-El sequence is the best car chase ever captured on film. Sorry, Steve.
Tickets for all shows are available at the Film Forum box office (209 West Houston Street; 212-727-8110) or through their website.
Dylan Garret August 3rd, 2007
Thanks! I know this is kind of an NYC-specific post, but you totally just gave me a bunch of things to do this month. Now if only I can convince my girl to come see The Warriors and French Connection with me.
I think I can. The ladies love Gene Hackman.
Katherine Dacey-Tsuei August 4th, 2007
Oh yes, we ladies love (vintage) Gene Hackman. Maybe not quite as much as Steve McQueen, but we like him. We really do.
Tina August 16th, 2007
Great movies…but they’re all about the Manny. :/ Two noir treats that come to mind that take us off the island are Romeo is Bleeding, Gloria [not that Sharon Stone crappy remake!], and of course– Little Odessa [filmed near my old hood!].
I guess all the movies though are from the 70’s right? NYC has changed so much – and I appreciate film’s love affair with that time, but I’d like to see more contemporary films featuring NYC get more spotlight.
I can’t recall if you and I are the same age or not, but can you remember living through ‘77 in Hell’. I was 7 years old and I recall everything about that summer just sucked massively, but it was never boring. My sister was stuck in the house because my mother was sure Son of Sam would break his routine just to shoot her daughter, the cops weren’t showing up for work because they weren’t getting paid like they thought they should, and then on the hottest night of the year–the power went out and didn’t come back on.
Katherine Dacey-Tsuei August 16th, 2007
I’m your age, Tina, but I was living in Boston in 1977, so I have no special memories of that year, other than enduring my next door neighbor’s endless re-enactments of Star Wars.
I saw your post over at GGY–I hope some folks will read it, because it offers a good corrective to the hyper-nostalgic way in which so many people are writing about NYC in the 1970s. I’m sure my post probably sounded like a nostalgia piece, too, but I’m actually excited about the movies, not the chance to revisit a lowpoint in NYC history.
Tina August 16th, 2007
I agree 100% though with your assessment on those films. Despite my own cynical view of life at that time, looking back on those films as an adult, gave me an appreciation of the time period. I don’t think we’ll ever have films like that again, no matter where they’re set–I know I recently watched Zodiac and the whole film just reminded me of just how far we’ve come… +cops not using seat belts, +women absent from workplaces, +cigarette machines, etc. LOL! It’s nice to see a contemporary film capture that feel, but again…those time are gone. What rules are there left to break in cinema?
Hey, is the film Something Wild with Carroll Baker playing? There’s a classic noir NYC film.
