This holiday weekend (and through Nov. 29), the Anthology Film Archives on Second Street at Second Avenue is screening a classic series titled "Stanley Cavell & the Comedies of Remarriage."
Cavell, a writer, philosopher and scholar, published several books on pop culture during his lifetime (he died in June at age 91), including "Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of Remarriage" in 1981.
Per the Anthology: "Cavell astutely identified and brilliantly analyzed the hidden micro-genre that he called the 'comedies of remarriage,' a group of classic Hollywood romantic comedies whose unassuming wit belied their capacity for sustained, penetrating analysis."
Here's a look at the classic romantic comedies screening in the days ahead (find more details here) ...
Frank Capra
"It Happened One Night"
Nov. 23 at 6:45 PM
Nov. 25 at 6:15 PM
Leo McCarey
"The Awful Truth"
Nov. 23 at 9:15 PM
Nov. 25 at 8:45 PM
Howard Hawks
"Bringing Up Baby"
Nov. 24 at 2 PM
Nov. 28 at 6:45 PM
George Cukor
"The Philadelphia Story"
Nov. 24 at 4:15 PM
Nov. 26 at 9 PM
Nov. 29 at 6:30 PM
Howard Hawks
"His Girl Friday"
Nov. 24 at 6:45 PM
Nov.r 26 at 6:45 PM
Preston Sturges
"The Lady Eve"
Nov. 24 at 9:15 PM
Nov. 27 at 6:45 PM
Nov. 28 at 9 PM
George Cukor
"Adam's Rib"
Nov. 25 at 4 PM
Nov. 27 at 9 PM
Nov. 29 at 9 PM
["Viva Las Vegas" at the Anthology Film Archives this month]
A rockin' month-long series kicks off tonight over at the Anthology Film Archives on Second Street at Second Avenue.
Here's a quick overview:
This extensive film series — inspired by David E. James’s extraordinary book, “Rock ‘N’ Film” — ranges from major and minor studio productions to independent documentaries and avant-garde projects. Borrowing its structure from the successive chapters of “Rock ‘N’ Film,” this series functions as a kind of illustrated edition of James’s definitive book, and demonstrates how intertwined the cinema and popular music have been since the inception of rock ‘n’ roll.
Among the titles playing during August:
Richard Brooks
"BlackBoard Jungle"
Fred F. Sears
"Rock Around the Clock"
George Sidney
"Viva Las Vegas"
Richard Lester
"A Hard Day's Night"
Michael Wadleigh
"Woodstock"
Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg
"Performance"
Albert Maysles, David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin
"Gimme Shelter"
Mel Stuart
"Wattsstax"
D.A. Pennebaker
"Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars"
Find more details about the films and the schedule here.
On Wednesday (Valentine's Day), the Anthology Film Archives once again presents their slate of "radically anti-romantic films."
Here's more about Valentine's Day Massacre 2018 via the Anthology's website:
The series is anchored by two films that are virtually identical in many ways, save for their wildly different tones: Maurice Pialat’s grueling, autobiographical study of a dysfunctional off-and-on relationship, WE WON’T GROW OLD TOGETHER, and Albert Brooks’s hilarious yet no less painful MODERN ROMANCE. This Jekyll and Hyde pairing is supplemented by Andrzej Zulawski’s POSSESSION, a batshit crazy depiction of an imploding marriage that’s perhaps the ultimate dysfunctional relationship film, and two masterpieces by the great Elaine May: A NEW LEAF, a jet-black comedy that’s outrageously cynical yet in its way genuinely heartwarming, and THE HEARTBREAK KID, which in the spirit of Valentine’s Day Massacre is at once a hilariously funny and bitterly corrosive depiction of male/female relations.
The series plays through Sunday. Find the more about each film here. The theater is on Second Street at Second Avenue.
Also on Wednesday ... the Village East on Second Avenue at 12th Street is showing "From Here to Eternity" at 7 p.m. ... the Metrograph on Ludlow Street has an array of films including Maurice Chevalier's 1932 musical "Love Me Tonight" and the 1998 trashy guilty pleasure "Wild Things" with Denise Richards, Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon. Find the full slate here. And on 13th Street, the Quad is premiering François Ozon’s "Double Lover" on Wednesday... described as "a kaleidoscope of kinky eroticism and cinematic double takes that raises the stakes of the classic erotic thriller."
A two-week series is underway at the Anthology Film Archives on Second Street and Second Avenue titled "Generation Wealth." Here's more about it:
Continuing our ongoing collaboration with the International Center of Photography, Anthology hosts a film series in conjunction with the ICP’s latest exhibition, “GENERATION WEALTH by Lauren Greenfield.” Using photography, oral history, and film to examine the pervasive influence of money, status, and celebrity in America and abroad, Lauren Greenfield explores the ways in which the pursuit of wealth, and its material trappings and elusive promises of happiness, has evolved since the late 1990s.
Weaving together stories about affluence, beauty, body image, competition, corruption, fantasy, and excess, Greenfield’s sweeping project questions the distance between value and commodity in a globalized consumerist culture.
The film series kicked off last evening... upcoming screenings include Mary Harron's "American Psycho," Harmony Korine's "Spring Breakers," Robert Bresson's "L'Argent" and Amy Heckerling's "Clueless." Find the full slate of films here.
On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission OK'd the long-time-coming expansion of the Anthology Film Archives on Second Avenue and Second Street.
The landmarked structure operated as a courthouse until 1979, when Anthology Film Archives bought it to renovate and convert into a theater and archive space. Anthology moved into the building from its original Wooster Street location and reopened there in 1988.
But the renovation carried out by renowned architect Raimund Abraham remained incomplete for decades, said [co-founder Jonas] Mekas and architect Kevin Bone, who said at the hearing there had been many proposals for the completed project before the final one.
"We did all we could to get the Anthology doing what the Anthology did best, which is to start showing the great art works of the independent cinema," he said of the initial renovation, which he undertook as an architect with Abraham. "So here we are, now 35 years later."
The design from Bone/Levine Architects includes an additional story that will house the Anthology's library as well as a cafe on the ground floor, archival storage space and an elevator.
To help pay for the $6 million expansion, the Anthology staged a fundraising auction back in March featuring donated works by Cindy Sherman, Robert Frank and Chuck Close, among others. In addition, as artnet reported, Maja Hoffmann’s LUMA Foundation pledged $3 million toward the library.
The the Anthology Film Archives takes another step today toward realizing their building "completion project" on Second Avenue and Second Street.
As previously reported, there are plans to add an addition to the landmarked building that will include a library and cafe, two amenities planned for the space ever since co-founder Jonas Mekas bought the building in a city auction in 1979.
These plans go before the the Landmarks Preservation Commission today.
And New York Yimby reports that there have are some changes to the revision and expansion:
The submission to the LPC represents a major change from the previous iteration of the plans, which was substantially glassier. The extension of the facade will consist of a coated copper base, and accents clad in corten steel will line the windows of the library, which have been downscaled substantially. Above that, the addition will feature ‘Anthology Film Archives’ in metal-mesh lettering, covering the penthouse level of the project.
Anthology Film Archives’ expansion will measure a relatively small 14’4″, and even with the extension, the structure will be shorter than its neighboring buildings.
Here is the new rendering from Bone/Levine Architects ...
...and the previously revealed rendering...
"The time came that we cannot postpone anymore," Mekas told Bedford + Bowery in January. "Because we have so much material, we have so much paper, books, periodicals, documentation on cinema that we have to build a library and make those materials available to researchers, scholars, students."
If all goes well, then the expansion would be complete by 2020, per NY Yimby.
[Photo of John Lurie via the Anthology Facebook page]
Here's what's happening this weekend at the Anthology Film Archives, Second Street at Second Avenue...
Video artists Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong, in the pre-MTV days from 1977-80, spent their nights documenting New York’s nascent punk and No Wave scenes. Armed with Portapak cameras, they shot rare performances and interviews with the Dead Boys, Iggy Pop, the Heartbreakers, John Cale, the Cramps, Sun Ra, the Go-Go’s, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, James Chance and the Contortions, Richard Hell, and countless others at legendary clubs like CBGB, Mudd Club and Danceteria.
Anthology is thrilled to present four separate screenings comprising seven different compilation programs, with Ivers and Armstrong here in person for Q&As after all shows...
Find all the details here. You can buy tickets here.
Friday 8 p.m.
PUNK
Seminal performers like Iggy Pop, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, Dead Kennedys, and Rocket from the Tombs anchor this exploration of hardcore music with rare early Bad Brains, and the Dead Boys.
NEW WAVE
In 1980, from Tokyo to Minneapolis, punk music was evolving to create New Wave. With a poppy, electronic sound, bands like The Plastics, the Suburbs, Ballistic Kisses, Bush Tetras, the Go-Go’s, Human Sexual Response, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Our Daughters Wedding, Pylon, and Strange Party embodied this musical shift.
Saturday 8 p.m.
Conventional wisdom tells us that punk began in 1975 or 76. Not for Suicide, a punk band since 1970. Innovators Alan Vega and Martin Rev put forth the model for the synth duos that went on to dominate the 80s – but with their own unmatched style and legendary use of drum machines, organs, and synths. Travel back in time with us for this SUICIDE LIVE show. Followed by a Q&A with Martin Rev, as well as Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong!
Total running time: ca. 45 min + Q&A.
Sunday 5:45 p.m.
GREATEST HITS
This program hits the bases with the very best performances from fan faves like Divine, The Cramps, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Levi and the Rockats, the Go-Go’s, and more.
INTERVIEWS
Culled from their collection of 25 interviews with musicians, writers, and scene makers, this program finds Ivers and Armstrong talking with Jay Dee Daugherty and Lenny Kaye (Patti Smith Group), Walter Lure (The Heartbreakers), James Chance (Contortions), Jeff Magnum and Cheetah Chrome (Dead Boys), and Richard Lloyd (Television).
Followed by a Q&A with Jay Dee Daugherty, from the Patti Smith Group, as well as Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong!
Total running time: ca. 85 min.
Sunday 8 p.m.
NO WAVE AND BEYOND
Not for the meek, this program features Downtown’s most cutting-edge artists, from Velvet Underground veteran John Cale on his Sabotage tour to rare footage of James Chance and the Contortions, and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks at the Paradise Garage in 1978. No Wave superstars DNA, the Lounge Lizards, and Sun Ra round out the noise fest.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD BOYS
Join us for a program that features a legendary live concert by the Dead Boys at CBGB’s in 1977, at the height of their power! This is American punk at its most raw, honest, and urgent.
Followed by a Q&A with Dead Boys bassist Jeff Magnum, as well as Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong!
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A rare screening of "Light Fantastic" plays tonight and tomorrow at 7:30. Find more details here. The Anthology Film Archives is on Second Street at Second Avenue.
Back in January, the Anthology Film Archives announced plans to expand their current home at 32 Second Ave. at Second Street. There had been plans for a library and cafe at the space since co-founder Jonas Mekas bought the building in a city auction in 1979.
There's more information about the addition (or "completion project"), which will feature the Heaven and Earth Library & Cafe, in the Anthology's lobby...
Here's more about the project, which includes a gallery and bookshop, via the Bone/Levine website:
Originally the Third District Magistrates Courthouse, this sturdy and imposing building was purchased by Anthology Film Archives in 1979 and adapted to reuse, opening its doors in 1989. The establishment of Anthology on Second Avenue was concurrent with the expansion of the East Village as a mecca for the avant-garde arts.
As a screening venue and repository of avant-garde, independent and classic cinema, Anthology Film Archives remains a key component of the artistic vitality of the East Village and for the greater film community. Indeed, nowhere else can scholars and connoisseurs of cinema find such a comprehensive collection of works.
But the restoration and renovation of the Anthology Film Archives is not completed. As designed by the late world-renowned architect Raimund Abraham, Anthology was planned to house two movie theaters, a film vault, a paper materials library, and a cafe. Anthology restored the building and built the film vault and two movie theaters. But the completion of the library, an essential part of Anthology Film Archives’ collection and its mission, and the cafe, an important component of its financial sustainability, were left for the future.
The completion of these essential components of Anthology Film Archives ... is critical for the mission of the Anthology and its long-term stability.
Here's a closer look at the one-level expansion via Bone/Levine...
The Anthology held an art auction last Thursday to help raise money for the addition. Guests included John Waters, Jim Jarmusch and Michael Stipe.
Anthology Film Archives first opened on Nov. 30, 1970, at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater. In 1974, it relocated to 80 Wooster St.
"The time came that we cannot postpone anymore," Mekas told Bedford + Bowery in January. "Because we have so much material, we have so much paper, books, periodicals, documentation on cinema that we have to build a library and make those materials available to researchers, scholars, students."
This November saw the passing of one of our greats – poet, novelist, monk, songwriter, and heart-melting baritone Leonard Cohen. To commemorate the death of our favorite ladies’ man, we present a series showcasing Cohen on the big screen: as subject, soundtrack, actor, and inspiration.
The series includes "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," the Robert Altman-directed Western from 1971 starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie. Cohen provided the soundtrack.
The Bicycle Film Festival is a celebration of bicycles through film, art and music. Fri. - Sun., attendees can enjoy both short and feature films about biking from a variety of artists and directors at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave. at Second Street.
• Friday (June 24 6 pm-11 pm) — Personal Gold will be making its New York premiere at 7 pm and encore at 9 pm. This feature film tells the behind-the-scenes story of four women on their journey to the 2012 Olympics. With the U.S. Men's Cycling Team banned from participating after the Lance Armstrong drug scandal, it was up to the Women's team to bring home the medal. These screenings will be followed by a Q&A panel including filmmaker/Olympic athlete Sky Christopherson.
• Saturday (June 25 1 pm-11 pm) – Several programs will be held throughout the day, Bicycle Stories (1 pm), Fun Bike Shorts (3 pm), Sven The Final Year (5 pm) and Urban Bike Shorts (7 pm & 9pm). These programs host a variety of short films covering topics like the history of bikes and personal bike experiences.
• Sunday (June 26 1 pm-11 pm) – This day of the festival will have programs including Greatest Hits (1 pm), Pauline And Molia – A Mythic Duel (3 pm), Adventure Cycling (5 pm), the BMX Program at 7 pm, which is considered one of the most fun and popular programs at the Bicycle Film Festival, and Ovarian Psycos (9 pm).
British author J.G. Ballard is one of the towering figures of 20th-century experimental literature, a writer whose uncompromising, fearless, and sometimes frighteningly penetrating vision of our modern, technological society, and the psychological and erotic dimensions that underlie it, manifested itself in 19 masterful novels and many dozens of short stories. It’s curious that such a profoundly modern writer, and one who was, both in his life and his work, consistently preoccupied with the movies (he lived for 50 years in Shepperton, a stone’s throw from the famous Shepperton Film Studios), has seen so few of his works adapted into film.
As HuffPost put it, "This somewhat loosely structured series features films that have been directly influenced by Ballard, films that Ballard expressed admiration for, and films that just seem Ballardian in theme."
Check out the whole schedule here. (Highlights include a screening Saturday evening of "The Road Warrior," a film Ballard was said to admire.) The Anthology is on Second Avenue at East Second Street.
And check out the trailer for "Crash" (NC-17! The children!)...
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This four-hour "Big Bowie Bash" starts at 7 tomorrow night at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Ave. at East Second Street. Find more details here.
When sullen high-schooler John kills his classmate Jamie, far from keeping it a secret he brags about the crime to his friends (played by Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, and Crispin Glover, among others) and takes them to see the body. Rather than report the crime or struggle with guilt at their association with the killer, they react with morbid curiosity or misplaced loyalty. Without denying its characters a measure of sympathy or understanding, "River's Edge" is a deeply unsettling depiction of teenage alienation and moral paralysis.
The movie, which also stars Dennis Hopper before he got really hammy in the 1990s, was called "the darkest teen film of all time" earlier this year by Salon.
So if this looks like your thing...
The "River's Edge" screening is at 6:45 p.m. tomorrow (Sunday). The Anthology Film Archives is on Second Avenue at East Second Street.
The series collects six of the most arresting screen performances by this gifted artist and activist, whom Martin Scorsese called “one of the greatest actors in the history of American film.” Select screenings will feature discussions with author J.R. Jones, film editor for the Chicago Reader, and Robert Ryan’s son, Cheyney Ryan, professor of law and philosophy at the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict at Oxford University.
Robert Ryan became a star after World War II on the strength of his menacing performance as an anti-Semitic murderer in the film noir Crossfire. Over the next quarter century he created a gallery of brooding, neurotic, and violent characters in such movies as "Bad Day at Black Rock," "Billy Budd," "The Dirty Dozen," and "The Wild Bunch." His riveting performances expose the darkest impulses of the American psyche during the Cold War.
B-movie titan Roger Corman will be appearing tonight and tomorrow at the Anthology Film Archives on Second Avenue to introduce a few of his classics — "X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes," "A Bucket of Blood" and "The Tomb of Ligeia."
The Wall Street Journal had an interview with the 89-year-old Corman yesterday. You can read that here. An excerpt as way of an introduction:
Among the 400-plus movies Roger Corman has produced or directed, there are titles more memorable than the films, such as “Attack of the Crab Monsters” and “Teenage Cave Man.”
But there also are early efforts from a string of famous directors and actors whose careers he helped to launch. They include Francis Ford Coppola (“Dementia 13”), Martin Scorsese (“Boxcar Bertha”), Peter Bogdanovich (“Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women”) and Jack Nicholson, whom Mr. Corman first met in a method-acting class.
Mr. Corman ... could have single-handedly invented drive-in movies in the 1950s, when a postwar eruption of teenage culture created a new audience for entertainment at its most sensational. The B-movie impresario kept apace with the times, however, tapping into social trends—and wildly profitable and influential movie concepts—for a career that spans seven decades.
The Anthology is on Second Avenue at East Second Street. Find out more about the screenings here.
An EVG reader passed along this screening info ... sounds interesting to us...
UNESSENTIAL CINEMA PRESENTS: THE RECKONING OF PAC LAB
Anthology Film Archives
Thursday, March 12 @ 7:30pm
The echoing conversation about the death of film is endless and depressing, as is the recent demise of our longtime neighbor on E. 1st St., the esteemed and notorious Pac Lab. Like them or hate them, and there was no in-between, Pac Lab was a true NYC staple, as well as the last local resource we had for same-day processing of Super-8mm and 16mm film. Over the years Pac Lab proved itself to be a company that possessed as much character and quirkiness as its clients.
They catered to artists, students, and even everyday folks looking to transfer their parents’ home movies to video. Being a Pac Lab client often involved an element of risk, with anxious patrons left to wonder: Will my film come back scratched? Will there be any image? Will it come back at all?
In any case, they were a key component and longtime enabler of our regional filmmaking community. Without them, we are forced to face the end of celluloid film much sooner than most of us ever expected.
This unique event will offer up a baker’s dozen of film reels and tapes culled from the remnants of Pac Lab’s significant detritus. Anthology has inherited boxes and bags of films that were submitted for processing, but abandoned by clients who never paid or picked up their footage.
Uncatalogued and entirely unseen by us, our educated guess is that these reels contain copious examples of student film shenanigans, home movies, stoned experiments, attempted art projects, and probably a naked girlfriend or two. For this special show we guarantee that no films will be previewed beforehand and that all selections shall be made blindly and without prejudice. Soundtracks and other alterations may be added to enhance entertainment potential. If you think that one of these reels might be yours, then please join us for your world premiere screening!
Starting tonight, the Anthology Film Archives begins its week-long Edward D. Wood, Jr. retrospective — "likely the most comprehensive ever presented" — titled "The 10th Dimension."
Among the campy, low-budget gems from maybe the worst director of all time: "Glen or Glenda," "Bride of the Monster" and "Plan 9 From Outer Space."
Find all the screening times and more info here. Anthology Film Archives is at 32 Second Ave. at East Second Street.
