NYC Watch: "See It Big! 70mm" at the Museum of the Moving Image. Plus an Urban Gadabout note: "I Remember NY"

Coney Island (this Sunday, August 9) is one of two neighborhoods tour leader Joe Svehlak will be revisiting this month in his Municipal Art Society series I Remember New York. Also coming up is Downtown Brooklyn (Sunday, August 30). See below.

by Ken

As I mentioned recently, I wiped out most of a day of potential Jane Jacobs Weekend walks to catch a 70mm screening of Robert Wise's 1965 film version of The Sound of Music, which as it happened I had never seen in any form, at the Museum of the Moving Image. These days, as digital projection takes over for theatrical showing even of movies that weren't made digitally, it's getting harder and harder to see films on, you know, film, and the 70mm jobbies -- forget about it. At the MoMI Sound of Music event, though, Chief Curator David Schwartz mentioned that the museum would be showing a 70mm print of West Side Story -- the 1961 film musical Wise had already directed which established him as candidate for the Sound of Music film when, apparently, nobody else wanted to direct it -- in an upcoming installment of its See It Big! series, this one devoted to 70mm films.

Well, See It Big! 70mm is here! Eight films, ranging chronologically from 1961 (West Side Story) through 2014 (Interstellar), each being shown either two or three times between August 7 and August 30.

As the introduction to the series notes:

With a higher resolution and more light hitting the frame, 70mm film offers a bigger, brighter image than 35mm. It also offers richer sound, with more space on the soundtrack. It is the ideal film format for ambitious cinematic spectacles, yet with the transition to digital filmmaking, 70mm movies have become increasingly rare.

But, as the introduction goes on to note, 70mm hasn't been entirely abandoned.

Filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson and Christopher Nolan are keeping the tradition alive, with films that were surely inspired by the work of Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, Douglas Trumbull, and Robert Wise. From West Side Story to Interstellar, here is a selection of great 70mm films, including adventure, comedy, drama, musical, and science fiction -- and all indelible experiences.

THESE ARE BIG MOVIES

In the listing below, culled from the museum's listings, it occurred to me to include the films' running times, because so many of these are really big time-wise in addition to film-format-wise. Four of the eight are over 2½ hours, and a fifth, Interstellar, is only six minutes short. Two, in fact, are over 3 hours, and one is over 3½ -- Lawrence of Arabia, of course. Although director David Lean has been dead for 24 years, there are people who'll swear that the movie still hasn't ended.

It's a wild mix of films. I'm taking a pass on 2001, which I just saw at MoMI in 70mm -- but if you haven't seen it in 70mm, you should. It doesn't solve the film's problems or plug its gaps, but for the considerable effect it makes nevertheless, it really should be seen in full format. But I'm hoping to get to all the others -- some that I haven't seen, or seen theatrically, since they were new, and four that I've never seen at all.

It's the usual MoMI deal: Screenings are free for members at the "Film Lover" level and above; for others it's $12 ($9 for senior citizens and students), which includes museum admission for that day. Both members and nonmembers can book ahead; go to the link below and if you prefer follow it to the alternate date(s); then click on the "Order tickets online" link. I would be especially careful with the films that are only being shown twice.

See It Big! 70 mm

August 7-30

With a higher resolution and more light hitting the frame, 70mm film offers a bigger, brighter image than 35mm. It also offers richer sound, with more space on the soundtrack. It is the ideal film format for ambitious cinematic spectacles, yet with the transition to digital filmmaking, 70mm movies have become increasingly rare. Filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson and Christopher Nolan are keeping the tradition alive, with films that were surely inspired by the work of Stanley Kubrick, David Lean, Douglas Trumbull, and Robert Wise. From West Side Story to Interstellar, here is a selection of great 70mm films, including adventure, comedy, drama, musical, and science fiction -- and all indelible experiences.

See It Big! is an ongoing series organized by Reverse Shot editors Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert, Chief Curator David Schwartz, and Assistant Film Curator Aliza Ma.


2001: A Space Odyssey
(dir. Stanley Kubrick, 1968, 159 mins)
Friday, 8/7, 7pm; Saturday, 8/8, 2pm; Sunday, 8/9, 2pm


Brainstorm
(dir. Douglas Trumbull, 1983, 106 mins)
Saturday, 8/8, 6pm; Sunday, 8/9, 6pm


Tron
(dir. Steven Lisberger, 1982, 96 mins)
Saturday, 8/15, 7pm; Sunday, 8/16, 7pm


It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
(dir. Stanley Kramer, 1963, 205 mins)
Saturday, 8/15, 2pm; Sunday, 8/16, 2pm


West Side Story
(dir. Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise, 1961, 151 mins)
Friday, 8/21, 7 pm; Saturday, 8/22, 2pm


Lawrence of Arabia
(dir. David Lean, 1962, 217 mins)
Saturday, 8/22, 6pm; Sunday, 8/23, 4pm


Interstellar
(dir. Christopher Nolan, 2014, 169 mins)
Friday, 8/28, 7pm; Saturday, 8/29, 6pm; Sunday, 8/30, 6pm


The Master
(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012, 144 mins)
Saturday, 8/29, 2pm; Sunday, 8/30, 2pm

URBAN GADABOUT NOTE: Joe Svehlak's
MAS "I Remember New York" walking tours

This month Joe Svehlak, the total sweetheart among NYC tour guides, a lifelong New Yorker who pours passion as well as charm into his tours, and has always given a generous sense of historical development in his neighborhood walking tours, has two more tours coming up in the wonderful "I Remember New York" series he's been doing for the Municipal Art Society: Coney Island this Sunday, August 9, 10:30am-12:30pm, and Downtown Brooklyn.

These will be more personal versions of popular tours Joe has been doing for some time, tracking changes in these much-changing neighborhoods. His tours have always been personal, but in this I Remember New York series he's undertaken at age 75, he has been unabashed in sharing his history with the places he's leading us through. It says something about Joe that I run into him all the time taking other people's tours; his enthusiasm and curiosity seem if anything to have continued growing with time.

On the first tour in the I Remember New York series, Joe mentioned that at his age he doesn't know how much longer he'll want to continue leading tours, and for anyone who appreciates the value of experience and memory, the walks in this series so far have been treasures. On those my schedule has enabled me to do, there was a special warmth to this walk through Manhattan's Financial District, where he had his first job and later worked for a considerable time; and then in the two-part traversal of Brooklyn's Sunset Heights, where he did much of his growing up and later returned as a first-time homeowner and pioneering preservationist. I really should have posted something about the series sooner. Sorry!

Not to mention that Joe is just good company. Again, there are links for online registration for both members and nonmembers. I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to find my way to MAS; now I can't imagine not being a member.

I Remember New York: Coney Island, Brooklyn
Sunday, August 9, 10:30am-12:30pm

Join tour guide and preservation activist Joe Svehlak who still swims here, to reminisce about Coney Island in his younger years when Steeplechase Park was still a great amusement attraction before it was demolished in the 1960s. Hear Joe describe the thrill of the Parachute Jump and the Steeplechase. In addition to Steeplechase Park, Joe remembers four rollercoasters, merry-go-rounds, and an assortment of other rides, sideshows and games of chance. Both the Cyclone rollercoaster and the Wonder Wheel are New York City landmarks and a testament to Coney Island's illustrious past and resilience. We'll also view a new amusement park, a restored carousel, and two poignant memorials by the ballpark. Stroll the boardwalk as Joe remembers family outings, amusements, bathhouses, and other facilities and attractions by the sea. On our walk we'll learn about Coney Island's honky-tonk past and issues of preservation and planning for the future. Coney Island has seen many changes in Joe's lifetime. He's happy to see it coming back with new amusements, activities and restaurants. Stay for a swim and treat yourself to a Nathan's Famous! Please note that this tour has been offered before with a slightly different theme, and there may be significant overlap in content. Cost: $20 / $15 Members

I Remember New York: Downtown Brooklyn
Sunday, August 30, 10am-12n

In his lifetime, tour guide and preservation activist Joe Svehlak has seen major changes Downtown Brooklyn. Growing up in the 1940s and 50s, Joe remembers Brooklyn's Downtown as one of New York City's premier shopping and entertainment centers, with grand elegant department stores, specialty shops, fine restaurants and magnificent movie palaces. He would look forward to the special holiday shopping trips Downtown and the occasional treat of a movie in one of the great theaters. By the 1970s economic decline, the days of the grand department stores were over. The Fox and the Albee theatres were demolished for other commercial purposes. The Paramount became part of Long Island University and the Metropolitan is now the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Fifteen years ago Joe moved Downtown and is now witnessing dramatic high rise construction all around him. New streetscapes and plazas are adding to Downtown Brooklyn's new livability. New Hotels and shops are opening and even a new park is planned. Joe's thoughts and memories will guide us through his neighborhood as we view old civic buildings, new commercial development, designated New York City landmarks, the revitalized Fulton Mall, redesigned Flatbush Avenue, Metro Tech expansion, and even some surprising religious edifices. End by the landmarked monumental Dime Savings Bank and Junior's Restaurant, noted for its cheesecake. Please note that this tour has been offered before with a slightly different theme, and there may be significant overlap in content. Cost: $20 / $15 Members

SPEAKING OF MAS --

The new walking-tour schedule, likely to cover September, October, and November, should be coming out in the next week or two. Meanwhile there are still a whole bunch of really interesting-looking walking tours that can still be booked for August. Check them out here -- or go to mas.org anytime and click on "Tours."

#

Read More

Movie/Museum Watch NYC: Coming up at the amazing Museum of the Moving Image -- "2001" in 70mm!

For 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick tapped both of the supreme Strausses. For the approach to the space station it's Johann II (the Waltz King) and his Blue Danube; it'll look (and sound) way better in 70mm at MoMI. Below we'll hear (the unrelated) Richard S.

by Ken

For months now I've been meaning to write an update to the piece I wrote last September about the Museum of the Moving Image, to catch up on the large number of terrific experiences I've had in the last half-year. No, the museum isn't convenient for me, since I live in Far Northern Manhattan and work in Far Downtown Manhattan. But I've been to a whole bunch of special-event screenings, including a number of pre-release screenings, often with terrific guests and panels. And they've been so consistently rewarding that I now give Chief Curator David Schwartz close to carte blanche when a new event is announced.

Oh, I couldn't be dragged to the thing about kung-fu films, but I gulped hard and plunked down my modest member's fee for Particle Fever, a riveting documentary directed by physicist-turned-moviemaker Mark Levinson dramatizing the work of some of the physicists connected to the supercollider in Geneva, during the period of the discovery of the Higgs boson, work that wound up overturning physicists' understanding of the universe, to be replaced by they-still-don't-know-what. It was presented in conjunction with the World Science Festival, being held then in NYC, and the panel that followed included some of the physicists we'd seen in the film! I can't claim to have really understood the physics involved, but the basic issues at stake were explained clearly enough that I got a powerful sense of the personal and scientific stakes of all those brilliant physicists.

Among other MoMI screening events I can think of:

• Alan Alda being honored for his work in comedy on TV's M*A*S*H, talking about those years, with appropriately selected episode clips, proving as smart and funny and charming and passionate as you might imagine.


No kidding, I left the MoMI evening with Alan Alda -- in conversation with Jeff Greenfield -- feeling like I was walking on air.

* Jason Bateman speaking with predictably charming incisiveness, candor and (again) passion -- he was, if you can imagine such a thing, even more charming than Alan Alda, which means astoundingly charming -- following a screening of his first film as a director, the wickedly hilarious Bad Words, a sleeper hit at the Toronto Film Festival; he explained, though, that he had been preparing himself this "first" his whole career, having earned his SAG card in his teens while working on the TV series The Hogan Family -- in the audience was Hogan Family cohort Steve Witting, who has remained a lifelong friend and plays a juicy role in Bad Words. (Jason explained that nearly all the adult roles in the film were cast with friends; it's nice to have such friends!)

• Griffin Dunne appearing with writer-director Justin Schwarz after the screening of their new film, The Discoverers, followed by a screening of his most famous starring vehicle, Martin Scorsese's 1985 After Hours (yes, a double feature!).

• an extraordinary evening, which I wrote about in May, in which Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, who had subsequently outed himself as an undocumented alien, presented his powerful film Documented.

• another double feature, of wildly different films directed by Bobcat Goldthwait in his second career, so different from his screaming-comic first career, again a new one, Willow Creek, and an earlier one, World's Greatest Dad (with Robin Williams).


"An Evening with Bobcat Goldthwait" in early June, featuring two of his films and a conversation with Bobcat himself, was just one of the many riveting and delightful evenings I've spent over the last year at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria.

• another far-more-absorbing-than-expected documentary, Life Itself, which director Steve James was making in cooperation with Roger Ebert (based on his memoir of that name) and his wife (now widow, of course), Chaz, at the time of Roger's death, followed by another great panel, which naturally included the remarkable Chaz Ebert.

• a pre-release screening -- just a screening, with no added frills, but free for members -- of Darren Aronofsky's highly entertaining and stimulating epic Noah, shown in conjunction with, naturally, regular museum screenings of all of Aronofsky's earlier films!

• and, of course, the memorable evening -- memorable despite torrential rains that didn't dampen audience spirits -- when creator-mastermind David Chase was on hand for screenings of the first and last episodes of The Sopranos.

Jason in Bad Words

(I should note, by the way, that when the discussions are opened to audience questions, MoMI audiences ask the best questions I've ever encountered, questions that are often quite perceptive in their own right but more important trigger all sorts of information and revelations. For example, the night Jason Bateman talked about Bad Words, a questioner asked if he had always planned to play the not terribly sympathetic lead character, and it turned out that he originally assumed he wouldn't, and didn't reconsider until he'd sent the script to three "very well-known actors, all better than me," who told him to go fuck himself. However, once he made the decision to play the role himself, he found it a considerable saving of time from not having to direct his lead actor -- time he desperately needed for all the other things he was dealing with as a first-time director.)

Clearly curator Schwartz has an extraordinary eye for -- and ability to snag -- films that are not only of unusual interest in their own right but lend themselves to "events" those I've mentioned. At the Sopranos event I learned that he had in fact been the curator who arranged MoMI's 2001 screening of the complete first two seasons of The Sopranos, on the big screen, with eight episodes a weekend -- free to members. You better believe I became a member, and had my first exposure to the show (I didn't have HBO then), and therefore knew from the outset how terrific it looked on a big screen.

And I've focused on "events," touching on in the case of the Aronofsky series on the museum's vast series of "regular" screenings (free to members, who can pre-reserve tickets by phone). Or the museum's extensive permanent and rotating collections and exhibitions (which I did touch on in my report last September).

Since I've been mostly attending those "event" screenings, which I have to get to straight from work, I haven't had much recent opportunity to explore the museum's current offerings, so I'm hoping to arrive early enough tomorrow to do so before I settle in for the first of a series of six screenings this weekend and next of a 70mm print of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke's legendary 2001: A Space Odyssey.


WHICH BRINGS ME (FINALLY) TO MY POINT



"Sunrise" from Richard Strauss's Thus Spake Zarathustra. Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. RCA, recorded Mar. 8, 1954

Which is, er, that this weekend and next MoMI is offering six screenings of 2001 in 70mm. You'll note below that regular members can get one ticket free. Since I booked mine as soon as I received the e-announcement, as I've come to do with most MoMI events (I still kick myself for missing out on the December screening of American Hustle at which director David O. Russell appeared for a discussion), I have no idea what the ticket situation is like. But I don't want anyone to say I didn't tell you about it.

2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm
Part of See It Big! Science Fiction (Part Two)


Saturday, July 5, 3:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 5, 6:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 6, 3:00 p.m.
Sunday, July 6, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 12, 3:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 13, 3:00 p.m.

Don't miss your chance to see this classic in glorious 70mm! As brilliantly engineered as the space program itself, Kubrick’s mysterious and profound epic—“the ultimate trip”—is about nothing less than the beauty and banality of civilization, blending cool satire, an elaborate vision of the future, and passages of avant-garde cinematic inventiveness.

Tickets: $12 ($9 seniors/students, free for Museum members). Ticket includes access to the Museum's galleries and other screenings on the same day. Order online or call 718 777 6800 to reserve tickets. For more information on membership and to join online, visit our membership page.

ALSO COMING UP IN IN 70mm AT MoMI:
DOUGLAS TRUMBULL'S BRAINSTORM

Brainstorm in 70mm
Part of See It Big! Science Fiction (Part Two)


Saturday, July 12, 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, July 13, 3:00 p.m.

Douglas Trumbull’s 1983 thriller about a device that can record thoughts and dreams features stunning visual effects to portray telepathic experiences, cutting between widescreen and standard size. It also features the last performance by Natalie Wood, who died during the making of the film. Brainstorm has not been shown in 70mm in New York for more than 20 years.

Free with Museum admission on a first-come, first-served basis. Museum members may reserve tickets in advance by calling 718 777 6800. For more information on membership and to join online, visit our membership page.

#

Read More

Return to the Museum of the Moving Image: From "The Sopranos" to "Breaking Bad" (by way of "Rear Window")

TO MY OTHER FAVORITE

W.W.

IT'S AN HONOUR

WORKING WITH YOU.

              FONDLY

                              G. B.

by Ken

Maybe if I'd had any idea it was there, I wouldn't have been so taken aback. But suddenly there I was, standing in front of the glass case, with a pair of headphones on listening to the audio of one of the exhibit video displays, and it slowly dawned on me that I was looking at The Book!

Tell me these things don't all fit together! It was just last week in TV Watch that I wrote about the book -- the fateful copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass inscribed so affectionately to Walter White by the late Gale Boetticher! For a while I thought it was just some sort of mockup or something. But I kept looking and gradually grasped that no, this was the actual book. Okay, it's possible that the Breaking Bad props department cooked up more than one copy to cover themselves when the book was shot in Walt's bathroom, where it produced one of the series' more dramatic moments. So maybe there was another copy, and perhaps even another, on display in other museums. But there was no doubt that this was the real thing.

And then the museum guard was tapping on the glass, signaling that there was only five minutes to closing. I hadn't really left myself much time for browsing. Mostly on Thursday I had just wanted to actually get out to Astoria (Queens), taking advantage of my Rosh Hashanah PTO day (God will just have to understand) to present my about-to-expire Groupon voucher for membership in the Museum of the Moving Image, comfortably situated in part of the old Kaufman-Astoria Studios complex (part of which has for some years once again been a working studio, probably New York City's premier TV and film production studio, where shows like Cosby and Seinfeld have been filmed).

The young woman at the desk cheerfully attended to the paperwork, and when I asked if I could make a reservation for Friday evening's screening of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, which I don't think I'd ever seen on a big screen, she did me one better: She produced an actual ticket, so when I made the return trip to Astoria from work last night, I could head straight to the theater.

I had meant to make the first trip on Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, when I could also have availed myself of the opportunity to see two of the last films in the summer series Fun City: New York in the Movies 1967-75,: Milos Forman's first American film, Taking Off (1971), and from the same year his countryman Ivan Passer's Born to Win. I don't think I'd ever seen Born to Win, but I sure had seen Taking Off, when it first came out, and as best I recall hated it. The museum description calls it "the sweetest of generation gap movies," but I remembered it as the hamfistedest of pseudo-parodies of '60s-'70s counterculture. But I didn't remember it as an especially New York movie, but the blurb recalled that it "was shot in and around New York during the summer of 1970," and that "the director discovered his 16-year-old star in Central Park hanging with the hippies around Bethesda Fountain." For all that New York-itude alone it might be worth another look.

Well, I didn't make it. And Sunday, when the series concluded with the classic Panic in Needle Park (also 1971) and Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon (1975, which I remembered more fondly, I wasn't available. I had a walking tour in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge scheduled, which I wound up missing. The trip from Washington Heights took me an hour and three-quarters (complicated by weekend transit changes, which I thought I'd worked around cleverly, but turned out to be not so clever), and while I'd planned to allow a full two hours, I wound up compressing that to an hour and 35-40 minutes -- close but no cigar. My time management lately has sucked. Add the hour-and-three-quarters return trip, and it was one of my longer trips to nowhere.

So my Rosh Hashanah trek to Astoria represented a comeback of sorts. I hadn't left myself a lot of time to wander around the museum, though, which is how I wound up being caught short when I stumbled across the exhibit "From Mr. Chips to Scarface: Walter White's Transformation in Breaking Bad." That "startling transformation," the museum description says, "with costumes, props, selected scenes from the series, and behind-the-scenes footage." The costumes and props were on loan from Sony Pictures Television -- including, of course, The Book. The exhibit runs through October 27, so I will definitely have to get back. I see that I missed an evening with series creator and mastermind Vince Gilligan when the exhibit opened in late July. I would gladly have forked over the $12 member price.

Then again, the interviewing was done by Charlie Rose, and that I could live without. By coincidence, in my quick wandering through the museum, the first thing I encountered, which I watched for a while before finding out what the heck it was, was an exhibition called "Cut Up" (running through October 14): "From supercuts to mashups to remixes, Cut Up celebrates the practice of re-editing popular media to create new work, presenting contemporary videos by self-taught editors and emerging artists alongside landmarks of historic and genre-defining reappropriation." I had just sat down and watched for a while, and while most of the "cut-ups" I saw seemed to me more facile than clever, there was a hilariously surreal several minutes, called either "Charlie Rose, by Samuel Beckett" or vice versa and featuring Charlie Rose interviewing Charlie Rose, with interviewer Charlie asking pompously incoherent questions and interviewee Charlie providing mostly mute but even more incoherent replies. The short was credited to Charlie Rose as executive producer, but I had a feeling that was part of the cut-up piece.

Although nothing about the joint looked even vaguely familiar, this wasn't my first membership stint at the Museum of the Moving Image. I had joined way back when, when the museum screened the first two seasons of The Sopranos, which at the time was all there was, with Season 3 still in the works -- I'm guessing it was the summer of 2000. The schedule was intense: eight episodes a weekend, two in the morning and two in the afternoon both days. And since at the time I didn't have cable, let alone HBO, this was my first direct exposure to the series, which of course I'd been hearing about endlessly. And it played simply incredibly on the big screen. Since Seasons 1 and 2 of The Sopranos comprised 13 episodes each, the series must have filled three eight-episode weekends and overlapped into a fourth. It was one of my all-time great viewing experiences, and it was a great relief to me that I was able to rearrange my life circumstances so that I was able to watch Season 3 (and subsequent seasons), albeit on a mere 31-inch conventional CRT TV.

But again, these things come around. As I believe I also mentioned last week, I just replaced my Sopranos Season 1-3 VHS tapes and Season 4 DVDs with the complete-series DVDs, which I've just begin watching on my first-ever HDTV, bought shortly after my knee-replacement surgery in April -- as a reward of sorts for my old bedroom TV having conked out just a week or two before the surgery, so that I had no TV in the bedroom in the early weeks of convalescence. (Well, it sure got me out of bed! Like I can live without a TV.) It's not quite re-creating the experience of those first two seasons, but as I've written here frequently, every time I dip into The Sopranos, whether for a bloc of episodes or an isolated one or two, the show just keeps playing better. And on DVD on the 42-inch HDTV, it looks pretty darned fine too.

Oh yes, I had a swell time at Rear Window last night. The 35mm print looked kind of grainy to me, but it was a pleasure to be able to watch the unfolding of the ongoing minidramas staged in all the "rear windows" the Jimmy Stewart character is reduced to watching all day and most of the night during his confinement to a wheelchair with a broken leg. And memory impairment can be a blessing. It can't be that long since I watched the picture on DVD, but I mercifully remembered the later plot unfoldings sketchily enough that I was able to be caught up deliciously in the final build-up.


Ah yes, Miss Torso -- the most scenic of the "rear window" vistas viewed compulsively by shut-in photographer "Jeff" Jefferies (Jimmy Stewart) in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

#

Read More