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David White
Dec 1, 2019

No Film Week: Dec. 2-Dec. 8

Portrait of a Lady on Fire opens this week and the trailers look beautiful. It really makes you think about how much people back then had to overcome for love and how you still can’t find it even though you have absolutely no obstacles. And how they pushed people away so they could fit into society and you push people away because you’re scared of vulnerability. And about how when they catch on fire, it’s art, and when you catch on fire, kids start calling you “the fire douche”........well, here’s what else is happening this week, I guess:


Series:


Monday, Dec. 2:


Tuesday, Dec. 3:

  • The Ladykillers- 2:40pm, 8:50pm- Alec Guinness and the gang have no choice- it’s time to ice Mrs. Wilberforce. Film Forum

  • Moonstruck + Q&A with Writer- 7pm- Demand to know why they had to break Danny Aiello’s heart (he’s doing his best!), directly from the writer himself. IFC Center

  • The Good Nazi- 7pm- Documentary about Karl Plagge, a Nazi officer who saved hundreds of lives in a Lithuanian concentration camp. JCC

  • Celebration- 7pm- Nervy documentary about Yves Saint Laurent and his final show that was blocked from being released for 14 years. Nitehawk Prospect Park

  • Volver- 7pm- Pedro Almodovar’s Ghost Mom has no Freudian themes at all. Syndicated

  • Melancholia in 35mm- 7:30pm- Lars Von Trier’s Runaway Bride remake really builds on the planet collision subplot. FIAF


Wednesday, Dec. 4:


Thursday, Dec. 5:


Friday, Dec. 6:


Saturday, Dec. 7:

  • The King and I- 11am- Yul Brynner is cast as the King of Siam, I think just because he’s bald. Film Forum

  • The Nightmare Before Christmas- 11am, 9:15pm- So good that no amount of weird CGI bullshit can make me dislike Tim Burton. Metrograph

  • Elf- 11am- Will Ferrell’s best movie. You hear me, Anchorman? Nitehawk Williamsburg

  • Love Actually- 11am- It was cute this time, I guess, but in general, don’t take romantic advice from Bob Dylan. Nitehawk Prospect Park

  • The Magic Flute- 12:55pm- Lincoln Center is showing Julie Taymor’s staging of the Magic Flute, so you know it won’t be boring. Lincoln Center

  • Free Talk: Veredas Live- 1:30pm- A Q&A with three of the filmmakers being featured in the Veredas: A Generation of Brazilian Filmmakers series. Lincoln Center

  • Tokyo! In 35mm- 2pm- Japan, from the directors of Parasite, Holy Motors, and Dave Chapelle’s Block Party. Japan Society

  • High Flying Bird + Q&A with Director and Star- 2:15pm- Steven Soderbergh and Andre Holland make one of the best basketball movies, which gets right up to the edge of revolutionary before stepping back. Metrograph

  • House of Bamboo in 35mm- 4:30pm- Sam Fuller directs the first American post-WWII movie in Japan and gets the phrase “Ichiban- the number one man” stuck in my head forever. Japan Society

  • George & Mike Kuchar- 4:45pm- Any collection of shorts that includes anything called “Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof” gets included on this list. That’s the rules. Anthology Film Archives

  • Visual AIDS Presents Day With(out) Art- 6pm- A collection of short films and discussions revolving around AIDS awareness. Brooklyn Museum

  • To the Wonder & Thy Kingdom Come- 6:30pm- Terrence Malick ponders Oklahoma and Javier Bardem goes rogue in a spinoff short. Museum of Moving Image

  • The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift in 35mm- 7pm- Someone tell the Teriyaki Boyz- the Japan Society is screening goddamn Tokyo Drift. Japan Society

  • Dear Son + Q&A with Director- 7pm- FIAF’s Tunisian celebration culminates with the New York premiere of Mohamed Ben Attia’s missing son drama. FIAF

  • Bronko + Q&A with Director- 7pm- Isaac Ulam is a 21st century Jesus in the new Isaac Ulam film written by Isaac Ulam. Film Noir Cinema

  • In Fabric + Q&A with Director- 7:30pm- Not for the delicates. Metrograph

  • Mean Streets in 35mm- 9:45pm- Scorsese finds his and De Niro’s niche. Film Forum

  • Wild at Heart- 10:30pm- Willem Dafoe is pretty goddamn good as evil John Waters. Roxy Cinema

  • The Big Heat- 11pm- In the 50s, the men were men, the women were women, and the heroes of movies assaulted their romantic interests on the movie poster. Metrograph

  • Black Christmas- 12am- John Saxon sure isn’t very helpful in slasher movies. Nitehawk Williamsburg


Sunday, Dec. 8:

  • Home Alone- 10:45am- Kevin McCallister parties with Michael Jordan, lots of unexplained mannequins. Nitehawk Williamsburg

  • The King and I- 11am- Well, at least it’s not about a white person showing up and teaching everyone in another culture that they’re wrong... Film Forum

  • The Nightmare Before Christmas- 11am- It’s important to workshop your plans to catch the big red lobster man. Metrograph

  • Elf- 11am- I also would like James Caan and Mary Steenburgen to love me. Please! Nitehawk Williamsburg

  • Love Actually- 11am- Yes, Wikipedia does have a very useful chart of all of the relationships in Love Actually. Nitehawk Prospect Park

  • Talk Cinema- 12pm- Harlan Jacobson knows a guy who knows a guy that can get you those good movies. Roxy Cinema

  • Lunch Poems in VHS Tapes + Q&A with Director and Star- 4pm- Collaboration of amazingly named artists J Triangular and Miss Expanding Universe, who will be there in person to live up to their great great names. Museum of Moving Image

  • For Sama + Q&A with Directors- 5pm- Documentary that pieces together footage of life over five years in Aleppo, Syria after war broke out in 2011. MoMA

  • Edvard Munch in 35mm- 8:30pm- Documentarian Peter Watkins’s deconstructed biopic of Munch that was a favorite of Ingmar Bergman. Metrograph

  • Song to Song- 7pm- Terrence Malick’s Austin, TX love triangle between Rooney Mara, Ryan Gosling and Michael Fassbender. I know where I stand- sorry Mikey, I’m a Gosling boy. Museum of Moving Image


What Else is Playing:

  • 63 Up

  • Atlantics

  • The Cave

  • Dark Waters

  • Downtown 81

  • Duet for Cannibals

  • Empty Metal

  • Feast of the Epiphany

  • Greener Grass

  • Honey Boy

  • The Irishman

  • Kind Hearts and Coronets

  • Knives Out

  • The Kingmaker

  • Les Miserables

  • Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice

  • The Lighthouse

  • Marriage Story

  • Pain & Glory

  • Parasite

  • Portrait of a Lady on Fire

  • Queen & Slim

  • Shooting the Mafia

  • Synonyms

  • Temblores

  • The Third Man

  • The Two Popes

  • Varda by Agnes

  • Waves


What to Plan on:

The Film Forum’s Lee Grant retrospective continues through December and they’ve shifted from her famous acting roles to the documentaries she’s directed, a part of her career I had no idea about. On Dec. 14, they’re showing her 1985 documentary What Sex Am I?, which follows the struggle of trans Americans in the 80s, and hosting a conversation with her and writer/drag legend Charles Busch.


They’re also showing Down and Out in America (on Dec. 16), which won the 1986 Best Documentary Oscar and profiles all the victims of the 80s recession, and her 1992 documentary Women on Trial (on Dec. 19), about courts awarding custody of children to abusive fathers. Both of those screenings also include Q&As with Lee Grant. She’s an amazing actress who channelled her success into opportunities to shine a light on social issues like trans rights, long before it was mainstream.

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