Saturday, April 21, 2012

One More Hot Night in NYC with Marilyn Monroe!

There is one more chance to make the Big Apple Hot tonight at Midnight. Marilyn Monroe is sizzling in this screwball comedy from 1959. Some Like It Hot is one of director Billy Wilder's funniest films with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon trading slacks for skirts to save their skins from Chicago Gangsters. In this story some down and out Jazz players find themselves running from gun men and dress in drag to get away. And away they go to sunny Florida with an all girl band and our favorite blond as the singer. This is were Monroe shines as the sexy stage singer who has been let down by men all her life. She has gotten the "fuzzy end of the lollipop" from more then one Jazz man and is now with this all girl band to "Run Away." Will she find out that her "Brand-new" girl friends are more then they seem? What really happens when men take on heels and see how the other half lives? NYC has one more night to find out with this funny runaway Comedy from one of Hollywood's greatest directors.

List of Wilder films:

http://www.listal.com/list/billy-wilder-filmsmovies

Friday, April 13, 2012

Sid and Nancy Tonight and Tomorrow at Midnight!

Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen fell in love in London and went to New York. Here in the Big Apple they both died. One by drugs and the other? This is a story that can only come from the 70's and be told in the 80's with film. This film had Courtney Love begging for the part of Nancy and Gary Oldman starving himself to play Sid. Director Alex Cox made this film to tell the story but not the truth. This is because no one really knows the truth behind the stabbing of Nancy in the Chelsea Hotel, or the life that these lovers lived together. Can true love kill? There were a lot of strange things about the production of this film. One that Love did not get the Nancy part, but had a part written in to the script for her. Also that Sid's mum did not like the film until she became part of the team. Then, get this, all of Guns & Roses were asked to be extras. They did not know this fact till they were on set saying "'Hey...what are you doing here?'" Does this make for a bad movie..? Hell no it's great! This film has everything! True Love, Music Superstars, Sex and Drugs what else does one expect from the 70's. So get off your couch, chair or bar stool and get into the theater to see Sid and Nancy. Can true love Kill?

Sunday, April 8, 2012

The Steins Collect: Matisse, Picasso, and the Parisian Avant-Gard​e at the MET

The New Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris has a young American that is taken back to the 1920's to meet all the stars of the Jazz Age. He eyes where opened by all the artist and writers that where part of the Parisian Avant-Garde and even visits Gertrude Stein at her house. This is what might have happened to any who found themselves in the Art world in Paris at the beginning of the century. The Steins, Gertrude, Leo, and Michael Stein, and Michael's wife, Sarah opened their homes to anyone with a letter of reference. Most who could not go to see fine art in the shows and museums went to these rooms filled with painters works that are now household names. Matisse and Picasso were just two of the many struggling painters that this group of Americans had as friends. This family from San Francisco were able to show an amazing amount of works by these artist to the public. This exhibition now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has over 200 works from these walls that changed the way a whole generation looked at Modern Art. Just think what it was like to not only collect the work of artist like Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Édouard Manet, and Auguste Renoir, but to also have them as close friends of the family. What a interesting time to be in Paris with the soon to be who's who of the art world over for open house discussions every Saturday evening! So go to the MET and use this exhibition as on excuse to daydream about Paris and the artist of the Jazz age.


Through June 3, 2012

Friday, April 6, 2012

"Do the Right Thing" A Spike Lee Joint

Spike Lee Directed, Produced, Wrote and Starred in this film that defined not just what a "Spike Lee Joint" was, but also what Brooklyn was like in the 80's. In 1989 this film showed the whole world that a street corner in Bedford-Stuyvesant is like a movie. It has it's cast of characters with New York Personalities and New York problems. Ten years later the U.S. Library of Congress deemed Do The Right Thing, "culturally significant" and it was the first of its kind selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Not Bad for a little corner in Brooklyn. The film even got some Oscar nominations for Lee. One for the Best Original Screenplay and one for the Best Supporting Actor for Danny Aiello's pizzeria owner. Spike Lee became a house hold name with the help of his first films. He was established as a quadruple threat. A new talent that can Write, Direct, Star and even Produce films that have their own look and style. He came out with so many that every year the public had another Spike Lee Joint. Come down this weekend and celebrate this film, and one of New York's best Directors at the Sunshine Cinema at midnight.

Spike Lee Joint's:
2008 Passing Strange Director
2008 Miracle at St. Anna Producer-Director
2006 Inside Man Director
2006 When the Levees Broke Director-Producer
2004 She Hate Me Screenwriter-Director-Producer
2004 Sucker Free City Director
2002 25Th Hour Director-Producer
2002 Jim Brown: All-American Producer-Director
2001 3 A.M. Actor-Producer
2000 Bamboozled Producer-Screenwriter-Director
2000 Love and Basketball Producer
2000 The Original Kings of Comedy Director
1999 Summer of Sam Screenwriter-Actor-Director
1998 Freak Director
1998 He Got Game Director-Screenwriter
1997 4 Little Girls Director-Producer
1996 Girl 6 Producer-Actor-Director
1996 Get on the Bus Director
1995 Clockers Director-Actor
1994 Crooklyn Actor-Screenwriter-Director
1994 Hoop Dreams Himself (Film director)
1992 Malcolm X Actor-Director
1991 Jungle Fever Actor-Director
1990 Mo' Better Blues Actor-Director
1989 Do the Right Thing Director-Actor-Screenwriter-Producer
1988 School Daze Actor-Director
1986 She's Gotta Have It Screenwriter-Director-Actor
1983 Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads Director