As I said, if you’ve read this site, you knew what was coming next. There was no way we would be doing a week of Gothamist Interviews about New York film programmers without talking to Film Forum. Actually, we’re only dealing with half of Film Forum, a unique and remarkable theater because on one screen you’ve got some of the best premieres of international/independent/documentary filmmaking that often may not open anywhere else, and on another screen is their brilliant repertory and revival programming.
That’s what we’re dealing with today. Earlier this week I spoke to Bruce Goldstein for about an hour. Bruce has been programming for over thirty year, and as I often write about here, I love Film Forum’s repertory screen. Whether it’s a two-week engagement of The Leopard or Days of Being Wild to phenomenal series like “Essential Noir”, “The Essential Harold Lloyd” or the upcoming “The Early Sturges” or single day special events of early silents and pre-Code films, any student of cinema — especially classic cinema — should thank whatever diety allowed for the creation of Film Forum. For everything I love about TCM, it is always a better option to see something projected, especially a good print, and that’s something you can only get from the places we’ve highlighted this week, particularly Film Forum.
Bruce, in fact, is responsible for many of these revivals simply by his attempts to get new prints made of classic films. After years of programming revivals, he finally decided to start distributing some of them himself, which is why nearly a decade ago he founded Rialto Pictures.
Starting today, Film Forum has a phenomenal series which, in its own way, is another antidote to the Oscars while also actually being about the film industry’s annual self-love-fest. “Oscar’s First Year: The Academy Awards 1927-28” is a week-long series during which you can see many of the first films to ever take home that little gold man. Every program is a double-feature, so you get two films for the price of one. Today and tomorrow feature two films that you shouldn’t confuse with their more modern TV series counterparts: Wings won the very first Best Picture award while Seventh Heaven took home Best Director, Best Adaptation and Best Actress for Janet Gaynor. Those early Oscars included some different categories than we’re used to now, and those films are also reflected in the series. For example, Sunrise won the first and only prize for “Unique & Artistic Production,” and at the time, the performance awards were for an actor’s body of work during the year, so Gaynor’s Best Actress prize was actually for Seventh Heaven as well as this film and Street Angel (also screening). Another one-time only award was Best Title Writing, which became moot with the arrival of talkies. But during the first Oscars, Joseph Farnham took home this award for his work on both The Crowd and The Unknown. These are films that play rarely (if ever) on TCM, and screen even more infrequently. They absolutely should be seen projected in a theater, and even better, many of the screenings will feature live piano accompaniment. This is a definite must-attend series, and the kind of thing that helps a Film Forum membership pay for itself.
And for all you likola critics, the only thing I got out of these interviews was a little insight into how these programmers do their things. I buy my tickets and memberships just like everyone else!
Out of Focus 