What I’m Seeing This Week: My loving wife has asked me to let Killers of the Flower Moon, which continues to play Cinemapolis and the Regal Ithaca Mall, ride for another week so that we can hopefully see it together, so I’m going with Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall at Cinemapolis.
Also in Theaters: The excellent “From Silent Film Star to American Icon: Celebrating Anna May Wong” film series continues this week with a screening of Peter Pan, which critic Jonathan Rosenbaum called “one of the loveliest movies for and about children ever made,” at Cornell Cinema on Sunday. As someone who lived in Pittsburgh for a decade, I am contractually obligated (and very happy!) to note that the classic George A. Romero-directed zombie film Night of the Living Dead plays Cinemapolis on Monday and that it’s sequel Dawn of the Dead will be at the Regal Ithaca Mall all week. Spirited Away, which would get *my* vote for the loveliest children’s film of all time, plays the Regal Ithaca Mall with subtitles on Saturday and Tuesday and dubbed on Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday. Those who missed them last week have one more chance each to see Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles and Vertigo at Cornell Cinema on Friday and Saturday respectively. Both are part of their “The Greatest Films of All Time?” series.
Home Video: I was travelling for work for much of the week but found time finally catch up with The Phantom Carriage, which has been near the top of my personal “Humiliations” list at least since David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson named it one of the ten best films of 1921. It did not disappoint! Although it’s set on New Year’s Eve, it’s a ghost story (think A Christmas Carol) which makes it seasonally appropriate. The special effects would be good for 1931, and the scene in which David Holm takes an axe to a door is even more harrowing than its descendent in The Shining, which is a testament to Victor Sjöström skill as both an actor and a director. Now streaming on The Criterion Channel.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 