UA101 @ FILM FORUM

The Film Forum celebrates the 90th anniversary of United Artists with a "greatest hits" retrospective starting Friday, March 28 and continuing through May 1, 2008.

It's very hard to go wrong with this series, which opens with a Manhattan/Raging Bull double bill. On April 18 and 19, you can catch A Hard Day's Night, another I'm Not There source, on a Richard Lester double bill with The Knack, and How To Get It.

So you want to know what my top picks would be? Here ya go!

March 30/31 Paths of Glory (with The Killing)
A Stanley Kubrick double bill featuring his harrowing (and weirdly cast) war movie Paths of Glory.

April 3 The Misfits
Written by Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston, starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift, this is a sophisticated and modern Western that, I think, has aged like a fine wine.

April 6/7 The Apartment (with Never on Sunday)
The inspiration for the musical Promises, Promises, Billy Wilder's The Apartment is an artfully told story about seeking romance in New York City. I'm not really a fan of Never on Sunday, so I suggest you see The Apartment first.

April 12 The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
I've written about it before. Simply ingenious filmmaking in the spaghetti Western genre. Even more than The Misfits, it seems to be gaining in recognition.

April 15 The Manchurian Candidate
This transcendent fusion of suspense and satire is still unnerving more than four decades after its release in 1962.

April 16 Sweet Smell of Success and The Big Knife
Great casts and great writing characterize these high-intensity media melodramas.

The double bill I'd most like to see? Women in Love and Sunday, Bloody Sunday on April 27/28. Not sure I can make it, though.

Here's a trailer for The Big Knife!



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