Film Forum Puts New York City in the Spotlight

The flashy mid-century Manhattan locales are likely the primary reasons that “Sweet Smell of Success” (1957) is the headlining feature for “The City: Real and Imagined,” a festival of 60-some movies being mounted by Film Forum. Yet consider, as well, the score by Elmer Bernstein and, in particular, the music that charges its way through the opening credits. Talk about brass: Bernstein’s score is unadulterated urban attitude, a raffish admixture of larceny, ambition, and chutzpah. Music is often posited as a purely abstract art, but the soundtrack to “Sweet Smell of Success” reminds us that abstraction is nothing without a basis in the real.Bernstein shares the film with a jazz quintet led by Chico Hamilton, an Angeleno who subsequently adopted New York City as his hometown and who appears in the movie. “Sweet Smell of Success” was the first motion picture to be accompanied by two separate soundtrack albums — entirely fitting for a film whose grit and glamor stem from the duo bobbing-and-weaving at its center: Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. Curtis was never better. Even when not at the forefront of a scene, he’s almost preternaturally at hand — as if Curtis couldn’t believe his luck in nabbing a role as ripe as that of press agent Sidney Falco. Lancaster is more circumspect, though no less tart, as J.J. Hunsecker, a thinly veiled version of press kingmaker Walter Winchell. Both actors palpably relish the bitter array of bon mots provided by script doctor Clifford Odets. And when director Alexander Mackendrick brings the camera up tight on our two stars, the screen can barely contain their bristling, cynical vigor.That the plot surrounding Curtis and Lancaster is fairly base in its melodramatics in no way diminishes the clammy allure of “Sweet Smell of Success.” The interim director and chief curator of the Museum of the City of New York, Sarah Henry, will be on hand to introduce the film on the opening night of “The City.” Film Forum is presenting the series in conjunction with “This Is New York: 100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture,” an exhibition honoring the museum’s centennial anniversary.Other cultural dignitaries who’ll be in attendance at one point or another include the president of the Tenement Museum, Annie Polland, and the Film Forum Repertory artistic director, Bruce Goldstein. The third- and fourth-generation owners of Russ & Daughters, Mark Russ Federman and Niki Russ Federman, will introduce “The Sturgeon Queens,” Julie Cohen’s 2014 documentary about the family business.Is your favorite New York City movie on the docket? The program is replete with inescapable pictures like “The Naked City” (1953), “The Producers” (1967), “The Taking of Pelham 123” (1974), “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975), “Girlfriends” (1978), “Desperately Seeking Susan” (1985), “Do the Right Thing” (1989), and “Paris Is Burning” (1990). More esoteric fare includes “Uncle Moses” (1932), a Yiddish talkie about unionization, assimilation, and the power that can accrue from capital, and newsreel footage of New York City culled from the collections of the Library of Congress and the Packard Humanities Institute.“Escape from New York” (1981) and “The Warriors” (1979) posit the city as an irredeemable dystopia, though they are no more imaginative than the uptempo optimism that cascades through “The Bandwagon” (1953) and “On the Town” (1949). The latter isn’t included in the series and neither is Martin Scorcese’s “After Hours” (1985), a black comedy that is infinitely preferable to the cheapjack misanthropy of “Taxi Driver” (1976), which is, alas, on the calendar. Given the overall quality of the programming, it’s best not to begrudge a lineup of films that will make you realize just how much, to pinch a phrase from J.J. Hunsecker, you love this dirty town.

Film Forum Puts New York City in the Spotlight

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