Film Forum

THE GOLDEN COACH

12:30   4:45  Buy Tickets

(1952, Jean Renoir) First of Renoir’s Odes to the Theatre, as Anna Magnani, star of a commedia dell’arte troupe in 18^th century Peru, must choose among a young soldier, a famous bullfighter and the viceroy himself. Totally shot in Rome’s Cinecittà, the tone is one of deliberate artifice throughout. 35mm print courtesy French Cultural Services. Approx. 103 min.

“Essential viewing.”
– Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Chicago Reader

“At his greatest, Jean Renoir expressed the beauty in our common humanity; that’s what Anna Magnani at her greatest expressed. This movie is a tribute to her fabulous gifts, and she gives the film its gusto.”
– Pauline Kael

“…it harks back to Renoir’s The River and to much earlier films in its awareness that the show is not just a play people write and perform but a design in nature, a wish to catch the light, a phrase of music, and the look on a woman’s face.”
– David Thomson

THE BAND WAGON

2:35  Buy Tickets

(1953, Vincente Minnelli) Washed-up Hollywood song-and-dance man Fred Astaire aims for a Broadway comeback – thanks to a sicko script by Comden & Green stand-ins Nanette Fabray and Oscar Levant – but battles with artsy director Jack Buchanan – as well as chilly co-star Cyd Charisse, until the two find themselves “dancing in the dark” in Central Park. Add Fred’s “Shine on Your Shoes” routine in a 42^nd Street arcade, the hilarious “Triplets,” the Spillane-spoofing “Girl Hunt Ballet,” and still more great songs by Dietz & Schwartz and a scintillating C&G screenplay. Now That’s Entertainment! 35mm. Approx. 112 min.

“There are few screen musicals as good as this one.”
– Pauline Kael

“This is the Arthur Freed unit at MGM at its best… did Hollywood ever do anything so odd so well?”
– David Thomson

“The Band Wagon was more like one of Shakespeare's comedies, pushed up to date and set to music and dance. But the more you look at it, the more perfect it seems. Hollywood doesn't make films like this now because public taste has changed. But it's doubtful if they could anyway.”
– Derek Malcolm, The Guardian