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The Films of River to River Festival ’09
Showing at the Elevated Acre, this year’s features are classics set in New York City
Robert Shaw (left) in The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three
New York’s long list of free events always includes rock bands, perhaps opera in the park, an occasional dance troupe from a far away land, and movies. The River to River Festival (whose venues stretch through out downtown Manhattan) brings its own free outdoor cinema this year. The festival is concentrating on classics set in NYC. The gritty streets you are seeing on screen will be walked on your way to the train after the screenings—only you probably won’t see Marilyn Monroe.
Some of this year’s features include the musical West Side Story, the age-old take of forbidden love and the Sharks vs. the Jets will be showing July 20 while the Monroe skirt blowing classic Seven Year Itch kicks off the festivities July 6. In the Billy Wider classic, Monroe is the object of affection of a married man. As our city’s temperature will start to rise the joke of the main character keeping her “underwear in the ice box” may go over well with the crowd.
The rest of the features showing include hard boiled cops, as in the July 13 showing of The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three. Where Walter Matthau fights to save kidnapped New Yorkers on a subway train. A big-budget Pelham remake starring John Travolta and Denzel Washington will be out this summer.
The run of films concludes on July 27 with 1957’s Sweet Smell of Success. Starring Burt Lancaster as a greedy publicist, the film follows naked ambition through a by-gone era of New York journalism, when newsprint marked your fingers and there were no computers to write a news blog on.
The festival shows all films at the Elevated Acre. Views of the East River, Ellis Island, Brooklyn Bridge, and the South Street Sea Port can all be enjoyed. Movies are shown on Tuesday nights starting in July. Short films precede all features, each night highlighting a different filmmaker. Included are shorts by former Whitney Biennial participants Jeanne Liotta and Peter Hutton. All films are shown at 55 Water Street at dusk. Full listing available at www.rivertorivernyc.com.