Hollywood Classics at the Ziegfeld

It's a beautiful, bright Sunday afternoon... so what do you do: Go to the park for picnic? Sit in a cold, dark theater to watch a 45-year-old movie? Last weekend, Bo and I opted for the latter and went to the Ziegfeld to see West Side Story, part of the cavernous theater's classic movie series that ends next Thursday, October 19.

The Ziegfeld may be the last single-screen theater in Manhattan, and I had forgotten just how huge a space it is... and how strongly it reeks of faded glory (it's been more than seven years since my last movie there, which was The Phantom Menace, which was also the last night I smoked a cigarette, among other things). Anyway, in its six-week run the Hollywood Classics series has featured some great movies to see on this massive screen—The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly and The Wizard of Oz were the other two that caught my attention, but had to miss—and it begins its final week tonight with three of Hitchcock's best. (There's a full schedule here.)

As for West Side Story, this was Bo's first time, and I hadn't seen it probably since I was her age. We both loved the music (it's funny: nearly every month or so since I was a teenager these songs come out of nowhere and get stuck in my head); Bo really enjoyed the dancing, I totally cried at the end; and—it must be said—we both thought it was absolutely one of the gayest movies ever made. Bo's exact comment was something like: "Yeah they're supposed to be all tough but then they're always breaking into these sissy dance moves!" And I got a kick out of the way the camera lingered lovingly over the Jets and the Sharks super tight pants—heck, whole shots were framed by a butt and a pair of packages! Didn't anyone in 1961 get it... I mean besides the unspoken intended audience? But whatever... we had a great time, me and Bo, soaking in a piece of a cutural history.