The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, January 11-18
The Keep (1983)
Directed by Michael Mann
In many ways, The Keep represents Mann at his most elemental. Derided on its initial release and regarded as a film maudit by the director himself, there is no denying that it is a bit of a mess, full of hanging threads and awkward ellipses. But there is a weight to the film, the only one in Mann’s filmography that deals explicitly with myth and religion, that is as grounded in the eponymous cavernous fortress as it is in the characters (both Nazis and Jews) it centers around. In the end, the viewer can only stare in wonder and confusion, as is proper. Ryan Swen (January 13, 14, midnight at the Nitehawk)
