On the Bowery
Top Films of 2022
•
1h 4m
Directed by Lionel Rogosin • Documentary • With Ray Salyer, Gorman Hendricks, Frank Matthews • 1956 • 65 minutes
On the Bowery chronicles three days in the drinking life of Ray Salyer, a part-time railroad worker adrift on New York’s skid row. When the film first opened in 1956, it exploded on the screen, jump-started the post-war American independent scene and shortly won an Oscar nomination. Restored by the Cineteca di Bologna, documentarian Lionel Rogosin's first theatrical film is simultaneously an incredible document of a bygone era and a vivid portrait of addiction that resonates today just as it did when it was made.
"Stunningly authentic." —Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
"This landmark documentary disturbs and compels as much today in a new 35mm restoration as it did when it opened in 1956 to both criticism and acclaim." —Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
Up Next in Top Films of 2022
-
Foucault Against Himself
Directed by Francois Caillat • Documentary • With Michel Foucault • 2014 • 52 minutes
From the history of madness, to sexuality and pleasure in classical antiquity, to the law and penal institutions, the breadth of Michel Foucault's thought was astonishing.
One of the leading intellectuals of t...
-
Ruth Stone's Vast Library of the Fema...
Directed by Nora Jacobson • Documentary • 2022 • 77 minutes
After tragedy strikes, acclaimed poet Ruth Stone retreated to the margins of the literary world, working tirelessly to provide for her children, and transforming her intense grief into poetry, using simple, startling language.
Using a ...
-
The Lover
Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud • Drama • With Tony Leung, Jane March, Melvil Poulpaud, Jeanne Moreau • 1992 • 112 minutes
Set in 1920s colonial Indochina, a pretty, virginal French teenager (Jane March) meets a handsome Chinese playboy (Tony Leung Ka Fai) from a respectable family. Going agains...