Point Blank

What makes Point Blank so extraordinary, however, is not its departures from genre conventions, but Boorman’s virtuoso use of such unconventional avant-garde stylistics to saturate the proceedings with a classical noir mood of existential torpor and romanticized fatalism. Nick Schager, Slant, July 24, 2003

Artist Stephen Lapthisophon returns to introduces Point Blank, a 1967 film directed by John Boorman, a Los Angeles Noir with Nouvelle Vague influences. Walker (Lee Marvin) was betrayed by his wife and best friend, played by Angie Dickinson and John Vernon, and manages revenge when he leaves prison, but he also encounters absurdity and chaos. Jonathan Rosenbaum writes for the Chicago Reader, “Boorman's treatment of cold violence and colder technology has lots of irony and visual flash — the way objects are often substituted for people is especially brilliant, while the influence of pop art makes for some lively 'Scope compositions — and the Resnais-like experiments with time and editing are still fresh and inventive.”

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Tuesday Evenings at the Modern: Films this summer focuses on filmmakers and films that have some direct or indirect relationship with the issues and circumstances of time, philosophy, and/or form found in Disappearing—California, c. 1970: Bas Jan Ader, Chris Burden, Jack Goldstein. To create a full experience, these presentations include a brief introduction and opportunity for discussion following the films when time allows. As a special addition, this summer some of the films will be selected and introduced by guest presenters.

This program begins at 7 pm. Seating is available in the Modern’s auditorium at 6:30 pm. The museum’s galleries are open until 7 pm on Tuesdays during the run of Tuesday Evenings at the Modern: Films. This program is free and open to the public. Up to two free tickets can be obtained at the admission desk beginning at 5 pm the day of the screening.