Let It Rip

Another New York-only (for now) film retrospective that will, with any luck, eventually make its way West centers around the volatile, Texas-born character actor Rip Torn and, in particular, the rarely screened independent and underground cinematic experiments (including two films directed by Norman Mailer and one co-directed by Jean-Luc Godard) to which Torn devoted himself between 1967's Beach Red and 1973's Payday.

In previewing the series for this week's Village Voice, I wrote that Torn "has repeatedly gravitated, as if by some Pavlovian reflex, to the margins and uncertain frontiers of independent moviemaking and to filmmakers intent on setting the barn ablaze with the horses still inside. Notwithstanding the hard-working character actor's inability to turn down a job, 'normal' has rarely seemed to hold much interest for him." To read more, go here.