Despite the continuing layoffs and resignations at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Program Director Richard Pena and his team continue to churn out solid programs.  Off the heels of the annual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema series, the Film Society will unveil a career-spanning focus on the late Robert Mulligan, a director who has rarely, if ever, been the subject of such a retrospective. Bravo!  I, for one, can't wait to view Mulligan's gritty crime story The Nickel Ride starring Jason Miller (post-Exorcist), written by Eric Roth (pre-Forrest Gump), and co-starring John Hillerman, Linda Haynes (Rolling Thunder), and Bo Hopkins.  I do not believe it has appeared on home video in this country.  Mulligan's fine adaptation of Richard Price's Bloodbrothers (not on DVD) will also be featured alongside the director's better-known works such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Summer of '42, and Baby the Rain Must Fall.  Two of his other films, Inside Daisy Clover (recently released on DVD) and Love with the Proper Stranger (not on DVD), will be included in an upcoming Natalie Wood tribute.  Read more here.  There are supposed to me three more of these "American Auteurs" installments this year at the Walter Reade and I hope they continue in the vein of overlooked figures like Mulligan.

The intriguing Nickel Ride key art (seen in the above insert), which first made me think sci-fi or horror, reminded me of some imagery I'd seen in an old issue of Heavy Metal.  Upon looking at the cover gallery, the artwork I found there was not nearly as similar as I'd thought it was.