‘AS you suffer through another summer, don’t take it out on your fellow pedestrians or subway passengers – come in, cool off, and let fictional vigilantes settle your score.”
That’s sound advice from Anthology Film Archives, which Thursday through next Sunday will screen five revenge flicks from the 1970s and ’80s, when the streets of New York were, in the Anthology’s words, “grittier and scummier” than now.
Three are directed by Bronx-born William Lustig, who will attend some of the screenings: “Maniac Cop” (1988), “Maniac Cop 2” (1990) and “Vigilante” (1983).
Also on the schedule are Abel Ferrara’s “Ms. 45” (1981) and Michael Winner’s “Death Wish” (1974).
The latter is probably the best-known New York revenge flick. It features Charles Bronson as a bleeding-heart liberal who turns vigilante when his wife and daughter are brutally attacked in their apartment. (Bronson appeared in four marginal sequels, none of which is at the Anthology.)
In the feminist fantasy “Ms. 45” (a k a “Angel of Vengeance”), a deaf-mute seamstress (Zoe Tamerlis) exacts bloody revenge after she’s raped twice within hours. (One of the thugs is played by Ferrara.)
Anybody familiar with the director’s work (“Bad Lieutenant,” “The Driller Killer,” etc.) knows exactly what to expect.
The Anthology is at Second Avenue and Second Street, in the East Village; 212-505-5181.
* The New York Korean Film Festival 2008 kicks off Thursday and runs through Aug. 31.
Fourteen features are due, with screenings at BAM Rose Cinemas in Brooklyn and Cinema Village in downtown Manhattan. Several actors and directors will put in appearances. Details:
koreanfilmfestival.org
V.A. Musetto is film editor of The Post; [email protected]