Originally released in 1969, Midnight Cowboy is one of the most controversial Oscar-winners ever, not least because it is the only (then) X-rated film to take home the top prize. Standards have changed in the intervening 40 years, and when the film was reissued in the ‘nineties, it was awarded the more appropraite “R” rating by the Motion Picture Association of America. What has not lost its power in the intervening years, however, is Schlesinger’s bold storytelling style and the Oscar-nominated performances by Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight.

Voight is naïve Texan Joe Buck, who travels to New York in hopes of hitting it big as a gigolo. Hoffman plays Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo, a small-time con artist who befriends Joe. They form an unlikely pair, and help each other to survive in the often cruel metropolis. The film abounds with memorable scenes and indelible small parts for the likes of Sylvia Miles, Barnard Hughes, and members of Andy Warhol’s Factory troupe. Harry Nilsson’s performance of “Everybody’s Talkin’” opens the film, one of the most perfect pairings of song and movie, and after seeing this film, what visitor to the Big Apple has not wanted to yell “I’m walkin’ here!!!” to a rude cabdriver?

Cinematheque’s fall season will continue with the Italian neo-realist gem Bicycle Thieves (1948), and Woody Allen’s Manhattan (1979).