Gary's Corner

We have a veritable feast of actor and filmmaker personal appearances this weekend at New Plaza Cinema’s screen at Macaulay Honors College.

Legendary actress Jacqueline Bisset — seen over the years at New Plaza Cinema venues in Two For the Road and Truffaut’s Day for Night — will join us for a Q&A after Saturday’s 12:15 show of her new film Loren and Rose, in which she plays an iconic actress whose series of encounters with an ambitious young filmmaker evolve into a moving series of life lessons and artistic epiphanies for each of them.

Many Americans remember all too well the 2003 lead up to and tragic decade-plus consequences of the invasion of Iraq. The 2014 documentary We Are Many is having a “return engagement” around the country, which New Plaza Cinema was invited to join. Watching once again this week the passionate arc of protest — led here by Susan Sarandon, Mark Rylance, and John le Carre — which accompanied the “shock and awe” campaign of America and its allies, I had to wonder “what have we learned?” and “could this ever happen again?” The doc’s filmmakers Amir Amirani and Wael Kabbani will appear after Friday’s evening’s screening to engage us on those ever-relevant questions.

Another sliver of NYC history that many of us readily recall is the raucous explosion of the downtown art scene in the late 1970s and 80s. The recent documentary Make Me Famous dives into the story of Detroit-born Edward Brezinski, charismatic Lower East Side painter who thwarted his career with antics that roiled the city’s art elite. The film also investigates his subsequent, mysterious death on the Cote d’Azur. Director Brian Vincent and writer-producer Heather Spore will join us after both the Saturday and Sunday afternoon shows.

This weekend we’ll also continue with our holdover hits Close to Vermeer, The Night of the 12th, Persian Lessons, Chile ‘76, and Master Gardener.

Many New Plaza Cinema patrons have asked if we’re planning any further screenings of Turn Every Page, following last week’s passing of Robert Gottlieb. The answer is “yes” over the upcoming holiday weekend, with some possible “special accompaniment.”

Stay tuned.