Gary's Corner

Last weekend’s surging attendance at New Plaza Cinema’s Macaulay Honors College screening room was very encouraging — a trio of enthusiastic Q&As after screenings of The Automat and Four Winters, with both documentaries’ directors continuing post-show conversations in the hallway and on our ground floor, has us very excited for the upcoming holiday moviegoing and awards season.

This weekend we’ll be closed on Friday due to some previously scheduled student Halloween events, but on a full Saturday-Sunday schedule with reprise screenings of The Automat,  Four Winters, and The Good House, with its award-worthy Sigourney Weaver performance. Please consult newplazacinema.org for possible late-breaking Q&As at each of the documentaries.

We’ll also be adding two screenings — direct from the Paris Theatre, courtesy of our friends at Netflix’ theatrical department — of a new, big-canvas German adaptation of the immortal Erich Maria Remarque anti-war novel All Quiet On the Western Front. Classic film buffs may recall the 1930 Universal Studios version which won that year’s Best Picture Oscar.

This new version, with the added resources of color, widescreen and sophisticated sound, presents a deeply immersive portrait of what H.G. Wells called “the war to end all wars” — inaccurately, as it has tragically turned out.

Daniel Bruhl, another veteran of Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds gracing our screen this fall, leads a large cast of German actors. The director is Edward Berger, best known here for the riveting mini-series Deutschland 83, and his ambitious film is Germany’s submission for Best International Film in this year’s Oscar race. Check out the online trailer and you’ll immediately see how this is a “big-screen experience.”

Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema