Films this week 12/08 to 12/10/2023
by Gary Palmucci | 8th December 2023 | Gary's Corner
On this holiday-event-abbreviated weekend, New Plaza Cinema will be offering just four screenings — encores of Joan Baez: I Am a Noise, the award-winning Past Lives, Make Me Famous, with docmakers Brian Vincent and Heather Spore back for another Q&A, plus one new addition. The UK’s Nick Broomfield has built an impressive portfolio of documentaries on star-crossed pop musicians – Leonard Cohen, Tupac Shakur, Kurt Cobain — and other controversial public figures: Sarah Palin, Heidi Fleiss, and Aileen Wournos. His latest, The Stones and Brian Jones chronicles the short, tragic life of an original Rolling Stone whose mid-sixties musical innovations — the marimba on Under My Thumb, woodwinds on Ruby Tuesday, and sitar on Paint It Black propelled the band forward creatively, even while he was unable to control his own downward spiral. Next weekend we’ll be offering a fuller schedule, including these newcomers:
- Bella!: Many of our patrons have requested this recent documentary portrait of 1970s NY Congresswoman Bella Abzug who, per the producers’ notes, “With her trademark hat and Bronx swagger, entered Congress swinging, battling for credit cards for women, equality for the LGBTQ community and trailblazing a path for leadership that reflected the broad diversity of the country.” Check out this column next week for special screening guests.
- Monster: The latest from Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose 2018 Cannes prizewinner Shoplifters was a New Plaza Cinema audience favorite. His new film centers on a single mother, her son, and a fight that one day breaks out at his school and devolves into mystery and tragedy.
And in case you didn’t catch them last week, here are some details on films coming to our Macaulay screening room over the holidays and winter weeks ahead:
- Sunday Dec 17 at 12:15 pm: Max Alvarez and I will screen and talk about David Lean’s bittersweet classic Brief Encounter.
- Opening Dec 22: Freud’s Last Session: Sigmund Freud (two time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins) and C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode) cross paths in what promises to be a fascinating debate of intellects and psyches.
- Opening Dec 25: The Teachers’ Lounge, Germany’s submission for the Best International Film Oscar — check out the intense trailer online.
And in January:
- Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros: Frederick Wiseman’s epic restaurant documentary, another NY Film Critics’ winner this week.
- Friday January 12 at 7:30 pm: our latest installment of NYC Filmmakers’ Short Films
- Many patrons have asked us for Ingmar Bergman classics, so: Sunday January 14 at 12:15 pm Smiles of a Summer Night and Sunday January 28 at 12:15 pm The Seventh Seal
Gary Palmucci. Film CuratorNew Plaza Cinema