Films this week 4/21 – 4/23/2023

by Gary Palmucci | 21st April 2023 | Gary's Corner

 

One of New Plaza Cinema’s many “unsung heroes” is independent filmmaker Michael Jacobsohn, who has shot and edited the two NPC staffer promos many of you have so far seen here on screen — with more to come.

Michael has also curated for us a program of short films by NYC filmmakers that we will premiere at 7:30 on Friday night. Many of the filmmakers will be present for an after-screening Q&A, and we hope this will be the first of a series of presentations of new, home-grown, nascent talent. Just a few tickets remain!

Two additions to this weekend’s program:

  • Carmen — Acclaimed choreographer (and husband of Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman) Benjamin Millepied makes his film directing debut with what Indiewire’s David Ehrlich describes as “located somewhere between a classic opera, modern dance and a deadly fever dream – between the timeless beauty of ancient myth and the modern nightmare of America’s current immigration policies….Imagine watching Terrence Malick’s Badlands and Julie Taymor’s Titus double- projected on the same screen and you might have a vague idea of the strange no-man’s-land that Millepied’s debut begins dancing across from the moment it starts…” Do we have your attention? Oscar nominee Paul Mescal (Aftersun) and Melissa Barrera (In the Heights’ breakout) ignite the fated couple.
  • Everything Went Fine — French director Francois Ozon has for a quarter century been a shape-shifting provocateur of European morals and manners (Under the Sand, 8 Women, 5×2,  Swimming Pool), and his new film is no exception. Deadline’s Todd McCarthy reported from Cannes,  “Although the subject of euthanasia does not normally suggest a good time at the movies, Ozon serves one up anyway with the help of a raft of crafty and appealing actors (Sophie Marceau, Andre Dussollier, Charlotte Rampling, Hanna Schygulla), lush filmmaking and deft handling of the central emotional dynamic.”  

We’ll also be running our final screenings of Turn Every Page and The Quiet Girl, and continuing the surprisingly strong run of the French-Cambodian-Korean “sleeper,” Return to Seoul.

And next week we’ll be showing, the Oscar-shortlisted, post-Holocaust Hungarian drama Those Who Remained, along with the new biopic Hilma, portraying the Swedish abstract artist Hilma af Klint.

 
 
Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema