Films this week 5/05 – 5/07/2023
by Gary Palmucci | 5th May 2023 | Gary's Corner
A busy weekend for New Plaza Cinema at Macaulay Honors College…although we advertised last weekend the “final screening” for Turn Every Page, I realized that Saturday April 29th will be Robert Gottlieb’s 92nd birthday. Given the warm outpouring of affection for the film and its subjects from that screening, we’ll be doing an irresistible “encore” (the last one!) at 12:15 on Saturday.
Our two additions to this weekend’s schedule will feature very special appearances. Swedish director Lasse Hallström became internationally renowned for his many ABBA videos, and Oscar-nominated for his breakthrough feature My LIfe As a Dog, as well as The Cider House Rules, along with other outstanding work in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and Chocolat. His new film, Hilma, chronicles the life of Hilma af Klint, the mid-20th century artist recognized in recent decades as a pioneer of abstract painting, supplanting the likes of Kandinsky, Malevich, and Mondrian. New Plaza “regulars” may remember the documentary on this subject we screened in 2020.
Hallström’s daughter Tora plays Hilma as a young woman. She and her father (now a Westchester resident!) will join us for a Q&A after Saturday’s 5:10 showing.
We’ll be marking this month’s observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day with the exclusive NYC premiere of Those Who Remained, a 2019 Hungarian — and Oscar shortlisted — drama of the parallel lives of two Holocaust survivors struggling to reconstruct their postwar lives.
Reviewing from the Telluride Film Festival, my friend Todd McCarthy wrote: “Terrific. A finely-tuned post-Holocaust tale that is quite compelling. Made and acted with unemphatic precision, this marks director Barnabas Toth as a talent to watch.”
Dr. Annette Insdorf, an expert on the cinematic history of this subject (and longtime New Plaza booster) is a big fan of the film, and will introduce Sunday’s 5:15 screening.
Also this weekend, reprise screenings of the kinetic Carmen, Return to Seoul, and Francois Ozon’s compassionate Everything Went Fine.
Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema