Films This Week 5/07/21

by Gary Palmucci | 7th May 2021 | Gary's Corner

Hello everyone. We’re continuing for a second week with the new film version of Berlin Alexanderplatz, acclaimed at last year’s Berlin Film Festival. To clarify what last Friday may have seemed a bit unclear to some of our readers, this is the third adaptation of Alfred Doblin’s classic Weimar Germany-era novel, following a 1931 feature film and the epic 1980 R.W. Fassbinder TV mini-series which I also recommended last week.   

Astute critic and film festival programmer Alissa Simon has written: “In this audacious, neon-lit reinterpretation of Alfred Döblin’s 1929 novel, after surviving his perilous journey African immigrant Francis vows to be a good man, but he soon realizes how difficult it is to be righteous while undocumented in Germany — without papers, without a nationality, and without a work permit.” Timely circumstances for all too many corners of our uncertain planet. 

We’re also continuing with two of last month’s Oscar winners: The Father (Best Actor, Anthony Hopkins and Best Adapted Screenplay) which will be available here through May 16 and Another Round (Best International Film, Denmark). 

This movie has been a long-running crowd pleaser with Virtual Cinema audiences around the country. Readers may recall my misadventure with director Thomas Vinterberg’s earlier (and also prize-winning) film, The Celebration, two-plus decades ago in Cannes. And though the U.S. DVD had long fallen out of print, I recently found a copy in the NYPL’s archives, and will soon see how it “holds up.”

Happy viewing.

Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema