Films this week 5/31 to 6/2/2024
by Gary Palmucci | 30th May 2024 | Gary's Corner
Three new titles join New Plaza Cinema’s lineup this weekend: a lyrical Italian drama, a non-fiction portrait of the mid-20th century international art world, and a 21st century American classic.
La Chimera features rising British star Josh O’Connor as a literal modern tomb raider, wandering Italy in search of both Etruscan artifacts and a lost love who may or may not be real, while beguiled by a female household presided over by Isabella Rossellini, in one of her best movie roles. In her NY Times Critic’s Pick review, Manohla Dargis wrote:
“La Chimera” is the latest from Alice Rohrwacher, a delightfully singular Italian writer-director who, with just a handful of feature-length movies — the charming, low-key heartbreaker “Happy as Lazzaro” among them — has become one of the must-see filmmakers on the international circuit. Rohrwacher, who grew up in central Italy, makes movies that resist facile categorization and concise synopsis. They’re approachable and engaging, and while she’s working within the recognizable parameters of the classic art film — her stories are elliptical, her authorship unambiguous — there’s nothing programmatic about her work.”
The new documentary Taking Venice examines a still-ambiguous incident from the 1964 Venice Biennale; as the NY Times’ Alissa Wilkinson writes:
“History buffs already know that during the Cold War, American intelligence agencies were heavily involved in literature, music and the fine arts, seeing them as a way to export soft power around the world and prove U.S. dominance over the Soviet Union. “Taking Venice” tells one slice of that story: a long-rumored conspiracy between the State Department and art dealers to ensure that the young painter Robert Rauschenberg would win the grand prize at (the Biennale) the event sometimes called the “Olympics of art” — and a “fiesta of nationalism.”
However one chooses to interpret these events, Rauschenberg’s signature style is already on full display here. Coincidentally, his poster for the 1982 NY Film Festival tonight hangs over my work desk…
Readers may recall my mention earlier this month of how well Gus van Sant’s 2008 film Milk had played in the LGBT Film Festival we helped curate here at CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College. I was inspired all over again by Sean Penn’s Oscar-winning portrayal of San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk and how the issues — and ensuing tragedy — of nearly a half-century ago seem no less relevant in 2024. Aided and abetted by a brilliant supporting cast — Josh Brolin, James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, Allison Pill — the movie is well worth revisiting — or, discovering, and we’re very happy to be “encoring” it.
Among our various holdovers this weekend is another recent doc, Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World, whose director Michael Fiore will be back for a Q&A after Sunday afternoon’s screening. Last weekend’s show was a total sellout, so as always we recommend online ticket purchases and early arrival at the cinema for optimal seating.
Also returning: Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance, Daniel Auteuil in Farewell Mr. Haffmann, Ken Loach’s The Old Oak, Wicked Little Letters with its ebulliently obscene British cast, and Gad Elmaleh, (“the Jewish Jerry Seinfeld,” a patron informed me last weekend), in Stay With Us.
And more, diverse classics coming next weekend: a reissue from Sony Classics of Run Lola Run, along with Billy Wilder’s Oscar-sweeping 1960 The Apartment on Sunday June 9, to be followed two weeks later by his James Cagney-starrer One, Two, Three. Our social media team will have lots to say about them. Be sure to check us out on Facebook, X/Twitter, and Instagram.
Gary Palmucci, Film Curator
New Plaza Cinema