Gary's Corner

Two classic films and their master directors are in the forefront of this week’s New Plaza Cinema programming.  

Although it’s been nearly 25 years since Stanley Kubrick’s sudden passing, his movies continue to draw enthusiastic, ever-analyzing audiences. In our October theme of “horrific goings-on in remote locations” that kicked off with Island of Lost Souls, we couldn’t resist including Kubrick’s The Shining, adapted from Stephen King’s early novel about one dysfunctional family’s terrifying unravelling in a dead of winter Colorado resort hotel. Jack Nicholson in one of his many iconic roles brings, among many other things, an immortal chilling twist to the familiar intro of a famous TV talk show host. Max Alvarez and I will be on hand post-screening, and I’ll recall my viewing of The Shining on its opening day, May 23, 1980, after which the director ordered a scene cut from near the end of the picture, which has never been reinstated…

Another legendary filmmaker, Italy’s Luchino Visconti, is back on our Macaulay screen this weekend.  After our single, sold-out August screening of The Leopard turned into a six week stand, we’re bringing in his previous early 60’s epic Rocco and His Brothers, chronicling a working class Milan family whose dreams and desperate strivings turn to tragedy. Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinale from The Leopard are featured, along with Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori and Katina Paxinou. Another perfect escape on a rainy autumn afternoon.  

Our other, timely newcomer is Mister Organ, a singular documentary that just opened to surprise, sell out business in its downtown NYC and LA premieres. In his Critic’s Pick NY Times review Glenn Kenny recounts, “When New Zealand journalist David Farrier began investigating a peculiar series of events happening in a car park outside an antiques store in a town he likens to the antipodean equivalent of Beverly Hills, he most likely had no idea he’d wind up being haunted for life. Farrier directed and co-stars in an account of those events that can rightly be called a documentary horror film. If its title initially strikes you as humorous, you won’t be laughing long.”  

This has the makings of another “sleeper’ success” from the enterprising distributor of Aurora’s Sunrise,  which we debuted last summer.  

This week’s holdovers include Past Lives, The Plot Against Harry, Carlos, Pedro Almodovar’s unique “double-feature,” Strange Way of Life and The Human Voice, and the Tom Wolfe doc Radical Wolfe.  Please check our website this weekend for a possible special guest or two following Sunday’s 3:30 pm screening.