Films this week 11/30 to 12/03/2023
by Gary Palmucci | 2nd December 2023 | Gary's Corner
One of New Plaza Cinema’s most popular films of this fast-receding year just had a triumphant week — perhaps the first of many.Past Lives won “Best Film of 2023” at the Gotham Awards, then “Best First Film” for director Celine Song at the NY Film Critics’ balloting. I was following the latter on Thursday morning, and got the Past Lives news in the nick of time, about five minutes before our NY Times ad deadline. We’ll be doing two shows this weekend to celebrate, along with encore screenings of Joan Baez: I Am a Rock, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, and David Fincher’s kinetic The Killer. Plus, two very special screenings:
- On Saturday at 4:45 pm: Only in Theatres, with director Raphael Sbarge hosting an encore of his doc on the difficult post-pandemic journey of an independent cinema chain; owner Greg Laemmle will supply an update on this past eventful, ‘Barbenheimer’ exhibition year, and how his theatres have fared since last fall.
- Sunday at 2:45 pm: A 50th Anniversary screening of Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, with our very special guest Mary Pat Kelly, author of Martin Scorsese – A Journey (just out in a new, updated edition) on hand to introduce and join me in a Q&A on a Scorsese classic, just one of many that have inspired and influenced filmgoers and filmmakers around the world…I strongly suggest checking out on you tube Bong Joon-ho’s 2020 Best Director’ Oscar acceptance speech for moving proof of that. Mary Pat Kelly has an amazing life story of her own, and has been an ‘eyewitness’ to Marty’s career for nearly six decades. Tickets are selling fast for this one…
Next weekend, and beyond:
- Selected shows: The Stones and Brian Jones, a new doc from the UK’s NIck Broomfield on the (unjustly) “forgotten Stone.”
- Sunday Dec 10 at 5:30 pm: Filmmakers Brian Vincent and Heather Spore will return to mark the six months’ residency of Make Me Famous, which recently played to its first full house in Williamsburg.
- Sunday Dec 17 at 12:15 pm: Max Alvarez and I will screen and talk about David Lean’s bittersweet classic Brief Encounter.
- Opening Dec 22 : Freud’s Last Session, Sigmund Freud (two time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins) and C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode) cross paths in what promises to be a fascinating debate of intellects and psyches.
- Opening Dec 25: The Teachers’ Lounge, Germany’s submission for the Best International Film Oscar — check out the intense trailer online.
And in January:
- Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros: Frederick Wiseman’s epic restaurant documentary, another NY Film Critics’ winner this week.
- Friday January 12 at 7:30 pm: our latest installment of NYC Filmmakers’ Short Films
Many patrons have asked us for Ingmar Bergman classics, so:
- Sunday January 14 at 12:15 pm: Smiles of a Summer Night
- Sunday January 28 at 12:15 pm The Seventh Seal
Please join us!
Gary Palmucci. Film CuratorNew Plaza Cinema