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This morning I had a chat with Bruce Goldstein of the Film Forum. Some great stuff is coming. There will be a Jean Pierre Melville retrospective in honor of his 100 year Anniversary. He said there will be some rare stuff and many restored films. I asked if him Le Samourai was a restoration. He said no, it is French Archive 35mm print. Then later this summer there'll be a major Ernst Lubitsch retro with surpises from his catalogue. And finally, in January the 100 years of Bergman. He said many will be new restorations. This sounds huge as well.

Wesley Snipes In Focus at The Brooklyn Academy of Music, March 31 - April 9.

I wouldn't mind catching the Blade 1 & 2 Double Feature next Saturday (15 min. Intermission).

Jesus, BAM is showing some serious lapses in taste. Sorry, I like Wesley Snipes, but most of his films were shit.

What Wesley Snipes retrospective would leave out New Jack City?!

New Jack screened tonight. Daaang... why yawl hatin'?

No hate, Nino Brown is his best role

Probably.

On the other hand, I love Jungle Fever because of everyone else in the film, most of whom are first rate.

Jungle Fever is one of those movies where all the other characters are more compelling than the lead characters.

Film Forum April to July... Melville and Lubisch as I mentioned prior. And a De Sica film never before released in the US. Il Boom

Wow very in for the NYC in the 70s stuff, a bunch of films I keep missing on 35.

I should be in the city for Leon Morin and Reservoir Dogs, so I'm excited to catch those, neither of which I've seen on a big screen. They cite Morin's director's cut as "never-before-seen", but have the 11 minutes of cut scenes added back in for this version ever appeared as deleted scenes on a home video release and this is just their first appearance as part of the film as a whole, or is this truly as yet unseen footage?

DarkImbecile wrote:They cite Morin's director's cut as "never-before-seen", but have the 11 minutes of cut scenes added back in for this version ever appeared as deleted scenes on a home video release and this is just their first appearance as part of the film as a whole, or is this truly as yet unseen footage?

I was wondering about this, but I think this is actually the same "restoration" that was released nearly a decade ago and what they did was recycle the same exact advertisement. (A 4k scan had been done back then too.)

Also FYI, this film originally had a cut of over 3 hours and was drastically chopped down to make the film more commercial - but I don't think there's ever been any news of more footage being re-discovered beyond what we've already seen.

I posted about this a few years ago, but I saw this at MoMA and I noticed that the translation was better:

Spoiler

I just saw an excellent 35mm print of this projected today at MoMA. In the scene where Léon Morin (Jean-Paul Belmondo) flippantly tells Barny (Emmanuelle Riva) that she needs a husband, Barny angrily responds by telling him that she uses (i.e. masturbates with) a wooden stick. Morin then tells her that she should be careful because it could hurt. She snaps back that she's "not tender." In some translations I've seen in the past, she says she's "not scared" of hurting herself, which doesn't come across the same way. Forgot which translation Criterion uses though.

The best part of this calendar is the substantial number of films playing in 35mm. A decent amount of FF calendars lately have focused on major restorations, which is nice for some, but not why I go to repertory cinemas.

Anything advertised with "New 35mm print!" was usually something to see in NYC- granted a lot of those prints let some doozies past their QC (this was at MoMA, but when they showed a new Goldfinger print that was donated to the museum, it had some really annoying issue with the soundtrack), but they usually looked great. Too bad the studios are switching to DCP's.

I highly recommend Melville's otherwise unavailable Quand tu liras cette lettre. It has significant third act problems, but that wind up is so good and it does correct itself by the end with a strong finish

I'll be away, but it looks like the print of Death Wish that's playing is IB Tech!

domino harvey wrote:I highly recommend Melville's otherwise unavailable Quand tu liras cette lettre. It has significant third act problems, but that wind up is so good and it does correct itself by the end with a strong finish

Where did you watch it? (I'm assuming with English subtitles)

French DVD, or something sourced from that, plus fan subs, probably.

Yep!

I can totally get behind her on this sentiment and it just seems snobbish to offer this as your only option. Anyone watch Tim Heidecker/Gregg Turkington's On Cinema At the Cinema? The first episode of this season had a gag about Gregg's disgust as truffle oil popcorn at nouveau theaters with specialized food options.

Anyone from Los Angeles here ever been to GCV Cinemas in Koreatown? Not only do they play first run Korean films with subtitles (or first run American films with Korean subtitles), they serve regular, caramel, and sour cream and onion popcorn. They get it.

Ha, the concession solution there is for sure... I'm trying to think of a better word than hipsteresque, but drawing a blank. It's so they don't have to have people working the stand, I think- everything is prepackaged, it's like a little store.

I don't care, though, it's the most exciting new venue within three hours of where I live that has opened since I moved here ten years ago.

Metrograph's whole thing is attempting to be more than just a movie theater, though. There's a bookstore, restaurant, bar...and it's certainly trying to be "hip" but it does it well. They are the only place that has their food options/specialty candies. I feel like every criticism I read of Metrograph just hates because it's different (I had a friend who complained about the people wearing suits as uniforms).

And just for contrast, Film Forum has fresh baked goods. A unique thing about them. I'm glad all these theaters have somewhat different options.

Honestly they could serve nothing but $300 gold encrusted dessert plates and I wouldn't be too worried as long as they keep making adventurous selections on 35mm and keep their seats to a 4 out of 10 on the comfort scale (putting them approximately 3 higher than Film Forum)

The leg room is easily twice as generous as Film Forum.