Anna Biller’s hands-on retro vision of perfect 70’s cinema was, in the words of IndieWire’s David Ehrlich “Archly funny — but also hyper-sincere”. What a movie! What a great night at NewScreen!

I was so pleased to rediscover this a few weeks ago. Accident is arguably the least known Pinter/Losey/Bogarde collaboration (the others are The Servant and The Go-Between) but the easiest to watch. As one reviewer advised, “Don’t try to match them drink for drink.” Of course we didn’t.

We did manage to demolish half a loaf of Borodinsky bread and a large jar of herring. Thanks Igor!

You had to be here. Enough said.

Ken Loache’s beautiful 1969 film Kes quietly moved us to tears tonight. The heavy South Yorkshire accent was challenging even with the aid of subtitles, which were peppered with “Thee”s and “Thou”s.

Sometimes bleak, sometimes rich, and not without a few laughs… I was proud to bring this classic to NewScreen… finally.

Wow. I was excited to see you all after the summer hiatus but, to be honest, I hadn’t expected the full house that turned up. Lovely to see you, and happy for some new faces.

The Swimmer is ultimately quite a bleak tale but initially, it’s a fanciful romp . Ned turns up (clad only in a pair of Speedo trunks) unexpectedly at some well-to-do neighbors who are all suffering from “I drank too much last night” scenarios but are delighted to see him again (it’s been a while). He informs them that he has realized that he can “swim home” via a network of his neighbors’ pools. He accepts a drink, and continues on his way, diving into their pool, and heading on to the next. As he gets nearer to his goal of “swimming home”, his neighbors are increasingly less happy to see him and, at the Biswanger’s pool party, the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan, after which it was all down(stream) from there for Ned. Tragically brilliant.

Igor turned up with herring, but alas, no Borodinsky was available. Next week!

After a flu-mandated week off, NewScreen bounced back with this final installment in Ulrich Seidl’s Hope trillogy, a tender story of a pedophilic romance between a middle age doctor, and a 13 year old girl at a summer “fat camp”. In the words of Mike D’Angelo (The A.V. Club), “[Paridise: Hope] is the most tender, nuanced, and deeply felt picture Seidl has ever made. What’s more, there’s no need to have seen the other two films, as Hope works beautifully all by its lonesome.”

A great NewScreen choice, if I do say so myself. Plus… herring and Borodinsky bread!

I first saw Good One on Christmas day, 2024. Of course, I loved it, but I thought at the time that it was maybe a bit slow and quiet for NewScreen. Nonetheless, it left an indelible mark in my memory, and when I dug it out of the proverbial crates last week, I thought “Fuck it. I hope they’ll like it…” Guess what? They didn’t like it… they loved it. I had kinda forgotten how funny it was, as well.

Thanks to Tineke and Zoe for bringing new people to NewScreen. It makes me happy to make people happy with NewScreen!

Thanks to my loyal audience for trusting me and coming out to see this. They were certainly not disappointed! Companion rocks and so does Sophie Thatcher. I’m somewhat embarrassed, but I do have to acknowledge that a nepo Quaid (assuming that the Trumper gene lives on in this fucked up family) also delivered a great performance.

A great NewScreen, once again. Happy me.