Category Archives: NewScreen Stuff

Fremont – Afghan insomniac seeks intimacy with fortune cookie message.

Love and Life, Movies, NewScreen Stuff

Another magic moment at NewScreen tonight… Babak Jalali’s quietly observed Fremont (named for the California city in which our protagonist finds herself living, after escaping from Afghanistan as a translator to the US military) is ultimately a love story. Each character is vividly drawn in delicious black and white, rather Jarmushian at times, and with a great deal of subtle humor thrown in. The film was perhaps a bit too quiet to make it a hit, but please try to see it if you can. It’s available on Prime.

Our short feature was another outstanding music video, Xena, featuring a track by Palestinian singer Nai Barghouti, remixed by Skrillex.

Read My Lips. Mos’ deaf!

Movies, NewScreen Stuff

The last time I showed this sexy thriller was in December of 2016, during the final season of MovieNight in the old place. Every time I watch it, I find myself on the edge of my seat and tonight was no exception. Read My Lips managed to attract enough people who had never seen it before. Dare I say we’re 3-0 with this new season? I’ll try to keep up the pace!

Our short this week was another quirky music video, this time featuring Audrey Nuna. Locket, directed by Valentin Petit.

Thanks to Igor for bringing the Latvian herring for me to serve with my fresh-baked Borodinski bread. Legit. Good times!

The Passenger. What a ride!

Movies, NewScreen Stuff

For our second feature in this new season, I had a complication on Wednesday, so switched to Thursday, November 8th, in the email. November 8th was actually a Wednesday, so some confusion ensued. It also turned out that this sudden change of day conflicted with the plans of my loyal regulars… I almost cancelled, but you know what? The show must go on, and so it did.

Tonight turned out to be a blast, and attendance greatly exceeded my expectations. And what a thrill it was to see this movie again on the big screen. I’m pretty sure I figured out how the famous last shot was done!

I’ll try to announce next week’s feature a bit earlier though.

Our short tonight was a beautiful bit of animation: Flora by Ian Frederick.

I’m Your Man – oder dien Mensch?

Movies, NewScreen Stuff

What a way to start off a new season! A German rom-com! Who knew?

I was delighted to be surprised by this movie earlier this year… I wasn’t expecting it to be so well observed and funny. Apparently you were all delighted too, judging from the applause.

In my opinion (always humble) Ich bin dein Mensch could’ve be better translated, and more ironic, as I’m Your Human. Seems like someone in marketing didn’t do their job properly… which perhaps explains why an excellent film from two years ago remains relatively unknown.

Thanks to all who came out on this chilly follow-up to Halloween. Tonight’s short was the exciting and sexy music video of Tanto, by Cassie Marin.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Another season over. Sooo much fun.

Love and Life, Movies, NewScreen Stuff

As usual, when it came time to honor the long-standing tradition of ending our season with a musical, I turned to my friend Ellen, a lover of the genre, and a great supporter of this little endeavor. Once again, she came through, and since Tuesday was her only free night this week, Tuesday it was!

I had shown Hedwig and the Angry Inch waaaay back in the day… I have no record of the date, but I know it was more than 15 years ago. How time flies.

This was the most fun I’ve had in forever, and happily sang along with the bouncing ball. Awesome awesome awesome. Thankfully we’re not in Tennesee. Thank you Ellen!

Tonight’s opening short was the ever-magical Over Time by the French directors, Oury Atlan, Thibaut Berland, and Damien Ferrie.

Run Lola Run – Back on track.

Doggy Style, Movies, NewScreen Stuff

I was pretty sure that absolutely everyone would know this movie and once more, I was surprised to be wrong in thinking that. I guess that’s what happens when one achieves “a certain age”. There were a couple of “first time Lola’s” here tonight, and it was great to see them on the edge of their sofa cushions… in fact it was great to see everyone on the edge of their sofa cushions… in fact it felt great to be on the edge of one myself!

The Whitehouses were here, of course, getting closer to their move to Berlin. What are we gonna do without them next season. Boo hoo.

Tonight’s short, The Chemical Brothers’ We Got to Try pleased all the dog lovers in the house, and Tick seemed to like it too!

3 Women – 2 hours, 4 minutes. Weird.

Movies, NewScreen Stuff, Strange Stuff

This one didn’t age very well, IMHO. I’ve seen it a few times and loved it, and I thought it would make a great NewScreen feature, but it was just a bit too slow, and just a bit too weird. Shelly Duval’s Millie Lammoreaux character used to make me laugh, but this time around she just made me feel sad for her. My guests seemed to enjoy it, though… Next!

Our opening short tonight was Rene Zahns rather sexy animation Soft Animals

The Truffle Hunters. Oh for the love of dogs!

Doggy Style, Movies, NewScreen Stuff

 What a beautiful movie! The Truffle Hunters was first brought to my attention by my dear friend, Marcy Robinson, who was the colorist. When I mentioned this fact to my guests this evening, most were unaware that such a role existed in the making of a movie. “What do you mean, she colored it? Like with coloring pens?” I did my best to explain, with little success, but when the movie started rolling, I asked out loud if they now understood what a colorist does. The answer was a resounding “Yes!”, from our rather full house.

As the end credits played out, I saw that Marcy was actually credited as colorist, pretty much without fanfare (a small-ish credit in the small-ish credit section). How can it be that someone who contributes so much to the look of a film gets so little recognition? The film was great, in large part due to the lavish look she imparted on it. Frustrating. I kinda feel the same about the retouching work I do… oh well.

Another beautiful short tonight too. CIMPOIASCA by Bára Halířová. Check it out

Peeping Tom. Thru the lens, darkly.

Movies, NewScreen Stuff, Strange Stuff

This will be a hard act to follow, on a few levels. A beautifully visual, smart, quirky movie that pretty much ended director Michael Powell’s career – people were just not ready for his departure from the role of beloved director of what became British classics. Guess what… this one became another.

On top of that, we had a great audience tonight: our most faithful guests were joined by people we haven’t seen in a while, and everything just, um, clicked (reference to the shutter of Mark’s ever-present film camera).

And… even the opening short was wonderful. Check it out: Mette / Mama’s Eyes

Apparently the banana bread was “best ever” as well. Should I just quit now, while I’m ahead? Joking.

Diva – Wonderful on a Wednesday!

Movies, NewScreen Stuff

This week, we moved to a Wednesday… there are just too many other things a person can only do on Thursdays in New York City, apparently. Well… good move!

And a great movie. There are a surprising number of people who have never seen Diva, and I guess that’s because it has been unusually hard to acquire over the years since its release. Now streaming on Prime Video, I urge you Diva-virgins to go for it, the bigger the screen, the better!

Thanks to all who came out tonight. We had a blast! Wednesdays work.