While Netflix is far from being a haven for admirers of classic cinema, they thankfully are backing strong repertory programming in New York City. After acquiring The Paris Theater, located on 58th Street in Manhattan, and briefly reopening with some runs of Netflix features and other specialty programming, they are now officially opening their doors again on August 6 with a more substantial slate of classic cinema.
Featuring two programs, one curated by Radha Blank and another by the theater’s programmer David Schwartz, the reopening lineup features work by John Cassavetes, Kathleen Collins, Luis Buñuel, Mira Nair, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Ingmar Bergman, Terence Davies, and much more––with many on film prints.
One can also enter to win a pass for Schwartz’s series “The Paris is For Lovers,” with a newly-unveiled scavenger hunt tied to Ira Deutchman’s new documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff, which opens on August 13 and is part of the lineup. The scavenger hunt will take participants throughout Manhattan to locate the former sites of the movie theater empire run by the film’s subject, Donald S. Rugoff: the vital—yet largely forgotten—independent film distributor who was majorly responsible for the art film explosion in New York City during the ‘60s and ‘70s. Learn more here, and happy hunting.
As for the Paris Theater programming, Radha Blank, director of The Forty-Year-Old Version, selected nine films to show alongside her film. They will screen August 6-12, and can be seen below:
John Cassavetes’s Shadows (35mm)
Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon (35mm)
Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank (35mm)
Kathleen Collins’s Losing Ground (Digital) Followed by a discussion with Kathleen Collins’ daughter, Nina Collins
Nick Castle’s Tap (35mm)
Billy Wilder’s The Apartment (4K Digital)
Christopher Guest’s Waiting for Guffman (35mm)
Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail (Digital)
Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle (35mm) Followed by a video conversation with Townsend
Following that series, “The Paris is For Lovers,” curated by Paris Theater programmer David Schwartz, is a selection of some key films from the history of the theater, largely focusing on romance, and relationships:
Claude Lelouch’s A Man and a Woman
Bertrand Blier’s Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Digital)
Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet (Digital)
Louis Malle’s The Lovers (35mm)
Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan (35mm) (with Stillman in person)
Albert & David Maysles’s Grey Gardens (Digital)
Jean-Luc Godard’s Vivre Sa Vie (35mm)
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie (35mm)
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry (35mm)
Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding (35mm) and The Namesake (35mm)
James Ivory’s Room With A View (Digital)
Ira Deutchman’s Searching for Mr. Rugoff (with Ira Deutchman in person)
Marcel Carne’s Children of Paradise (35mm)
Todd Haynes’s Carol (35mm)
Roger Vadim’s ….And God Created Woman (35mm)
Pietro Germi’s Divorce Italian Style (35mm)
Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear (35mm)
Jacques Becker’s Casque D’Or (35mm)
Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (35mm)
Orson Welles’s Othello (Digital)
Luis Buñuel’s Viridiana (35mm) and Belle de Jour (35mm)
Just Jaeckin’s Emmanuelle (DCP)
James Ivory’s Maurice (Digital) and Howards End (Digital)
Jean-Charles Tacchella’s Cousin Cousine (Digital)
Alain Tanner’s La Salamandre (Digital)
Terence Davies’s The House of Mirth (35mm)
Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name (Digital)
Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story (35mm)
Learn more on the official site and follow our weekly NYC rep updates here.