New York City Repertory Cinema

[FrauBlucher]

The Third Man screening in 35mm using a brand new 35mm print photochemically printed from original film elements at the Film Forum June 12-25

[Lowry_Sam]

So who's the idiot (at Metrograph) who scheduled a screening of a 35mm print of Andrei Rublev and Angelopoulos' Landscape In The Mist at the exact same time?

[HinkyDinkyTruesmith]

Well, to be fair, this is like, the third screening of both of those films there.

[Lowry_Sam]

I didn’t see any others during my stay and the website only shows a second screening for Rublev but after I leave and none for Angelopolous. My frustration is perhaps because this was the only time two screenings conflicted, it just surprises me that the only conflict would be at the same venue in the afternoon. I went to several one-time screenings @ 9pm with less than 10 people at a larger theater & my trip to NYC has me wondering how any of the art/rep houses can sustain themselves, but screening hard-to-see things before people get out of work surely doesn’t help.

[Drucker]

Summer at Film Forum with a Coppola and Laurel and Hardy retrospective, some Visconti, Kwan, and movies about trains too.

[FrauBlucher]

The Laurel and Hardy retro looks like a lot of fun

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Summer at Film Forum with a Coppola and Laurel and Hardy retrospective, some Visconti, Kwan, and movies about trains too.

Beyond glad to see Sherman's March getting it's 4K restoration distributed.

[Drucker]

Yeah, I'm intrigued by that--what is it exactly?

[malachi_lui]

I didn’t see any others during my stay and the website only shows a second screening for Rublev but after I leave and none for Angelopolous. My frustration is perhaps because this was the only time two screenings conflicted, it just surprises me that the only conflict would be at the same venue in the afternoon. I went to several one-time screenings @ 9pm with less than 10 people at a larger theater & my trip to NYC has me wondering how any of the art/rep houses can sustain themselves, but screening hard-to-see things before people get out of work surely doesn’t help.

A lot of NYC rep audiences are students whose schedules vary based on what day of the week it is, or retirees, or the millennial work from home set, or people who are simply unemployed but have money. Screenings of rare films on a weekday afternoon still sell, especially at places like Lincoln Center which will only run a print 1-3 times, compared to Metrograph who will run it at least a couple times a week often for 3-6 weeks.

[Drucker]

Nowhere else to post it, so let's go Knicks. What a series.

[Lowry_Sam]

Nowhere else to post it, so let's go Knicks. What a series.

As long as Trump doesn't show up to jinx them, they should do fine.

[swo17]

We have a basketball thread

[hearthesilence]

Bed bugs were spotted at the AMC located in Kips Bay a few days ago. The manager said they were going to call pest control, but it takes a while to bring under control so keep away in the meantime.

[Lowry_Sam]

Almost a week after my trip to NYC and my back has been itching.

[Drucker]

A lot of cool stuff playing in the psychedelic western series at Anthology next month, including the directors cut of Straight To Hell by Alex Cox. Why do I feel like someone on this forum mentioned it recently?

[Lowry_Sam]

If this is the version on the Kino Blu-ray, it's also featured this month on the Criterion Channel in Alex Cox's Punk Provocations (which interestingly doen't feature Sid & Nancy).

[Drucker]

Some treats at Paris Theater's 2026 Big & Loud with 70MM prints of Sound of Music and West Side Story, among lots of other stuff.

[Never Cursed]

Shame there's no PlayTime, but at least we have the next best thing: multiple showings of Speed Racer and Josie and the Pussycats

[Drucker]

They played Playtime last year!

[Never Cursed]

Yeah, my point is more: why not play what's probably the most rewatchable 70mm film of all time every year you commit to a 70mm festival? If there's one movie that perfectly explains the appeal and power of large format, it's that one

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

They also played it in 2023. In 2024 it played in MoMI's "See It Big" series, so it's possible that the owner of the print is concerned about wear and they're limiting its bookings to one NYC venue per year. Some more circumstantial evidence for this is that only two of the four Paris screenings last year were on 70mm (the others were DCP, suggesting they weren't allowed to run the print as much as they'd hoped) and Lincoln Center didn't screen it on 70mm for their "Ari Aster Selects" series, even though the Reade is equipped for it. That said, I don't know what other venue might be showing it this year, since it's not part of the MoMI lineup.

[hearthesilence]

They also played it in 2023. In 2024 it played in MoMI's "See It Big" series, so it's possible that the owner of the print is concerned about wear and they're limiting its bookings to one NYC venue per year.

Yeah, it can be tough to book rare prints for that exact reason. I posted this before, but even though Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid gets shown regularly around New York City, they don't always have a film print. (IIRC the available DCP was made from a 16mm print, which explains why it looks so crummy.) I think there's only TWO existing 35mm prints that ever get shown: the BFI's print, which I've never seen, and the Academy's immaculate print. When Metrograph screened the Academy's print, they made it clear that it was a tough process, with the Academy going the extra mile of checking out the venue's insurance policy among other things. Elaine May just had a retrospective at Lincoln Center, making an appearance herself, and yet even there they weren't able to book the film at all, sadly an egregious omission.

And to use another example, when MoMI had the big Shimizu and Naruse retrospectives, they mentioned in the intros that part of the negotiations for these rare prints was how many times they could be run them through the projector, and in many cases, they stressed it could very well be the last time in a long time before they're screened again.

[malachi_lui]

Film prints definitely sell more repertory tickets than DCPs, I can attest to this as I’ll gladly spend money for any actual film print, but if it’s just a restoration DCP, I’m fine watching at home (unless it’s a newly released restoration, or if there’s no HD copy aside from the DCP).

Negotiations for getting prints can be difficult and expensive, especially when those prints have to be obtained from international sources. Japan Society’s recent Kazuhiko Hasegawa retrospective got The Man Who Stole The Sun (a masterpiece) on the most pristine 35mm print I’ve ever seen, but the others on 16mm; booking the rest on 35mm would’ve been too expensive, and the only English subtitled prints of those were 16mm anyway. The 16mm prints of Youth to Kill (that’s the title translation on the print, and better than the more common The Youth Killer) and Tatsumi Kumashiro’s Hasegawa-written Roman Porno Bitterness of Youth still looked amazing (the latter was anamorphic, which is extremely rare for 16mm). I do wonder how much the cost of getting physical prints cuts into these theatres’ profit vs booking regular DCPs, not to mention labour from properly experienced projectionists.

As for Playtime, I first saw it at Metrograph on New Year’s Day 2025 on a 35mm print which looked rather unremarkable. Hopefully it gets screened on 70mm again here soon, it was in the Cinémathèque Française’s 70mm series in Paris earlier this summer.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

They also played it in 2023. In 2024 it played in MoMI's "See It Big" series, so it's possible that the owner of the print is concerned about wear and they're limiting its bookings to one NYC venue per year.

I have seen that Playtime 70mm print four times since my first viewing in 2005. The print is starting to show some wear and tear and could use a new one, but I doubt it will happen and the owners would probably rather run a DCP at this point. Even if they did, I can’t imagine it being another contact print and would see them going the easy route of a digital to film-out print. It’s also worth noting that I’m not sure about the staff at the Paris Theater or their equipment, but I was told they were the second venue for a new 70mm print of Vertigo a few years ago and they apparently damaged the print.

They also played it in 2023. In 2024 it played in MoMI's "See It Big" series, so it's possible that the owner of the print is concerned about wear and they're limiting its bookings to one NYC venue per year.

Yeah, it can be tough to book rare prints for that exact reason. I posted this before, but even though Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid gets shown regularly around New York City, they don't always have a film print. (IIRC the available DCP was made from a 16mm print, which explains why it looks so crummy.) I think there's only TWO existing 35mm prints that ever get shown: the BFI's print, which I've never seen, and the Academy's immaculate print. When Metrograph screened the Academy's print, they made it clear that it was a tough process, with the Academy going the extra mile of checking out the venue's insurance policy among other things. Elaine May just had a retrospective at Lincoln Center, making an appearance herself, and yet even there they weren't able to book the film at all, sadly an egregious omission.

I’ve seen that BFI print and can attest that it looks excellent. Beautiful, dark colors with no fading and minor damage. The DCP is a scan made from a 16mm optical reduction print (so several generations removed from the negative) distributed by AGFA and made by Muscle Distribution’s Elizabeth Purchell. From my understanding, it often screens in a legal grey zone.

But the difficulty of being able to screen prints is a real phenomenon. Without giving names, a major venue in Los Angeles with union staff apparently damaged an Academy print and the Academy refused to send a print again to them for a year. I work in art and there’s similar logistics when dealing with different types of material. I’ll never forget one lender not allowing a certain artwork that was a centerpiece to the artist’s career out because of the museum’s ancient HVAC system.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

The Heartbreak Kid DCP was made from a TV print, hence 16mm rather than 35. IIRC from the notes that opened the DCP, some of the profanity was censored on the print and was restored from another source. Bristol Myers Squibb owns the rights and it is apparently possible to book it all nice and legally now (the Drafthouse even did some chainwide screenings in 2024).

Different print sources will of course have different rules, but in my experience it's standard to require info on the venue's equipment, the projectionist, and previous print loans/references, at least if it's not a venue the source already works with on a regular basis. It's also normal to require dual-projector changeover systems and forbid prints from being built up (i.e. combined onto platters or 6,000-foot reels) due to the risk of damage. And regarding malachi_lui's question about costs, location is a big factor—at least here in the U.S. the cost of domestic shipping alone can easily be enough to make a 35mm screening economically non-viable.