Watch 'Withnail & I' With Noah Baumbach At Quad Cinema
March 25, 2017, 1:02 p.m.
Kenneth Lonergan and Noah Baumbach are teaming up for a new screening series where they'll show films they've never seen before.
When Greenwich Village's Quad Cinema reopens next month, it'll come with a few acclaimed directors in tow—Kenneth Lonergan and Noah Baumbach are teaming up for a new screening series where they'll show films they've never seen before. Also—John Turturro!
The series, dubbed "First Encounters," will feature five films never before seen by some famous film people, each of which will be on hand to present and watch the movies with you. Selections include the 1981 West German film Lola, which Sandra Bernhard hasn't seen; the 2000 Taiwanese New Wave film Yi Yi, presented by Lonergan, and Withnail & I, which Baumbach apparently never bothered to stream on Netflix. Each screening will be followed by a Q&A. You can see the full line-up below, courtesy Indiewire:
“Lola,” Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1981, West Germany, 113m, 35mm
Fassbinder’s garishly colored melodrama updates von Sternberg’s “The Blue Angel” to ’50s West Germany, with upstanding building commissioner Armin Mueller-Stahl unexpectedly falling for seductive cabaret singer Barbara Sukowa, and finding himself torn between professional obligation and torrid passion. In German with English subtitles.
Selected and presented by Sandra Bernhard“Pather Panchali,” Satyajit Ray, 1955, India, 125m, DCP
This tender portrait of a Bengali family — whose struggles with poverty are observed with the same simplicity and poetic lyricism as the quotidian pleasures of village life — introduced the world to young Apu, became a landmark of social realism, and an enduring classic of world cinema. In Bengali with English subtitles.
Selected and presented by John Turturro“Withnail and I,” Bruce Robinson, 1988, UK, 107m, 35mm
This ‘60s rites of passage memoir chronicles the dissolute misadventures of unemployed actor Marwood (Paul McGann) and outrageous fellow thesp and quasi-mentor Withnail (Richard E. Grant). Detailing their shambolic, alcohol-fueled stay at a ramshackle Lake District cottage owned by portly homosexual Uncle Monty (Richard Griffiths), Robinson’s film richly deserves its cult reputation, and made Grant’s career.
Selected and presented by Noah Baumbach“Yi Yi,” Edward Yang, 2000, Taiwan/Japan, 173m, 35mm
The swan song of one of the luminaries of the Taiwanese New Wave, this absorbing portrait of three generations of a contemporary middle-class Taipei family is imbued with an emotional specificity that is hard to shake. “The work of a master in full command of the resources of his art.” (The New York Times) In Mandarin with English subtitles.
Selected and presented by Kenneth Lonergan“Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars,” D.A. Pennebaker, 1973, UK, 90m, 35mm
David Bowie’s historic 1973 performance at London’s Hammersmith Odeon finds the late great musician at the end of his British tour, at the height of his glam rock powers, and bidding farewell to his alter-ego, Ziggy Stardust: ghastly pale, with razor sharp cheekbones and an array of gender-bending, science fiction-inspired ensembles. A must-see for Ziggy fans.
Selected and presented by Jeffrey Deitch
No word yet on dates or pricing, but keep an eye out for more details on Quad Cinema's website. The theater, which closed for renovations in 2015, will reopen on April 14th.
