Research Catalog

Title

In love with movies : from New Yorker Films to Lincoln Plaza Cinemas / Daniel Talbot ; edited by Toby Talbot ; foreword by Werner Herzog.

Author

Talbot, Daniel, 1926-2017

Publication

New York : Columbia University Press, [2022]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Talbot, Toby
• Herzog, Werner

Description

xix, 305 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color); 24 cm

Summary

"One day I bought a neatly lined journal and over a period of ten years wrote the short takes that now appear in this book. For years the journal rested in my study closet among travel books, maps of Europe, issues of Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate, waiting patiently until I could organize my random thoughts into sentences I might come to trust. Meanwhile life swirled around me: the jangle of New York City culture, family pursuits, and my work as a film programmer and film distributor." So begins Talbot's episodic memoir of his somewhat accidental career. There is a brief section on his early life, when he spent entire days at the local movie house, and living in NYC in the 50s, always watching movies at the myriad theaters around the city, most of which eventually disappeared. He started the New Yorker theater with his wife Toby in the early 1960s and eventually introduced American moviegoers to a universe of European film making, including the French New Wave and German auteurs. Many of the films he showed later became canonical, such as Rules of the Game, The Marriage of Maria Braun, My Dinner with Andre, and Shoah. He writes about the "ideal movie house," and the best way to screen a film (he screened up to 350 films a year), how he made his choices of what to show and what to distribute. Most film distributors, he writes, don't know anything about film, and all they care about is how much money a film will make--he disparages the "hit-driven business" he is in. He describes his accidental foray into film making--after watching all 187 hours of the Army-McCarthy hearings he thought he'd screen them over a month and charge people by the hour. But then he decided to abridge it and it became the documentary Point of Order. He provides short vignettes about his relationships with the directors he knew--Ozu, Sembene, Rosesellini, Godard, Fassbinder, Wenders, Herzog, Varda, Tati, and others. There is a section on Claude Lanzmann and the distribution of Shoah. The Appendix includes an excellent interview with Talbot conducted by Stanley Kaufman when he was film critic for The New Republic"--

Subject

• Talbot, Daniel, 1926-2017
• Distributors (Commerce) > New York (State) > New York > Biography
• Motion picture theater owners > New York (State) > New York > Biography
• Motion pictures > Distribution
• Motion picture industry > Anecdotes
• Distributors (Commerce)
• Motion picture industry
• Motion picture theater owners
• Motion pictures
• New York (State) > New York

Genre/Form

• Anecdotes.
• Autobiographies.
• Biographies.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Machine generated contents note: pt. 1 EARLY YEARS -- Nueva York -- The New Yorker Theater -- Theater Diary: 1960 -- The Ideal Movie House -- Other Side of the Tracks -- What to Play -- Bella and the Critic -- Chandler Brossard -- pt. 2 THOSE WHO MADE ME LAUGH -- Mae West and W. C. Fields -- The Marx Brothers -- pt. 3 UNSUNG FILM PIONEERS -- Collectors -- Early Distributors -- Ed Harrison's Indian Idol -- Mel Novikoff: West Coast Perfectionist -- Presenting Don Rugoff: Manhattan Exhibitor Like No Other -- pt. 4 ACQUISITIONS -- Emile de Antonio and the Making of Point of Order -- New Yorker Films -- My Dinner with Andre -- Rules of the Game -- pt. 5 DIRECTORS IN MY LIFE -- Yasujiro Ozu -- Nagisa Oshima -- Ousmane Sembene -- Roberto Rossellini -- Jean-Luc Godard -- Rainer Werner Fassbinder -- Wim Wenders -- Werner Herzog -- pt. 6 SHOAH -- Claude Lanzmann -- A Memory Project -- pt. 7 MORE DIRECTORS -- Agnes Varda -- Jacques Tad -- Glauber Rocha -- Jean Eustache -- pt. 8 CRITERIA -- From the Safety of My Living Room -- Rozhinkel -- Miura -- "Ignatz, don't go so deep" -- Minyan -- pt. 9 REFLECTIONS -- Clusters of Fragmented Moments -- The New Frankness -- Death Equals Freedom -- Take to the Streets -- pt. 10 PORTRAITS -- Pete Martin and the New Yorker Bookshop -- Pauline Kael: Fueled by Fire -- Vincent Canby: With Brains and Heart -- Toscan: Gaumont's Wit -- The Indomitable Lia van Leer: Founder of the Jerusalem Cinematheque -- Kieslowski, Malle, and Mastroianni: Three Lives and Three Deaths -- Gianni Amico and Jacques Demy: Journal Excerpts -- pt. 11 UPPER WEST SIDE CINEMAS -- Upper West Side -- All Seats $1.00 at All Times -- Cinema Studio -- The Metro -- The Lincoln Plaza Cinemas -- The Nuts and Bolts of Running a Movie Theater -- Festivals.

Call Number

MWES (Talbot, D.) 22-5048

ISBN

• 9780231203142
• 0231203144
• 9780231203159
• 0231203152

LCCN

2021016371

OCLC

1246623486

Author

Talbot, Daniel, 1926-2017, author.

Title

In love with movies : from New Yorker Films to Lincoln Plaza Cinemas / Daniel Talbot ; edited by Toby Talbot ; foreword by Werner Herzog.

Publisher

New York : Columbia University Press, [2022]

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Added Author

Talbot, Toby, editor.

Herzog, Werner, writer of foreword.

Other Form:

Online version: Talbot, Daniel, 1926-2017. In love with movies. New York : Columbia University Press, [2022] 9780231554893 (DLC) 2021016372 (OCoLC)1266191971

Research Call Number

MWES (Talbot, D.) 22-5048