New York City: Film
New York is a movie-lover's dream . New state-of-the-art movie theaters are popping up all over the city, with more than a hundred new screens being added. Most will be in multiscreen complexes with all the charm of large airports but with the advantages of superb sound, luxurious seating and perfect stadium-seating sightlines, as in the megaplexes at Union Square and Kips Bay.For listings your best bets are the weekly Village Voice or the New York Press (both free), Time Out New York , or the daily papers on Fridays, when reviews come out. Beware that listings in papers are not always entirely accurate, but you can phone 212/777-FILM or visit the website www.moviefone.com for accurate showtimes and computerized film selections. Ticket prices have risen to as high as $10.50, and there are no reduced matinee prices in Manhattan, nor cheap evenings.
The city also supports a number of major film festivals , the biggest being the New York Film Festival , which runs for two weeks from the end of September, at Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center).
If you don't mind the heat and would rather watch your movies outside, Bryant Park (6th Ave and 42nd St; tel 212/512-5700, www.bryantpark.org ) hosts free, outdoor screenings of old Hollywood favorites on Monday nights at sunset throughout the summer .
REVIVALS
The American Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave (at 36th St), Astoria, Queens tel 718/784-0077,
www.ammi.org
.
Showing films only on weekends during the day, AMMI is well worth a trip out to Queens either for the films - serious director retrospectives, silent films and a good emphasis on cinematographers - or for the cinema museum itself.
Anthology Film Archives
32 2nd Ave (at 2nd St) tel 212/505-5181,
www.anthologyfilmarchives.org
.
The bastion of experimental filmmaking where programs of mind-bending abstraction, East Village grunge flicks, auteur retrospectives and the year-round Essential Cinema series rub shoulders.
Cinema Classics
332 E 11th St tel 212/677-6309,
www.cinemaclassics.com
.
It's a grungy, sit-on-folding-chairs affair, but the film selections are excellent, the café's sofas and cakes divine and all tickets are $5.50. They also have an esoteric collection of cult videos for sale.
Film Forum
209 W Houston St (between 6th and 7th aves) tel 212/727-8110,
www.filmforum.com
.
The cozy three-screen Film Forum has an eccentric but famously popular program of new independent movies, documentaries and foreign films on two screens, and a repertory program in Film Forum 2 specializing in silent comedy, camp classics and cult directors.
Ocularis
70 N 6th St (between Wythe and Kent sts), Williamsburg, Brooklyn tel 718/388-8713,
www.billburg.com/ocularis
.
This small space housed inside the
Galapagos
bar is transformed into an independent cinema on Sun nights, screening rarely seen cult classics, foreign gems and pioneering work by new directors.
Walter Reade Theater
165 W 65th St (between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave) tel 212/496-3809,
www.filmlinc.com
.
Simply the best place in town to see great films. Opened in 1991, this beautiful modern theater with perfect sightlines, a huge screen and impeccable sound elevates the art of cinema to the position it deserves within Lincoln Center. The emphasis is on foreign cinema and the great auteurs.
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