What I’m Seeing This Week: I am heading to Rochester, NY for the Nitrate Picture Show in a few hours and will spend the majority of the next three days watching movies! The opening night selection is Intolerance, and the rest of the schedule will be announced at a press conference later this morning. I’m hoping to post initial reactions on Letterboxd within ~24 hours of each screening and publish a dispatch on this blog like the one I wrote last year sometime during the next week or two–stay tuned!
Also in Theaters: I Saw the TV Glow is my favorite film of Movie Year 2024 so far and it continues its run at Cinemapolis this week, so that’s obviously my top recommendation! I also enjoyed Challengers, which is there and at the Regal Ithaca Mall, and The Fall Guy, which is just at the Regal. I played with fire a bit when I decided to see the latter earlier this week instead of Evil Does Not Exist, since I am hoping to catch that film before it closes at Cinemapolis–hopefully it will stick around awhile longer! My loving wife and I are also making plans for a date night outing to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga either there or at the Regal. My number one repertory pick for this week is The Muppet Movie, which is screening at the Regal on Sunday and Monday to commemorate its 45th anniversary.
Home Video: Intolerance star Lillian Gish’s last silent film appearance was in the The Wind, which entered the public domain in the United States this past New Year’s Day. I finally caught up with it the other day and was impressed by both her performance and the stunningly expressionistic final scene. Although the ostensibly “happy” ending is one of the more notorious examples of studio interference in Hollywood history, numerous people I follow on Letterboxd suggest that it leaves an even more bitter taste in your mouth than the original one would have, and I’m inclined to agree. This is now fair game for screenings, and if that’s the kind of thing you organize, you should consider programming this one–I think contemporary audiences would dig it! The Wind is available on DVD and the ad supported free streaming video platform Tubi.
Previous “Ithaca Film Journal” posts can be found here.
The Prodigal Cinephile 