The Best Films Playing in New York and Los Angeles Repertory Theaters During August 2024
We here at IndieWire love watching films on actual film — and cities like New York and Los Angeles, where repertory cinema is thriving, provide no shortage of opportunities to do just that. Scoping out selections in both major metropolises, we’ve compiled a list of the best screening options for the upcoming month, which include retrospectives on beloved auteurs featuring multiple 35mm prints, as well as 4K restorations of classic films that shouldn’t be missed.
In keeping with our appreciation for the theatrical experience throughout the country and world, IndieWire also gives a special shoutout to The Brattle Theatre of Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as some of its stellar curation over the next month. Keep reading for our picks.
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NEW YORK
Film Forum
In anticipation of the new 4K restoration of Jean-Pierre Melville’s WWII French resistance drama “Army of Shadows,” which will screen at Film Forum from August 2-15, the beloved Houston Street cinema will be hosting a weeks-long celebration of the director entitled, “The Complete Melville.” Featured in the series are 35mm showings of “Le Doulos,” “Le Circle Rouge,” “Un Flic,” “Le Deuxième Souffle,” and “Les Enfants Terribles.” Screenings kick off today, July 26, and run until August 1.
Bringing the heat to the dog days of summer, the Forum will be running another series from August 16-22 entitled “Blaxploitation, Baby!” Films screening on 35mm include “Super Fly,” “Sheba, Baby,” “Truck Turner,” “Cleopatra Jones,” “Blacula,” “Friday Foster,” “Black Caesar,” and many others. Certain screenings will also feature an introduction from author and film critic Odie Henderson.
IFC Center
Located in Greenwich Village, right off the West 4th-Washington Square stop, IFC Center opened in 2005 as a renovation to the historic Waverly theater. In addition to the vintage movie poster collection courtesy of Posteritati featured on the upper level, other reasons to make the trip to IFC include its offbeat curation of first-run independent and revival cinema and special presentations of National Theatre Live.
IndieWire’s picks for this month include two 4K restorations screening at IFC, the first being Francis Ford Coppola’s paranoia thriller, “The Conversation,” which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year in April. Starring Gene Hackman as San Francisco surveillance expert Harry Caul, the film acts as both a haunting neo-noir of a compromised man brought to his limits and an artistic examination of faith in crisis. The film won the Palme D’or at Cannes, but Coppola would end up beating himself at the Academy Awards with his other 1974 classic, “The Godfather Part II.” Screenings of the 4K restoration begin August 9 with showtimes available August 5.
Our other pick for IFC is a film that didn’t receive its due upon release, largely as a result of edits made by the producers that included inserting hardcore sex scenes without director Tinto Brass’ knowledge, but has received new life thanks to an updated and remastered cut. “Caligula: The Ultimate Cut” reinstates the original vision of screenwriter Gore Vidal to tell the salacious rise and fall of the notorious Roman emperor, resurrecting what Malcolm McDowell said on Instagram was “one of my best performances.” It screens on August 16 at 6:30 pm ET with a Q&A featuring producer Thomas Negovan, who oversaw the reconstruction of the film, and Tim League of Drafthouse Films, who will be handling the North American re-release.
LOS ANGELES
American Cinematheque
The Los Feliz 3, whose curation is handled by American Cinematheque, continues its Cinematic Void series this month with three greasy westerns of varying styles, but that all cater to the oddball taste the curation aims to satiate. With screenings on Mondays at 7pm, the first IndieWire pick is Sam Peckinpah’s “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” on August 5, followed by the West German Spaghetti Western “Deadlock” on August 12, and finally, the middle section of Sergio Leone’s “Dollars” trilogy, “For a Few Dollars More,” starring Clint Eastwood, on August 19.
As part of American Cinematheque’s curation for the Egyptian Theater, it’ll be closing out its Ultra Cinematheque 70 Fest 2024 with a celebration of Paul Thomas Anderson on Sunday, August 4. “Licorice Pizza,” “The Master,” “Boogie Nights,” and “Inherent Vice” will all be screening in 70mm back-to-back, allowing fans to be completely enveloped by the auteur’s oeuvre.
New Beverly Cinema
Need some more hot-button political issues in your life? New Beverly Cinema has you covered. Shifting from July into August with a dose of intrigue, it’s screening two wildly different takes on the Watergate scandal back-to-back on July 30, July 31, and August 1 with “All the President’s Men” at 7:30pm each night followed by “Dick” at 10:20pm. Other standouts for next month are double features spotlighting youth and crime from August 13 to 15, with Brazilian epic “City of God” paired next to “Fresh,” which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Lastly, on August 19 and 20, the New Bev will be centering Bruce Lee with “The Big Boss” screening beside “Fists of Fury,” which premiered a year apart and are both staples of the Hong-Kong martial arts genre.
The Brattle Theatre — Cambridge, MA
Opened in 1890 for performances from local and traveling drama groups, by the 1950s, The Brattle would come to be known as one of the nation’s first arthouse movie theaters, reviving early American cinema as well as introducing audiences to contemporary foreign films from Akira Kurosawa and Federico Fellini. Cyrus Harvey Jr. and Bryant Haliday, who were responsible for the theater’s transition to film screenings, would later come to establish Janus Films, acquiring and distributing cinema from around the world. Still in operation today and, some might say, better than ever, The Brattle has two upcoming series that we here at IndieWire couldn’t endorse more highly. The first, entitled “Cruel Summer” runs through August 29. 35mm screenings featured in the series include “Dog Day Afternoon” on August 8, “Falling Down” on August 15, and a back-to-back showing of “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “Purple Noon” on August 29. The second series, spotlighting the work of Sofia Coppola, is aptly titled “Summer of Sofia” and runs every Wednesday for the next month. It features all of her films, from “The Beguiled” to “The Virgin Suicides,” all on 35mm.
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