The Garden Cinema

Catherine Deneuve at the Garden Cinema

Today marked the last I could visit any of the cinemas included on The Big List. I simply could not make the logistics work for others I hoped to frequent, and London just has so much to do.

Today was for the beautiful and made-for-me Garden Cinema, in the Bloomsbury district. Small, intimate, bold in programming and resolute in obeying the rules of Cinema etiquette, the Garden ranked 42nd overall. Surely one of the highest ranking of new-ish cinemas (opened in 2022, but has a art deco vibe that is not in that feels authentic and not retro). It adjoins a London film school, but I am unclear if it is THE London film school Regardless, it has great tech, a lovely bar (you can take your drinks inside), and features some gorgeous portraits of legendary movie stars inside, include M. Deneuve, above.

I was there to see The Third Part of the Night, the first film by the Polish director Andrzej Żuławski, as part of the Garden's retrospective of that madman's works. Like everyone, I love his now classic Possession, but I have just not been able to connect to his other films. But I connected with The Garden Cinema.

TCM Look-Ahead - Sept. 11

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Underrated Auteurs - Andre de Toth

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Directorial Chronology - 1981

In The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929 - 1968, Andrew Sarris provided an extremely useful and entertaining appendix he called "Directorial Chronology." It was basically a best American film of the year list with a highly auteurist, idiosyncratic bent. So you would see things like Man's

First Time Watches - August Top 10

Admittedly late, due to travel and procrastination, but some good ones in August (and 2 or 3 masterpieces at that). A Dandy in Aspic (1968), directed by Anthony Mann I have been seeking this out in my quest for Anthony Mann completion (it was his last film). Finally found a

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TCM Look-Ahead - Sept. 11

Underrated Auteurs - Andre de Toth

Directorial Chronology - 1981

First Time Watches - August Top 10