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Paul Thomas Anderson films, Whit Stillman, a noir film festival, and more
The BSR November 2024 repertory movie roundup
Stephen Silver
November is here, and there will be plenty of local opportunities to get your mind off the election and the worsening weather. And that includes the latest rebirth of a beloved local theater and a retrospective of one of today’s top filmmakers.
The highlights
The Cathedral of New Emotions
Wednesday, November 13, 7pm
Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers
Wednesday, November 20, 7pm
Bok Auditorium, 1901 South 9th Street, Philadelphia
The Lightbox Film Center closed up shop in its South Broad Street location this past spring, as a result of the sudden closure of the University of the Arts. But the theater, which features esoteric foreign, repertory and restoration fare, has reconstituted as a nonprofit, with the Bok Building its new home base.
The new era kicks off November 13 with a restoration of German director Helmut Herbst’s 2006 animated curio The Cathedral of New Emotions, which will be preceded by a series of animated shorts. The description calls the Herbst film “a true hallucinogenic space freakout.”
A week later, the Ligthbox will present another restoration, this time of Robert J. Kaplan’s 1972 Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers, which starred Warhol Factory figure and “eternal trans icon” Holly Woodlawn. Lightbox describes it as “newly-uncovered, freshly-restored 70s sketch comedy musical.”
Metropolitan and an evening with Whit Stillman
Saturday, November 2, 7pm
The Ambler Theater, 108 E Butler Avenue, Ambler
Director Whit Stillman has come to town a few times lately to appear at screenings for his 90s films, and he’s coming again on November 2, for a showing of his 1990 comedy of manners Metropolitan, in which Stillman explored the lives of Manhattan’s urban haute bourgeoisie. Stillman will stick around for a conversation afterward.
He Got the Touch: Paul Thomas Anderson
Hard Eight
Saturday, November 2, 7pm
Wednesday, November 6, 7pm
Boogie Nights
Saturday, November 9, 7pm
Sunday, November 10, 3pm
Wednesday, November 13, 7:30pm
Magnolia
Saturday, November 16, 6:15pm
Sunday, November 17, 3pm
Wednesday, November 20, 7pm
Punch-Drunk Love
Saturday, November 23, 7pm
Sunday, November 24, 3pm
Wednesday, November 27, 7pm
The Master
Saturday, November 30, 6pm
All at Film Society Center , 1412 Chestnut Street
The Philadelphia Film Society is presenting a seven film retrospective of the work of Paul Thomas Anderson. The series includes all of PTA’s features to date with the exception of There Will Be Blood and Inherent Vice, although both of those were included in other retrospectives earlier this year.
Noir City Philadelphia
Friday, November 15-Sunday, November 17
The Colonial Theatre
227 Bridge Street, Phoenixville
The Colonial’s annual noir mini-festival returns with ten films, with this year’s selections having a theme of “Darkness Has No Borders.” Turner Classic Movies host Eddie Muller will attend the festival, which the theater calls a “swanky, sexy, and sinister excursion back in time.” Highlights include 1952’s Never Open That Door, The Hole (Le Trou) (1960), Across the Bridge (1957) and The Asphalt Jungle (1960).
More Cinema showings
The Royal Tenenbaums
Friday, November 1
Sunday, November 10
Wednesday, November 27
Film Society Center
Wednesday, November 6
Ambler Theater
Ishtar
Friday, November 1
Thursday, November 7
Sunday, November 17
Saturday, November 23
Film Society Center
Fitzcarraldo
Saturday, November 2
Wednesday, November 13
Saturday, November 30
Film Society Center
The Dead Zone
Saturday, November 2
The Colonial Theatre
An American Tail
Saturday, November 2
Saturday, November 16
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
A Chronicle of Corpses
Saturday, November 2
PhilaMOCA
John Wick
Sunday, November 3
Wednesday, November 6
Fathom Events (Various theaters)
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Saturday, November 9
Ambler Theater
Amadeus
Saturday, November 9
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
The Godfather, Part II
Sunday, November 10
The Colonial Theatre
But I’m a Cheerleader
Wednesday, November 13
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
AI: Artificial Intelligence
Friday, November 15
Sunday, November 24
Friday, November 29
Film Society Center
The Fifth Element
Sunday, November 17
Wednesday, November 20
Fathom Events (various theaters)
Platoon (Cinema Classics Seminar)
Thursday, November 21
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
The Last Waltz
Saturday, November 23
The Colonial Theatre
Blood Feast
Monday, November 25
PhilaMOCA
RRR
Friday, November 29
Film Society Center
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