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The Exorcist, Do the Right Thing, and DiCaprio-Scorsese collabs
The BSR October 2023 repertory movie roundup
Stephen Silver
October, as always, means lots of movie screenings of horror movies leading up to Halloween. But this year, there’s plenty more, including the beginning of the home stretch of the Sight and Sound 100 countdown, as well as a four-part seminar on the work of the Coen Brothers.
The highlights
The Exorcist
Sunday, October 1
Tuesday, October 3
Various times and theaters
Thursday, October 26, 7pm
Ambler Theater, 108 East Butler Avenue, Ambler
Tuesday, October 31, 7pm
PFS East, 125 South 2nd Street, Philadelphia
How many different reasons are there to see the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist this month? It’s the film’s 50th anniversary, director William Friedkin passed away in August, there’s a new sequel, The Exorcist: Believer, coming out on Friday, October 6, and, of course, Halloween is coming up. First up is a Fathom Events presentation at the start of the month, featuring a 4K version of the Extended Director’s Cut, plus a Friedkin tribute hosted by Ben Mankiewicz. That Extended Director’s Cut also shows in Ambler, this time on 35mm, on Thursday, October 26. And on Halloween night, the Film Society hosts a BYOB screening of the film, with 1993’s The Crow showing an hour later on the theater’s other screen.
Do the Right Thing
Wednesday, October 4, 7pm
Philadelphia Film Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
The Film Society’s countdown of the Sight and Sound 100 enters its final quarter with number 25, Spike Lee’s 1989 masterpiece about racial tension in a Brooklyn neighborhood on the hottest day of the year. Soon after, on both October 8 and 13, the Film Center will feature the 19th-ranked film, Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, although the countdown will pause later in the month as the Philadelphia Film Festival takes over the PFS venues.
"The Coen Brothers’ Universe" seminars
Wednesday, October 4, 11, 18, and 25, 6:30pm
Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr
Throughout October, instructor Paul Wright will present four different seminars on the work of Joel and Ethan Coen, all under the title “Trafficking in the Absurd: The Coen Brothers’ Universe.” The seminars will take place on four consecutive Wednesdays featuring, in order, 1990’s Miller’s Crossing, 1996’s Fargo, 1998’s The Big Lebowski, and 2009’s A Serious Man.
The Wolf of Wall Street (and other DiCaprio-Scorsese collaborations)
Saturday, October 14, 1pm
Sunday, October 15, 1pm
Wednesday, October 18, 7pm
Ritz Five, 214 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are reuniting this month in the new film Killers of the Flower Moon, and the Ritz is offering a series of their past collaborations, including Shutter Island (on October 1 and 4) and The Departed (October 7, 8 and 11). It leads up to 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street, which marks its 10th anniversary this year.
More cinema screenings
The Plot Against Harry
Wednesday, October 4
Lightbox Film Center
Videodrome
Thursday, October 5
Ambler Theater
Late Spring
Thursday, October 5
Saturday, October 7
Philadelphia Film Center
Farewell My Concubine
October 6-8, 2023
Colonial Theatre
The Room with Tommy Wiseau Q&A
Friday, October 6
Ritz Five
Arachnophobia
Friday, October 6
Media Arts Council
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
Saturday, October 7
Saturday, October 21
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
Hocus Pocus
Saturday, October 7
Philadelphia Film Center
Saturday, October 14
Colonial Theatre
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Sunday, October 8
Saturday, October 14
Philadelphia Film Center
The Gorgon and The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb
Sunday, October 8
Colonial Theatre
Monsters, Inc.
Saturday, October 14
Saturday, October 28
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
Coco accompanied by live-to-film concert with Orquesta Folclórica Nacional de México
Sunday, October 15
Kimmel Cultural Campus's Verizon Hall
The Silence of the Lambs
Thursday, October 19
Ambler Theater
Lady Killer
Thursday, October 19
Lightbox Film Center
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sunday, October 22
Colonial Theatre
The Birds
Sunday, October 22
Monday, October 23
Fathom Events
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, with Broadway Sinfonietta in live concert
Tuesday, October 24
Kimmel Cultural Campus's Academy of Music
Crossroads
Tuesday, October 24
Trafalgar Releasing
Cure
Thursday, October 26
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Saturday, October 28
Sunday, October 29
Bryn Mawr Film Institute
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