Series Site
The Paris Theater is proud to partner once again with the American Cinematheque to bring you our third annual BLEAK WEEK NEW YORK. For the past five years, the Cinematheque has hosted Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair, a weeklong festival in Los Angeles that spotlights some of the greatest films to address the bleak edges of human existence through a lens of empathy and introspection. A harrowing, yet powerful lineup of films defined by stark imagery, unimaginable tragedies, existential fear, nihilism and shocking acts of brutality, this series features filmmakers who wholly embrace a cinema of despair in pursuit of unpleasant truths and raw empathy.
This year’s New York edition of Bleak Week exclusively at The Paris Theater from June 5-11 includes 17 films and features seven special guest appearances, five films screening on 35mm, six new restorations, and five anniversary screenings.
This year’s highlights include:
- Ultimate cinephile power couple and beloved Letterboxd-ers, Carrie Coon (His Three Daughters, The White Lotus) and Tracy Letts (A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE, August: Osage County), appear in-person to introduce their personal Bleak Week selection: a 35mm screening of 1962’s Lonely Are the Brave, starring Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands, and Walter Matthau.
- Steve Buscemi joins us for a Q&A following his 1996 directorial debut Trees Lounge (1996), celebrating its 30th anniversary with a new 4K restoration by IndieCollect.
- Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham join us for a Q&A following a 35mm screening of Steve De Jarnatt’s 1988 thriller Miracle Mile, the now-married couple’s first onscreen collaboration.
- Writer-Director Michael Almereyda, producer Amy Hobby, actor Galaxy Craze, and editor David Leonard join for a Q&A following a 4K restoration screening of the director’s cut of Almereyda’s 1994 vampire film Nadja, followed by a book signing for Almereyda’s Writings and Relics: 1990-1995.
- The East Coast Premiere of a new 4K restoration of Joel & Ethan Coen’s The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), followed by a Q&A with composer Carter Burwell. 25th Anniversary Screening!
- Filmmaker Azazel Jacobs (His Three Daughters) introduces Sydney Pollack’s 1969 masterpiece They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, screening on an archival 35mm print and starring Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Bruce Dern, Susannah York, and Bonnie Bedelia.
- Filmmaker Mary Bronstein (If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You) introduces a 35mm screening of Todd Solondz’s coming-of-age nightmare Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), starring Heather Matarazzo.
- The East Coast Theatrical Premieres of new 4K restorations of Pedro Almodóvar’s Matador (1986 - 40th Anniversary) starring Antonio Banderas, and David Cronenberg’s Spider (2002), starring Ralph Fiennes, Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson and Lynn Redgrave.
Additionally, we’ll have Robert Altman’s Images for which Susannah York took home the Best Actress prizes at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, David Fincher’s epic 2007 crime thriller Zodiac on 35mm, a new 4K restoration of Claire Denis’ inimitable take on the vampire film, Trouble Every Day (2001 - 25th Anniversary), Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves (1996 - 30th Anniversary) featuring the Academy Award®-nominated film debut of Emily Watson, Gaspar Noé’s infamous Irreversible (2002), Here Comes the Flood director Fernando Meirelles’ 2002 Academy Award®-nominated City of God, a tribute screening to the late Béla Tarr with Werckmeister Harmonies, and Nicolas Cage’s Oscar-winning turn in Mike Figgis’ devastating Leaving Las Vegas (1995).