"All that I do is go out and look at films and choose the ones I want
to play--films that stimulate, and give some insight into our lives. I
hope that people will come, but if they don't, that's okay too."
Daniel Talbot changed the way the Upper West Side--and art-house
audiences around the world--went to the movies. In Love with Movies is
his memoir of a rich life as the impresario of the legendary Manhattan
theaters he owned and operated and as a highly influential film
distributor.
Talbot and his wife, Toby, opened the New Yorker Theater in 1960,
cultivating a loyal audience of film buffs and cinephiles. He went on to
run several theaters including Lincoln Plaza Cinemas as well as the
distribution company New Yorker Films, shaping the sensibilities of
generations of moviegoers. The Talbots introduced American audiences to
cutting-edge foreign and independent filmmaking, including the French
New Wave and New German Cinema.
In this lively, personal history of a bygone age of film exhibition,
Talbot relates how he discovered and selected films including future
classics such as Before the Revolution, Shoah, My Dinner with
Andre, and The Marriage of Maria Braun. He reminisces about leading
world directors such as Sembène, Godard, Fassbinder, Wenders, Varda, and
Kiarostami as well as industry colleagues with whom he made deals on a
slip of paper or a handshake.
In Love with Movies is an intimate portrait of a tastemaker who was
willing to take risks. It not only lays out the nuts and bolts of
running a theater but also tells the story of a young cinephile who
turned his passion into a vibrant cultural community.
