So you’re a billionaire, you don’t care about movies or culture, just rent.

That would be Sheldon Solow, worth five billion dollars. He’s shut down two of the last independent movie theaters in New York: the Paris, and the Beekman.

The Paris, across from the Plaza Hotel, was the most important. It’s also 77 years old. The last movie to play there was Ron Howard’s Pavarotti documentary. The closing was threatened all summer, no one did anything about it, so this guy shut it down. It will be replaced with some ghastly retail venture like Sephora or something else we already have and don’t need. How about a Duane Reade?

The Beekman on Second Avenue was the second iteration of the original Beekman, which was at 65th and Second. That one was closed in 2005 so some useless building could be erected. (Next to it was the great Swanson’s ice cream parlor, also demolished.) The great neon signs that lit up the Beekman were rescued, and now live inside the Greenport, Long Island movie theater, across from the Shelter Island Ferry. I was so happy to see them recently I almost hugged them.

Well, that’s it for the Paris. Sheldon Solow doesn’t give a rat’s ass about New York. He just wants more money.

I will tell you a story about the Paris, from 1979. My friend Regina Weinreich, who writes for this site, and I went there to see a terrific Richard Pearce movie called “Heartland” starring Conchetta Farrell and Rip Torn. When the movie ended, no one was getting up to leave. It turns out that Jackie Onassis was there with her boyfriend, Maurice Tempelsman. For a bit, no one moved, then everyone stood. The room was paralyzed. Someone said out loud, to Jackie, “Why are you here?” They couldn’t believe it. Jackie, in her soft, whispery voice, replied, to the crowd: “I have to go to the movies, don’t I?” Everyone laughed, and clapped, and that was it. The audience filed out without bothering her.

Alas, Goodbye to the Paris. We are pretty much down to nothing now in the world’s greatest city. The Paris is gone, the Ziegfeld is gone.  The Baronet and the Coronet are gone. The Little Carnegie. The Thalia, the New Yorker. Some may recall The Sutton on East 57th St. I watched “Spinal Tap” on Greenwich Avenue and 12th St where now an Equinox stands. I’ve heard the theater on East 86th St. is gone– I saw “Ishtar” there. And what about the theater on Third Avenue and 71st St, where we had so many screenings? And of course, the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas are gone now for more than year at 62nd and Broadway.

Congratulations to all the greedy developers. You’ve done a fine job. You will be remembered by history for what you’ve demolished. We can all watch the movies on our phones, thanks to you.

We are now in full festival swing. Venice has begun, and tonight so does Telluride. The latter fest is a pricey confab for those who must see films first, first, first. The air is thin, so everyone loves all the films. You can also wear cowboy boots unironically. Most of these entrees will be in Toronto next week. But if you see them in Colorade, you can say “I saw that already in Telluride.” Burn. But they don’t have “Ad Astra” or “The Irishman” or Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy.” Here’s the whole run down:

       THE AERONAUTS (d. Tom Harper, U.S. – U.K., 2019)

·       THE ASSISTANT (d. Kitty Green, U.S., 2019)

·       THE AUSTRALIAN DREAM (d. Daniel Gordon, Australia, 2019)

·       BEANPOLE (Kantemir Balagov, Russia, 2019)

·       THE CLIMB (d. Michael Angelo Covino, U.S., 2019)

·       COUP 53 (d. Taghi Amirani, U.K., 2019)

·       DIEGO MARADONA (d. Asif Kapadia, U.K., 2019)

·       FAMILY ROMANCE, LLC (d. Werner Herzog, U.S. – Japan, 2019)

·       FIRST COW (d. Kelly Reichardt, U.S., 2019)

·       FORD v FERRARI (d. James Mangold, U.S., 2019)

·       JUDY (d. Rupert Goold, U.K.-U.S., 2019)

·       A HIDDEN LIFE (d. Terrence Malick, U.S. – Germany, 2019)

·       THE HUMAN FACTOR (d. Dror Moreh, U.K., 2019)

·       INSIDE BILL’S BRAIN (d. Davis Guggenheim, U.S., 2019)

·       THE KINGMAKER (Lauren Greenfield, U.S., 2019)

·       LYREBIRD (d. Dan Friedkin, U.S., 2019)

·       MARRIAGE STORY (d. Noah Baumbach, U.S., 2019)

·       MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN (d. Edward Norton, U.S., 2019)

·       OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE (d. Ric Burns, U.S., 2018)

·       PAIN AND GLORY (d. Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 2019)

·       PARASITE (d. Bong Joon-ho, South Korea, 2019)

·       PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (d. Céline Sciamma, France, 2019)

·       THE REPORT (d. Scott Z. Burns, U.S., 2019)

·       TELL ME WHO I AM (d. Ed Perkins, U.K., 2019)

·       THOSE WHO REMAINED (d. Barnabás Toth, Hungary, 2019)

·       THE TWO POPES (d. Fernando Meirelles, U.K., 2019)

·       UNCUT GEMS (d. Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie, U.S., 2019)

·       VARDA BY AGNÈS (d. Agnès Varda, France, 2019)

·       VERDICT (d. Raymond Ribay Gutierrez, Philippines, 2019)

·       WAVES (d. Trey Edward Schultz, U.S., 2019)

Also playing in the main program is COUNTRY MUSIC (d. Ken Burns, U.S., 2019); WOMEN MAKE FILM: A NEW ROAD MOVIE THROUGH CINEMA (d. Mark Cousins, U.K., 2019); and three short films: FIRE IN PARADISE (d. Zack Canepari, Drea Cooper, U.S., 2019), INTO THE FIRE (d. Orlando von Einsiedel, Iraq-U.K., 2019) and LOS AND FOUND (d. Orlando von Einsiedel, Bangladesh-U.K., 2019).

The 2019 Silver Medallion Awards, given to recognize an artist’s significant contribution to the world of cinema, will be presented to Academy Award winning actress Renée Zellweger (with JUDY), Oscar nominated actor Adam Driver (with MARRIAGE STORY and THE REPORT) and Oscar nominated Philip Kaufman (with newly restored THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING). Tribute programs include a selection of clips followed by the presentation of the Silver Medallion, an onstage interview and a screening of the aforementioned films.

Guest Director Pico Iyer, who serves as a key collaborator in the Festival’s program, presents the following revival programs:

·       LATE AUTUMN (d. Yasujirō Ozu, Japan, 1960)

·       THE MAKIOKA SISTERS (d. Kon Ichikawa, Japan, 1983)

·       MR. AND MRS. IYER (d. Aparna Sen, India, 2002)

·       UNDER THE SUN (d. Vitaly Mansky, Czech Republic-Russia-Germany-Latvia-North Korea, 2015)

·       WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS (d. Mikio Naruse, Japan, 1960)

Additional film revivals include THE WIND (d. Victor Sjöström, U.S, 1928), and a new 35mm print of THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE (d. Victor Sjöström, Sweden, 1921).

Telluride Film Festival annually celebrates a hero of cinema – an organization or individual – that preserves, honors and presents great movies. This year’s Special Medallion award goes to the company that revolutionized sound, Dolby Laboratories.

Backlot, Telluride’s intimate screening room featuring behind-the-scenes movies and portraits of artists, musicians and filmmakers, will screen the following programs:

·       63 UP (d. Michael Apted, U.K., 2019)

·       BILLIE (d. James Erskine, U.K., 2019)

·       CHULAS FRONTERAS (d. Les Blank, U.S., 1976)

·       THE GIFT: THE JOURNEY OF JOHNNY CASH (d. Thom Zimny, U.S., 2019)

·       LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE (d. Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, U.S., 2019)

·       NOMAD: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BRUCE CHATWIN (d. Werner Herzog, U.S., 2019)

·       SOROS (d. Jesse Dylan, U.S., 2019)

·       UNCLE YANCO (d. Agnès Varda, France-U.S., 1967) + BLACK PANTHERS (d. Agnès Varda, France-U.S., 1968)

Additional Festivities will take place throughout the Festival including a Poster Signing with 2019 poster artist Edwina White; two Philip Kaufman classics including THE RIGHT STUFF (U.S., 1983) and THE WANDERERS (U.S, 1979); and Sydney Pollack’s long anticipated AMAZING GRACE (U.S., 1972/2015).

We’re about to have a big season of Robert De Niro. He seems to play a talk show host in Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” referencing his Rupert Pupkin character from Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy.” This should be interesting. In the trailer just released, “Murray Franklin” just seems like an older Pupkin.

But Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker is clearly obsessed with Murray, as we can see. And Phoenix looks like a potential Best Actor nominee in a movie that break new ground and also be a Best Picture nominee. Wow. If “Joker” is as good as this clip, it’s going to be a wild awards season. I don’t like to hype comic book movies, but this could set a new standard.

I told you last week that I’d seen the new documentary, “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” Matt Tyrnauer’s incendiary film, which debuted at Sundance, lays out the evil path taken by Donald Trump’s mentor and advisor, the same man who became infamous as advisor to Senator Joe McCarthy on his Communist witch hunt of the 1950s.

Cohn, who destroyed lives and lied about his own life, was the inventor of a kind of obfuscation, a political sleight of hand, that diverted attention from his own incredible misdeeds. Instead of running from scandal, he ran toward it, like a building on fire, and pretended it wasn’t there.

Tyrnauer’s movie will be released by Sony Pictures Classics on September 20th, one week before the start of the New York Film Festival. There will be some build up before that date, so audiences will flock to art houses.

But now we know that soon thereafter, in the New York Film Festival, will come another Cohn doc I told you about last year. Ivy Meeropol is the filmmaker granddaughter of convicted and executed spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Her film about them, “Heir to an Execution,” was illuminating and should be seen by everyone.

Now “Bully, Coward, Victim,” her own film about Cohn, is sure to get people talking. After all, Cohn personally oversaw the Rosenberg executions despite Ethel’s innocence and massive public protest. Meeropol has included exclusive interviews Cohn did with Peter Manso before his death. Cohn could be talking about a lot of people on those tapes, including his “beard,” Barbara Walters, and other famous friends who defended him when he was disbarred in the 1980s.

Meeropol’s film- and Tynauer’s– are going to be a source of displeasure for Trump, who will undoubtedly claim he never knew the despicable fixer. But video and photo evidence will belie those assertions.

Ivy said in a statement last year: “The time has come for audiences to understand a man who, while hiding so much of himself from the world, has had a profound influence on our society, even to this day. We are thrilled to partner with HBO Documentary Films to bring this remarkable story to life.”

These two films will compete for Oscar slots, among other awards. Despite being described as a Satanic type, Cohn, in hell, or wherever he is, is no doubt thrilled to have the attention!