THE GOTHAMIST INTERVIEW: FEB. OSCAR WEEK DAY 1 – KENT JONES (WALTER READE THEATER)

I mentioned this on Friday, and now here it is. Lily and I have another week of Gothamist interviews starting today. The schedule just happened to place us in the week leading up to the Oscars – appropriate for me, I suppose. Usually, we try to vary our interview subjects – to have people from different walks of life and occupations. This week, however, Lily had the bright idea (and I say that without sarcasm) of doing a full week of interviews with film programmers, kind of as an Oscar-antidote. New York is probably the best city anywhere – even better than Los Angeles – for alternative cinema. Many places have arthouses where they get the indie and foreign films, but only a lucky few cities have full time repertory houses that through their thoughtful programming offer a phenomenal alternative to the major multiplexes and, therefore, many of the supposed “best” of the year, i.e., the Oscar contenders.

But while other cities maybe have one or two such places, New York has many. While the five we’re focusing on this week may be the most prominent, they are by no means the only ones. Unfortunately, there just weren’t enough days in the week to also talk to the Thalia at Symphony Space, Two Boots Pioneer or Anthology Film Archives. And even in this economic climate, yet another location will be opening in the coming months when the IFC Center opens in a totally remodeled Waverly Theater on 6th Avenue at 3rd Street.

But enough preamble. If you’ve read this site regularly (and believe me, I don’t assume that to be the case), you might notice that I regularly mention the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. The Walter Reade is home base for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the group behind the New York Film Festival, Film Comment magazine and, in collaboration with MoMA, the New Directors/New Films festival. The Film Society is absolutely one of the most important organizations dedicated to cinema in this country, and if you want to really learn about both classic cinema as well as modern international films, you should dedicate time to attending screenings at the Walter Reade.

A few years ago I attended an event called “Martin Scorsese Talks Movies” at the Walter Reade. Being the Scorsese devotee I am, I certainly wasn’t going to miss this. The evening turned out to literally be the director simply talking about movies (and showing a few clips of things). For those who don’t know, Scorsese isn’t just one of our greatest directors, but he’s also one of the most knowledgeable film historians around. On stage, Scorsese sat and chatted with Kent Jones, Associate Director of Programming for the Film Society and Editor-at-Large for Film Comment, and now, today’s Gothamist interview. Kent used to be Scorsese’s personal archivist, and as part of that job, the two would sit around and watch movies. Then they’d talk about them. This evening was basically a recreation of those types of conversations, and believe it or not, it was fascinating.

If you’ve ever seen Scorsese speak, you know he talks very quickly, throwing out terms and names of people and films, many of which the audience may not even recognize in the moment. But he talks at an almost manic speak, and he exudes what seems like an encyclopedic knowledge of everything film. I was struck that night by how Kent exhibits the same kind of almost photographic memory for what seems like anything ever committed to celluloid anywhere in the world, but his personality and speaking style is the ying to Scorsese’s yang. Where Scorsese is off to the races, Kent speaks deliberately and slowly with a much more mellow tone.

Kent co-wrote Il Mio Viaggio in Italia, Scorsese’s brilliant 4-1/2 hour documentary about Italian Neorealist cinema, and they’re working together on a sequel. There probably aren’t that many people out there who know as much about the world of cinema as him, and we have him to thank for many of the great programs that run at the Walter Reade throughout the year.