Between the Temples writer-director Nathan Silver has been making films since at least 2008, but I confess this was my first encounter with his work. And it's an absolute delight. 

Jason Schwartzman plays Ben, a middle-aged Jewish cantor who teaches music to elementary school students, and in the middle of a crisis of faith, he encounters his former grade-school music teacher, Carla--played by an utterly wonderful Carol Kane--who decides she'd like to convert to Judaism and become Ben's Bat Mitzvah student.

It's a very funny but also poignant character-driven story, a wonderful sort of May-December romance with the zest and comic-melancholy of Harold and Maude and with standout performances from Schwartzman and Kane (who is just electric on screen), as well as from Dolly De Leon and Caroline Aaron (who are impeccable as Schwartzman's two Jewish moms) and from a very entertaining Robert Smigel, who plays Rabbi Bruce. 

I loved this film. I think you will, too.

And I could not be more excited about this next film, a cinephile's dream: Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger.

The film is, as the title suggests, about the director duo, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and their absolutely stunning films: The Red Shoes, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, Peeping Tom, and many others. They made the kind of films where, if you are a film lover, there was a time before you saw a Powell and Pressburger film and the time after. Because seeing them changes you. Their grasp of color and character and story is like nothing else in the world. 

But one of the pure delights of this particular documentary is not just in savoring Powell and Pressburger’s films: it's also hosted by none other than Martin Scorsese, who worshiped Powell and Pressburger and whose own films were fundamentally shaped by their work.  There's really very little better than having Scorsese as a film history host: his love for film is unutterably moving and profoundly inspirational. He's the kind of person who makes you see films and filmmaking differently.  

Additionally, Scorsese's connection to Michael Powell is quite personal. In spite of the huge success of director-duo’s films, Powell sank into obscurity later in his life, and his relative poverty meant living out of an RV.  Scorsese, however, as a young man and young filmmaker, already in love with P&P's films, went on a mission to England to find Powell and interview him.  Their encounter changed both filmmakers' lives. 

Powell ultimately moved to the U.S. and worked with Scorsese in Hollywood, and Powell eventually also married none other than Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese's long time film editor. A match made in heaven.  (Incidentally, I was fortunate enough to see Schoonmaker in person for a Q&A after a screening of Made in England in Toronto, and I'm pretty sure, at that point, I died and went to heaven.)

Made in England will be playing for just a week, but we also have the incredibly special opportunity to show Powell and Pressburger’s iconic The Red Shoesalongside Made in England.  The Red Shoes is one of the most glorious movies of all time. It is, quite simply, transcendent. The use of color alone is jaw-dropping (it uses the relatively rare three-strip Technicolor, a complex and expensive process). 

 As Anthony Lane noted in The New Yorker at a repertory run of the film back in 2010, it is meant for the big screen and seeing it changes you. Lane wrote, "I've seen the same version on DVD, but watching The Red Shoes, whatever the quality, on the small screen is like drinking champagne, whatever the vintage, through a plastic straw. The movie should fill one's vision no less comprehensively than a sunset . . . Catch it here now, and you will not just be seeing an old film made new; you will have your vision restored."  

I've never seen The Red Shoes on the big screen myself, but I do know that when I watched it a number of years back on just our living room TV, one of my daughters, at about 8 or 9 years old, wandered into the room partway through the film and became transfixed. She then watched it with me to the end, glued in place. Now, a 20-year old college student, she still talks about The Red Shoes and the profound effect it had upon her, even when she was too young to fully grasp the thematic elements. 

It's that kind of movie. 

The Red Shoes and all of Powell and Pressburger's films fundamentally made who Scorsese was as a filmmaker, and I think when you watch Made in England and then watch The Red Shoes on the big screen, you will understand why. 

There are two opportunities to watch The Red Shoes, Saturday at 4:15 pm and Tuesday at 8:15 pm. Should you choose to make it a Made in England/Red Shoesdouble feature, Made in England plays on Saturday at 1:30 (with discounted double feature pricing) and on Tuesday at 5:20.  

We have quite a special new booking: a re-release of the brilliant Don Hertzfeldt's 2012 animated 3-part short film series, "It's Such a Beautiful Day," and a brand new animated 22-minute short from Hertzfeldt, "ME." 

It's a bit difficult to describe the pure genius and unique, mesmerizing qualities of Hertzfeldt's work, so I'm going to defer to their press release below, which describes the films and Hertfeldt's incredible process. (Watch the trailer, too, to get a sense of his truly wonderful style!) 

“Don Hertzfeldt’s newest animated film “ME” is a 22-minute musical odyssey about trauma, technology, and the retreat of humanity into itself.

“Returning to theaters for the first time since 2012, “ It’s Such a Beautiful Day” has been hailed by critics and audiences alike as one of the best animated films of all time.

“Originally released as three short films over the course of six years, the picture was captured entirely in-camera on a 35mm rostrum animation stand. Built in the 1940s and used by Hertzfeldt on all of his animated films since 1999, it was one of the last surviving cameras of its kind still operating in the world, indispensable in creating the story's unique images and visual effects.

“It's Such a Beautiful Day painstakingly blended traditional hand-drawn animation and experimental optical effects with new digital hybrids, printed out one frame at time and placed under the camera. 

“The film's signature "split screen" effects were achieved by photographing the animation through small holes that were positioned just beneath the camera lens. One area of the film frame would be individually photographed, the film was then rewound, another section of the frame would be exposed through a different hole, and the process repeated until all elements of a scene were composited together.

“Towards the end of production, the old camera's motor began to fail and could no longer advance the film properly, riddling the final reels with unintentional light leaks.

“In 2012, the three completed short films about a man named Bill were seamlessly combined to create a new feature film.