A battery of flatpanel TVs, looking very much the same, at J&R in lower Manhattan.
Photo by D.W. Leitner

In Cinematography Corner #4, “Screens large and small,� I wrote about the centrality of scale to classic Cinema and, conversely, the recent adoption of the A/153 ATSC Mobile DTV Standard, poised to usher in an era of wallet-sized TVs.

Similar thoughts regarding screen size and digital wizardry filled my head as I helped a close friend shop for a large flat-screen TV in the run-up to Christmas.

In a basement showroom at J&R, a large electronics emporium in lower Manhattan, we stood mesmerized in the glow of dozens and dozens of large fluorescing LCDs, tiled across walls, along aisles, in every visible direction.

All the usual Japanese and Korean suspects were there: Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, JVC, Toshiba, Coby, Vizio, LG, and Samsung. more

Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg in the black and white prologue of Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist.

If names like Truffaut, Godard, Fassbinder, Scorsese, or Almodóvar mean anything to you—directors whom the annual New York Film Festival helped introduce and promote—you’ll realize what riches await at Lincoln Center every September for those lucky enough to attend.
Unlike other film festivals, the NYFF doesn’t hawk premieres. Instead, it skims the cream off the best festivals in the world, particularly Berlin and Cannes, and assembles a premium slate of about 30 features, mostly dramas, with a few documentaries thrown in for good measure. Which is why, for me, NYFF selections are essential viewing each year. more