Right when I decide to move from the city to the suburbs, I have the kind of night that you can only have in a city — attending the premiere of the new HBO movie “Grey Gardens.” The premiere was at the Ziegfeld Theater in midtown, which is really one of my favorite movie theaters in the world. Just a great old theater. I know it doesn’t have the stadium seating and I’m sure techie types will tell me you get a better picture and sound in your living room, but I really like it.
I should be clear that I don’t go to a lot of premieres. This one was, now that I think about it, my first. And the only reason I was at that one was that the director of the movie, Mike Sucsy, is a college friend, and he was kind enough to invite me and my wife. The movie is absolutely terrific, particularly the performance by Drew Berrymore as Little Edie. For those people who are fans of the documentary, the movie kind of fills in some of the gaps, explaining how Little Edie got pulled into the vortex of her mother’s, ummm, idiosyncracies. And it was fun to be at the premiere, seeing the red carpet and the whole thing. And free popcorn.
(The movie premieres on HBO on Saturday night, 8PM, April 18.)
Going to the Ziegfeld reminded me of some of my favorite New York City movie moments, to wit:
- Going to see Independence Day on the weekend it opened in the middle of July 1996, only getting in to the midnight showing, getting drunk first, and later spilling out of the theater into the summer heat with a bunch of fired up humans hooting and hollering (spoiler alert: the humans win). Come on, say it with me: “Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!”
- Waiting on line at the Ziegfeld for opening weekend of Apollo 13, twisting all the way around 54th and 55th street, totally chaotic, getting to our seats half an hour after the movie was supposed to start because of the disorganization of the staff, and then finally the movie is supposed to start and they start with commercials (back when commercials at movies were still new), and people start booing and throwing things. Ugly.
- Numerous times when I have had altercations with people who annoyed me in a theater. I’m not a good row-mate, apparently.
