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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Posted Monday, March 20th, 2006 - Comments Off on Mysterious 'Speakeasy Cinema' Program Debuts Tonight in Tribeca
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Mysterious 'Speakeasy Cinema' Program Debuts Tonight in Tribeca


The Reeler just got late word about tonight’s inaugural Speakeasy Cinema event in Tribeca. Organized by Call It Democracy director Matt Kohn, the event features a film screening followed by a discussion “in the mood of the Algonquin Roundtable.” Which sounds enjoyable enough, except there is an arousing twist: The event’s special guest host–in this case, actor/filmmaker/occasional Huff Post blogger Tom Gilroy (above)–will select a mystery film whose identity viewers will not discover until the lights go down.
There is no need to worry, however: Kohn assures potential viewers that Rape of the Soul is not among the films being considered, and he throws down the law that participation is a must but “industry talk is verboten.” And at $5, you will not find a better moviegoing deal in town tonight unless you have tickets to the Inside Man premiere at the Ziegfeld. Which, face it, you do not. “Algonquin Roundtable” always had more of an irrestistably sexy, urbane ring to it anyway.
Full details–including address, time and ground rules–follow the jump.


SPEAKEASY CINEMA — MONDAY MARCH 20TH, 7:30pm
Collective: Unconscious
279 Church Street, New York, NY 10013
(across from the Tribeca Grand)
$5 at the door.
SPEAKEASY CINEMA will provide an opportunity for the film community to watch movies and talk about them in the mood of the Algonquin Roundtable. Every third monday, Matt Kohn will introduce a different director, producer, actor, or editor who will present a film that they have chosen. No one in the audience will know which film it is until the lights dim. After the screening, the filmmaker will engage everyone in the room in ways that will bring about a greater appreciation of cinema, and break the fourth wall. At this intimate event industry talk is verboten, but your libations are welcome.
Our first guest is Tom Gilroy. Mr. Gilroy is a writer/director/producer/actor from New York and has appeared in over 30 films, having worked with such directors as Ken Loach, Sidney Lumet, Jean-Luc Godard, Jim McKay, Christopher Munch, Paul Auster and multi-media artist Robert Longo. He has written, directed and produced two award winning films–the short Touch Base (IFC/BRAVO), and the critically-acclaimed feature Spring Forward, (IFC/MGM) starring Liev Schreiber, Ned Beatty, and Campbell Scott.
His plays–most notably The Invisible Hand and Halcion Days have been produced in several US cities and around the world. With his theatre company Machine Full(co-founded with Lili Taylor and Michael Imperioli) Gilroy has produced over a dozen critically acclaimed productions, most recently Hamlet, starring Richard Harris, Jared Harris, and Lili Taylor. Last year he directed Rosie Perez, Robert Sean Leonard, Natasha Lyonne and Mary Louise Parker in the play Nine Ten for the 24 Hour play project. Tom has just completed his short ‘Mr. Sycamore’ and begins directing his new film Location, starring Aidan Quinn, this summer.
The Series is created and produced by Matt Kohn, director of the feature documentary Call it Democracy. It is co-produced by Eddie Gilbert Herch, dramaturge from the Fifth Night Screenplay Series, and promoted and co-sponsored by the AIVF.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon