In Love with Movies

“All that I do is go out and look at films and choose the ones I want to play—films that stimulate, and give some insight into our lives. I hope that people will come, but if they don’t, that’s okay too.”Daniel Talbot changed the way the Upper West Side—and art-house audiences around the world—went to the movies. In Love with Movies is his memoir of a rich life as the impresario of the legendary Manhattan theaters he owned and operated and as a highly influential film distributor.Talbot and his wife, Toby, opened the New Yorker Theater in 1960, cultivating a loyal audience of film buffs and cinephiles. He went on to run several theaters including Lincoln Plaza Cinemas as well as the distribution company New Yorker Films, shaping the sensibilities of generations of moviegoers. The Talbots introduced American audiences to cutting-edge foreign and independent filmmaking, including the French New Wave and New German Cinema.In this lively, personal history of a bygone age of film exhibition, Talbot relates how he discovered and selected films including future classics such as Before the Revolution, Shoah, My Dinner with Andre, and The Marriage of Maria Braun. He reminisces about leading world directors such as Sembène, Godard, Fassbinder, Wenders, Varda, and Kiarostami as well as industry colleagues with whom he made deals on a slip of paper or a handshake.In Love with Movies is an intimate portrait of a tastemaker who was willing to take risks. It not only lays out the nuts and bolts of running a theater but also tells the story of a young cinephile who turned his passion into a vibrant cultural community.

In my family, the name Dan Talbot resonated like that of the Archangel Gabriel. He was the artists' champion. Dan was my father Roberto Rossellini's guardian angel when his films were shown in America. This book is a powerful reminder of Dan and Toby's enthusiasm and warmth for filmmakers and their art., A vivid, boisterous, unputdownable memoir that offers a unique triple-headed perspective: the joys and travails of a theater owner, memories of movies and their directors from a sophisticated cinephile, and an inside look at the swashbuckling world of film distribution. You wouldn't know from Dan’s funny meditative style that these are the ruminations of a hero, the visionary entrepreneur who turned the New Yorker Theater into a beacon for the city’s passionate moviegoing community during its golden era., Film buffs will find much to marvel at in this terrific book., Cinephiles will be captivated by Talbot’s insights and passion., The best...it chronicles Talbot's time running a string of iconic Manhattan movie houses, beginning with the New Yorker Theater in 1960.

Daniel Talbot (1926–2017) founded and ran the New Yorker Theater, Cinema Studio, Metro Theater, and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas as well as the distribution company New Yorker Films. Born in the Bronx, he was an Upper West Sider for almost sixty years.Toby Talbot is the author of A Book About My Mother (1980) and The New Yorker Theater and Other Scenes from a Life at the Movies (Columbia, 2009). She has taught Spanish and Latin American literature at Columbia and New York University and documentary film at the New School, and has translated numerous works from Spanish, including Jacobo Timerman’s Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number.