The HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival

As you probably (I hope!) noticed, I didn’t write on the blog for a long time.

I was really busy with my job, but the good news is that I was really busy… in New York!

It is not a mystery, I adore this city and in the past I have dedicated posts to its cinemas and its cinematographic atmosphere.

Every time I go there I try to go to the movies and, now being summer, I was so lucky to stumble upon an open air cinema, and the most wonderful one, in Bryant Park. Since 2006, in this beautiful city park, between mid-June and mid-August, are shown en plein air a bunch of movies, usually old, classic films, often set in New York.

It is called The HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival.

The Monday I was in town, they were showing Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Don Siegel, a black and white science-fiction movie of 1956.

I couldn’t be on time because of previous working things, but when I arrived there with some friends, I had one of the most incredible visions of my life: the entire lawn area was full of people. A mix of young, old, couples, groups of friends, have pacifically invaded the place: they were seated on chairs, lying on blankets, and they were all watching the movie on this gigantic screen. They probably had a picnic before the show, and now they were there, in the dark, surrounded by all these amazing NY buildings. In the middle of the city and yet in a silent space, where just the voice of the actors on the silver screen could be heard.

It was breath-taking, and unforgettable.
I couldn’t set my eyes just on the screen, because it was like a dream to see and to feel the presence of that incredible audience, and to be embraced by the skyscrapers lights around us.

The movie, supposed to be scary, looks kind of cute nowadays.
It was shot during the McCarthyism’s era and the metaphor of the body snatchers and people spying and making unfair allegations on their neighbours is even too evident.
Don Siegel wanted to have a different final, far more pessimistic and darker, but the studios didn’t allow him to do that and he was particularly disappointed.
While in Bryant Park, though, I said to myself that if Don Siegel could see those men and women seated in a park during a warm summer’s night looking at his movie, he would have been really happy about this pacific invasion.

I leave you with this very, very short and amateur video I personally made, to give you just an idea of the atmosphere. If you happen to be in New York during the Summer, don’t miss this amazing open air cinema moment!