{"id":201116,"date":"2026-04-17T20:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T20:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201116\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T20:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T20:06:16","slug":"essential-new-york-city-movies-picked-by-ira-sachs-and-blondies-debbie-harry-and-chris-stein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201116\/","title":{"rendered":"Essential New York City Movies Picked by Ira Sachs and Blondie\u2019s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to
Be Cultured<\/a> Menu Film <\/p>\n

Leo McCarey\u2019s \u201cMake Way for Tomorrow\u201d (1937). The Criterion Collection<\/p>\n

\u2018Make Way for Tomorrow\u2019 (1937), directed by Leo McCarey <\/p>\n

The log line: After the bank forecloses on their home, an elderly couple must\u00a0separate, each living with a different one of their adult\u00a0children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pitch: \u201cIt\u2019s a film that Orson Welles famously said \u2018would make a stone cry,\u2019\u201d says Sachs, 60, about McCarey\u2019s movie, singling out a long sequence at the end that depicts \u201ca date through certain lobbies and bars of New York City that offers a snapshot of Midtown in the \u201930s.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tippy Walker (left) and Merrie Spaeth in George Roy Hill\u2019s \u201cThe World of Henry Orient\u201d (1964). United Artists\/Photofest<\/p>\n

\u2018The World of Henry Orient\u2019 (1964), directed by George Roy Hill<\/p>\n

The log line: A wily 14-year-old girl and her best friend follow a\u00a0ridiculous concert pianist, on\u00a0whom they have a crush, around the city.<\/p>\n

The pitch: Hill\u2019s 1960s romp inspired Sachs\u2019s film \u201cLittle Men\u201d (2016), which is about boys around the same age as these protagonists. \u201cIt\u2019s an extraordinarily sweet film that also seems, to me, very honest,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rip Torn (left) in Milton Moses Ginsberg\u2019s \u201cComing Apart\u201d (1969). Courtesy of the Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\u2018Coming Apart\u2019 (1969), directed by Milton\u00a0Moses\u00a0Ginsberg<\/p>\n

The log line: Rip Torn plays an obsessive psychiatrist who secretly films all the women passing through his home office, inadvertently capturing his own mental breakdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pitch: Shot in one room with a fixed camera, Ginsberg\u2019s film \u201creally feels of a time,\u201d says Sachs. It\u2019s also \u201cvery sexual and very free,\u201d reminding him of what\u2019s possible when it comes to\u00a0making movies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Don Murray and Diahn Williams in Ivan Nagy\u2019s \u201cDeadly Hero\u201d (1975). Courtesy of the Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\u2018Deadly Hero\u2019 (1975), directed by Ivan Nagy<\/p>\n

The log line: A disturbed, racist cop saves a cellist from a crook, only to become her tormentor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pitch: Harry, 80, and Stein, 76, were extras in Nagy\u2019s film, which stars Don Murray, Diahn Williams and James Earl Jones as the cop, the cellist and the crook, respectively. The pair call the movie \u201c[expletive] weird,\u201d but also say that their day rate \u2014\u00a0$300 \u2014\u00a0\u201cwas the most money we\u2019d ever made on anything\u201d up to that point. <\/p>\n

Chantal Akerman\u2019s \u201cNews From Home\u201d (1976). Collections Cinematek \u00a9 Fondation Chantal Akerman<\/p>\n

\u2018News From Home\u2019 (1976), directed by Chantal Akerman<\/p>\n

The log line: An experimental documentary by Akerman, a Belgian filmmaker who moved to New York in her early 20s, the film features long takes of the city and voice-over in which the director reads letters from her mother.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pitch: \u201cI\u2019m intrigued by how beauty contains sadness in the city,\u201d says Sachs. Not only is her film a \u201cbeautiful record of the city\u201d but it captures \u201cwhat it is\u00a0to\u00a0be alone here, to have left some sort of community and, in\u00a0particular for Chantal, separated from her mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Wadleigh\u2019s \u201cWolfen\u201d (1981). Orion\/Courtesy of the Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\u2018Wolfen\u2019 (1981), directed by Michael Wadleigh<\/p>\n

The log line: Albert Finney stars as a former N.Y.P.D. detective who returns to the job to solve a violent and bizarre string of murders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pitch: Wadleigh\u2019s film is not only a vehicle for Finney, says Stein, it also \u201chas a lot of footage from the South Bronx when it was still completely destroyed\u201d by widespread arson in the 1970s. <\/p>\n

Seret Scott in Kathleen Collins\u2019s \u201cLosing Ground\u201d (1982). <\/p>\n

\u2018Losing Ground\u2019 (1982), directed by Kathleen Collins <\/p>\n

The log line: Collins\u2019s film \u2014 the first feature-length drama for\u00a0a\u00a0major studio directed by an\u00a0African American woman \u2014\u00a0observes a rocky relationship between a college professor and\u00a0her painter husband.<\/p>\n

The pitch: Sachs calls \u201cLosing Ground\u201d \u201ca revelation.\u201d The characters are \u201cso human and fascinating and extremely modern,\u201d he says, adding that he loves a movie that \u201cexists in some very complete version of the local.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griffin Dunne in Martin Scorsese\u2019s \u201cAfter Hours\u201d (1985). Mary Evans\/Ronald Grant\/Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\u2018After Hours\u2019 (1985), directed by Martin Scorsese<\/p>\n

The log line: In Scorsese\u2019s black comedy, an office worker (Griffin Dunne) has a surreal and bizarre evening of misadventure while trying to get back uptown from a\u00a0woman\u2019s apartment in SoHo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pitch: Harry and Stein recommend this zany tale and borderline \u201cnightmare\u201d for the way it captures a bygone era of\u00a0New York. \u201cIt\u2019s this great image of [Lower Manhattan] when it was still raw, you know, Wild West territory,\u201d Stein says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A scene from Edo Bertoglio\u2019s \u201cDowntown 81\u201d (1980-81\/2000). Courtesy of Metrograph Pictures<\/p>\n

\u2018Downtown 81\u2019 (shot in 1980-81, released in 2000), directed by Edo Bertoglio<\/p>\n

The log line: Bertoglio\u2019s film is a striking portrait of a young artist who needs to raise money so he can return to the apartment from which he\u2019s been evicted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The pitch: Jean-Michel Basquiat<\/a> stars as the artist in this snapshot of life in New York during the \u201980s. Despite all the drama surrounding it \u2014 postproduction wasn\u2019t completed until 20 years after filming, and for many years the movie was considered lost \u2014 the\u00a0film is notable, says Stein, because \u201cit\u2019s got all the characters and all our buddies in it.\u201d <\/p>\n

These interviews have been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n

More in Film See the rest of the issue<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How to Be Cultured Menu Film Leo McCarey\u2019s \u201cMake Way for Tomorrow\u201d (1937). The Criterion Collection \u2018Make Way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[79794,79792,79795,74905,54959,158,9,24,55,54,79796,56,79791,79793,79790],"class_list":{"0":"post-201116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-chris-1950","9":"tag-deborah","10":"tag-downtown-81-movie","11":"tag-harry","12":"tag-ira","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-city-news","18":"tag-news-from-home-movie","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-sachs","21":"tag-stein","22":"tag-tculture2026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}