The Living Idol
54th New York Film Festival
September 30 - 11, 2016
Albert Lewin made only six movies, each one rarefied, proudly literary, mythic, meticulously art-directed, and delicately haunting. The Living Idol, based on his own novel, feels like an emanation from an alternate world of moviemaking.
Albert Lewin began as a critic, went to work for Samuel Goldwyn in the 1920s, became Irving Thalberg’s right-hand man in the 1930s, and produced a handful of excellent films before becoming a director at age 48. Each of his six movies is rarefied, proudly literary, mythic, meticulously art-directed, and delicately haunting. His last—and strangest—is The Living Idol, based on his own novel about an archeologist who comes to believe that a jaguar in captivity is the physical manifestation of a Mayan god. This is not a great film, but it is a very unusual and a uniquely compelling one: it feels like an emanation from an alternate world of moviemaking. A Cohen Media Group release.
Read More
Scary Movies XIV Brings Horror and Genre-bending Cinema to Film at Lincoln Center, August 12–20
Running August 12 through August 20, the 16-film festival will premiere new works alongside special presentations of spine-tingling classics and rediscoveries conjured from the dark recesses of midnight-movie lore, with filmmakers and special guests appearing for post-screening Q&As.
Lana Daher on Her Documentary Do You Love Me
This week we’re excited to present a conversation from the 2026 edition of New Directors/New Films with Do You Love Me director Lana Daher.
Rose of Nevada Director Mark Jenkin on His New Sci-Fi Tinged Tale
On the latest episode of FLC Luminaries, our video series that spotlights talent at all levels of the filmmaking process who uplift the art and craft of cinema, Rose of Nevada director Mark Jenkin discusses his sci-fi-tinged tale of dislocation and regeneration.