With this year’s Golden Globes in Hollywood preceding the New York Film Critics Circle’s annual award dinner by a night, the big question was how did directors like Alfonso Cuaron (Roma) or actors like Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk), winners at both events, traverse the country with such speed, looking fresh as can be? Imagining private jets, I was briskly informed by an insider, they were on a 7 A. M. flight out of L. A. this morning, arriving in New York in the afternoon. At Tao Downtown, Roma was honored: while our president looks to make a wall, Roma gives us a window. Roma won not only for Best Film and Best Director, but Best Cinematographer: that would be Alfonso Cuaron himself, so for sure, he’d make every effort. The transition West to East may have looked seamless, but the Golden Globes, so green in everyone’s memory, made a lingering impression.

Cold War director Pawel Pawlikowski, presented the Best Foreign Language Film by his friend Debra Winger, called himself a Golden Globes reject, happily so, he said, to be here in the presence of Martin Scorsese who had presented the Best Screenplay award to Paul Schrader. Of course Marty has known Paul for fifty years and worked together on Taxi Driver, screenplay by Schrader. If you are lucky enough to hear Scorsese speak, he always offers a valuable piece of film history, providing insight into those precious early years. Those films simply couldn’t get made today. And Schrader praised the film critics noting he is always happy to be in the presence of those who think about movies in an interesting way.

Ethan Hawke (First Reformed) echoed that praise speaking about reading Pauline Kael in the New Yorker as a child in Fort Worth, Texas. His mother—“she gave birth to me at 18”—insisted on reading The New Yorker, and schlepping her kids to movies, and then discussed Kael’s review. She was not, however, pleased with Kael’s dismissive review of Hawke in Dead Poets Society: “The whole thing is wrapped in a gold bow like a bunch of bullshit.”

Among other highlights: a special award for Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, a six-disk box set produced by KinoLorber, featuring the work of forgotten filmmakers from the dawn of the industry. A career achievement award went to the beloved David Schwartz, chief curator of the Museum of the Moving Image, who stepped down after 33 years. Steve Martin presented the Best Supporting Actor award to Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), reading from his hilarious emails. Grant, for his part, explained the secret of his endurance over the Globes-NYFCC nexus: “Cocaine suppositories are getting me through.”

Regina Weinreich

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