Living in New York City, I have access to an incredible amount of repertory film programming and it seems that almost every night there is a chance to see an old film for the first time on the big screen.  In making my list of the Top 10 films of the year it was hard to not also think about all the amazing films I saw for the first time in the theaters that weren’t new to 2008.  So, as 2008 winds down, I decided to do another list, this one of the Top 10 Old Movies That Were New To Me in 2008.   If you click on the title of each film you’ll get an article about it and below each title is a video clip (when I  could find one) from the film.

If you are wondering about whether old films play near you,  you should take some time to research repertory programming in your area.  There are a lot of great theaters out there, like The Cleveland Cinematheque (one of my all time fav theaters), Seattle Cinema at Seattle Center’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall, The Music Box Theatre and Facets in Chicago and Harvard Film Archive in Massachusetts.  A great place to start looking for old film screenings is art museums, if they don’t screen films themselves, they might know who does!

And in honor of making old things new, takepart with Earth 911 to learn more about recycling in your area.

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Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman)

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Monsieur Verdoux (Charlie Chaplin)

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Cluny Brown (Ernst Lubitsch)

This is the only video of Cluny Brown on YouTube.  Excuse the Bjork.

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Taking Off (Milos Forman)

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Day of Wrath (Carl Th. Dreyer)

There is no video of Day of Wrath on YouTube that I can find, so below is a video from Dreyer’s Ordet, which I also loved and also saw for the first time in theaters this year.  It is the last scene in the film, so watch with caution.

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Celine and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette)

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Lit de la vierge (Philippe Garrel)

The only video from the film is not embeddable, the URL for it is : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HUF8_mh9UA.  Below is a favorite clip from Garrel’s Regular Lovers.

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Fanny and Alexander, the TV version (Ingmar Bergman)

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As Tears Go By (Wong Kar-Wai)

The film was OK. The scene below was my favorite all year.

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My Little Loves (Jean Eustache)

The only video of My Little Loves is a weird Jean Eustache trailer in Japanese, go here to watch : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2FOosXP8xM Below is a clip (better than the one above) from another Eustache film that I saw this year (but not for the first time) The Mother and the Whore.