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Movies With a View
Get down to the river and see a classic film for free
Movies With a View is presented by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy
While the Brooklyn Bridge Park continues its leafy expansion south from Dumbo to below the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, Movies With a View is launching its 10th season of big screen entertainment between the bridges. So instead of dropping your recession-marred dollars on the usual Hollywood summer schlock, get down to the river and see a classic film for free. Just like all the gratis music programming offered in the city, this is another opportunity to exact revenge on the cost of living here the rest of the year.
Movies With a View (presented by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy) will once again commandeer Fulton Ferry Park on Thursdays this summer and transform the waterfront green space into a spectacular outdoor screening room from July 9th through August 27th. You can walk, take the Water Taxi, hop the subway (A/C/F), or ride your bicycle and leave it with the “bike valet,” courtesy of the fine folks at Transportation Alternatives. DJs from Brooklyn Radio will warm up the crowd before the movies and if you haven’t already made a pit stop at Grimaldi’s for a pie then RICE will be on site hawking boxed dinners.
So what about the movie lineup itself? While not exactly an esoteric array of motion pictures it is a solid sampling of crowd pleasers from 1941’s Maltese Falcon to 2002’s Catch Me if You Can that also includes films from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. Looks like the 20s and 30s got the shaft this year. Other highlights include films from Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Bogdanovich, the Coen Brothers and Tim Burton.
The series provides both free, wide screen entertainment and an opportunity to commune outdoors by the water with your fellow New Yorker and savvy tourist. But unlike the free Monday night HBO screening series in Bryant Park, this is not crammed into a midtown sweat lodge. While you lay on the lawn in Brooklyn, there will be boats navigating the river beside you instead of the hectic blaring of taxis and ambulances you get on 42nd St. Movies With a View puts you on the grass next to the river with the Brooklyn Bridge rising up behind the screen and the Manhattan skyline to the west, making it a little difficult perhaps to focus on the film itself. But this is by no means a complaint. It is hard to envision a more picturesque screening “room” on earth. The magic happens from 6:00 to 11:00 p.m. every Thursday.
See the complete movie lineup.