New York City 1983 Commercial Releases
(Reconstructed from New York Times archives; I didn't start keeping track week-to-week until 1998. List is probably not definitive—if it got neither an ad nor a review, I won't have caught it—but everything major should be here. Films seen by yours truly are in blue.)
Week of 30 Dec
Wuthering Heights (Luis Buñuel) [1954]
Week of 23 Dec
Dear Mr. Wonderful (Peter Lilienthal)Gospel (David Leivick & Frederick Ritzenberg)
Malou (Jeanine Meerapfel)
Reuben, Reuben (Robert Ellis Miller)
Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars (DA Pennebaker) [1973]
Week of 16 Dec
D.C. Cab (Joel Schumacher)The Eyes, the Mouth (Marco Bellocchio)
Gorky Park (Michael Apted)
The Keep (Michael Mann)
The Man Who Loved Women (Blake Edwards)
Silkwood (Mike Nichols)
To Be or Not to Be (Alan Johnson)
Two of a Kind (John Herzfeld)
Uncommon Valor (Ted Kotcheff)
Week of 9 Dec
Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (Henry Jaglom)Christine (John Carpenter)
The Dresser (Peter Yates)
First Contact (Bob Connolly & Robin Anderson)
Piranha II: The Spawning (James Cameron)
Scarface (Brian De Palma)
Sudden Impact (Clint Eastwood)
Trobriand Cricket (Jerry W. Leach & Gary Kildea) [1975]
Week of 2 Dec
Making Out (???)*War and Peace (various)**
* Apparently this is a fake movie, with a fake one-sheet and ads, that was
used to promote multiple different films, usually softcore or X-rated.
Might have been Desire Under the Sun (1978), or Schoolgirl
Report Vol. 13: Don't Forget Love During Sex (1980), or something else
entirely. Might have been several different films, in different theaters.
No way to know.
** This is the 1982 German film featuring contributions from Volker Schlöndorff, Alexander Kluge, and others.
Week of 25 Nov
Beyond Reasonable Doubt (John Laing)Fire and Ice (Ralph Bakshi)
Hilary's Blues (Peter Jensen) [1972]
Joe Chaikin Going On (Steven Gomer)
Of Unknown Origin (George P. Cosmatos)
Return Engagement (Alan Rudolph)
Rockaby (D.A. Pennebaker & Chris Hegedus)
Terms of Endearment (James L. Brooks)
Wild Style (Charlie Ahearn)
Week of 18 Nov
Amityville 3-D (Richard Fleischer)The Big Score (Fred Williamson)
A Christmas Story (Bob Clark)
La Balance (Bob Swaim)
Nate and Hayes (Ferdinand Fairfax)
A Night in Heaven (John G. Avildsen)
Sleepaway Camp (Robert Hiltzik)
Vassa (Gleb Panfilov)
Yentl (Barbra Streisand)
Week of 11 Nov
Boat People (Ann Hui)Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden)
I Am the Cheese (Robert Jiras)
Monkey Grip (Ken Cameron)
Purple Haze (David Burton Morris)
7 Doors of Death (Louis Fuller)
Star 80 (Bob Fosse)
Young Warriors (Lawrence D. Foldes)
Week of 4 Nov
Deal of the Century (William Friedkin)"Experience Preferred but Not Essential" (Peter Duffell)
The Osterman Weekend (Sam Peckinpah)
Testament (Lynne Littman)
Week of 28 Oct
Going Berserk (David Steinberg)Possession (Andrzej Zulawski)
Richard Pryor...Here and Now (Richard Pryor)
Sans soleil (Chris Marker)
Sex and Violence (Leopoldo Pomes) [1978]
The Two Worlds of Angelita (Jane Morrison)
The Wicked Lady (Michael Winner)
Week of 21 Oct
All the Right Moves (Michael Chapman)Americana (David Carradine)
Carmen (Carlos Saura)
The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg)
Frightmare (Norman Thaddeus Vane)
The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman)
Under Fire (Roger Spottiswoode)
Week of 14 Oct
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (Robert M. Young)Get Crazy (Allan Arkush)
Heart Like a Wheel (Jonathan Kaplan)
Heartland Reggae (James P. Lewis) [1980]
Never Cry Wolf (Carroll Ballard)
Night of the Zombies (Joel M. Reed)
Passion (Jean-Luc Godard)
Pharos of Chaos (Wolf-Eckart Bühler & Manfred Blank)
Streamers (Robert Altman)
26 Days in the Life of Dostoyevsky (Alexander Zarkhi)
Week of 7 Oct
Escape 2000 (Brian Trenchard-Smith)The Flat Jungle (Johan van der Keuken) [1978]
Hells Angels Forever. Forever Hells Angels (Richard Chase & Kevin Keating & Leon Gast)
Never Say Never Again (Irvin Kershner)
Romantic Comedy (Arthur Hiller)
Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola)
Week of 30 Sep
Beyond the Limit (John Mackenzie)The Big Chill (Lawrence Kasdan)
Brainstorm (Douglas Trumbull)
Danton (Andrzej Wajda)
Hanna K. (Costa-Gavras)
The Lonely Lady (Peter Sasdy)
The Sword of the Barbarians (Michael E. Lemick)
A Time to Die (Matt Cimber)
Week of 23 Sep
Cross Creek (Martin Ritt)Eddie and the Cruisers (Martin Davidson)
Educating Rita (Lewis Gilbert)
El Bruto (Luis Buñuel) [1953]
Ernesto (Salvatore Samperi) [1979]
The Final Option (Ian Sharp)
Pieces (Juan Piquer Simón)
Space Raiders (Howard R. Cohen)
Week of 16 Sep
Heat and Dust (James Ivory)Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio)
Silver Dream Racer (David Wickes) [1980]
Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (Dick Lowry)
Strange Invaders (Michael Laughlin)
Week of 9 Sep
Berlin Alexanderplatz, Part V (Rainer WernerFassbinder) [1980]City News (David Fishelson & Zoe Zinman)
Jom (Ababacar Samb-Makharam)
The Last Fight (Fred Williamson)
Lucie Sur-Seine (Jean Louis Bertuccelli)
The Moon in the Gutter (Jean-Jacques Beineix)
Revenge of the Ninja (Sam Firstenberg)
Week of 2 Sep
Below the Belt (Robert Fowler) {1980]Berlin Alexanderplatz, Part IV (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) [1980]
Lonely Hearts (Paul Cox)
Stryker (Cirio H. Santiago)
Week of 26 Aug
Berlin Alexanderplatz, Part III (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) [1980]Daniel (Sidney Lumet)
Hercules (Lewis Coates)
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Oshima)
Mr. Mom (Stan Dragoti)
Strange Brew (Dave Thomas & Rick Moranis)
Week of 19 Aug
Berlin Alexanderplatz, Part II (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) [1980]Easy Money (James Signorelli)
Getting It On (William Olsen)
Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn (Charles Band)
The Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky) [1975]
Yor, the Hunter From the Future (Anthony M. Dawson)
Week of 12 Aug
Berlin Alexanderplatz, Part I (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) [1980]Cujo (Lewis Teague)
Curse of the Pink Panther (Blake Edwards)
The Golden Seal (Frank Zuniga)
I Married a Shadow (Robin Davis)
La Passante (Jacques Rouffio)
The Man Who Wasn't There (Bruce Malmuth)
Week of 5 Aug
A George Kuchar Sampler (George Kuchar)Kitty and the Bagman (Donald Crombie)
Langlois (Eila Hershon & Roberto Guerra) [1970]
Risky Business (Paul Brickman)
The Star Chamber (Peter Hyams)
Valentina (Antonio J. Betancor)
Week of 29 Jul
Blue Skies Again (Richard Michaels)Krull (Peter Yates)
National Lampoon's Vacation (Harold Ramis)
Pauline at the Beach (Eric Rohmer)
Private School (Noel Black)
Ways in the Night (Krzysztof Zanussi) [1979]
Week of 22 Jul
Class (Lewis John Carlino)Heartbreaker (Frank Zuniga)
Jaws 3-D (Joe Alves)
Liquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman)
Werner Herzog: New Documentaries on American Religious Phenomemnon [sic] (Werner Herzog)
Week of 15 Jul
The First Time (Charlie Loventhal)The Grey Fox (Phillip Borsos)
Now and Forever (Adrian Carr)
Puberty Blues (Bruce Beresford)
Quest for Power: Sketches of the American New Right (Saul Landau & Frank Diamond)
Staying Alive (Sylvester Stallone)
Zelig (Woody Allen)
Week of 8 Jul
Deadly Force (Paul Aaron)Neige (Juliet Berto & Jean-Henri Roger)
Screwballs (Rafal Zielinski)
Week of 1 Jul
Drugstore Romance (Paul Vecchiali) [1979]Hammett (Wim Wenders)
Stroker Ace (Hal Needham)
Week of 24 Jun
The Draughtsman's Contract (Peter Greenaway)Porky's II: The Next Day (Bob Clark)
Prix de beauté (Augusto Genina) [1930]
Shadow of Angels (Daniel Schmid) [1976]
The Survivors (Michael Ritchie)
Twilight Zone—The Movie (various)
Yellowbeard (Mel Damski)
Week of 17 Jun
Fanny & Alexander (Ingmar Bergman)Flights of Fancy (Roman Balayan)
Irreconcilable Memories (Johann Feindt & Karl Siebig & Klaus Volkenborn) [1980]
Of Judges and Other Sympathizers (Axel Engstfeld)
Superman III (Richard Lester)
Week of 10 Jun
Heatwave (Phillip Noyce)L'Étoile du Nord (Pierre Granier Deferre)
Octopussy (John Glen)
The Return of Martin Guerre (Daniel Vigne)
Trading Places (John Landis)
Week of 3 Jun
Chicken Ranch (Nick Broomfield & Sandi Sissel)City Lovers (Barney Simon)
The Divine Emma (Jirí Krejcík) [1979]
The Man With Two Brains (Carl Reiner)
Norman Loves Rose (Henri Safran)
Pink Motel (Mike MacFarland)
Psycho II (Richard Franklin)
The Salamander (Peter Zinner)
WarGames (John Badham)
Week of 27 May
Chained Heat (Paul Nicholas)Heads or Tails (Robert Enrico) [1980]
La Truite (Joseph Losey)
Star Wars: Episode III—Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand)
They Don't Wear Black Tie (Leon Hirszman)
Tough Enough (Richard Fleischer)
Week of 20 May
Bill Cosby—"Himself" (Bill Cosby)A Chip of Glass Ruby (Ross Devenish)
Country Lovers (Manie van Rensburg)
Gates of Hell (Lucio Fulci)* [1980]
Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants (Lynton Stephenson)
My Ain Folk (Bill Douglas) [1973]
My Childhood (Bill Douglas) [1972]
My Tutor (George Bowers)
My Way Home (Bill Douglas) [1978]
Oral History (Peter Chappell)
Praise (Richard Green)
Reaching Out (Patricia Russell)
Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (Lamont Johnson)
* Not 100% sure about this one, but something called Gates of Hell
played on two screens and Fulci's film (which is better known as City
of the Living Dead is the only plausible candidate I can find).
Week of 13 May
Blue Thunder (John Badham)Breathless (Jim McBride)
La Boum (Claude Pinoteau) [1980]
The Missionary (Richard Loncraine)
Nudo di donna (Nino Manfredi)
Week of 6 May
All by Myself (Christian Blackwood)Doctor Detroit (Michael Pressman)
The Falls (Peter Greenaway) [1980]
In Love (Chuck Vincent)
Mausoleum (Michael Dugan)
Routes of Exile: A Moroccan Jewish Odyssey (Gene Rosow)
The Sandglass (Wojciech J. Has) [1973]
Still Smokin (Thomas Chong)
The White Rose (Michael Verhoeven)
Week of 29 Apr
Alsino and the Condor (Miguel Littin)Angelo My Love (Robert Duvall)
Beneath the Angka: A Story of the Khmer Rouge (Justin Ackerman)
Dirty Dishes (Joyce Buñuel) [1978]
The Hunger (Tony Scott)
Moon Over the Alley (Joseph Despins) [1976]
Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Jack Clayton)
Valley Girl (Martha Coolidge)
Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia (David Munro) [1979]
Week of 22 Apr
The Deadly Spawn (Douglas McKeown)Exposed (James Toback)
Invitation au voyage (Peter Del Monte)
La traviata (Franco Zeffirelli)
The New Image Makers (various)
1990: The Bronx Warriors (Enzo G. Castellari)
To Begin Again (José Luis Garci)
Week of 15 Apr
Abuse (Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.)Duel (Steven Spielberg) [1971]
The Evil Dead (Sam Raimi)
Flashdance (Adrian Lyne)
Light Years Away (Alain Tanner)
Lone Wolf McQuade (Steve Carver)
Waiting for Gavrilov (Pyotr Todorovsky)
Warlords of the 21st Century (Harley Cokliss)
Week of 8 Apr
Anna Karenina (Margarita Pilikhina) [1975]Curtains (Jonathan Stryker)
The Flight of the Eagle (Jan Troell)
The Great Chess Movie (Gilles Carle & Camille Coudari)
Losin' It (Curtis Hanson)
One Armed Executioner (Bobby A. Suarez)
Out of the Blue (Dennis Hopper) [1980]
Privileged (Michael Hoffman)
Week of 1 Apr
Man, Woman and Child (Dick Richards)Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones)
Urgh! A Music War (Derek Burbidge)
The Wizard of Babylon (Dieter Schidor)
Week of 25 Mar
Baby It's You (John Sayles)Bad Boys (Rick Rosenthal)
The Black Stallion Returns (Robert Dalva)
Jeanne Dielman | 23, Quai du Commerce | 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman) [1975]
The Killing of Angel Street (Donald Crombie)
Max Dugan Returns (Herbert Ross)
The Outsiders (Francis Coppola)
Spring Break (Sean S. Cunningham)
Week of 18 Mar
High Road to China (Brian G. Hutton)Next Year if All Goes Well (Jean-Loup Hubert)
The Personals (Peter Markle)
Powerforce (Michael Mak)
Week of 11 Mar
Elisa, vida mía (Carlos Saura) [1977]Johnny West (Roald Koller) [1978]
Joy Sticks (Greydon Clark)
Say Amen, Somebody (George T. Nierenberg)
Tales of Ordinary Madness (Marco Ferreri)
10 to Midnight (J. Lee Thompson)
Time Walker (Tom Kennedy)
Trenchcoat (Michael Tuchner)
Victory March (Marco Bellocchio) [1976]
Week of 4 Mar
Britannia Hospital (Lindsay Anderson)Choice of Arms (Alain Corneau)
The Gift (Michel Lang)
Joni (James F. Collier) [1979]
Private Life (Yuli Raizman)
Provincial Actors (Agnieszka Holland) [1979]
Starstruck (Gillian Armstrong)
Tender Mercies (Bruce Beresford)
Time Stands Still (Peter Gothar)
Vigilante (William Lustig)
Week of 25 Feb
Hollywood Out-Takes & Rare Footage (no director credited)Kamikaze '89 (Wolf Gremm) One Dark Night (Tom McLoughlin)
Poetry in Motion (Ron Mann)
Street Music (Jenny Bowen)
Week of 18 Feb
Betrayal (David Jones)The King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
La Nuit de Varennes (Ettore Scola)
Local Hero (Bill Forsyth)
The Lords of Discipline (Franc Roddam)
Lovesick (Marshall Brickman)
The Pirates of Penzance (Wilford Leach)
The State of Things (Wim Wenders)
The Sting II (Jeremy Paul Kagan)
Table for Five (Robert Lieberman)
Week of 11 Feb
In the King of Prussia (Emile de Antonio)Let's Spend the Night Together (Hal Ashby)
Parsifal (H.J. Syberberg)
Sorceress (Jack Hill)
Twilight Time (Goran Paskaljevic)
We of the Never Never (Igor Auzins)
Week of 4 Feb
Before the Nickelodeon (Charles Musser)Caligari's Cure (Tom Palazzolo)
The Entity (Sidney Furie)
The House on Sorority Row (Mark Rosman)
One Down Two to Go (Fred Williamson)
Petria's Wreath (Srdjan Karanovic) [1980]
Videodrome (David Cronenberg)
Vortex (Scott B and Beth B)
Without a Trace (Stanley R. Jaffe)
Week of 28 Jan
Enigma (Jeannot Szwarc)The Girl From Lorraine (Claude Goretta) [1980]
The Night of the Shooting Stars (Paolo & Vittorio Taviani)
Xtro (Harry Bromley Davenport)
Week of 21 Jan
Citizen (William Farley)Independence Day (Robert Mandel)
Lianna (John Sayles)
The Man From Snowy River (George Miller)
Muddy River (Kôhei Oguri)
Sweet Pea (Peter Del Monte)
Threshold (Richard Pearce)
Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (William Dear)
Treasure of the Four Crowns (Ferdinando Baldi)
The Year of Living Dangerously (Peter Weir)
Week of 14 Jan
Black Wax (Robert Mugge)The Girl With the Red Hair (Ben Verbong)
The Last American Virgin (Boaz Davidson)
Slow Attack (Reinhard Hauff) [1980]
Spring Fever (Joseph L. Scanlan)
The Stationmaster's Wife (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) [1977]
They Call Me Bruce? (Elliott Hong)
Time for Revenge (Adolfo Aristarain)
Week of 7 Jan
America—From Hitler to M-X (Joan Harvey)Madman (Joe Giannone)
Murder by Phone (Michael Anderson)