“New York always had wonderful small independent theaters, and we went to them all the time,” Patti Smith, the writer, performer and 1970s icon, said at the Metrograph cinema on Ludlow Street on Thursday night.
“The first independent cinemas were, like, 42nd Street theaters where you paid 50 cents,” she added. “You could watch Fellini and Bergman movies all day long, but without subtitles.”
Ms. Smith was among the dozens of creative luminaries who celebrated Metrograph’s third anniversary and its new distribution arm.
Founded by Alexander Olch, a designer with a boutique nearby, it is a symbol of both the gentrification and creative regeneration of the Lower East Side, a neighborhood that has the been the crucible of artistic movements as diverse as Yiddish theater and punk rock.
As heavy rain pounded the tenement buildings nearby, the two-story theater became a mosh pit of cross-generational bohemians. There were celebrated filmmakers (Baz Luhrmann, Kenneth Lonergan, Griffin Dunne, Darren Aronofsky, Whit Stillman and Paul Schrader), actors (Justin Theroux, Tavi Gevinson, John Turturro, Sienna Miller, Isabelle Huppert) and musicians (Marky Ramone and Jack Antonoff, who became famous 30 years apart).
The art house theater even managed to snag blue-chip artists (Cindy Sherman and Anh Duong) and billion-heir scenesters (Harry and Peter Brant Jr.).
Guests nibbled on miniburgers and other hors d’oeuvres, and popped into theaters screening short works by Tatsuo Sato, Kenneth Anger, Barbara Rubin and other cineastes. For a moment, it felt like a New York of a different era, before Hudson Yards, “Sex and the City” and Giuliani.
“The overbuilding is depressing, and it’s depressing that the whole city is a construction zone,” Ms. Smith said. “There’s a lot of things to be upset about, but I love this place and I’m grateful for it.”
No Collusion for “Veep”
Turns out, one of the jokes too outré to make the seventh and final season of “Veep” was a Robert Caro reference.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays the presidential candidate Selina Meyer in the show, which began its valedictory run with a party at Lincoln Center on Tuesday night. She was joined by the entire cast including Tony Hale, Anna Chlumsky, Matt Walsh, Reid Scott and Tim Simons, as well as Armando Iannucci, who created the show.
The first episode of the final season contains impolitic jokes about two fictional mass shootings. After the recent shootings in New Zealand and the second apparent suicide of a survivor of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting, did the joke go too far?
“We’re always pushing the limits on our show, we’re always going to extremes,” Ms. Louis-Dreyfus said, before she seemed to switch into character. “And I’m a big proponent of serious gun legislation and control. Get the N.R.A. out of our politics!”
After a screening of two episodes (spoiler alert: There is copious cursing), guests repaired for a buffet of grilled salmon and red, white and blue Dippin’ Dots ice cream. The starry crowd included Lena Dunham, Zosia Mamet, Ilana Glazer, Abbi Jacobson, Kieran Culkin, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver.
The new season contains blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em jokes about obscure figures like Billy Carter, the troublemaking brother of former President Jimmy Carter, and Clyde Tolson, the reputed lover of J. Edgar Hoover. But David Mandel, the showrunner, said he nixed one gag about a well-known presidential biographer.
Mr. Mandel paraphrased the line: “‘Selina would like Robert Caro to write a tumor-sized biography about her that nobody reads.’”
“I love that joke more than life itself, but we couldn’t fit it in,” he said.
