Martin Scorsese Comes to Sag Harbor Cinema

Director Martin Scorsese attended the fourth annual “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Sag Harbor Cinema Festival of Preservation,” held November 8 through 11 at Sag Harbor Cinema.

Scorsese came to the cinema on Sunday, November 10, to talk about the films that influenced him throughout his career and share his dedication to film preservation before introducing a screening of “Leave Her to Heaven,” John M. Stahl’s 1945 Technicolor film noir masterpiece starring Gene Tierney as one of cinema’s most dangerous and sympathetic femmes fatales. The film was restored by The Film Foundation, the nonprofit organization established by Scorsese in 1990 which is dedicated to film preservation and the exhibition of restored and classic cinema.

“Martin Scorsese generously allowed us to use his name when we started this festival four years ago,” explained Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan, the cinema’s founding artistic director. “Since then, the work of The Film Foundation has been both an inspiration and an important source for my curation of this festival, as well as our repertory programs throughout the year — from films by Michael Powell, Emilio Fernández, Ernst Lubitsch, George Stevens, Marlon Brando, and Djbril Diop Mambéty in past editions of The Festival of Preservation, to John Ford, Sergei Parajanov, John Stahl, and Alfred Hitchock in our 2024 lineup.”

D’Agnolo Vallan added that she was thrilled Scorsese was able to take part in this year’s festival in person.

Inspired by the work of The Film Foundation, Sag Harbor Cinema’s annual event dedicated to film history and preservation began four years ago. After nearly losing the entire theater to a fire in December 2016, preservation and celebration of film is a topic that drives the storied East End movie theater. The event celebrates the year-round efforts from Sag Harbor Cinema to uplift and celebrate repertory screenings and retrospectives (with past guests like Julie Andrews and Julian Schnabel). The cinema has seen a 160 percent increase in attendees at the festival from year one to today, and a Turner Classic Movies sponsorship for this year’s festival with WB/Discovery sponsoring the two previous festivals.

Sag Harbor Cinema is at 90 Main Street in Sag Harbor. Visit sagharborcinema.org for information on the theater.