The Film Society of Lincoln Center finally came out from hiding when it formally opened the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center on June 17th. While the Society is best known for the annual New York Film Festival, it presents a rolling film festival all year long – but somewhat hidden away in the Walter Reade Theater, located upstairs, behind the Julliard School, on West 65^th Street.

Designed by David Rockwell, the trend-setting designer of hotels, restaurants, and New York's Imagination Playground, the new 17,500 square foot Film Center will anchor the Film Society’s events and provide a much-needed public forum for film buffs. Rockwell called it "A spot in Lincoln Center that might be small, but it would signify accessibility, spontaneity, informality and every kind of social interaction about cinema possible." 

The 144-seat Francesca Beale Theater has acoustically absorptive wall panels evoking the look of 1920s Italian opera house curtains and cushioned stadium-style seats, while the more intimate Howard Gilman Theater has 87 bench-style seats and modern-chic blackened wood and resin pilasters framing the screen. The Center also has a less formal amphitheater with a 152-inch Panasonic plasma screen that's the world's largest to date, and a café and assembly space, which is not yet completed.

Last week I went to see Page One: Inside the New York Times, Andrew Rossi’s documentary about The Gray Lady, which inaugurates this state-of-the-art home for cinema. The Film Center’s entrance is at sidewalk grade on West 65^th Street, with a prow-like box office that scoopes visitors off the street and a lobby that sweeps them on to an opening overlooking the amphitheater. The overall effect of the entrance is one of openness and informality but with a theatrical lighting scheme that promises the magic that will unfold insside. As it should – the main theater has the best seats in town (with plenty of legroom) and a huge screen; the surround-sound experience is phenomenal; and the previews, in this instance, were for flicks I’d like to see, played at a normal dB level. And, by the way, Page One is a must-see; don’t be turned off by Michael Kinsley’s piece in the Times – as film critics coast to coast pointed out, he’s not a film critic.

The Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center is located on West 65^th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Ave. 212-875-5601; filmlinc.com.