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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We're ending the show every day during this mid-May membership drive with guests who are going to guide us to some seasonally appropriate things to do. In other words, we're having a spring and summer culture preview at the end of the show everyday. Today, I'm joined one more time by WNYC and Gothamist arts and culture reporter, Ryan Kailath, who's going to clue us in on that summer pleasure of outdoor movies. Grab a blanket and maybe a rain poncho, if it's a day like today, and gather in front of the big screen. Hey again, Ryan.

Ryan Kailath: Hey, Brian. It's always funny to be talking about these when they're a few weeks away yet.

Brian Lehrer: I know the City Parks Department shows movies in different parks all over the city, although last night's did in fact get rained out, but what are some of the other outdoor movie festivals starting up this summer?

Ryan Kailath: There's three favorites that I've highlighted here. Film at Lincoln Center has excellent programming year-round, obviously, but their summer film series, which they hold in Damrosch Park, that big space on the south end of the campus, no exception. Their series this summer kicks off June 13th with Black Swan. Very appropriate. That's, of course, the ballet movie set at a thinly-veiled New York City ballet. Natalie Portman won an Oscar. She plays a ballerina doing Swan Lake. Actually, the director is going to be there in person, introducing the film, June 13th, when they open up the series, Darren Aronofsky, who did Pi and others.

Also, two nights in a row in June around the solstice, they're doing the Richard Linklater movies, the Before movies, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset. That's the most perfect date night I can think of being there at sunset with somebody watching those movies. The last I want to highlight from their series is RRR. People might remember this was a Tollywood crossover smash a few years ago. Tollywood being the film industry of Tamil Nadu in South India. It's like an action blockbuster. It demands to be seen on a big screen, but it's also three hours long. Being able to talk and hang out on a picnic blanket with your friends, kind of helpful.

Brian Lehrer: These outdoor movies are really outdoors, right? It's not like the old drive-ins where you have to sit in your car.

Ryan Kailath: Yes. We are going to talk about a drive-in in a second, but no, these are generally free outdoors, usually at sunset or just when it gets dark enough to be able to see the screen well. The perfect outdoor summer movie, it's the kind you don't have to pay too much attention to, because you're there to hang out, you're there to have a picnic, there's going to be people talking, there's going to be toddlers toddling. It should be a low-stakes movie. This is not the time to watch a difficult, lean-forward piece of Tarkovsky cinema from the '80s. You want to hang out on a blanket with your friends and watch Jaws. The Queens Drive-in, though, is, in fact, a drive-in still. You cannot go with a blanket. You have to drive your car in. It's really fun. I've done it before. They broadcast the movie's audio over the FM band to your car stereo. They have a great lineup. Starts with Monsoon Wedding, which is, I think, one of Denzel's first roles. No, I'm sorry. I'm thinking of Mississippi Masala. They have lots of NYC films, including Summer of Sam, the Spike Lee movie, Coming to America, Goodfellas. If you haven't been to the Queens Drive-in before, which is in Flushing Meadows Park, it's great.

Brian Lehrer: Wait, if they're broadcasting the sound to the FM band for your car radio, does that mean you have to keep your car on, draining your battery?

Ryan Kailath: You do, and they have very well-labeled cautionary signs about this, telling most people that if you have a newer car model, you're going to be all right, but if you're worried about it, just start the engine a couple of times during and you should be fine. That's a good thought, though, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: More outdoor ones. Bryant Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Ryan Kailath: Those haven't announced yet, but those are classics of the genre, shall we say. We'll be keeping an eye on their websites, et cetera, to see when they announced those. Brooklyn Bridge Park, that might be the best backdrop for this thing in the whole city because it's at that part where the steps descend down to the water and you've got the city skyline in the background. It's very hard to pay attention to the screen when you're there.

Brian Lehrer: I see the Bryant Parks series will be at sunset on Mondays, starting June 10th. The Brooklyn Bridge Park series will be at sunset on Thursdays in July, in August, there at Pier One, Harbor View Lawn. Watch the movie or watch the skyline. It's your choice. Last one, Films on the Green.

Ryan Kailath: This one's unusual, but it's been going for a while. It's an outdoor film series organized by France, the sovereign nation of France. It's one of their cultural ambassadorship programs in the US through the French Embassy. They do a themed festival every summer. With the Olympics in Paris this year, they're doing a series of French films that touch on the theme of sport in some way. These are in various parks, McGolrick Park in Greenpoint, Riverside Park, Seward Park on the Lower East Side. The films raise the gamut from straightforward sports films. There's one called Final Set, Cinquième Set.

It's a movie about an aging tennis star. Also, they're doing a black and white 1949 crime thriller called Les Cinq Tulipes Rouges, The Five Red Tulips, which is about these murders that take place on the Tour de France while the race is happening and the inspectors have to race against the race to find the culprit. I should say, I'm not I'm quite sure the French have gotten quite the idea of the hangout outdoor low-stakes movies showing black and white art films from the '40s, but c'est la vie. It should be fun.

Brian Lehrer: So to speak. I hope the subtitles are really large.

Ryan Kailath: Exactly. They got to move them higher up on the screen because you got people sitting in front of you.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Listeners, some outdoor movie series to keep your eyes on this summer, if that's your thing or you think it might be. We thank Ryan Kailath, our WNYC and Gothamist arts and culture reporter. Thanks for cluing us in.

Ryan Kailath: Thanks, Brian.

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