Scorsese’s New York Review of Books documentary is coming to HBO

The Fifty Year Argument, Scorsese's new documentary about the New York Review of Books, will debut Monday, September 29, but in the meantime, you can get your NYRB fill by hanging out with the crew at two upcoming events. In the tradition of Page One and The September Issue, the celebrated director—who also wrote a brilliant piece for the New York Review of Books last year about film as the “invocation of life”—highlights the 50-year-old literary magazine and publisher.

A collaboration with David Tedeschi, the film takes literary devotees behind the scenes of this cultural institution, profiling founding editors Robert Silvers and the late Barbara Epstein and featuring both the Review’s undeniable legacy and its current operations. Book buffs will swoon over archival footage of greats like Susan Sontag and Norman Mailer, not to mention appearances by Michael Chabon and Joan Didion.

Now, while we can’t promise that Didion herself will show up, New York is lucky to be home to the Review and its rare public events, two of which will occur at the end of this month. No need to brush up on your Arendt or Auden first; just drop by.

• Daniel Mendelsohn and Adrian Goldsworthy; McNally Jackson Bookstore, Aug 25
  With their cognitive powers combined, critic Mendelsohn and historian Goldsworthy discuss one of NYRB Classic’s latest releases: Augustus by John Williams, an underappreciated historical novel that won the 1973 National Book Award.
  
  
• “Morel’s Invention”; The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Aug 27
  Inspired by the eponymous science-fiction novel by Argentine author Adolfo Bioy Casares, this 1974 film adaption by Emidio Greco stars Giulio Brogi as a fugitive on a deserted Polynesian island and Anna Karina as an unexpected tourist with whom he falls in love.