New York Film Festival to open with 18th Century romp from the director of ‘The Lobster’ – Yorgos Lanthimos

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Early 18th century. England is at war with the French. Nevertheless, duck racing and pineapple eating are thriving. A frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) governs the country in her stead while tending to Anne’s ill health and a mercurial temper. When a new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah. Sarah takes Abigail under her wing and Abigail sees a chance at a return to her aristocratic roots. As the politics of war become quite time-consuming for Sarah, Abigail steps into the breach to fill in as the Queen’s companion. Their burgeoning friendship gives her a chance to fulfill her ambitions and she will not let woman, man, politics or rabbit stand in her way.

While I really enjoyed The Lobster, from writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos, I couldn’t connect with the director’s last work, Killing of a Sacred Deer starring Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. I’m cautiously optimistic for The Favourite.

If you haven’t seen or heard of The Lobster, you really must at least check out the trailer.

Here’s the trailer for Killing of a Sacred Deer

DOC NYC review: ‘Abacus: Small Enough To Jail’ will cause you to rage against the machine.

Posted on November 13, 2017 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL

Abacus Federal Savings Bank is a modest institution of New York’s Chinatown that came under harsh prosecution in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. While other banks were considered ‘too big to fail,’ Abacus was ‘small enough to jail.’ Filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams) follows the bank’s founder Thomas Sung and his family as they fight back in court against Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. in an effort to redeem their name and to dispel biases against Chinatown. Courtesy of PBS Distribution

Wall Street got a free pass, once again. But someone had to be made an example of. Most of us probably didn’t now that one bank was taken to court, but it’s no one you’ve ever heard of outside of Chinatown in Manhattan. In Abacus: Small Enough To Jail, the saying, “No good deed goes unpunished,” could not be truer. You will be witness to one family’s battle as they are thrown under the bus to save face.The film is filled with strong daughters who go to bat for their father, family honor, their employees, and community. It will floor you as you watch the bogus claims and prejudice that occurs because it seemed to be easier than taking on the Wall Street household names. Abacus: Small Enough To Jail will expose lies we’ve been fed for years. Get ready to rage.

Showtimes:

Wed Nov 15, 2017, 11:45 AM | Cinepolis Chelsea

BUY TICKETS

Official Site: https://www.abacusmovie.com
On Twitter: AbacusMovie
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abacusmovie
Director: Steve James
Producer: Mark Mitten, Julie Goldman
Cinematographer: Tom Bergmann
Editor: John Farbrother, David E. Simpson
Music: Joshua Abrams
Running Time: 88
Language: English, Mandarin & Cantonese with English subtitles
Country: USA
Year: 2016

NYFF review: ‘The Meyerowitz Stories (New & Selected)’ – on Netflix 10/13

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

You may remember that this was one of two films that Netflix screened at the Cannes Film Festival and it caused quite a controversy.

Meyerowitz Stories is one of the two films in the competition — the other being Bong Joon-ho’s Okja— that Netflix has brought to Cannes, stirring up controversy, with the fest promising not to screen any films next year that aren’t guaranteed a theatrical release. – via Hollywood Reporter

I’ve enjoyed many of Noah Bambach’s work and The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) is no exception. It’s got an extra layer of New York-ness throughout that gives it a special punch.

From writer/director Noah Baumbach, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) is the emotional, and comic intergenerational tale of adult siblings (Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Elizabeth Marvel) contending with the long shadow their strong-willed father (Dustin Hoffman) has cast over their lives. With an original screenplay by Baumbach, the film also stars Emma Thompson, Grace Van Patten, Adam Driver, Candice Bergen, Judd Hirsch, and Rebecca Miller. The film was produced by Scott Rudin, Baumbach, Lila Yacoub, and Eli Bush.

Although it is told through a limited worldview, you’ll likely identify with some aspect of any of the characters, especially if you have siblings. The film pulls no punches and will make you laugh more than you even realize. The editing is purposeful, so don’t think something is cutting off. That just adds to the abruptness and comedy. At the risk of sounding awful, it’s so New York.

I’ve been slightly annoyed with Ben Stiller in the past few Baumbach movies (Greenberg and While We’re Young) but this character is not nearly as negative or needy. It’s quite possibly my favorite Ben Stiller role to date.

So what is the “New and Selected” all about? Well, it really seems to just let you know that this is a collection of stories of the Meyerowitz family and you couldn’t possibly show everything, so these stories are New and Selected.

Quite possibly his most accessible film to date, it definitely raises the bar of Originals on Netflix. Streaming now! (Oh, and so is Okja, which is AWESOME.

New York Film Festival 55 Review: ‘The Rape of Recy Taylor’ persists.

Posted on October 10, 2017 by Liz Whittemore — 1 Comment ↓

Sometimes a documentary teaches you more than you ever expected. Sometimes a doc is so relevant to the present it’s shocking. Nancy Burski’s, THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR, caught me by surprise from the very beginning. I learned not much has really changed in the past 80 years when it comes to everything I hold dear with respect to racism and sexism.

1944 brought forth a horrific event perpetrated by 6 white boys on one black woman. A married mother, minding her own business, was forced into a car at gunpoint, driven into the woods and raped. She was not believed, she was threatened, she was silenced. Nevertheless, she persisted. The film utilizes “race films” (something I had never heard of prior) and intimate sit-down interviews with Recy’s siblings. Both are extremely effective in illustrating her journey for justice. With the help of Rosa Parks, yes THE Rosa Parks, Recy Taylor did not shut up. She did what so many women still don’t for fear of retribution. Nevertheless, she persisted. The Rape of Recy Taylor is powerful in its narrative and triumphant in its storytelling. In a world that tries its hardest to keep women down, particularly women of color, we should revere someone like Recy Taylor and commit to educating the masses because Recy Taylor persists.

The film had its World Premiere at Venice (only American Documentary in its category) and will make its North American premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 1^st.

The numbers of women raped in Jim Crow South were staggering. In danger of their lives, they did not report the crimes and their stories went hidden. Not Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old mother who was gang raped by 6 white boys in 1944 Alabama. Unbroken, she spoke up, and with the help of Rosa Parks and legions of women spreading the word, they worked to get Recy Taylor justice.

Nancy Burski is the director of THE LOVING STORY and BY SIDNEY LUMET.

16 New York Film Festival movies coming to theaters soon

Posted on October 6, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Author Joan Didion at home in Hollywood.

Wonder Wheel-Courtesy Amazon Studios1 NYFF55

Wonderstruck-Courtesy Amazon Studios_Mary Cybulski NYFF55

Thelma_a5_EiliHarboe_CopyrightMotlysAS NYFF55

Last Flag Flying-Courtesy Amazon Studios _ Wilson Webb NYFF55

The Florida Project
Description: A six-year-old girl (the remarkable Brooklynn Prince) and her two best friends run wild on the grounds of a week-by-week motel complex on the edge of Orlando’s Disney World. Meanwhile, her mother (talented novice Bria Vinaite) desperately tries to cajole the motel manager (an ever-surprising Willem Dafoe) to turn a blind eye to the way she pays the rent. A film about but not for kids, Baker’s depiction of childhood on the margins has fierce energy, tenderness, and great beauty. After the ingenuity of his iPhone-shot 2015 breakout Tangerine, Baker reasserts his commitment to 35mm film with sun-blasted images that evoke a young girl’s vision of adventure and endurance beyond heartbreak. An A24 release.

Liz loved it!

The genuine chemistry between Willem Dafoe and rambunctious newcomer Brooklyn Prince is what makes The Florida Project so perfect.

Directed By: Sean Baker
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 10/6/2017
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AMC LOEWS LINCOLN SQUARE 13
1998 Broadway, New York, NY 10023

ANGELIKA FILM CENTER
18 W Houston St, New York, NY 10012

Jane
Description: In 1960, Dr. Louis Leakey arranged for a young English woman with a deep love of animals to go to Gombe Stream National Park near Lake Tangyanika. The Dutch photographer and filmmaker Hugo van Lawick was sent to document Jane Goodall’s first establishment of contact with the chimpanzee population, resulting in the enormously popular Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees, the second film ever produced by National Geographic. One hundred hours of Lawick’s original footage was rediscovered in 2014. From that material, Brett Morgen (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck) has created a vibrant film experience, giving new life to the experiences of this remarkable woman and the wild in which she found a home. A National Geographic Documentary Films release.
Directed By: Brett Morgen
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
Theater Date: 10/9/17
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Find a screening here

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Description: Noah Baumbach revisits the terrain of family vanities and warring attachments that he began exploring with The Squid and the Whale in this intricately plotted story of three middle-aged siblings (Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Elizabeth Marvel) coping with their strong-willed father (Dustin Hoffman) and the flightiness of his wife (Emma Thompson). Baumbach’s film never stops deftly changing gears, from surges of pathos to painful comedy and back again. Needless to say, this lyrical quicksilver comedy is very much a New York experience. A Netflix release.
Directed By: Noah Baumbach
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 10/13/17
Netflix Streaming Date: 10/13/17
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Los Angeles – The Landmark, Laemmle Noho

New York City – Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, IFC Center

Atlanta – Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema

Boston – Landmark’s Kendall Square Cinemas

Chicago – Landmark’s Century Centre

Dallas – Landmark’s Magnolia Theatre

Miami – Landmark at Merrick Park

Philadelphia – Landmark’s Ritz Bourse

San Francisco – Landmark’s Embarcadero Center Cinema

Washington D.C.- Landmark’s Bethesda

Wonderstruck
Description: In 1977, following the death of his single mother, Ben (Oakes Fegley) loses his hearing in a freak accident and makes his way from Minnesota to New York, hoping to learn about the father he has never met. A half-century earlier, another deaf 12-year-old, Rose (Millicent Simmonds), flees her restrictive Hoboken home, captivated by the bustle and romance of the nearby big city. Each of these parallel adventures, unfolding largely without dialogue, is an exuberant love letter to a different bygone era of New York. The mystery of how they ultimately converge, which involves Julianne Moore in a lovely dual role, provides the film’s emotional core. Adapted from a young-adult novel by Hugo author Brian Selznick, Wonderstruck is an all-ages enchantment, entirely true to director Todd Haynes’s sensibility: an intelligent, deeply personal, and lovingly intricate tribute to the power of obsession. An Amazon Studios release.
Directed By: Todd Haynes
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Centerpiece
Theater Date: 10/20/2017
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BPM (Beats Per Minute)
Description: In the early 1990s, ACT UP—in France, as in the U.S.—was on the front lines of AIDS activism. Its members, mostly gay, HIV-positive men, stormed drug company and government offices in “Silence=Death” T-shirts, facing down complacent suits with the urgency of their struggle for life. Robin Campillo (Eastern Boys) depicts their comradeship and tenacity in waking up the world to the disease that was killing them and movingly dramatizes the persistence of passionate love affairs even in dire circumstances. All the actors, many of them unknown, are splendid in this film, which not only celebrates the courage of ACT UP but also tacitly provides a model of resistance to the forces of destruction running rampant today. A release of The Orchard.
Directed By: Robin Campillo
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 10/27/2017
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Félicité
Description: The new film from Alain Gomis, a French director of Guinea-Bissauan and Senegalese descent, is largely set in the roughest areas of the rough city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Here, a woman named Félicité (Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu) scrapes together a living as a singer in a makeshift bar (her accompanists are played by members of the Kasai Allstars band). When her son is seriously injured in an accident, she goes in search of money for his medical care and embarks on a double journey: through the punishing outer world of the city and the inner world of the soul. Félicité is tough, tender, lyrical, mysterious, funny, and terrifying, both responsive to the moment and fixed on its heroine’s spiritual progress. A Strand Releasing release.
Directed By: Alain Gomis
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Berlin Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 10/27/2017
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The Square
Description: A precisely observed, thoroughly modern comedy of manners, Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or–winner revolves around Christian (Claes Bang), a well-heeled contemporary art curator at a Stockholm museum. While preparing his new exhibit—a four-by-four-meter zone designated as a “sanctuary of trust and caring”—Christian falls prey to a pickpocketing scam, which triggers an overzealous response and then a crisis of conscience. Featuring several instant-classic scenes and a vivid supporting cast (Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, and noted motion-capture actor Terry Notary), The Square is the most ambitious film yet by one of contemporary cinema’s most incisive social satirists, the rare movie to have as many laughs as ideas. A Magnolia Pictures release.
Directed By: Ruben Östlund
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Cannes Film Festival (2017), Toronto Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 10/27/2017
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Author Joan Didion at home in Hollywood.

Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold
Description: Griffin Dunne’s years-in-the-making documentary portrait of his aunt Joan Didion moves with the spirit of her uncannily lucid writing: the film simultaneously expands and zeroes in, covering a vast stretch of turbulent cultural history with elegance and candor, and grounded in the illuminating presence and words of Didion herself. This is most certainly a film about loss—the loss of a solid American center, the personal losses of a husband and a child—but Didion describes everything she sees and experiences so attentively, so fully, and so bravely that she transforms the very worst of life into occasions for understanding. A Netflix release.
Directed By: Griffin Dunne
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
Theater Date: 10/27/2017
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Last Flag Flying
Description: In Richard Linklater’s lyrical road movie, as funny as it is heartbreaking, three aging Vietnam-era Navy vets—soft-spoken Doc (Steve Carell), unhinged and unfiltered Sal (Bryan Cranston), and quietly measured Mueller (Laurence Fishburne)—reunite to perform a sacred task: the proper burial of Doc’s only child, who has been killed in the early days of the Iraq invasion. As this trio of old friends makes its way up the Eastern seaboard, Linklater gives us a rich rendering of friendship, a grand mosaic of common life in the USA during the Bush era, and a striking meditation on the passage of time and the nature of truth. To put it simply, Last Flag Flying is a great movie from one of America’s finest filmmakers. An Amazon Studios release.
Directed By: Richard Linklater
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Opening Night
Theater Date: 11/3/2017
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Mudbound
Description: Writer-director Dee Rees’s historical epic, based on the novel by Hillary Jordan, details the daily hardships and vicissitudes of farm life in Mississippi during the post–World War II era. Two families, one white (the landlords) and one black (the sharecroppers), work the same miserable piece of farmland. Out of need and empathy, the mothers of the two families bond as their younger male relatives go off to war and learn that there is a world beyond racial hatred and fear. The flawless ensemble cast includes Carey Mulligan, Mary J. Blige, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Mitchell, Jason Clarke, Rob Morgan, and Jonathan Banks. A Netflix release.
Directed By: Dee Rees
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Sundance Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 11/7/2017
Streaming Date: 11/7/2017
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Lady Bird
Description: Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut is a portrait of an artistically inclined young woman (Saoirse Ronan) trying to define herself in the shadow of her mother (Laurie Metcalf) and searching for an escape route from her hometown of Sacramento. Moods are layered upon moods at the furious pace of late adolescence in this lovely and loving film, which shifts deftly from one emotional and comic register to the next. Lady Bird is rich in invention and incident, and it is powered by Ronan, one of the finest actors in movies. With Lucas Hedges and Timothée Chalamet as the men in Lady Bird’s life, Beanie Feldstein as her best friend, and Tracy Letts as her dad. An A24 release.
Directed By: Greta Gerwig
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Telluride Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 11/10/2017
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Thelma
Description: In the new film from Joachim Trier (Reprise), an adolescent country girl (Eili Harboe) has just moved to the city to begin her university studies, with the internalized religious severity of her quietly domineering mother and father (Ellen Dorrit Petersen and Henrik Rafaelsen) always in mind. When she realizes that she is developing an attraction to her new friend Anja (Okay Kaya), she begins to manifest a terrifying and uncontrollable power that her parents have long feared. To reveal more would be a crime; let’s just say that this fluid, sharply observant, and continually surprising film begins in the key of horror and ends somewhere completely different. A release of The Orchard.
Directed By: Joachim Trier
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Toronto Film Festival (2017), Fantastic Fest (2017), Toronto Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 11/10/2017
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On the Beach at Night Alone
Description: Hong Sang-soo’s movies have always invited autobiographical readings, and his 19th feature is perhaps his most achingly personal film yet, a steel-nerved, clear-eyed response to the tabloid frenzy that erupted in South Korea over his relationship with actress Kim Min-hee. The film begins in Hamburg, where actress Young-hee (played by Kim herself, who won the Best Actress prize at Berlin for this role) is hiding out after the revelation of her affair with a married filmmaker. Back in Korea, a series of encounters shed light on Young-hee’s volatile state, as she slips in and out of melancholic reflection and dreams. Centered on Kim’s astonishingly layered performance, On the Beach at Night Alone is the work of a master mining new emotional depths. A Cinema Guild release.
Directed By: Hong Sang-soo
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Berlin Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 11/17/2017
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Call Me by Your Name
Description: A story of summer love unlike any other, the sensual new film from the director of I Am Love, set in 1983, charts the slowly ripening romance between Elio (Timothée Chalamet), an American teen on the verge of discovering himself, and Oliver (Armie Hammer), the handsome older grad student whom his professor father (Michael Stuhlbarg) has invited to their vacation home in Northern Italy. Adapted from the wistful novel by André Aciman, Call Me by Your Name is Guadagnino’s most exquisitely rendered, visually restrained film, capturing with eloquence the confusion and longing of youth, anchored by a remarkable, star-making performance by Chalamet, always a nervy bundle of swagger and insecurity, contrasting with Hammer’s stoicism. A Sony Pictures Classics release.
Directed By: Luca Guadagnino
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Sundance Film Festival (2017), Toronto Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 11/24/2017
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Wonder Wheel
Description: In a career spanning 50 years and almost as many features, Woody Allen has periodically refined, reinvented, and redefined the terms of his art, and that’s exactly what he does with his daring new film. We’re in Coney Island in the 1950s. A lifeguard (Justin Timberlake) tells us a story that just might be filtered through his vivid imagination: a middle-aged carousel operator (Jim Belushi) and his beleaguered wife (Kate Winslet), who eke out a living on the boardwalk, are visited by his estranged daughter (Juno Temple)—a situation from which layer upon layer of all-too-human complications develop. Allen and his cinematographer, the great Vittorio Storaro, working with a remarkable cast led by Winslet in a startlingly brave, powerhouse performance, have created a bracing and truly surprising movie experience. An Amazon Studios release.
Directed By: Woody Allen
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Closing Night
Theater Date: 12/1/2017
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Lover for a Day
Description: Lover for a Day is an exquisite meditation on love and fidelity that recalls Garrel’s previous NYFF selections Jealousy (NYFF 2013) and In the Shadow of Women (NYFF 2015). After a painful breakup, heartbroken Jeanne (Esther Garrel) moves back in with her university professor father, Gilles (Eric Caravaca), to discover that he is living with optimistic, life-loving student Ariane (newcomer Louise Chevillotte), who is the same age as Jeanne. An unusual triangular relationship emerges as both girls seek the favor of Gilles, as daughter or lover, while developing their own friendship, finding common ground despite their differences. Gorgeously shot in grainy black and white by Renato Berta (Au revoir les enfants), Lover for a Day perfectly illustrates Garrel’s poetic exploration of relationships and desire. A MUBI release.
Directed By: Philippe Garrel
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Theater Date: 1/12/2018
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New York Film Festival 55 Review: ‘The Other Side of Hope’ is subtle, quirky & timely

Posted on October 5, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Finland’s master of deadpan comedy, Aki Kaurismäki (‘Lights in the Dusk’, ‘Le Havre’), returns with the story of an unlikely friendship between a Syrian asylum seeker and a middle-aged Finnish restaurant owner. Winner of the Berlin Silver Bear for Best Director, it’s a beautiful, timely film from one of the world’s leading auteurs. Khaled (Sherwan Haji) arrives at the port of Helsinki concealed in a coal container, fleeing war-torn Syria to seek asylum in Finland. Dazed and frustrated by the monolithic administration he encounters at the detention centre, he makes a break for it and heads out onto the streets. There he meets Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen), a former shirt salesman who has recently left his alcoholic wife for a new life as a bachelor restaurateur. Together, they help each other to navigate the adversities they face in these unfamiliar and often baffling new worlds. Stream The Other Side of Hope on Volta now: https://goo.gl/6CrV4v

Sometimes with so much in the news about refugees and asylum seekers, it becomes hard to put a face to the issue. Director Aki Kaurismäki brings the issue humanity and humor in The Other Side of Hope. This truly deadpan comedy focuses on Khaled, who fled Syria because of the war and is now desperate to find his sister. Add to that Wikström, a man who just left his alcoholic wife and bought a restaurant, with no experience. Wikström does not set out to help Khaled, it sort of just happens.

Aside from the story, the film is beautifully shot, and although set in our time, has the look of a 70s film. Many shots are zoomed out to show all the action and the absurd movements of the characters. It’s a delight to just visually follow what’s happening.

I also enjoyed the soundtrack immensely. The song from the trailer (at 0:37) is so fantastic and you’ll find yourself wanted to listen to it again.

To be totally honest, it doesn’t move very fast, but this is one of those films that you can turn on at any point, watch a scene and be totally satisfied. If you’ll watch a home, it’ll likely be a little rough to watch all at once, but really worth seeing.

How to watch: check out their website http://www.theothersideofhope.com/

OFFICIAL SELECTION:

Berlin International Film Festival 2017 – Winner: Best Director

Telluride Film Festival 2017

Toronto International Film Festival 2017

New York Film Festival 2017

Below are some clips for you to enjoy.

New York Film Festival 55 Review: ‘The Florida Project’ shines.

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Liz Whittemore — 2 Comments ↓

Set over one summer, the film follows precocious 6-year-old Moonee as she courts mischief and adventure with her ragtag playmates and bonds with her rebellious but caring mother, all while living in the shadows of Disney World.

Sean Baker‘s The Florida Project is easily in my top 5 films at this year’s NYFF. The entire film is so organic with an almost documentary-style feel. The story revolves around an often overlooked segment of the country; one that we tend to dismiss as low-class. The viewing experience is akin to being a fly on the wall during events we cannot unsee. Completely irreverent and oozing with charm, it’s also a film about children but not for children. Lazy summer days and trying to entertain themselves, more alone than in the presence of proper adult supervision, the children explore and wreak havoc on tourists and locals alike. The genuine chemistry between Willem Dafoe and rambunctious newcomer Brooklyn Prince is what makes The Florida Project so perfect. Dafoe becomes a universal father figure and will no doubt remind you what a chameleon he truly is onscreen. Bria Vinaite (Also a complete unknown until now) as Halley is frighteningly all too familiar, and I do mean that as a compliment. Her relationship with Moonee is as awkwardly earnest as it is heartbreaking. Our spitfire, six-year-old Prince steals every scene with her natural curiously and sass. She will not be contained. Sean Baker‘s use of real-life vibrantly colored backdrops screams for attention against the energy pouring from the entire cast of misbehaving children. You will be laughing out loud from the very first scene and find yourself completely engrossed in the lives of these characters. I will be putting forth a mighty effort come awards season on behalf of The Florida Project, as it deserves the widest audience possible.

Opens in New York and Los Angeles on October 6, 2017

(followed by nationwide expansion)

Directed By:	Sean Baker
Written By:	Sean Baker and Chris Bergoch
Produced By:	Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch, Kevin Chinoy, Andrew Duncan, Alex
Starring:	Saks, Francesca Silvestri, Shih-Ching Tsou
Starring:	Willem Dafoe, Brooklynn Prince, Valeria Cotto and Bria Vinaite
Release Date:	October 6, 2017 (NY & LA); Expansion to follow
Running Time:	115mins
Rating:	R
Website:	http://floridaproject.movie/

New York Film Festival 55 Review: ‘Hall of Mirrors’ exposes investigative journalism at it’s finest

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

I’m not quite sure which is more interesting: the life of Edward Jay Epstein or the stories he investigates. Add to that an original documentary style and Hall of Mirrors turns into an accessible, artistic, and entertaining documentary. First-time filmmaker sisters, Ena Talakic and Ines Talakic spent four years writing, directing and editing after a chance meeting with Epstein at a party.

Rather than the boring chronological story style, the directors move back and forth between the life of Epstein his investigations. At first, it’s almost confusing, then as you’re watching you start to realize what an amazing life he’s lead and what a huge contribution he’s made to journalism. It’s quite inspiring.

If you’re in the Washington D.C. area, the film has just been announced at the Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival.

HALL OF MIRRORS
Washington, DC Premiere
Directors Ena Talakic and Ines Talakic
Italy / United States

Saturday, October 21, 2017 – 2:30 PM
Naval Heritage Center
http://doubleexposurefestival.com/films/hall-of-mirrors/

Edward Jay Epstein has built a career on taking a deeper look at hidden trends and unquestioned scripts that enter mainstream thinking. In Hall of Mirrors, he delves into Edward Snowden’s historic leak of data on U.S. government surveillance, delighting in the absurdities he discovers.

Filmmakers in attendance.

Books of Edward Jay Epstein:

Inquest: The Warren Commission and the Establishment of Truth (1966)
Counterplot (1968)
News from Nowhere. Television and the News (1973)
Between Fact and Fiction: The Problem of Journalism (1975)
Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America (1977)
Cartel (1978)
Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald (1978)
The Rise and Fall of Diamonds: The Shattering of a Brilliant Illusion (1982)
Deception: The Invisible War Between the KGB & the CIA (1989)
The Assassination Chronicles: Inquest, Counterplot, and Legend (1992)
Dossier: The Secret Life of Armand Hammer (1996)
The Big Picture: Money and Power in Hollywood (2000)
The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies (2010)
The Annals of Unsolved Crime (2013)
The JFK Assassination Diary: My Search for Answers to the Mystery of the Century (2013)
How America Lost Its Secrets: Snowden, the Man and the Theft (2017)

TRT: 87 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Directors: Ena Talakic, Ines Talakic
Producers: Ena Talakic, Ines Talakic
Editors: Ena Talakic, Ines Talakic
Directors of Photography: Ena Talakic, Ines Talakic

15 U.S. Premieres of the New York Film Festival

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

A Skin So Soft
Description: Studiously observing the world of male bodybuilding, Denis Côté’s A Skin So Soft (Ta peau si lisse) crafts a multifaceted portrait of six latter-day Adonises through the lens of their everyday lives: extreme diets, training regimens, family relationships, and friendships within the community. Capturing the physical brawn and emotional complexity of its subjects with wit and tenderness, this companion piece to Cote’s singular animal study Bestiaire (2012) is a self-reflexive rumination on the long tradition of filming the human body that also advances a fascinating perspective on contemporary masculinity.
Directed By: Denis Côté
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Locarno International Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
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BOOM FOR REAL The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Description: Sara Driver’s documentary is both a celebration of and elegy for the downtown New York art/music/film/performance world of the late 1970s and early ’80s, through which Jean-Michel Basquiat shot like a rocket. Weaving Basquiat’s life and artistic progress in and out of her rich, living tapestry of this endlessly cross-fertilizing scene, Driver has created an urgent recollection of freedom and the aesthetic of poverty. Graffiti meets gestural painting, hip hop infects rock and roll and visa versa, heroin comes and never quite goes, night swallows day, and everybody looms as large as they feel like looming on the crumbling streets of the Lower East Side.
Directed By: Sara Driver
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
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BPM (Beats Per Minute)
Description: In the early 1990s, ACT UP—in France, as in the U.S.—was on the front lines of AIDS activism. Its members, mostly gay, HIV-positive men, stormed drug company and government offices in “Silence=Death” T-shirts, facing down complacent suits with the urgency of their struggle for life. Robin Campillo (Eastern Boys) depicts their comradeship and tenacity in waking up the world to the disease that was killing them and movingly dramatizes the persistence of passionate love affairs even in dire circumstances. All the actors, many of them unknown, are splendid in this film, which not only celebrates the courage of ACT UP but also tacitly provides a model of resistance to the forces of destruction running rampant today. A release of The Orchard.
Directed By: Robin Campillo
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
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Caniba
Description: The latest by the makers of Leviathan (NYFF50) is a harrowing engagement with the sheer presence of a man who did the unthinkable: Issei Sagawa, who became a tabloid magnet after killing and cannibalizing a woman in Paris in 1981. Caniba moves past sensationalism to immerse viewers in an unnervingly intimate encounter with Sagawa, who has since lived off his notoriety (as a sexploitation star and manga author), and his brother and primary caretaker. The filmmakers use this modern-day instance of cannibalism, long a subject of anthropological study, to raise questions about repulsion, desire, madness, and more. Audacious and unflinching, Caniba compels us to reckon with the most extreme limits of human behavior.
Directed By: Véréna Paravel,Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017), Venice Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Projections
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Dragonfly Eyes
Description: Chinese visual artist Xu Bing’s ambitious debut feature follows an ill-fated romance through a frightening and faceless urban environment, using only closed-circuit surveillance footage. Constructing a fictitious narrative from real-world encounters and frequently spectacular images, Xu turns the story of a young man attempting to relocate his object of desire into a cogent analysis of postmodern identity and digitally mediated communication.
Directed By: Xu Bing
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Locarno International Film Festival (2017),Toronto Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Projections
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Félicité
Description: The new film from Alain Gomis, a French director of Guinea-Bissauan and Senegalese descent, is largely set in the roughest areas of the rough city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Here, a woman named Félicité (Véro Tshanda Beya Mputu) scrapes together a living as a singer in a makeshift bar (her accompanists are played by members of the Kasai Allstars band). When her son is seriously injured in an accident, she goes in search of money for his medical care and embarks on a double journey: through the punishing outer world of the city and the inner world of the soul. Félicité is tough, tender, lyrical, mysterious, funny, and terrifying, both responsive to the moment and fixed on its heroine’s spiritual progress. A Strand Releasing release.
Directed By: Alain Gomis
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Berlin Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
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Good Luck
Description: In his first solo feature in eight years, Ben Russell takes us deep into the unforgiving copper mines of Serbia. When we emerge, we’re thousands of miles away, amongst an illegal band of gold miners in the Suriname jungle. The physical demands of labor, as well as the transformative power of music, connect these communities, each equally fortified by the realities of capital and a spirit of masculine camaraderie.
Directed By: Ben Russell
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Locarno International Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Projections
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Occidental
Description: In a boho Parisian hotel, two sexually and politically ambiguous Italians romp through a succession of blatantly artificial, anachronistically decorated set pieces, stoking the prejudices of staff members and fellow guests. Outside, riots rage and protesters march, threatening to spill into the increasingly feverish atmosphere gathering indoors. French-Algerian artist Neïl Beloufa’s second feature—reminiscent of films by Bertrand Bonello and the stage-derived works of Alain Resnais—confirms the arrival of a uniquely provocative, socially attuned filmmaker.
Directed By: Neïl Beloufa
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Projections
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Sea Sorrow
Description: Vanessa Redgrave’s debut as a documentary filmmaker is a plea for a compassionate western response to the refugee crisis and a condemnation of the vitriolic inhumanity of current right wing and conservative politicians. Redgrave juxtaposes our horrifying present of inadequate refugee quotas and humanitarian disasters (like last year’s clearing of the Calais migrant camp) with the refugee crises of WWII and its aftermath, recalled with archival footage, contemporary news reports and personal testimony—including an interview with the eloquent Labor politician Lord Dubs, who was one of the children rescued by the Kindertransport. Sea Sorrow reaches further back in time to Shakespeare, not only for its title but also to further remind us that we are once more repeating the history that we have yet to learn.
Directed By: Vanessa Redgrave
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
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Spoor
Description: Janina Duszejko (Agnieszka Mandat) is a vigorous former engineer, part-time teacher, and animal activist, living in a near wilderness on the Polish-Czech border, where hunting is the favored year-round sport of the corrupt men who rule the region. When a series of hunters die mysteriously, Janina wonders if the animals are taking revenge, which doesn’t stop the police from coming after her. A brilliant, passionate director, Agnieszka Holland—who like Janina comes from a generation that learned to fight authoritarianism by any means necessary—forges a sprawling, wildly beautiful, emotionally enveloping film that earns its vision of utopia. It’s at once a phantasmagorical murder mystery, a tender, late-blooming love story, and a resistance and rescue thriller.
Directed By: Agnieszka Holland,Kasia Adamik
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Berlin Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
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The Day After
Description: Hong continues in the openly emotional register of his On the Beach at Night Alone, also showing in this year’s Main Slate. Shot in moody black and white, The Day After opens with book publisher Bongwan (Kwon Hae-hyo) fending off his wife’s heated accusations of infidelity. At the office, it’s the first day for his new assistant, Areum (Kim Min-hee), whose predecessor was Bongwan’s lover. Mistaken identity, repetition compulsion, and déjà vu figure into the narrative as the film entangles its characters across multiple timelines through an intricate geometry of desire, suspicion, and betrayal. The end result is one of Hong’s most plaintive and philosophical works.
Directed By: Hong Sang-soo
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
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Western
Description: As its title suggests, German director Valeska Grisebach’s first feature in a decade is a supremely intelligent genre update that recognizes the Western as a template on which to draw out eternal human conflicts. In remote rural Bulgaria, a group of German workers are building a water facility. Meinhard (Meinhard Neumann), the reserved newbie in this all-male company, immediately draws the ire of the boorish team leader, not least for his willingness to mingle with the wary locals. Cast with utterly convincing nonprofessional actors, Western is a gripping culture-clash drama, attuned both to old codes of masculinity and new forms of colonialism. A Cinema Guild release.
Directed By: Valeska Grisebach
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
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Zama
Description: The great Lucrecia Martel ventures into the realm of historical fiction and makes the genre entirely her own in this adaptation of Antonio di Benedetto’s 1956 classic of Argentinean literature. In the late 18th century, in a far-flung corner of what seems to be Paraguay, the title character, an officer of the Spanish crown (Daniel Giménez Cacho) born in the Americas, waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. Martel renders Zama’s world—his daily regimen of small humiliations and petty politicking—as both absurd and mysterious, and as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia, subject to a creeping disorientation. Precise yet dreamlike, and thick with atmosphere, Zama is a singular and intoxicating experience, a welcome return from one of contemporary cinema’s truly brilliant minds.
Directed By: Lucrecia Martel
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
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NYFF Live – FREE Talks at the New York Film Festival

Posted on September 29, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

NYFF55 talks also include On Cinema: Richard Linklater and Directors Dialogues with Lucrecia Martel, Agnès Varda & JR, Hong Sang-soo, and Philippe Garrel

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces the lineup for the sixth edition of free talk series NYFF Live during the 55th New York Film Festival (September 28 – October 15). HBO® is the presenting sponsor of NYFF Live, which features actors, directors, writers, critics, and other industry insiders participating in daily evening discussions from September 29 – October 13 in the Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

NYFF55 Directors Dialogues, for which HBO® is also the presenting sponsor, include conversations with Main Slate filmmakers Lucrecia Martel, Agnès Varda & JR, Hong Sang-soo, and Philippe Garrel. This year’s On Cinema features Opening Night filmmaker Richard Linklater (Last Flag Flying) in an in-depth discussion with NYFF Director Kent Jones about films that have influenced and inspired him, illustrated with film clips.

NYFF Live features panels on The Square, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), The Florida Project, and other films from NYFF55, as well as discussions with festival talent including Vanessa Redgrave, Luca Guadagnino, and Claire Denis. For updates and additional details about panelists and moderators, visit filmlinc.org. NYFF Live is organized by FSLC Deputy Director Eugene Hernandez and Brian Brooks, FSLC’s Manager of Talks and Artist Programs.

Free tickets to both NYFF Live and Directors Dialogues events will be distributed at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center box office (144 West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam) on a first-come, first-served basis starting one hour prior to the talks. Limit one ticket per person, subject to availability. For those unable to attend, video from these events will be available online at filmlinc.org.

The 18-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring works from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent. The selection committee, chaired by Jones, also includes Dennis Lim, FSLC Director of Programming; Florence Almozini, FSLC Associate Director of Programming; and Amy Taubin, contributing editor for Film Comment and Artforum.

Friday, September 29
7:00PM Ruben Östlund, The Square
8:00PM VR and the Future of Virtual Production by Lucasfilm

Saturday, September 30
6:00PM On Cinema: Richard Linklater
7:00PM Gamescape: The Revenge of Full Motion Video
8:00PM IndieWire Screen Talk LIVE podcast with Eric Kohn & Anne Thompson

Sunday, October 1
3:00PM HBO Directors Dialogues: Lucretia Martel
7:00PM Film Comment: The Cinema of Experience
8:00PM Serge Bozon & Isabelle Huppert, Mrs. Hyde

Monday, October 2
6:00PM HBO Directors Dialogues: Agnès Varda & JR
7:00PM Noah Baumbach, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
8:00PM NYFF Shorts Filmmakers

Tuesday, October 3
7:00PM Making The Florida Project: Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch

Wednesday, October 4
7:00PM Making Call Me by Your Name: Luca Guadagnino, Armie Hammer, and Michael Stuhlbarg

Thursday, October 5
7:00PM Spotlight on Documentary Filmmakers

Friday, October 6
7:00PM Documenting Creativity: Griffin Dunne, Rebecca Miller, Susan Lacy, Josh Koury & Myles Kane

Saturday, October 7
7:00PM Film Comment: Filmmakers Chat

Sunday, October 8
7:00PM Vanessa Redgrave, Sea Sorrow

Monday, October 9
7:00PM Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
8:00PM HBO Directors Dialogues: Hong Sang-soo

Tuesday, October 10
7:00PM Field of Vision Presents
8:00PM HBO Directors Dialogues: Philippe Garrel

Wednesday, October 11
7:00PM Keeping Cultural Borders Open: Laurie Anderson and special guests

Thursday, October 12
7:00PM Real Characters: Writing Biopics and Origin Stories

Friday, October 13
7:00PM Film Comment: Festival Wrap
8:00PM Access New Audiences: Wonderstruck & The Blind Boys of Alabama

Friday, September 29
7:00pm
Ruben Östlund, The Square
Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund’s The Square won the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes this year. The satirical drama, starring Claes Bang and Elisabeth Moss, follows a well-heeled contemporary art curator at a Stockholm museum who falls prey to a pickpocketing scam, triggering an overzealous response and then a crisis of conscience. Östlund, whose features also include Play and Force Majeure, will talk about writing and directing The Square, which plays at this year’s NYFF.

8:00pm
VR and the Future of Virtual Production by Lucasfilm
Demo and Talk with Rachel Rose, Jose Perez, and Nick Rasmussen
From the depths of earth’s oceans to galaxies far, far away, VR allows us to be anyone, go anywhere, and see anything. Lucasfilm and its visual effects division, Industrial Light & Magic, have harnessed the power of this medium to create a new Virtual Production toolset, allowing filmmakers to build and scout a virtual set, manipulate props, puppeteer characters and vehicles, even compose shots to create virtual storyboards. It’s a game-changing application that is easy to learn, allowing storytellers to focus on the elements that blend together to form great stories. The creators of the toolset will participate in a conversation about the development of the platform and its potential to impact the filmmaking process, followed on Saturday by a public demonstration that will allow audiences to experience the system first hand.

Saturday, September 30
6:00pm
On Cinema: Richard Linklater
In this annual special event, NYFF Director Kent Jones sits down with world-renowned filmmakers for an in-depth talk about films that have influenced and inspired them, illustrated with film clips. This year, Jones will talk with Richard Linklater, whose intensely emotional comic drama Last Flag Flying is this year’s opening night selection, and whose many superb films (Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, and Boyhood, to name just a few) have been genuine gifts to modern American cinema.

7:00pm
Gamescape: The Revenge of Full Motion Video
It’s 1983. You find yourself in an arcade in the ’burbs. Among the future classics—Galaga, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong—you find something different: Sega’s Astron Belt or Cinematronics’ Dragon’s Lair, games that eschewed pixelated sprites for video and vivid animation. Full Motion Video games were movies you could play—to a point: the technical execution left something to be desired. Games were unreliable, systems crashed, and FMV all but disappeared. But FMV is making a comeback as creators breathe new life into this 35-year-old form. The 2017 edition of Gamescape celebrates some of the best new FMV work and looks back on titles both famous and infamous from the golden age of the arcade. GameScape is co-curated by Clara Fernandez-Vara, of the NYU Game Center.

8:00pm
IndieWire Screen Talk LIVE podcast with Eric Kohn & Anne Thompson
Take a seat to watch IndieWire’s Chief Film Critic Eric Kohn and Editor at Large Anne Thompson engage in film debate and banter as they record the next episode of their popular podcast, Screen Talk. Kohn and Thompson will give their takes on the first weekend of the New York Film Festival, and talk about how awards season is shaping up.

Sunday, October 1
3:00pm
HBO Directors Dialogues: Lucrecia Martel
A singular artist working in cinema today, Argentinean director Lucrecia Martel makes films that are unlike any others. This year, Zama, showcased in the Main Slate, marks Martel’s fourth feature and fourth New York Film Festival appearance, following La Cienaga (2001), The Holy Girl (2004), and The Headless Woman (2009). Join Martel for a discussion of her films and her remarkable latest, an adaptation of a classic Argentinean novel, set in the late 18th century.

7:00pm
Film Comment: The Cinema of Experience
At this year’s NYFF, filmmakers are rising to the challenge of representing race and immigration at a pivotal time in our nation’s history. Our guests will discuss how cinematic technique is used to reflect such experiences and what is different about the latest generation of storytelling. Moderated by Film Comment Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold, and featuring critic Teo Bugbee, writer-programmer Ashley Clark, and writer-filmmaker Farihah Zaman.

8:00pm
Serge Bozon & Isabelle Huppert, Mrs. Hyde
Academy Award nominee Isabelle Huppert headlines Serge Bozon’s eccentric comedic thriller loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Huppert plays a timid physics professor at a suburban high school constantly mocked by colleagues and students. During a stormy night, she is struck by lightning, and wakes up as the newly powerful Madame Hyde. Meet Huppert as she talks about transforming into this character, and her career in movies and television; and Bozon, who will share his experiences making the movie.

Monday, October 2
6:00pm
HBO Directors Dialogues: Agnès Varda & JR
At age 89, legendary French filmmaker Agnès Varda has collaborated with 34-year-old visual artist JR on a remarkable new film, titled Faces Places. In it, the two of them journey from one rural French village to another, meeting people, taking their photographs, and printing large-scale versions of them, placed grandly within the environments. The two artist friends will discuss their unique project and the wise and wonderful film that came out of it.

7:00pm
Noah Baumbach, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
No stranger to the New York Film Festival, Noah Baumbach has presented The Squid and the Whale (2005), Margot at the Wedding (2007), and Frances Ha (2012) here. Baumbach returns this year with the comedic drama The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), starring Dustin Hoffman, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Emma Thompson. The film harkens back to the themes of family vanities and warring attachments he has explored in previous movies. Baumbach will talk about writing the film, and working with a cast that includes screen legend Hoffman.

8:00pm
NYFF Shorts Filmmakers
For the past three years, the New York Film Festival has celebrated short form filmmakers living and working in the city. Meet the directors with films in the festival’s “New York Stories” program: Jason Giampietro (Unpresidented), Adinah Dancyger (Cheer Up Baby), Ashley Connor and Joe Stankus (The Layover), Kevin Wilson, Jr. (My Nephew Emmett), John Wilson (The Road to Magnasanti) and Pacho Velez & Yoni Brook (Mr. Yellow Sweatshirt).

Tuesday, October 3
7:00pm
Making The Florida Project: Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch
Sean Baker (writer-director-producer-editor) and Chris Bergoch (writer-producer) collaborated on The Florida Project, which is having its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival. In this discussion, they’ll delve into the particulars of how The Florida Project was conceived and executed through its various stages in development. Set over one summer, the film follows precocious six-year-old Moonee as she courts mischief and adventure with her ragtag playmates and bonds with her rebellious but caring mother, all while living in the shadow of nearby Disney World.

Wednesday, October 4
7:00pm
Making Call Me by Your Name: Luca Guadagnino, Armie Hammer, and Michael Stuhlbarg
Luca Guadagnino’s film has already caused a sensation at the Sundance, Berlin, and Toronto film festivals. Based on the book by André Aciman and from a screenplay by James Ivory, Call Me by Your Name centers on the son of an American professor who falls for the graduate student who comes to study and live with his family in their northern Italian home during the summer. Join Guadagnino and actors Armie Hammer and Michael Stuhlbarg as they talk about what is sure to be one of the most debated films of the fall.

Thursday, October 5
7:00pm
Spotlight on Documentary Filmmakers
The amount of nonfiction films has skyrocketed since the turn of the century. Festivals around the world have celebrated the form, while critics and filmgoers have increasingly included docs on their roster of films to see. The group of filmmakers showing at this year’s NYFF—including Alison McAlpine (Cielo), Nancy Buirski (The Rape of Recy Taylor), Ena and Ines Talakic (Hall of Mirrors), among others—represent a cross-section of some of the most compelling documentarians working today.

Friday, October 6
7:00pm
Documenting Creativity: Griffin Dunne, Rebecca Miller, Susan Lacy, Josh Koury & Myles Kane
Many documentaries showing at this year’s NYFF focus on the lives and work of major writers and artists. At this talk, the directors behind four of these films will speak about their processes in representing creative people onscreen: Griffin Dunne, on creating a portrait of his aunt in Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold; Rebecca Miller, on the long road to constructing a documentary on her father in Arthur Miller: Writer; Susan Lacy, who traces the private, public, and artistic development of one of cinema’s true giants in Spielberg; and Josh Koury & Myles Kane on Voyeur, which closely followed Gay Talese as he worked on his controversial book The Voyeur’s Motel.

Saturday, October 7
7:00pm
Film Comment: Filmmakers Chat
For the second year, Film Comment gives you the rare chance to see some of today’s most important filmmakers in dialogue with each other. A selection of NYFF directors past and present will talk together about their influences and inspirations in a discussion moderated by the magazine’s editor-in-chief Nicolas Rapold, with filmmakers Claire Denis (Let the Sun Shine In) and Joachim Trier (Thelma).

Sunday, October 8
7:00pm
Vanessa Redgrave, Sea Sorrow
Her career as an actor has spanned six decades, but Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave has now become a documentary director with Sea Sorrow, a timely examination of the world’s urgent migrant crisis. Redgrave will be joined by producer Carlo Gabriel Nero to discuss what moved her to take on the project and how she set out to accomplish her filmmaking goals.

Monday, October 9
7:00pm
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
Greta Gerwig is a familiar presence at the New York Film Festival, seen in films such as Frances Ha (2012), Eden(2014), and 20th Century Women (2016). Gerwig has returned to the festival this year as a filmmaker, presenting her directorial debut, Lady Bird, starring Saoirse Ronan as an artistically inclined young woman trying to define herself in the shadow of her mother (Laurie Metcalf) and searching for an escape route from her hometown of Sacramento. Join Gerwig as she talks about segueing to behind the camera and telling a story that comes from a very personal place.

8:00pm
HBO Directors Dialogues: Hong Sang-soo
Beyond prolific, South Korean director Hong Sang-soo has presented new films in NYFF’s Main Slate for five years in a row. And this year, he has two new movies: The Day After, a black-and-white tale of mistaken identity, déja vu, and adultery; and On the Beach at Night Alone, an achingly personal response to public scandals surrounding his romantic life, starring Kim Min-hee (The Handmaiden). Hong will be on-hand to discuss these intimate, dialogue-driven, comic-tinged dramas.

Tuesday, October 10
7:00pm
Field of Vision Presents
Since its launch in 2013, Field of Vision has been a trailblazer in producing and championing short-form documentaries about developing and ongoing stories from around the world. This evening will spotlight three current films, featuring clips and discussions with their filmmakers. These include Marshall Curry’s A Night at the Garden, about a chilling rally held in New York nearly 80 years ago and which has resonance today; Josh Begley’s Best of Luck with the Wall, which gives perhaps the first true look at the consequences of Trump’s proposed wall between the U.S. and Mexico; and a sneak from Farihah Zaman and Jeff Reichert’s latest project, American Carnage, about the films and politics of Breitbart News chief and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

8:00pm
HBO Directors Dialogues: Philippe Garrel
French master Philippe Garrel represents a strain of modernist cinema that stretches from the post–New Wave era to today, as evidenced by three of his films showing during NYFF this year. We’re pleased to present his newest film, the penetrating meditation on relationships and fidelity Lover for a Day, showing in the Main Slate, as well as restorations of his La Révélateur, made while the events of May ’68 were unfolding, and his devastatingly personal 1979 film L’Enfant secret. And we’re thrilled to have Garrel at this rare public appearance.

Wednesday, October 11
7:00pm
Keeping Cultural Borders Open: Laurie Anderson and special guests
This year at the New York Film Festival, hundreds of artists and activists will band together to launch The Federation. Formed by Laurie Anderson, Laura Michalchyshyn, and Tanya Selvaratnam in response to the increased xenophobia and closing of physical borders, The Federation is a coalition of individuals and organizations committed to keeping cultural borders open and recognizing how essential artistic experiences are to fostering compassion, critical thinking, and joy. Join Anderson, Selvaratnam, Sara Driver, Barbet Schroeder, and other special guests for a discussion about the aims of the initiative and the role artists play in combatting cultural barriers. Presented with The Federation

Thursday, October 12
7:00pm
Real Characters: Writing Biopics and Origin Stories
One of the deepest connections we can have to a movie is through fully conceptualized, credible characters. Without them, even the most engrossing plot may not resonate. The Writers Guild of America, East brings together the creators behind some unforgettable recent movie characters to tell us how they made them intriguing and believable. Presented with WGA East

Friday, October 13
7:00pm
Film Comment: Festival Wrap
In what is becoming an annual tradition, Film Comment contributing critics and editors gather for the festival’s last weekend and talk about the films they’ve seen, discussing—or arguing about—the selections in the lineup, from Main Slate and beyond.

8:00pm
Access New Audiences: Wonderstruck & The Blind Boys of Alabama
Join Michele Spitz (Woman of Her Word) and Jo-Ann Dean (SIGNmation) for a discussion on how filmmakers and distributors can increase audience outreach and box-office by incorporating accessible language components for both Deaf and Blind communities. Participating are Deaf actors Lauren Ridloff, Anthony Natale, and John McGinty, featured in NYFF Centerpiece Wonderstruck; Leslie McCleave, producer-director of How Sweet the Sound: The Blind Boys of Alabama; and award-winning audio producer, director, and engineer Cliff Hahn. The panelists will provide insight on budgeting, grant opportunities, and how American Sign Language (ASL), Audio Description (AD) and Open/Closed Captioning (OC/CC) are inclusive assets. ASL Interpretation Provided. Presented with NYWIFT

10 North American Premieres at the New York Film Festival

Posted on September 27, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Ismael’s Ghosts
Description: Phantoms swirl around Ismael (Mathieu Amalric), a filmmaker in the throes of writing a spy thriller based on the unlikely escapades of his brother, Ivan Dedalus (Louis Garrel). His only true source of stability, his relationship with Sylvia (Charlotte Gainsbourg), is upended, as is the life of his Jewish documentarian mentor and father-in-law (László Szabó), when Ismael’s wife Carlotta (Marion Cotillard), who disappeared twenty years earlier, returns, and, like one of Hitchcock’s fragile, delusional femmes fatales, expects that her husband and father are still in thrall to her. A brilliant shape-shifter—part farce, part melodrama—Ismael’s Ghosts is finally about the process of creating a work of art and all the madness required. A Magnolia Pictures release.
Directed By: Arnaud Desplechin
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
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Let the Sun Shine In
Description: Juliette Binoche is both incandescent and emotionally raw in Claire Denis’s extraordinary new film as Isabelle, a middle-aged Parisian artist in search of definitive love. The film moves elliptically, as though set to some mysterious bio-rhythm, from one romantic/emotional attachment to another: from the boorish married lover (Xavier Beauvois); to the subtly histrionic actor (Nicolas Duvauchelle), also married; to the dreamboat hairdresser (Paul Blain); to the gentle man (Alex Descas) not quite ready for commitment to . . . a mysterious fortune-teller. Appropriately enough, Let the Sun Shine In (very loosely inspired by Roland Barthes’s A Lover’s Discourse) feels like it’s been lit from within; it was lit from without by Denis’s longtime cinematographer Agnès Godard. It is also very funny. A Sundance Selects release.
Directed By: Claire Denis
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
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Lover for a Day
Description: Lover for a Day is an exquisite meditation on love and fidelity that recalls Garrel’s previous NYFF selections Jealousy (NYFF 2013) and In the Shadow of Women (NYFF 2015). After a painful breakup, heartbroken Jeanne (Esther Garrel) moves back in with her university professor father, Gilles (Eric Caravaca), to discover that he is living with optimistic, life-loving student Ariane (newcomer Louise Chevillotte), who is the same age as Jeanne. An unusual triangular relationship emerges as both girls seek the favor of Gilles, as daughter or lover, while developing their own friendship, finding common ground despite their differences. Gorgeously shot in grainy black and white by Renato Berta (Au revoir les enfants), Lover for a Day perfectly illustrates Garrel’s poetic exploration of relationships and desire. A MUBI release.
Directed By: Philippe Garrel
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
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Mrs. Hyde
Description: Serge Bozon’s eccentric comedic thriller is loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with many a twist. Mrs. Géquil (Isabelle Huppert), a timid and rather peculiar physics professor, teaches in a suburban technical high school. Apart from her quiet married life with her gentle stay-at-home husband, she is mocked and despised on a daily basis by pretty much everyone around her—headmaster, colleagues, students. During a dark, stormy night, she is struck by lightning and wakes up a decidedly different person, a newly powerful Mrs. Hyde with mysterious energy and uncontrollable powers. Highlighted by Bozon’s brilliant mise en scène, Isabelle Huppert hypnotizes us again, securing her place as the ultimate queen of the screen.
Directed By: Serge Bozon
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Locarno International Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
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Piazza Vittorio
Description: Abel Ferrara’s new documentary is a vivid mosaic/portrait of Rome’s biggest public square, Piazza Vittorio, built in the 19th century around the ruins of the 3rd century Trofei di Mario. The Piazza is now truly a crossroad of the modern world: it offers a perfect microcosm of the changes in the west brought by immigration and forced displacement. Ferrara, now a resident of Rome himself, talks with African musicians and restaurant workers, Chinese barkeeps and relocated eastern Europeans, homeless men and women, artists, members of the right wing movement CasaPound Italia, filmmaker Matteo Garrone, actor Willem Dafoe, and others, all with varying opinions about the vast changes they’re seeing in their neighborhood and world.
Directed By: Abel Ferrara
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
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Speak Up
Description: Each year at the University of Saint-Denis in the suburbs of Paris, the Eloquentia competition takes place to determine the best orator in the class. Speak Up (À voix haute – La Force de la Parole) follows the students, who come from a variety of family backgrounds and academic disciplines, as they prepare for the competition while coached by public-speaking professionals like lawyers and slam poets. Through the subtle and intriguing mechanics of rhetoric, these young people both reveal and discover themselves, and it is impossible not to be moved by the personal stories that surface in their verbal jousts, from the death of a Syrian nightingale to a father’s Chuck Norris–inspired approach to his battle with cancer. Without sentimentality, Speak Up proves how the art of speech is key to universal understanding, social ascension, and personal revelation.
Directed By: Stéphane de Freitas
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
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The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Description: Noah Baumbach revisits the terrain of family vanities and warring attachments that he began exploring with The Squid and the Whale in this intricately plotted story of three middle-aged siblings (Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Elizabeth Marvel) coping with their strong-willed father (Dustin Hoffman) and the flightiness of his wife (Emma Thompson). Baumbach’s film never stops deftly changing gears, from surges of pathos to painful comedy and back again. Needless to say, this lyrical quicksilver comedy is very much a New York experience. A Netflix release.
Directed By: Noah Baumbach
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Cannes Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
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The Rape of Recy Taylor
Description: On the night of September 3, 1944, a young African-American mother from Abbeville, Alabama, named Recy Taylor was walking home from church with two friends when she was abducted by seven white men, driven away and dragged into the woods, raped by six of the men, and left to make her way home. Against formidable odds and endless threats to her life and the lives of her family members, Taylor bravely spoke up and pressed charges. Nancy Buirski’s passionate documentary shines a light on a case that became a turning point in the early Civil Rights Movement, and on the many formidable women—including Rosa Parks—who brought the movement to life.
Directed By: Nancy Buirski
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017),Venice Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
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The Worldly Cave
Description: Anonymous figures are diminished against unforgiving environs, both natural and man-made, in Zhou’s expansive cross-continental diary, featuring monumental views of the Incheon Sea, the Balearic island of Menorca, and the Sonoran Desert that serve to visualize the infinitesimal stature of the human race.
Directed By: Zhou Tao
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Projections
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Tonsler Park
Description: Election Day, 2016. Kevin Jerome Everson and his 16mm camera quietly observes a community of mostly African-American voters and volunteers at a local polling precinct in Charlottesville, Virginia. Emerson’s film captures everyday faces and the general optimistic atmosphere with a casual formal elegance.
Directed By: Kevin Jerome Everson
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Projections
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9 World Premieres at New York Film Festival

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Cielo
Description: The first feature from Alison McAlpine, director of the beautiful 2008 “nonfiction ghost story” short Second Sight, is a dialogue with the heavens—in this case, the heavens above the Andes and the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, where the sky “is more urgent than the land.” McAlpine keeps the vast galaxies above and beyond in a delicate balance with the earthbound world of people, gently alighting on the desert- and mountain-dwelling astronomers, fishermen, miners, and cowboys who live their lives with reverence and awe for the skies. Cielo itself is an act of reverence and awe, and its sense of wonder ranges from the intimate and human to the vast and inhuman.
Directed By: Alison McAlpine
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
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Hall of Mirrors
Description: In this lively documentary portrait, the great nonpartisan investigative reporter Edward Jay Epstein, still going strong at 81, takes us through his most notable articles and books, including close looks at the findings of the Warren Commission, the structure of the diamond industry, the strange career of Armand Hammer, and the inner workings of big-time journalism itself. These are interwoven with an in-progress investigation into the circumstances around Edward Snowden’s 2013 leak of classified documents, resulting in Epstein’s recently published, controversial book How America Lost Its Secrets: Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft. One of the last of his generation of journalists, the energetic, articulate, and boyish Epstein is a truly fascinating character.
Directed By: Ena Talakic,Ines Talakic
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
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No Stone Unturned
Description: Investigative documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney—best known for 2008’s Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, and at least a dozen others—turns his sights on the 1994 Loughinisland massacre, a cold case that remains an open wound in the Irish peace process. The families of the victims—who were murdered while watching the World Cup in their local pub—were promised justice, but 20 years later they still didn’t know who killed their loved ones. Gibney uncovers a web of secrecy, lies, and corruption that so often results when the powerful insist they are acting for the greater good.
Directed By: Alex Gibney
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
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The Opera House
Description: Renowned documentarian Susan Froemke takes viewers through the history of the Metropolitan Opera via priceless archival stills, footage, and interviews (with, among many others, the great soprano Leontyne Price). The film follows the development of the glorious institution from its beginnings at the old opera house on 39th Street to the storied reign of Rudolph Bing to the long-gestating move to Lincoln Center, the construction of which traces a fascinating byway through the era of urban renewal and Robert Moses’s transformation of New York. Most of all, though, this is a film about the love for and devotion to the preservation of an art form and the upkeep of a home where it can live and thrive.
Directed By: Susan Froemke
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Special Events
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Trouble No More
Description: Like every other episode in the life of Bob Dylan, the “born again” period that supposedly began with the release of Slow Train Coming (1979) and supposedly ended with Shot of Love (1981) has been endlessly scrutinized in the press. Less attention has been paid to the magnificent music he made. This very special film consists of truly electrifying video footage, much of it thought to have been lost for years and all newly restored, shot at shows in Toronto and Buffalo on the last leg of the ’79-’80 tour (with an amazing band: Muscle Shoals veteran Spooner Oldham and Terry Young on keyboards, Little Feat’s Fred Tackett on guitar, Tim Drummond on bass, the legendary Jim Keltner on drums and Clydie King, Gwen Evans, Mona Lisa Young, Regina McCrary and Mary Elizabeth Bridges on vocals) interspersed with sermons written by Luc Sante and beautifully delivered by Michael Shannon. More than just a record of some concerts, Trouble No More is a total experience.
Directed By: Jennifer Lebeau
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Special Events
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Voyeur
Description: Gerald Foos bought a motel in Colorado in the 1960s, furnished the room with louvered vents that allowed him to spy on his guests, and kept a journal of their sexual encounters…among other things. As writer Gay Talese, who had known Foos for more than three decades, came close to the publication of his book The Voyeur’s Motel (preceded by an excerpt in The New Yorker), factual discrepancies in Foos’s account emerged, and documentarians Kane and Koury were on hand to record some wild encounters between the veteran New York journalist and his enigmatic subject. A Netflix release.
Directed By: Myles Kane,Josh Koury
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2017)
Section of NYFF: Spotlight on Documentary
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Where you can watch the 2010 New York Film Festival selections

Posted on September 20, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

The Social Network
Description: Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, but is later sued by two brothers who claimed he stole their idea, and the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business because the predictive analytics they’d done didn’t bade well for the company.
Directed By: David Fincher
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Opening Night
Where to watch: Rent/Buy only

The Tempest
Description: A shipwreck casts members of a royal court ashore on a mysterious island. Their fateful arrival is no accident, for it was engineered by Prospera (Helen Mirren), a sorceress whom these men banished, and who now plans to take vengeance on them. With the help of Caliban and Ariel, her sometimes-unwilling aides, Prospera brings her powers to bear on her former tormentors. Then love casts a spell on her daughter and the king’s son, and Prospera is powerless to intervene.
Directed By: Julie Taymor
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Centerpiece
Where to watch: Rent/Buy only

Hereafter
Description: A drama centered on three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — who are touched by death in different ways.
Directed By: Clint Eastwood
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Closing Night
Where to watch: CINEMAX

Another Year
Description: A look at four seasons in the lives of a happily married couple and their relationships with their family and friends.
Directed By: Mike Leigh
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010),Cannes Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: Sundance NOW

Aurora
Description: An apartment kitchen: a man and a woman discuss Little Red Riding Hood, their voices hushed, mindful of waking the little girl sleeping next room. Waste land on the city outskirts: behind a line of abandoned trailers, the man silently watches what seems to be a family. The same city, the same man: driving through traffic with two hand-made firing pins for a hunting rifle. The man is 42 years old, his name – Viorel. Troubled by obscure thoughts, he drives across the city to a destination known only to him.
Directed By: Cristi Puiu
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010),Cannes Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: Fandor

Carlos
Description: The story of Venezuelan revolutionary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the 1975 OPEC meeting.
Directed By: Olivier Assayas
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: FilmStruckNetflix

Certified Copy
Description: In Tuscany to promote his latest book, a middle-aged British writer meets a French woman who leads him to the village of Lucignano. While there, a chance question reveals something deeper.
Directed By: Abbas Kiarostami
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010),Cannes Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: huluFilmStruckSundance NOW

Film Socialisme
Description: A symphony in three movements. Things such as a Mediterranean cruise, numerous conversations, in numerous languages, between the passengers, almost all of whom are on holiday… Our Europe. At night, a sister and her younger brother have summoned their parents to appear before the court of their childhood. The children demand serious explanations of the themes of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. The movie draws concepts from places like https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2017/07/20-quotes-about-equality.html about equality, and in which sense, are portrayed in a vague manner with the pith of equality remaining the same. Our humanities. Visits to six sites of true or false myths: Egypt, Palestine, Odessa, Hellas, Naples and Barcelona.
Directed By: Jean-Luc Godard
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: tubiTV

Inside Job
Description: Takes a closer look at what brought about the 2008 financial meltdown.
Directed By: Charles Ferguson
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: hulu

Meek’s Cutoff
Description: Settlers traveling through the Oregon desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.
Directed By: Kelly Reichardt
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: Netflix, Fandor, Sundance NOW

Mysteries of Lisbon
Description: Follows a jealous countess, a wealthy businessman, and a young orphaned boy across Portugal, France, Italy and Brazil where they connect with a variety of mysterious individuals.
Directed By: RaÃºl Ruiz
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010),Toronto Film Festival (2017),Toronto Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: Fandor

Of Gods and Men
Description: Under threat by fundamentalist terrorists, a group of Trappist monks stationed with an impoverished Algerian community must decide whether to leave or stay.
Directed By: Xavier Beauvois
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010),Cannes Film Festival (2010),Telluride Film Festival (2010),Toronto Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: Rent/Buy only

Oki’s Movie
Description: A love story between a middle-aged professor, a young student who prepares a movie and a student/film-maker who drinks too much.
Directed By: Sang-soo Hong
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010),Venice Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: amazon Prime

Poetry
Description: A sixty-something woman, faced with the discovery of a heinous family crime and in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, finds strength and purpose when she enrolls in a poetry class.
Directed By: Chang-dong Lee
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010),Cannes Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: tubiTV

Post Mortem
Description: In Chile, 1973, during the last days of Salvador Allende’s presidency, an employee at a Morgue’s recording office falls for a burlesque dancer who mysteriously disappears.
Directed By: Pablo Larraín
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010),Venice Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: Rent/Buy only

The Robber
Description: A story based on Johann Rettenberger, an Austrian marathon runner and a bank robber.
Directed By: Benjamin Heisenberg
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: FilmStruck, vudu Movies On Us

Silent Souls
Description: Present days. A man and his companion go on a journey to cremate the dead body of the former beloved wife, on a riverbank in the area where they spent their honeymoon.
Directed By: Aleksey Fedorchenko
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010),Venice Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: amazon Prime, Fandor

The Strange Case of Angelica
Description: The line between reality and fantasy blurs for a photographer (Ricardo Trêpa) when a dead bride appears to come to life through his camera lens.
Directed By: Manoel de Oliveira
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: Fandor

Tuesday After Christmas
Description: Middle-aged Paul (Mimi Branescu) lives in a pleasant Bucharest apartment with his wife, Adrianna (Mirela Oprisor), and their 9-year-old daughter. But unbeknown to Adrianna, Paul is also having an affair with the family’s dentist, Raluca (Maria Popistasu). As Christmas approaches, Paul finds himself forced to choose between the woman with whom he has shared the last decade of his life and the passionate new partner who has given him a revitalized image of himself.
Directed By: Radu Muntean
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: Fandor

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall Past Lives
Description: Afflicted with kidney disease, Uncle Boonmee (Thanapat Saisaymar) is preparing himself for death. He has assembled his relatives in the countryside, convinced he will die within a few days. The ghost of his wife appears and offers guidance on his journey into the beyond, while his estranged son materializes in the guise of a jungle creature. Surrounded by his loved ones, Uncle Boonmee reflects on memories of his past lives, and he decides he must visit a special place before he goes.
Directed By: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Festivals: New York Film Festival (2010)
Section of NYFF: Main Slate
Where to watch: Fandor

Ready to buy some New York Film Festival Tickets? These are the most limited

Posted on September 10, 2017 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

Wonder why these are the most limited? I did too, so here’s what I found out.

Check here for the latest on NYFF tickets

Most of these go on sale at noon today, so make sure you choose wisely!

Mrs. Hyde – Oct 1, 12:30pm, Walter Reade Theater – Limited Tickets
The Other Side of Hope – Oct 10, 8:30pm, Howard Gilman Theater
Spoor – Oct 1, 12pm, Howard Gilman Theater
Thelma – Oct 7, 12pm, Howard Gilman Theater

Mrs. Hyde
Serge Bozon
2017
France
95 minutes

Serge Bozon’s eccentric comedic thriller is loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with many a twist. Mrs. Géquil (Isabelle Huppert), a timid and rather peculiar physics professor, teaches in a suburban technical high school. Apart from her quiet married life with her gentle stay-at-home husband, she is mocked and despised on a daily basis by pretty much everyone around her—headmaster, colleagues, students. During a dark, stormy night, she is struck by lightning and wakes up a decidedly different person, a newly powerful Mrs. Hyde with mysterious energy and uncontrollable powers. Highlighted by Bozon’s brilliant mise en scène, Isabelle Huppert hypnotizes us again, securing her place as the ultimate queen of the screen.

This film was first screened at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland.

Isabelle Huppert is a veteran of the New York Film Festival having starred in several over the past 10 years alone. She starred in two features last year, Elle (where she was nominated for an Academy Award) and Things To Come.

TICKETS

The Other Side of Hope
Aki Kaurismäki
2017
Finland
98 minutes

Leave it to Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre, NYFF 2011), peerless master of humanist tragicomedy, to make the first great fiction film about the 21st century migrant crisis. Having escaped bombed-out Aleppo, Syrian refugee Khlaed (Sherwan Haji) seeks asylum in Finland, only to get lost in a maze of functionaries and bureaucracies. Meanwhile, shirt salesman Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen) leaves his wife, wins big in a poker game, and takes over a restaurant whose deadpan staff he also inherits. These parallel stories dovetail to gently comic and enormously moving effect in Kaurismäki’s politically urgent fable, an object lesson on the value of compassion and hope that remains grounded in a tangible social reality. A Janus Films release.

Won Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival where it first screened.

TICKETS

Spoor
Agnieszka Holland, in cooperation with Kasia Adamik
2017
Poland/Germany/Czech Republic
128 minutes

Janina Duszejko (Agnieszka Mandat) is a vigorous former engineer, part-time teacher, and animal activist, living in a near wilderness on the Polish-Czech border, where hunting is the favored year-round sport of the corrupt men who rule the region. When a series of hunters die mysteriously, Janina wonders if the animals are taking revenge, which doesn’t stop the police from coming after her. A brilliant, passionate director, Agnieszka Holland—who like Janina comes from a generation that learned to fight authoritarianism by any means necessary—forges a sprawling, wildly beautiful, emotionally enveloping film that earns its vision of utopia. It’s at once a phantasmagorical murder mystery, a tender, late-blooming love story, and a resistance and rescue thriller.

Won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. Official Entry from Poland for Best Foreign Language Film to the Academy Awards.

TICKETS

Thelma
Joachim Trier
2017
Norway/Sweden/France
116 minutes

In the new film from Joachim Trier (Reprise), an adolescent country girl (Eili Harboe) has just moved to the city to begin her university studies, with the internalized religious severity of her quietly domineering mother and father (Ellen Dorrit Petersen and Henrik Rafaelsen) always in mind. When she realizes that she is developing an attraction to her new friend Anja (Okay Kaya), she begins to manifest a terrifying and uncontrollable power that her parents have long feared. To reveal more would be a crime; let’s just say that this fluid, sharply observant, and continually surprising film begins in the key of horror and ends somewhere completely different. A release of The Orchard.

Warning: This film contains flashing lights which may not be suitable for photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.

Screened at the Toronto Film Festival. Official entry from Norway for Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards.

TICKETS

NYFF54 Review: ’20th CENTURY WOMEN’, the ladies have it.

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

20th CENTURY WOMEN

Mike Mills
2016
USA
118 minutes

Mike Mills’s texturally and behaviorally rich new comedy seems to keep redefining itself as it goes along, creating a moving group portrait of particular people in a particular place (Santa Barbara) at a particular moment in the 20th century (1979), one lovingly attended detail at a time. The great Annette Bening, in one of her very best performances, is Dorothea, a single mother raising her teenage son, Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), in a sprawling bohemian house, which is shared by an itinerant carpenter (Billy Crudup) and a punk artist with a Bowie haircut (Greta Gerwig) and frequented by Jamie’s rebellious friend Julie (Elle Fanning). 20th Century Women is warm, funny, and a work of passionate artistry. An A24 release.

Writer/Director Mike Mills knows women. He appreciates the ins and outs, the nuances of age and stage and the humor in everyday life. Annette Bening asks one of her tenants Abbie, and son’s high school aged best friend, Julie to teach him how to be a food man. Since his father is out of the picture and mother Dorothea has trouble keeping an age appropriate man around for long, she had enlisted help. thankfully she has been thus far successful in raising an open-minded and perfectly curious boy. His inspiration for exploring the world is only enhanced by the eclectic females he is surrounded by. The film is funny and sweet. It’s a bit if a time capsule and yet somehow remains timeless in the theme of self discovery. The transitions are like colorful music videos mixed with punk music from Talking Heads and Black Flag.

The cast is a dream. Billy Crudup is masculine but sensitive and thoughtful. Elle Fanning plays boy crazy, rebellion Julie with a wonderful mix of overconfidence and softness to remind us all of our teenage years. Lucas Jade Zumann is the anchor of this film in plot and reality. His innocence on-screen is wildly refreshing. Greta Gerwig is as strong and wonderful as always. Her vulnerability is unsurpassed as a punk artist and cancer survivor dealing with societal expectations of healing. Annette Bening, as bohemian mother Dorothea, owns the screen. She is pure magic in presence and delivery. I’m pulling for a nomination for Gerwig and Bening this year as I think they both at least deserve the nod. 20th Century Women is ensemble casting perfection. Without a doubt you are watching a real family on the screen. With Mike Mills‘ screenplay so full of insight, I vote they show kids this film in school and throw out those laughably outdated sex ed videos. You can catch the film when it opens this Christmas.

NYFF54 Review: ‘PERSONAL SHOPPER’ shows Kristen Stewart is scary good.

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

PERSONAL SHOPPER

Olivier Assayas
2016
France
French and English with English subtitles
105 minutes

Kristen Stewart is the medium, in more ways than one, for this sophisticated genre exploration from director Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria, NYFF 2014). As a fashion assistant whose twin brother has died, leaving her bereft and longing for messages from the other side, Stewart is fragile and enigmatic—and nearly always on-screen. From an opening sequence in a haunted house with an intricately constructed soundtrack to a high-tension, cat-and-mouse game on a trip from Paris to London and back set entirely to text messaging,Personal Shopper brings the psychological and supernatural thriller into the digital age. An IFC Films release.

After seeing Stewart and Assayas team up on the NYFF52 film Clouds of Sils Maria, there was doubt that we were in for a unique treat in Personal Shopper. Some might still be skeptical of Stewart’s work if they’ve only been exposed to The Twilight franchise. She admits that it most definitely gave her the option to choose her work. Her indie film roles are nothing short of impressive. Clouds allowed her to be the first American actress to win France’s most prominent Cesar award. Stewart plays Maureen, dealing or not dealing with the death of her twin brother, she floats through life by attending to a spoiled supermodel’s fashion needs all while suspecting her brother is trying to contact her from the beyond. Caught between her own sanity and a murder mystery, Stewart bares all in an emotionally wrought and frightening tale that makes us ponder our own beliefs and life choices. With some of the world’s most beautiful fashion as eye candy, Paris and London as our backgrounds, and the trust Assayas has with his leading lady, I was constantly on edge and intrigued. The pace is great and the use of texting as a major plot point brings technology to the forefront in more than one way. Assasya’ long lingering shots, he admitted in the press conference following the screening, were half by choice and half due to the performance Stewart was giving at any moment in time. Their relationship is very clear as you watch. She is in almost every frame. that is a lot to carry as a young actress, but she 100% owns this film. I was able to ask both Assayas and Stewart if they believed in the paranormal and their answers were perfection. you can watch the footage below. If eerie movies are your thing, then this is most likely one you’re enjoy. If you want to see a gorgeously shot film with a stellar leading lady, this too fits the bill. If you’re open minded about things that are considered other worldly, if nothing else, Personal Shopper begs the question, “Is death the end?”

Press Conference with Olivier Assayas and Kristen Stewart. (I got the final question. Lucky Me.)

Personal Shopper will be in theaters March of 2017 from IFC Films.

NYFF54 Reviews: ‘NERUDA’ & ‘A QUIET PASSION’- two different films about two unforgettable poets.

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

NERUDA

Pablo Larraín
2016
Chile/Argentina/France/Spain
107 minutes
Opens December 16, 2016

Pablo Larraín’s exciting, surprising, and colorful new film is a “Nerudean” portrait of the great Chilean poet’s years of flight and exile, featuring Luis Gnecco, Gael García Bernal as a fictional detective, and a terrific cast.

NERUDA is a beautifully detailed period drama about the legendary Communist party leader and Chilean poet Pablo Nedruda. It’s essentially a game of cat and mouse between Neruda’s refusal to turn himself into the government and the cop sent to hunt him down. Always one step ahead of the game, the film utilizes literary tropes to reel the viewer in. Neruda’s own poem are weaved into the narrative giving it a romantic quality. The dialogue is witty and the delivery from each cast member is delightful. With its noir soundtrack and engaging jump cuts in the dialogue heavy scenes, your eyes and ears are nothing but entertained throughout. Luis Gnecco portrays Neruda as the beloved, restless spirit he was. He is spectacular. Gael García Bernal, as Inspector Oscar Peluchonneau, is nothing short of hypnotic. He wrestles with falling into the shadow of his fathers greatness and letting out the poet inside himself. Neruda is a gorgeous portrait of man and the effect of his creations on the world.

A QUIET PASSION

Terence Davies
2016
U.K./Belgium
125 minutes

The great British director Terence Davies turns his attention to 19th-century American poet Emily Dickinson for this formally audacious triumph starring a revelatory Cynthia Nixon.

Cynthia Nixon brings the reclusive American poet to life in A QUIET PASSION. While the title, I believe, eludes to more than just her work, Terence Davies sheds light on the mystery that was one of the greatest poets we may ever know. As a fan of Dickinson myself, I was delighted to hear Cynthia voice her work in chronological order. We first meet Emily as a young woman in a school she does not fit into. Adverse to the staunch religious societal norms, Emily makes her own path, even at the hands of her own happiness. Through her death, she battles a wanting for love and yet pushes away any acceptable suitors out of spite and stubbornness. The film tackles the inherent sexism of the times where duty and tradition trumped defiance such as Emily’s. She has very Lizzie Bennett quality about her. With stunning visual transitions and Wildean wit, A QUIET PASSION is mostly perfect. The one thing that may be difficult to overcome is the theatrical tone in dialogue delivery. It was no doubt specific choice by Davies, one that might just be the film’s undoing in the long run.

NYFF54 Review: ‘I HAD NOWHERE TO GO’ is one of the most unique cinematic experiences I’ve ever had.

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

I HAD NOWHERE TO GO

Douglas Gordon

2016
Germany
97 minutes

Autobiography and biography merge in this often shattering, sometimes absurdly funny collaboration between two polymath artists, Douglas Gordon and Jonas Mekas. Gordon’s unlikely desire to bring Mekas’s prose memoir of his first decade in exile from Lithuania and journey from post-WWII displaced persons camps to New York, where he finds his vocation as a filmmaker, yields an operatic experience of sound and image. The film—which features Mekas reading his own text in haunting, musical voice-over—attests to one extraordinary man’s experience of loss and desire to make a new life, yet also resonates as a tale of the diaspora in which tens of millions exist today.

I HAD NOWHERE TO GO is a story of escape and survival from one of the countless displaced people after WWII. Narrator and subject Jonas Mekas‘ voice is heard over a predominantly black screen. Yes, that’s right. The majority of this 97 minute film is in the pitch black. Literally echoing with Mekas’ stories, mostly in diary entry, skipping around in time and location, we are treated to intimate stories from a man who experienced the tragedies first hand. It is a completely immersive experience. Your senses are thrown for a loop. A story will begin and then in the brief silence, the jarring sound of bombings and music clash as an entrance of a new tale. There are perhaps only 8-10 clipped video images in the entire movie; beets, potatoes, apes and nature. Otherwise, it’s akin to being in a planetarium show. The film might do best in a museum setting where patrons can wander in and out at their leisure. I, for one, was truly fascinated at the format and structure and thought nothing of exiting the theater. It’s a bold choice and one that will change your view of what constitutes a film.

NYFF54 Review: ‘PATERSON’ is poetry in every sense of the word.

Posted on October 17, 2016 by Liz Whittemore — Leave a reply

PATERSON written and directed by Jim Jarmusch

Adam Driver in PATERSON

Jim Jarmusch
2016
USA
118 minutes

Adam Driver is Paterson, a bus driver who writes poetry and happens to live and work in the city of Paterson, New Jersey, with his effervescent and energetic girlfriend (Golshifteh Farahani). Jim Jarmusch’s exquisite film is set to the rhythm of an individual consciousness and is made under the sign of the great American poet and New Jersey resident William Carlos Williams.

Jarmusch does it again with this seemingly simplistic story. The film elegant in that very simplicity. Following Paterson along on his daily routine, which only slight varies as the plot rolls along, we are privy to the everyday moments we often take for granted. We watch his breakfast, eavesdrop on conversations among his route passengers, sit with him on lunch breaks, walking home, and his nightly interactions with local bar patrons, his dog Marvin, and girlfriend Laura. She is a free spirit, artist, baker, and aspiring musician, painting everything in their home in black & white patterns. This is a stark juxtaposition to the lush cinematography when Paterson is out and about. There is an abundance of visual symbolism utilizing time and shadows and even with an almost 2 hr run-time, the film never loses its gentle pace. The beautifully easy score that underlies Adam Driver‘s fantastic voice overs as he writes his poetry in real-time, only serves to highlight how lovely this film truly is. Driver brilliantly portrays a man of calm and old-fashioned demeanor. He is quietly contemplative and extremely well read. With each role, he proves more and more what a star he is.

NYFF54: ’13th’ opened the festival, but you can watch on Netflix today!

Posted on October 7, 2016 by Melissa Hanson — Leave a reply

With such a broad subject matter, it’s quite astonishing how director Ava DuVernay was able to weave “talking heads” with facts, figures and history footage into the coherent and thought-provoking documentary, 13th.

Starting with racism in the prison system, the film is about much more than that and covers a wide variety of issues that stem from the time of the 13th Amendment. Rather than go chronologically, the film flows from different topics but ties them all together in a way that is interesting and informative.

Let’s step back and acknowledge how incredible it is that this film opened the New York Film Festival and is available to watch just a week later on Netflix. How amazing is that? You don’t have to find an indie theater to see it. Anyone can see this with their subscription or even just sign up for a free trial to watch. For those in New York, it’s opening at the IFC Center with a Q&A with Jelani Cobb, Univ. of Connecticut professor and contributor to The New Yorker, at 7:55 show!

This film presents factual information in a way that is fair and unfortunately depressing, yet there is a sense of hope that cannot be mistaken. This is a must see.

Festival Director Kent Jones & 13th Director Ava DuVernay at the press conference

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ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL

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NYFF55 talks also include On Cinema: Richard Linklater and Directors Dialogues with Lucrecia Martel, Agnès Varda & JR, Hong Sang-soo, and Philippe Garrel

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