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    Nyff 2009

    New York Film Festival 2009



    PREVIEW

    The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the full slate and schedule of the coming 47th New York Film Festival, which you will find here. Here for Filmleaf readers is the schedule of the 28 new films and one revival:

    New York Film Festival 2009
    September 25 - October 11

    Main Slate

    OPENING NIGHT
    Wild Grass / Les herbes folles
    Alain Resnais, France, 2009; 113m
    The venerable Alan Resnais creates an exquisite human comedy of manners, mystery and romance with some of France's - and our - favorite actors: Sabine Azema, Andre Dussollier, Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Almaric. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

    CENTERPIECE
    Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
    Lee Daniels, USA, 2009; 109m
    Precious is sixteen and living a miserable life. But she uses all the emotional energy she possesses to turn her life around. Director Lee Daniel's audacious tale features unforgettable performances by Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey and newcomer Gabourey Sidibe. A Lionsgate release.

    CLOSING NIGHT
    Broken Embraces / Los abrazos rotos
    Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 2009; 128m
    Almodovar's newest masterwork is a candy-colored emotional roller that barrels from comedy to romance to melodrama to the darker haunts of film noir and stars his muse, Penelope Cruz, in a multilayered story of a man who loses his sight and the love of his life. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

    36 Views of Saint-Loup Peak / 36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup
    Jacques Rivette, France, 2009, 84m
    The legendary Jacques Rivette returns with an elegiac look at the final days of a small-time traveling circus.

    Antichrist
    Lars von Trier, Denmark, 2009, 109m
    Surely to be one of the year's most discussed films, Lars von Trier's latest chronicles a couple's efforts to find their love again after a tragic loss, only to unleash hidden monsters lurking in their souls. An IFC Films release.

    The Art of the Steal
    Don Argott, USA, 2009, 101m
    Bound to be controversial, this intriguing account of the travails of the legendary Barnes collection of art masterworks and the foundation set up to protect it raises vital questions about public vs. private "ownership" of art.

    Bluebeard / La Barbe Bleue
    Catherine Breillat, France, 2009, 78m
    Two sisters reading Charles Perrault's 17th century tale of perhaps the first "serial killer" becomes a meditation on the enduring fascination with a character who has served as inspiration for countless novels, plays and films.

    Crossroads of Youth / Cheongchun's Sipjaro
    An Jong-hwa, Korea, 1934, 73m
    The oldest surviving Korean film, this recently-rediscovered masterwork will be presented with live musical accompaniment as well as a benshi (offscreen narrator).

    Eccentricities of a Blonde
    Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France, 2009, 64m
    One hundred years young, director Manoel de Oliveira returns with another gem: a wry, moving tale of a pure if frustrated love adapted from a novel by Eca de Queiroz.

    Everyone Else / Alle Anderen
    Maren Ade, Germany, 2009, 119m
    The ups and downs, joys and jealousies, frustrations and fulfillments of a young couple on a summer holiday provide the premise for this brilliant meditation on modern coupling.

    Ghost Town
    Zhao Dayong, China, 2008, 180m
    A revealing, one-of-a-kind look at China far away from the glittering urban skylines, this portrait of a contemporary rural community in China offers extraordinary insights into everything from the role of religion to gender relationships to the place of social deviants.

    Hadewijch
    Bruno Dumont, France, 2009, 105m
    A young woman searches for an absolute experience of faith-and in the process grows increasingly distant from the world around her.

    Independencia
    Raya Martin, Philippines, 2009, 77m
    Maverick director Raya Martin offers a kind of alternative history of the Philippines and its struggle for nationhood in this stylized tale of a mother and son hiding in the mountains after the US takeover of the islands.

    Inferno / L'Enfer
    Serge Bromberg, France, 2009, 100m
    A film buff's delight, Serge Bromberg film resurrects the surviving footage of Clouzot's aborted, experimental film L'Enfer, revealing a slightly mad but beguiling project that will always remain one of cinema's great "what ifs."

    Kanikosen
    Sabu, Japan, 2009, 109m
    Kanikosen is a highly stylized, stirring, manga-flavored update of a classic Japanese political novel, with labor unrest aboard a crab canning ship evolving into a cry of a younger generation aching to break the bonds of conformity.

    Lebanon
    Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2009, 92m
    Debut director Samuel Maoz takes us inside an Israeli tank and the emotions of its crew during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

    Life During Wartime
    Todd Solondz, USA, 2009, 96m
    Preparing for his bar-mitzvah, a young man must deal with his divorced mother's prospective fiance as well as rumors that his own father is not really dead.

    Min Ye'
    Souleymane Cisse', Mali/France, 2009, 135m
    A work of startling originality, Souleymane Cisse's first film in over a decade insightfully and incisively chronicles the dissolution of an upper-middle class African marriage.

    Mother/ Maedo
    Bong Joon-ho, South Korea, 2009, 128m
    Convinced that her son has been wrongly accused of murder, a widow throws herself body and soul into proving his innocence. Kim Hye-ja in the title role gives perhaps the performance of the year.

    Ne Change Rien
    Pedro Costa, France/Portugal, 2009, 103m
    A shimmering valentine, Costa's latest is less a portrait than a kind of visual homage, to the artistry of actor and singer Jeanne Balibar.

    Police Adjective / Politist, adj.
    Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania, 2009, 115m
    Discovering a teenager with hashish, a young policeman hesitates about turning him in. But his supervisor has other ideas in this beautifully acted, provocative modern morality play. An IFC Films release.

    Room and a Half / Poltory komnaty ili sentimentalnoe puteshtvie na rodinu

    Andrey Khrzhanovsky, Russia, 2009, 131m
    Former animator Andrey Khrzhanovsky combines scripted scenes, archival footage, several types of animation, and surrealist flights of fancy to create this stirring portrait of poet Josef Brodsky and the postwar Soviet cultural scene. A Seagull Films release.

    Sweetgrass
    Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, USA, 2009, 105m
    This breathtaking chronicle follows an ever-surprising group of modern-day cowboys as they lead an enormous herd of sheep up and then down the slopes of the Beartooth Mountains in Montana on their way to market.

    Sweet Rush / Tatarak
    Andrzej Wajda, Poland/France, 2009, 85m
    Celebrated master Andrzej Wajda returns with a bold, experimental work that juxtaposes a story about a terminally doctor's wife rediscovering romance thanks with a heart-rending monologue written and performed by actress Krystyna Janda about the death of her husband.

    To Die Like a Man / Morrer como um homen

    Joao Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal, 2009, 138m
    This touching, finely-etched portrait follows Tonia, a veteran drag performer confronting younger competition and her boyfriend's demands that she undergo a sex change.

    Vincere
    Marco Bellocchio, Italy, 2009, 129m
    Mussolini's "secret" marriage to Ida Dalser, afterwards completely denied by Il Duce, along with the son born from the relationship, becomes the springboard for this visually ravishing meditation on the fascist manipulation of history. An IFC Films release.

    White Material
    Claire Denis, France, 2009, 100m
    A handful of Europeans try to make sense of-and survive-the chaos happening all around them in an African country torn apart by civil war.

    The White Ribbon / Das weisse band

    Michael Haneke, Austria/France, 2009, 144m
    The Palme d'Or winner at this year's Cannes Film Festival, this is a starkly beautiful meditation on the consequences of violence-physical, emotional, spiritual-in a northern German town on the eve of World War I. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

    The Wizard of Oz
    Victor Fleming, 1939, USA, 103m
    The 70th Anniversary of the timeless classic, presented in a spectacular newly-restored edition makes the film a new experience even for those who practically have it memorized. A Warner Bros. release.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 10-08-2010 at 08:30 PM.

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    This is the most exciting lineup I can remember. It seems tailored to my tastes.

    The new Rivette, which has yet to have its world premiere in Venice. An 84-minute film, I might add, about half as long as most of his films.

    Wild Grass by my favorite French director ever (tied with Renoir). A film Amy Taubin called "the only extraordinary film in competition at Cannes" (Film Comment/July-August issue).

    Finally, the NYFF shows a film by the highly original Pedro Costa. It's an expanded version of a short by the same title he released in 2005.

    The new film by the great Manoel de Oliveira, the 100 year-old Portuguese master who remains under-appreciated and underexposed in the English-speaking world.

    New films by Solondz, Cisse and Breillat!!!

    And the highly controversial, scandalous, non-P.C. film by Lars von Trier.
    Last edited by oscar jubis; 08-12-2009 at 05:04 PM.

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    The NYFF has not disappointed me yet, though a certain director's name on a film is not a guarantee of quality. The NYFF is always an elite, fairly conservative selection. Usually one or two duds though. Every festival has them. Further from the press release of yesterday:
    The 2009 New York Film Festival was programmed by five critics and curators. Richard Pena, Selection Committee Chair and Program Director at The Film Society; Melissa Anderson, Freelance Critic; Scott Foundas, Film Editor and Chief Film Critic for LA Weekly; J. Hoberman, Senior Film Critic at The Village Voice and Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University; and Dennis Lim, Editor at Moving Image Source and Freelance Critic joined forces to hand-pick the 29 features that make up the main slate.
    Kent Jones is no longer on the regular FSLC staff and Lisa Schwarzbaum has been replaced by Melissa Anderson. With the new corporate head of the FSLC, 25% of the staff has reportedly been let go to cut costs. Lucily Richard Pena remains as an anchor to maintain quality and a consistent point of view, and J. Hoberman is an important presence. Last year was a great year as far as I'm concerned. I oonly hope this will be as good and that I can be there.

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    I really hope you can attend the festival again this year!!!
    Given the size of the venue and the number of selections, I understand why the festival has to be conservative. However, I am sure Pena and others involved in selecting films in years past wish they hadn't "missed the boat" by failing to feature Pedro Costa and Bela Tarr, to metion two prominent names. Toronto had a Tarr retrospective in '95. It's the kind of event that gives a festival a certain cache. Five years later, NY failed to include Tarr's masterful Werckmeister Harmonies. They should have known better. The subsequent Man From London was not so great. It felt like the NYFF's selection committee was trying to make up for the previous omission. The Costa doc at this year's fest reads as minor Costa (if there is such a thing). I have the impression they are again making up (for failing to show Vanda's Room and Juventud em Marcha).

    On the other hand, Jia Zhang-Ke is the filmmaker of the decade and the NYFF certainly recognized his greatness from the beginning. Same goes for Lucrecia Martel (a subject of devotion and adoration for Kent Jones and yours truly).

    As far as I am concerned, the best NYFF in recent years was 2007, not 2008. And 2009 looks highly promising with three new films by Masters like Resnais, Oliveira and Rivette. That may never happen again!!!
    Last edited by oscar jubis; 08-12-2009 at 10:57 PM.

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    You're undoubtedly right. Sometimes they make mistakes. The limited number of selections makes it trickier. I do not judge the festival by the directors it features but by the overall merit of the films. Maybe 2007 was better than 2008, I don't know. I did not rate 2007, I just said 2008 was a great year. Each year has some great ones and some duds. Every year has been good of the four I've attended. A list of my favorites would be culled from all four years. I am not so into ratings and rankings. I just like to watch the films and observe and enjoy what is going on in them. Of course jurors naturally come to champion certain new directors that they particularly like. I would do that too in that position. Definitely the NYFF has pushed Jia Zhang-ke, and some other Asian directors, such as Hong Sang-soo, both of whom Peter was aware of before I was, due to his being close to FSLC screenings, which happily he was responsible for my beginning to attend and write about. Yes, Resnais, Oliveira and Rivette may not be featured again, but there time is passing and others are coming to take their place.

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    APROPOS DE RENAIS. . .

    Resnais fans will be interested in this touring US retrospective: http://www.frenchculture.org/spip.php?rubrique5. Also go here: http://www.frenchculture.org/spip.php?article2849 and to view details log in with "press" and password 'pressattach". 13 restored prints (some are shorts) to be shown at various locations, mostly museums or institutions, from Sept. 2009 to March 2010, starting in Washington, DC at the National Gallery. This was sent me as a press release that I can't give you a link to.
    National Gallery of Art
    Washington D.C.
    Sept 5–22
    www.nga.gov

    LACMA
    Los Angeles, CA
    Oct 2–17
    www.lacma.org

    Gene Siskel Film Center
    Chicago, IL
    Nov 1–30
    www.siskelfilmcenter.org

    Pacific Film Archive
    Berkeley, CA
    Nov 6–Dec 4
    www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

    University of Wisconsin Madison
    Madison, WI
    Dec 5–15
    www.wisc.edu

    Wexner Arts Center
    Columbus, OH
    Jan 1–Feb 28
    www.wexarts.org

    Harvard Film Archive
    Cambridge, MA
    Feb 2–Feb 28
    hcl.harvard.edu/hfa

    Museum of Fine Arts
    Houston, TX
    March 1–31
    www.mfah.org

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    Nyff 2009 sidebar events

    The FSLC has announced the "special events" to accompany the NYFF 2009 The specific events and schedules are here: http://filmlinc.com/nyff/special.html.. The basic outlines are:
    Pedro Almodóvar's History of Cinema: A Conversation
    The Spanish director hosts a journey through his favorite movies and his career, in a dialogue with NYFF Committee Chairman Richard Peña

    New York Premiere of The Red Riding Trilogy
    The gripping three-part British neo-noir series, hailed in Britain as a true cinematic opus

    Creating Film Culture: A Tribute to Dan and Toby Talbot
    The legendary husband and wife team, founders of the seminal New Yorker cinema and distribution company, who brought us Bertolucci, Fassbinder, and My Dinner With André.

    And more.
    For details of the "and more," go to the Filmlinc page linked above.

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    I am "ecstatic" about ALAIN RESNAIS: THE ELOQUENCE OF MEMORY. Like tou said, the retrospective includes shorts. Three of his very best, including the Oscar winner Guernica. It is a good time to remind film buffs nationwide about Resnais' stature and to give a chance to the younger generation to discover him.

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    Yes, shorts are definitely featured in the retrospective. I hope you get to see it.

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    I've posted a tentative schedule of the 2009 NYFF press screenings up in the Festival Coverage thread. The order and dates should provide a rough idea of when my reviews for each film will be appearing.

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    Pasolini: Rage (1963; restored 2008)

    This poetic amalgam of found footage was the subject of a political controversy. It's restored and given some context here.

    Giuseppe Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolnii: RAGE/LA RABBIA (1963, 2008)
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-10-2010 at 02:19 PM.

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    Largely wordless (but still expletive-rich) last song of the American mountain shepherds. An audio-visual record by a couple who are Harvard ethnographer-antropologists and innovative interactive media specialists.

    Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor: Sweet Grass (2009)

    First press screening of an official NYFf 2009 selection film.

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    ALAIN RESNAIS: WILD GRASS (2009)

    At 87, Resnais adopts yet another new literary sensibility, that of Christian Gailly, whose L'Incident depicts two confused people whose chance linking through a stolen wallet leads them to pursue a romantic connection.

    Alain Resnais: Wild Grass (2009)

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    Three screenings on the schedule today:

    SABU: KANIKOSEN (JAPAN)

    ZHAO DAYONG: GHOST TOWN (CHINA)

    MARCO BELLOCCHIO: VINCERE (ITALY)


    The first is an ironic adaptation of an 80-year-old proletarian novel about a crab boat. The second is a DV documentary Scott Foundas says is worthy of Jia Zhang-ke. The third is a historical film about Mussolini's secret wife and child, whom he never acknowledged in his rise to power.

    This is over seven hours of viewing in two venues, but I expect to have my reviews up by tomorrow.
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-18-2009 at 08:07 AM.

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    A proletarian novel about a crab fishing boat-cum-canning factory revolt that was made into manga novles and now has become a partly ironic tragi-comedy. Japanese entry in the 2009 New York Film Festival.

    Sabu: Kanikosen (2009)
    Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-19-2009 at 12:40 PM.

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