Nyff 2010

[Chris Knipp]

Nyff 2010

INDEX OF LINKS TO ALL REVIEWS

Another Year (Mike Leigh 2010)
Aurora (Cristi Puiu 2010)
Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu, The (Andrei Uticǎ 2010)
Black Venus (Abdellatif Kechiche 2010)
Carlos (Olivier Assayas 2010)
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami 2010)
Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard 2010)
Hereafter (Clint Eastwood 2010)
Inside Job (Charles Ferguson 2010)
LennonNYC (Michael Epstein 2010)
Letter to Elia, A (Scorsese, Jones 2010)
Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt 2010)
My Joy (Sergei Loznitsa 2010)
Mysteries of Lisbon (Raúl Ruiz 2010)
Of Gods and Men (Xavier Beauvois 2010)
Oki's Movie (Hong Sang-soo 2010)
Old Cats (Sebastián Silva, Pedro Peirano 2010)
Poetry (Lee Chang-dong 2010)
Post Mortem (Pablo Larraín 2010)
Quattro Volte, Le (Michelangelo Frammartino 2010)
Revolución (ten short films from Mexico, 2010)
Robber, The (Benjamin Heisenberg 2010)
Robinson in Ruins (Patrick Keiller) 2010
Silent Souls (Alexei Fedorchenko 2010)
Social Network, The (David Fincher 2010)
Strange Case of Angelica, The (Manoel de Oliveira 2010)
Tempest, The (Julie Taymor 2010)
Tuesday, After Christmas (Radu Muntean 2010)
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weeresethakul 2010)
We Are What We Are (Jorge Michel Grau 2010)



The New York Film Festival runs September 24th - October 10th, 2010.

Nyff announced its opening night film today (July 8, 2010): David Fincher's THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Here is part of the press release. The schedule will come in this thread later and reviews will appear in the Filmleaf Festival Coverage section here.


Chris Knipp review of The Social Network.

NEW YORK, July 8, 2010 - The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that David Fincher's The Social Network has been selected as the Opening Night film for their upcoming 48th Annual New York Film Festival, kicking off at Alice Tully Hall on Friday September 24th. Directed by Fincher from a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network stars Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake. The film is set to be released by Sony Pictures Entertainment on October 1, 2010. The New York Film Festival runs September 24th - October 10th, 2010.

"It's exceptionally rare to discover a film that so powerfully captures the spirit of its time; The Social Network is such a film. David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin are a director/writer team, like Lumet and Chayefsky before them, that make this movie not only of the moment, but reflective of larger cultural issues as well, and confirm their position at forefront of contemporary cinema," says Richard Peña, Selection Committee Chair & Program Director, The Film Society of Lincoln Center.

On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history... but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications. From director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin comes The Social Network, a film that proves you don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies. The film is produced by Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, and Ceán Chaffin and based on the book "The Accidental Billionaires" by Ben Mezrich.

For an exclusive teaser trailer, please visit filmlinc.co [FSLC PRESS RELEASE.]

Sony Trailer.

[Chris Knipp]

Brand, Molina, and Hounsou during filming

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has just announced their centerpiece film will be Julie Taymor's THE TEMPEST.

Taymor's provocative fantasy-drama The Tempest is the director's big-screen adaptation of William Shakespeare's final masterpiece and in addition to Helen Mirren, features Russell Brand, Reeve Carney, Tom Conti, Chris Cooper, Alan Cumming, Djimon Hounsou, Felicity Jones, Alfred Molina, David Strathairn and Ben Whishaw. The Tempest was adapted and directed by Taymor. The film is produced by Taymor, Robert Chartoff, Lynn Hendee, Julia Taylor-Stanley and Jason K. Lau. The original music is by Oscar-winning composer, and Taymor's long-time collaborator, Elliot Goldenthal. Costumes were designed by three-time Oscar winner Sandy Powell. The film was edited by Oscar winner Françoise Bonnot. Touchstone Pictures will release the Miramax Film on December 10th in New York and Los Angeles. [FSLC PRESS RELEASE.]

The film will close the Venice Film Festival. Mirren will play a female version of the male master of revels, Prospero; Djimon Hounsou will be Caliban and Ben Whishaw Ariel, Alfred Molina Stefano, Russell Brand Trinculo. Cast here.a

[Chris Knipp]

Cécile de France in a scene from Eastwood's Hereafter

Another press release from the Film Society of Lincoln Center about the third featured film of the 48th NYFF, the endpiece or or closing night film, which will be Clint Eastwood's HEREAFTER:

NEW YORK, August 16, 2010 - The 48th New York Film Festival will host 28 feature films from fourteen countries when it runs Sept. 24-Oct. 10 at Alice Tully Hall and The Walter Reade Theater, including the Closing Night selection, Clint Eastwood's Hereafter. The festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center will also feature a unique blend of programming to complement the main-slate of films, including: two Masterworks programs, Elegant Elegies: The Films of Masahiro Shinoda and Fernando de Fuentes' Revolutionary Trilogy, in addition to The Cinema Inside Me: Olivier Assayas, Views from the Avant-Garde, and 10 special event screenings, all of which will be announced in more detail shortly.

"As so beautifully evident in Hereafter, Clint Eastwood continues to make the most daring, provocative films in America. With his returned appearance here in the New York Film Festival, the director has showcased an Opening Night film, a Centerpiece film and now this year's Closing Night with Hereafter, a "hat trick" of which we are especially proud," says Richard Peña, Selection Committee Chair & Program Director, The Film Society of Lincoln Center.

Clint Eastwood's Hereafter marks the filmmaker's 4th visit to the New York Film Festival; previous Eastwood titles presented were The Changeling (Centerpiece 2008), Mystic River (Opening Night 2003) and Bird (1988). Hereafter stars Matt Damon, Cécile de France, Jay Mohr, Bryce Dallas Howard, George McLaren and Frankie McLaren. The film is written by Peter Morgan (The Queen) and produced by Clint Eastwood, Kathleen Kennedy and Robert Lorenz. The executive producers are Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Tim Moore and Peter Morgan.

Hereafter tells the story of three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways. Matt Damon stars as George, a blue-collar American who has a special connection to the afterlife. On the other side of the world, Marie (Cécile de France), a French journalist, has a near-death experience that shakes her reality. And when Marcus (Frankie/George McLaren), a London schoolboy, loses the person closest to him, he desperately needs answers. Each on a path in search of the truth, their lives will intersect, forever changed by what they believe might-or must-exist in the hereafter. [FSLC PRESS RELEASE.]

[Johann]

Can't wait for Julie Taymor's latest. She's a true film artist, in the same league as Kubrick to me.
I've seen her version of Shakespeare's TITUS (1999) about a hundred times (or more). Never get tired of it. (have had the 2-disc Fox DVD for years)

Looking forward to the additions to this thread.

[Chris Knipp]

The FSLC has an events page for the 2010 NYFF now here:

NYFF 2010 events
(click above)

News, essays, and eventually program schedule will appear there.

48th New York Film Festival 2010 Slate:

Opening Night
THE SOCIAL NETWORK, David Fincher, 2010, USA, 120 min

Centerpiece
THE TEMPEST, Julie Taymor, 2010, USA, 110 min

Closing Night
HEREAFTER, Clint Eastwood, 2010, USA, 126 min
__________________

ANOTHER YEAR, Mike Leigh, 2010, UK, 129 min

AURORA, Cristi Puiu, 2010, Romania, 181 min

BLACK VENUS, (Venus noire), Abdellatif Kechiche, France, 166 min

CARLOS, Olivier Assayas, 2010, France, 319 min

CERTIFIED COPY (Copie conformé), Abbas Kiarostami, 2010, France/Italy, 106 min

FILM SOCIALISME, Jean-Luc Godard, 2010, Switzerland, 101 min

INSIDE JOB, Charles Ferguson, 2010, USA, 120 min

LE QUATTRO VOLTE, Michelangelo Frammartino, 2010, Italy, 88 min

LENNON NYC, Michael Epstein, 2010, USA, 115 min

MEEK'S CUTOFF, Kelly Reichardt, 2010, USA, 104 min

MY JOY (Schastye moe), Sergei Loznitsa, 2010, Ukraine/Germany, 127 min

MYSTERIES OF LISBON (Misterios de Lisboa), Raul Ruiz, Portugal/France, 272 min

OF GODS AND MEN (Des homes et des dieux), Xavier Beauvois, 2010,
France, 120 min

OKI'S MOVIE (Ok hui ui yeonghwa), Hong Sang-soo, 2010, South Korea, 80 min

OLD CATS (Gatos viejos), Sebastian Silva, 2010, Chile, 88 min

POETRY (Shi), Lee Chang-dong, 2010, South Korea, 139 min

POST MORTEM, Pablo Larrain, 2010, Chile/Mexico/Germany, 98 min

REVOLUCIÓN, Mariana Chenillo, Fernando Embecke, Amat Escalante, Gael Garcia
Bernal, Rodrigo Garcia, Diego Luna, Gerardo Naranjo, Rodrigo Plá, Carlos Reygadas,
Patricia Riggen, 2010, Mexico, 110 min

THE ROBBER (Der Räuber), Benjamin Heisenberg, Austria/Germany, 90 min

ROBINSON IN RUINS, Patrick Keiller, 2010, UK, 101 min

SILENT SOULS (Ovsyanki), Alexei Fedorchenko, Russia, 75 min

THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA (O estranho caso de Angélica), Manoel de Oliveira,
Portugal, 97 min

TUESDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS (Marti, dupa craciun), Radu Muntean,
Romania, 99 min

UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL PAST LIVES (Lung Boonmee raluek chat),
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010, UK/Thailand, 113 min

WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (Somos lo que hay), Jorge Michel Grau, Mexico, 90 min
__________________

The 17-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring top films from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent. The selection committee, chaired by Peña also includes: Melissa Anderson, contributor The Village Voice; Scott Foundas, Associate Program Director, The Film Society of Lincoln Center; Dennis Lim, Editor, Moving Image Source & Freelance Critic; and Todd McCarthy, Critic indieWire.

[Chris Knipp]

The real Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss rowing at Oxford

Scott Foundas, formerly of LA Weekly, now Associate Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and juror of the NYFF, has an essay on David Fincher's THE SOCIAL NETWORK , "The Revenge of the Nerd," which you may like to read. It shows why the film was a brilliant choice for the NYFf's opening night and why it will only enhance David Fincher's already high reputation.

FACEBOOK: "This is very rich material for a movie on such timeless subjects as power and privilege, and such intrinsically 21st-century ones as the migration of society itself from the real to the virtual sphere—and David Fincher’s The Social Network is big and brash and brilliant enough to encompass them all. I"

THE WRITING: "Adapted by The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin from Ben Mezrich’s nonfiction best-seller The Accidental Billionaires, The Social Network was one of those “buzz” scripts that seemed to be on everyone’s lips in Hollywood for the past couple of years, and it’s easy to understand why. The writing is razor-sharp and rarely makes a wrong step, compressing a time-shifting, multi-character narrative into two lean hours, and, perhaps most impressively, digests its big ideas into the kind of rapid-fire yet plausible dialogue that sounds like what hyper computer geeks might actually say (or at least wish they did): Quentin Tarantino crossed with Bill Gates."

THE CHARACTERSs Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg): [FROM HIS SOON-TO-BE EX-GIRLFRIEND] "Listen. You’re going to be successful and rich, but you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a geek. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole." [HIS ALLIES:] the Indian-American Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) and the towering, blond and bronzed identical twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (both played by the disarming Armie Hammer, himself a scion of corporate blue bloods)." [AND:] "Former Facebook CFO Eduardo Saverin (the superb Andrew Garfield), the latter being the closest thing in the movie to a wholly sympathetic character." [THE WINKLEVOSS TWINS:] "I’m six-foot-five, 220, and there’s two of me,” notes one of the Winklevoss brothers upon learning of Zuckerberg’s Facebook subterfuge, contemplating physical retaliation."

New issue of Film Comment

[Chris Knipp]

PRESS SCREENING SCHEDULE Sept. 15-Oct. 7, 2010

Aug. 30, 2010. Press and Industry Screenings schedule has been sent out. I've expanded it to explain everything. This includes all the 28 main slate films plus various sidebar items, notably the "Masterworks" series. The latter are thoroughly explained by Simon Abrams on the New York Press website here. My focus however will be an attempt to review all 28 main slate items if the schedule permits (Sept. 22 looks difficult). Clint Eastwood's Hereafter is not included; maybe there will be a substitution for Closing Night.

This schedule is also printed at the beginning of the Festival Coverage thread for NYFF 2010 here.


ANOTHER YEAR - MIKE LEIGH

Screenings/Q&A's scheduled

Mon Sep 13
Noon - 5pm
Credential pick-up only


Tue Sep 14
9am - PRISONERO 13 (76m)
10:30am - EL COMPADRE MENDOZA(85m)
12:30pm - LET'S GO WITH PANCHO VILLA (92m)
(Masterworks: Fernando de Fuentes' Mexican Revolution Trilogy)

Wed Sep 15
9am - PALE FLOWER Masterworks Elegant Elegies: The Films of Masahiro Shinoda (96m)
11am - SILENCE (129m) [?]
2pm - CAMERAMAN: THE LIFE AND WORK OF JACK CARDIFF Craig McCall, 2010, UK; 86m[/B] (83m) (Nyff Special Event)

Thu Sep 16
9 am THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUSESCU Andrei Ujic, 2010, Romania; 180m
Noon - press conf VIA SKYPE
1pm - NURENBERG [The Schulberg/Waletzky Restoration] (80m) (Nyff Special Event, "Masterworks" series )
2:30pm - press conf

Fri Sep 17
9am - CARLOS, Olivier Assayas, 2010, France, 319 min

Mon Sep 20
9am - POETRY (Shi), Lee Chang-dong, 2010, South Korea, 139 min
11:19am - Poetry - press conf VIA SKYPE
12:30pm - LE QUATTRO VOLTE, Michelangelo Frammartino, 2010, Italy, 88 min
2pm - press conf VIA SKYPE
2:30pm - OKI'S MOVIE (Ok hui ui yeonghwa), Hong Sang-soo, 2010, South Korea, 80 min

Tue Sep 21
9am - ROBINSON IN RUINS, Patrick Keiller, 2010, UK, 101 min
10:40am - press conf VIA SKYPE
11:45am - UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL PAST LIVES (Lung Boonmee raluek chat),
Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2010, UK/Thailand, 113 min
1:30pm s - press conf
2:30pm - CERTIFIED COPY (Copie conformé), Abbas Kiarostami, 2010, France/Italy, 106 min
France, 120 min
4:30pm - press conf

Wed Sep 22
9am - LENNON NYC, Michael Epstein, 2010, USA, 115 min
11am - press conf
Noon - A LETTER TO ELIA Martin Scorsese & Kent Jones, 2010, USA; 60m (Special Event, Masterworks)
2:30pm - TUESDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS (Marti, dupa craciun), Radu Muntean,
Romania, 99 min
4:15pm - press conf VIA SKYPE
5:15pm - THE ROBBER (Der Räuber), Benjamin Heisenberg, Austria/Germany, 90 min
6:45pm - press conf
7:30pm - SILENT SOULS (Ovsyanki), Alexei Fedorchenko, Russia, 75 min
8:45pm - press conf

Thu Sep 23
9am - MY JOY (Schastye moe), Sergei Loznitsa, 2010, Ukraine/Germany, 127 min
11:08am - press conf VIA SKYPE
12:30pm - OF GODS AND MEN (Des homes et des dieux), Xavier Beauvois, 2010,
2:30pm - press conf OF GODS AND MEN

Fri Sep 24
9am - THE SOCIAL NETWORK, David Fincher, 2010, USA, 120 min
11am - press conf
Noon - FILM SOCIALISME, Jean-Luc Godard, 2010, Switzerland, 101 min
2pm - Views from the Avant-Garde (sampler)

Mon Sep 27
9am - AURORA, Cristi Puiu, 2010, Romania, 181 min
Noon - press conf
1pm - THE STRANGE CASE OF ANGELICA (O estranho caso de Angélica), Manoel de Oliveira,
Portugal, 97 min
(tentative) press conf

Tue Sep 28
9am - BLACK VENUS (Venus noire) , Abdellatif Kechiche, France, 166 min
(tentative) press conf
12:30pm - POST MORTEM, Pablo Larrain, 2010, Chile/Mexico/Germany, 98 min
2:10pm - press conf VIA SKYPE

Wed Sep 29
9am - INSIDE JOB, Charles Ferguson, 2010, USA, 120 min
11am - press conf
1pm - BOXING GYM Frederick Wiseman, 2010, USA; 91m (Nyff Special Event)
(tentative) - press conf

Thu Sep 30
10am - WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (Somos lo que hay), Jorge Michel Grau, Mexico, 90 min
Noon - THE TEMPEST, Julie Taymor, 2010, USA, 110 min(110m)
2pm - press conf

Fri Oct 1
NO PRESS &INDUSTRY SCREENINGS OR PRESS CONFERENCESF

Mon Oct 4
9am - ANOTHER YEAR, Mike Leigh, 2010, UK, 129 min
11:10am - press conf
12:30pm - MEEK'S CUTOFF, Kelly Reichardt, 2010, USA, 104 min
2:15pm - press conf

Tue Oct 5
9am - FOREIGN PARTS Verena Paravel & J.P. Sniadecki, 2010, USA; 80m (Nyff Special Event)
(tentative) press conf
11:30am - REVOLUCIÓN, Mariana Chenillo, Fernando Embecke, Amat Escalante, Gael Garcia
Bernal, Rodrigo Garcia, Diego Luna, Gerardo Naranjo, Rodrigo Plá, Carlos Reygadas,
Patricia Riggen, 2010, Mexico, 110 min
1:15pm - press conf VIA SKYPE

Wed Oct 6
9am - OLD CATS (Gatos viejos), Sebastian Silva, 2010, Chile, 88 min
10:30am - Old Cats - press conf
Noon - Shorts program (compilation - 123m)

Thu Oct 7
9am - MYSTERIES OF LISBON (Misterios de Lisboa), Raul Ruiz, Portugal/France, 272 min
1245p - press conf

Fri Oct 8
10am HEREAFTER (Clint Eastwood,2010, USA, 126, 126 min

And by the way....

The 67th Venice International Film Festival begins now: September 1-11, 2010. For details go here.

[Chris Knipp]

Julian Schnabel with Rula Jebreal, who wrote the
screenplay for Miral from her own novel of the
same name. The film includes Willem Dafoe,Vanessa
Redgrave, Alexander Siddig, and Hiam Abbas

The Nyff P&I screenings begin the week of September 13 and I'll be there.

This is the Venice lineup, films in competition:

Black Swan (USA, 103 minutes), directed by Darren Aronofsky
La Pecora Nera (Italy, 93 minutes), directed by Ascanio Celestini
Happy Few (France, 103 minutes), directed by Antony Cordier
La Solitudine dei Numeri Primi /The Solitude of the Prime Numbers (Italy, Germany, France, 118 minutes), directed by Saverio Costanzo
Silent Souls (Russia, 75 minutes), directed by Aleksei Fedorchenko
Promises Written in Water (USA, 75 minutes), directed by Vincent Gallo
Road to Nowhere (USA, 121 minutes), directed by Monte Hellman
Balada Triste de Trompeta (Spain, France, 107 minutes), directed by Álex de la Iglesia
-Venus Noire (France, 166 minutes), directed by Abdellatif Kechiche
-Post Mortem (Chile, Mexico, Germany, 98 minutes), directed by Pablo Larraín
Barney's Version (Canada, Italy, 132 minutes), directed by Richard J. Lewis
Noi Credevamo/We Believed (Italy, France, 204 minutes), directed by Mario Martone
La Passione/Passion (Italy, 106 minutes), directed by Carlo Mazzacurati
Somewhere (USA, 98 minutes), directed by Sofia Coppola
13 Assassins (Japan, United Kingdom, 126 minutes), directed by Takashi Miike
Potiche (France, 103 minutes), directed by François Ozon
Meek's Cutoff (USA, 104 minutes), directed by Kelly Reichardt
Miral (USA, France, Italy, Israel, 112 minutes), directed by Julian Schnabel
Norwegian Wood (Japan, 133 minutes), directed by Tran Anh Hung
Attenberg (Greece, 95 minutes), directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (China, 122 minutes), directed by Tsui Hark
Drei/Three (Germany, 120 minutes), directed by Tom Tykwer
out of competition, closing night:
-The Tempest (director Julie Taymor- U.S.)

Not much overlapping with the Nyff, just those noted with a tick mark. An article about Venice, the oldest major festival going (this is number 67), notes, "The average age of filmmakers in the main line-up this year is an unusually low 47." Note the interesting new US titles not in the Nyff shown at Venice: Arronofsky's BLACK SWAN, Coppola's SOMEWHERE, Schnabel's MIRAL, Gallo's POEMS WRITTEN ON WATER. An open night midnight movie was Rodriguez's MACHETE, but that's already showing here in UA theaters, no big deal. I've also pointed out I'M STILL HERE by Casey Affleck premiered in Venice out of competition and I have posted a review of it; it opens in US theaters Sept. 10, 2010.

DARK SWAN stars Nathalie Portman and is about a ballerina who finally gets the big role, and then goes nuts. There is a lesbian sex scene and violence and horror. Schnabel's MIRAL is about a young Palestinian girl orphaned in the Arab-Israeli war who is drawn back into the conflict. SOLITUDE OF THE PRIME NUMBERS, from Primo Levi's famous novel, also looks interesting.

Quentin Tarantino, who chaired the Cannes jury in 2004, chairs Venice's this year. Jafar Panahi, a previous Venice winner (THE CIRCLE, 2000) was banned from attending by the Iranian government, though he has been released from jail. He was meant to be on the jury at Cannes but was incarcerated at that time.

[Chris Knipp]

In answer to the question, "What about HEREAFTER?" Clint Eastwood's new film has been set up now with a P&I screening at the end, Fri Oct 8, 2010 at 10am - Hereafter (126m). And since a big turnout is expected for Fincher's THE SOCIAL NETWORK, an extra roll-over screening is planned the same morning, whatever that means.

[Chris Knipp]

Mon., Sept. 13- There were three supplementary screenings to avoid the necessity of watching five Sept. 22nd. So this was not just credential pickup day after all. I saw these three out of those five. Reviews will follow, but I will give you short comments here from what I just saw today.

TUESDAY, AFTER CHRISTMAS (Marti, dupa craciun), Radu Muntean, Romania, 99 min. TUESDAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS is a scrupulously, but also abysmally, realistic quotidian study of a married man with a wife and 10-year-old daughter and an orthodontist girlfriend who's fixing the daughter's teeth. The moral is that when the ugly truth comes out, a couple still has to show up for the in-laws and play Santa for the daughter.

A LETTER TO ELIA Martin Scorsese & Kent Jones, 2010, USA; 60m. LETTER TO ELIA is a very personal hour-long confession, with handsomely remastered clips, of Scorsese's very personal debt to the films of Elia Kazan, a debt too emotional and detailed to confess to Kazan himself, but contained in this "American Masters" PBS film I was happy to learn AMERICA, AMERICA was Kazan's favorite of his films because it's also mine. The Red Scare ratting moment is not bypassed--or fully dealt with. The fascination is the simple portrait of a man (Scorsese) who lived through movies and then had to deal with his life by making them.

THE ROBBER (Der Räuber), Benjamin Heisenberg, Austria/Germany, 90 min. THE ROBBER is a taut, minimal, intentionally fun-free German story of an ex-con from a good family whose endorphin/adrenalin addiction has led him to be both a champion marathoner and a guy who robs bank for a hobby. Drawn from fact and the novel based on fact. Andreas Lust gives a committed and convincing performance as the runner/robber.

[Chris Knipp]

Martin Scorsese, Kent Jones: A LETTER TO ELIA (20100

A personal tribute by Scorsese and a review of director Elia Kazan's career and major films.

Click on the title above for the review in the Festival Coverage section.

[Chris Knipp]

Radu Muntean: TUESDAY, AFTER CHRISTMAS (2010)

Rigorously mundane film from Romania about the internal breakdown of a marriage. Externally, if may not have altered yet.

Click on the title above for the review in the Festival Coverage section of this New York Film Festival 2010 film.

[Chris Knipp]

Benjamin Heisenberg: THE ROBBER (2010)

The protagonist robs banks. He also wins marathons. He may be running away from something, such as the police? An austere crime story from Austria, in German and a selection of the New York Film Festival 2010.

Click on the title above for the review in the Festival Coverage section.

[Chris Knipp]

Tues. Sept. 14 P&I screenings:
Fernando Fuentes. Three films in the NYFF a sidebar program:

Prisoñero 13 (76m) 1933
A corrupt colonel orders an execution and finds he has unwittingly sacrificed his own son.
El Compadre Mendoza 85m) 1934
In this witty and intelligent satire, a landowner tries to mollify government and zapatistas alike.

Let's Go with Pancho Villa (92m) 1936
The stunning megaproduction revisits Pancho’s legend, following six loyal enlistees to their doom.
(Masterworks: Fernando de Fuentes' Mexican Revolution Trilogy)

Nice looking cleaned up prints, fair subtitles. These had a lot of charm. Presumably the look of people, uniforms, etc. was not inaccurate. Not great films but historical documents. Fuentes was a Mexican pioneer. And each of these films is successively looser and more inventive.

Wed., Sept. 15 P&I screenings:
More samplings of the NYFF sidebar material.
The first two are from the series:
MASTERWORKS: Elegant Elegies: The Films of Masahiro Shinoda. The 12-film series (mostly from the Sixties) runs from Sept. 25 – Oct. 10. The two shown to P&I (with FSLC summaries) are:


Pale Flower (Kawaita hana 1964, 96 min)
Shinoda’s dazzling breakthrough film follows a gangster (Ikebe Ryo) who gets released from jail, only to find his old yakuza gang merged with their former rivals. Disillusioned and without allies, he becomes drawn to a gambler (Mariko Kaga) and resolves to commit murder for her viewing pleasure.

As influenced by the Nouvelle Vague as the popular Japanese yakuza genre, Shinoda crafts a visually stunning and unapologetically nihilistic vision of the underworld and its inhabitants, with a memorable use of music by Purcell.

“The daily life of an assassin interests me more than the assassination. The routine of coming home and daydreaming or sitting still and thinking about what you’ll do next is what I wanted to capture.” —Masahiro Shinoda

Silence (Chinmoku 1971, 129m)
A 17th-century Portuguese missionary’s betrayal of his beliefs under torture conveys the extraordinary, insidious toll of religious persecution on mind and spirit. As part of Japan’s policy of sakoku (a system of restrictions on foreign trade set up to reduce Iberian influence), Christianity was considered a punishable offense. Within this hostile milieu, Shinoda focuses on the attempt by two missionaries to bolster an underground Christian sect in a small fishing village, yielding a nuanced exploration of faith, culture clash, and guilt. Adapted from the revered novel by Shusaku Endo and featuring a hybrid score by Toru Takemitsu.

The third film is a documentary about the cinematographer, Jack Cardiff. NYFF summary:


Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (Craig McCall, 2010, UK; 86m)
As wonderfully informative as it is delightfully entertaining, Cameraman traces the eight-decade career of cinematographer Jack Cardiff. A child actor who found his true calling on the other side of the camera, Cardiff was the first European to be trained in shooting Technicolor; a few years later, Michael Powell promoted the ace cameraman to full-scale cinematographer for A Matter of Life and Death. Soon, cinematic history would be made: together, Powell and Cardiff set the standard for the creative use of color in classics such as The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus. Craig McCall traces the development of Cardiff’s art on both sides of the Atlantic, detailing his constant interaction with the painters and paintings he admired while offering a treasure lode of Cardiff anecdotes about Marlene Dietrich, Orson Welles, Marilyn Monroe and a host of other legends. A Strand release.

[Chris Knipp]

Brief comments on today's, Wed., Sept. 15 P&I screenings.

As mentioned above, they were more samplings of the NYFF sidebar material.
The first two are from the series MASTERWORKS: Elegant Elegies: The Films of Masahiro Shinoda

Pale Flower (Kawaita hana 1964, 96 min)
This is gorgeous, beautifully composed black and white with stylish avantgardist percusiony music by Toru Takemitsu (much more notable than Purcell). Opening gambling sequences are ace. The intercutting of gangster business involving old men and a racetrack somewhat dampen the energy of the gambling and the lone samurai (his tiny pad may show influence of Jean-Pierre Melville's film). I found the pacing and editing somewhat slack at certain points. Muraki (Ryô Ikebe)'s assassination isn't simply done to impress the gambling girl. A Nouvelle Vague evidence and other ones, perhaps including Douglas Sirk, are much in evidence and this is a very Sixties piece, while also quite Japanese. A nice piece of work even if it lacks something. Shinoda seems and by reports was and is a director of the second rank, though he had moments and this is one of them, though by what some say not the best of his early films.

Silence (Chinmoku 1971, 129m)

"A 17th-century Portuguese missionary’s betrayal of his beliefs under torture conveys the extraordinary, insidious toll of religious persecution on mind and spirit." Yes, and this is a new topic,at least for us. However it is a shift to square rather than widescreen format and to color and my friend commented that is just looked like "bad Pasolini." Certain features put me off immediately concerning language. Two actors supposed to be Portuguese monk-missionaries are played by an American and an English actor, and -- in complete violation of fact -- they speak English (along with Japanese) to each other and sometimes to the locals. They are also not very good actors. This time, Toremitsu's score doesn't add anything distinctive to the long-winded proceedings. A tedious and drawn-out film. Nothing like the quality of the first one shown here.

The third film is a documentary about the cinematographer, Jack Cardiff. NYFF summary:

Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (Craig McCall, 2010, UK; 86m)
This is a very polished documentary with many interesting talking heads including the ubiquitous Scorsese, who, as usual, has keen observations to make about the look of specific films and the early history of color in movies. Interesting to note hoe much technicolor for Cardiff was seen as like painting, which explains the look's faults as well as its virtues. Cardiff shot THE RED SHOES, Hitchcock's ROPE, THE AFRICAN QUEEN, FOR A START. What makes this documentary good -- what made it even possible -- is that Cardiff, whose career went back to 1914, not only lived to be 95 but in quite recent years was in excellent shape and spoke very well. A must-watch for those interested in the history of Technicilor or any film buff who cares about mainstream filmmaking, especially English, from the Thirties through the Seventies, and beyond. Cardiff got to work with some of the most beaufiful women in movies during those decades and also did nice big portrait photos of them. And though his directing career was mostly quite undistinguished he directed twelve or fifteen films -- then when the English film industry went downhill, gladly returned to cinematography.