Nyff 2012

[Chris Knipp]

There are no glaringly unjust films passed over at Cannes 2004. Other outstanding titles were recognized as follows:

[Palme d'Or: Fahrenheit 9/11, by Michael Moore]
Grand Prix: Oldboy, by Park Chan-wook
Best Actress Award: Maggie Cheung in Clean
Best Actor Award: Yûya Yagira in Nobody Knows
Best Director Award: Exils, by Tony Gatlif
Best Screenplay Award: Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri for Look at Me
Prix du Jury: Tropical Malady, by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Prix Un Certain Regard: Moolaadé by Ousmane Sembène

And very appropriately, Prix de la Jeunesse (which went to HOL MOTOERS this year): Kontroll, (Hongrie), Nimród Antal (UCR).

I guess if you study the history of Cannes, you might find some evidence of skewing due to jury presidents for certain years or even glaring passovers due to the whole jury. But it's not like the Academy Awards system, with a big voting body packed with oldsters.

[Johann]

Agreed.
Overall I can't get too upset over Cannes' choices over the years.
Most of their winners deserved it.
The Oscars is a whole other game.

[Chris Knipp]

Johann,

One can quibble with the Cannes prizes, but it's okay with me what they give the top ones to so long as they give some recognition to the best films that year.

But I think you'll still agree that some Cannes top choices are more compelling than others, and you could argue that even this year HOLY MOTORS was better than BEYOND THE HILLS -- it's just as I've said, HOLY MOTORS takes balls to praise, and the timid are not okay with it at all. But is it more exciting cinema than BEYOND THE HILLS. You bet it is. And you yourself commented that UNCLE BOONMEE was fluff compared to FAHRENHEIT 9/11. The year of UNCLE BOONMEE (2010) some people loved CERTIFIED COPY and thought that was the best, but all it got as the Best Actress award for Binoche.

But I think as long as they give SOME prize to the good films that year, it's not too much of a bummer if they may give the top prize to one I'd rank lower. Some disagreed with THE WHILE RIBBON in 2009 getting the Palme d'Or, and might have wanted ANTICHRIST to get that, or something -- the Grand Prize went to Audiard's A PROPHET -- but I think that's probably right, because as much as I admire Audiard, I'm in awe of Haneke at his best. Some (well, Mike d'Angelo) think THE WHITEI RIBBON is one of Haneke's lesser efforts, but that's an odd view; it's just different.

[Chris Knipp]

NYF 2012: sketch for a summary

I saw Pablo Larraín's NO today -- review to come. It's a good one: throught-provoking and funny, though not as visual or as cooly dark as his first two films, TONY MANERO and POST MOREM. As it could not be, because it's about the way Pinochet's dictatorship came to an end, not like the other two about how it distorted and corrupted life.

All that remains to be screened by the press is Robert Zemeckis' FLIGHT, with Denzel Washington -- a big commercial release and the closing day film (October 14). It is likely to be exciting and good mainstream entertainment, not necessary 'film festival' material but good box office bait (and the NYFF reportedly has done very well this year in ticket sales).

It seems clear to me that the standouts of the 50th NYFF are Michael Haneke's AMOUR (Palmoe d'Or at Cannes) and Leos Carax's HOLY MOTORS (Prix de la Jeunesse at Cannes). The opening night film, Ang Lee's LIFE OF PI, curiously, is a vivid memory, though it doesn't stimulate the heart and mind as the first two did, and is another ticket-seller rather than an essential festival film, though its technical innovativeness makes it memorable. Visually, it lingers in the mind.

Christian Petzold's BARBARA, his study of East German chill, is a beautifully made movie.

Cristian Mungiu's BEYOND THE HILLS (Best Screenplay award at Cannes) is a kind of Bressionian torture that leaves a strong impression with intense religious and psychological overtones.

I was disappointed not to see Matteo Garrone's REALITY (the Cannes Grand Prix winner), about an Italian man who is obsessed with being on a reality TV show; this was omitted from the NYFF. It has opened in France and the mediocre critical response (Allociné press: 2.8) suggests it may not be up to par (Mike D'Angelo's tweet was 66 though, pretty good). The Cannes Jury Prie winner Ken Loach's THE ANGEL'S SHARE must also have been judged below par by Peña & Co. We can hope US viewers will get to see these.

Docs have not always been strong but this time they were: THE GATEKEEPERS (Israel's Shin Bet) is strong, the challenging, arty LEVIATHON is an Experience, The Taviani's CAESAR MUST DIE stagey and artificial but a great watch, Berliner's FIRST COUSIN ONCE REMOVED nails its Alzheimer's topic and its intimate subject; I only would toss out Rodriguez's clumsily noir-overlaid THE LAST TIME I SAW MACAO. More docs (as there are more out there) and strong choices. Different from earlier years (of my 8 as a NYFF reporter).

I'm thinking about Resnais' YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET and Kiarostami's LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE. They belonged here, but I don't know if I could tell you what's going on in them. The second half of Miguel Gomez's TABU is really cool. A lot of people seem to have liked the story about the aging gay man in the Philippines, Jun Robles Lana's BRAKAW, and I did too, but I didn't like the way it looked. Of course nobody liked the way Larraín's NO looked either, but that was intentional. Brian De Palma's PASSION looks gorgeous, but that doesn't keep it from being pointless.

Raul Ruíz's NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET is fascinating to think and talk about and you could watch it multiple times. (Definitely also true of HOLY MOTORS, among others.)

During this time that I was in NYC for the NYFF I also saw Paul Thomas Anderson's THE MASTER. I saw a dozen or more movies in commercial theaters here, and some of them could have been worthy inclusions in the festival, but didn't need to be. There are five movies that opened today that are interesting and got great reviews and I will try to see them in the time remaining (I leave Tues. Oct. 16 for California), actually six, but one is showing only in New Jersey. I'll list these on my Best Movies of 2012 thread.

[Chris Knipp]

Pablo Larraín: No (2012)

NO is Chilean director Pablo Larraín's darkly comic account of the 1988 ad campaign that was instrumental in bringing down the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Chile's entry in the Best Foreign Oscar race, possibly the Latin American film of the year. US release coming Feb. 15, 2013. One of a handful of the most important films of the NYFF. With three distinctive features under his belt at only 36 -- the previous two are TONY MANERO and POST MORTEM -- Larraín is now a director of international importance.

[Chris Knipp]

Robert Zemeckis: Flight (2012)

The formidable Denzel Washington in a surprisingly complex (if a bit over-long) mainstream movie. The screenwriter John Gatins has put his heart and soul and experience of addiction and recovery (not to mention his fear of flying) into a story about an alcoholic commercial airline pilot who performs an astonishing save of a plane that goes into a nose-dive, and then enters a legal and personal danger zone when it's discovered that he was drunk when he performed this feat. This starts out as an actioner and turns into a psychological/moral/recovery story. Excellent supporting performances by Kelly Reilly, John Goodman, Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, Melissa Leo, and others.

This was the world premiere of FLIGHT, which debuts in US theaters November 1. It was also the gala closing night film of the 50th New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center (October 14, 2012).


NYFF FLIGHT PRESS Q&A: J.GOODMAN, D. CHEADLE, M. LEO, J. GATINS, B. GREENWOOD, DENZEL WASHINGTON

[Chris Knipp]

September 28-October 14, 2012

INDEX OF LINKS TO FILMLEAF NYFF 2012 REVIEWS

Amour (Michael Heneke 2012)
Araf/Somewhere in Between (Yeşim Ustaoğlu 2012)
Barbara (Christian Petzold 2012)
Beyond the Hills (Cristian Mungiu 2012)
Bwakaw (Jun Lana 2012)
Camille Rewinds (Noémie Lvovsky 2012)
Caesar Must Die (Paolo and Vittorio Taviani 2012)
Dead Man and Being Happy, The (Javier Rebollo 2012)
Fill the Void (Rana Burshtein 2012)
First Cousin Once Removed (Alan Berliner 2012)
Flight (Robert Zemeckis 2012)
Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach 2012)
Gatekeepers, The (Dror Moreh 2012)
Ginger & Rosa (Sally Potter 2012)
Here and There (Antonio Méndez Esparza 2012)
Holy Motors (Leos Carax 2012)
Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Mitchell 2012)
Kinshasa Kids (Marc-Henri Wajnberg 2012)
Last Time I Saw Macao, The (João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rui Guerra da Mata 2012)
Leviathon (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Verena Peravel 2012)
Life of Pi (Ang Lee 2012)
Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami 2012)
Lines of Wellington (Valeria Sarmiento 2012)
Memories Look at Me (Song Fang 2012)
Night Across the Street (Raul Ruiz 2012)
No (Pablo Larraín 2012)"]
Not Fade Away (David Chase 2012)
Our Children (Joachim Lafosse 2012)
Paperboy, The (Lee Daniels 20120
Passion (Brian De Palma 2012)
Something in the Air (Olivier Assayas 2012)
Tabu (Migues Gomes 2012)
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (Alain Resnais 2012)

[Johann]

Excellence Chris.

And on behalf of everyone here: THANK YOU for this outstanding coverage.

[Chris Knipp]

My pleasure.

[Chris Knipp]

A quick overview of the 50th NYFF Main Slate's 33 films, with brief comments.

Just so if you're in a hurry you can get my opinions of each film in a soundbite, with my favorites highlighted in red.

[Chris Knipp]

Wed., Oct. 24, 2012. Haneke's AMOUR opens in Paris today. So far the Allociné average is 4.1, with a tepid review from the influential Caheirs du Cinéma, others positive, but only 8 in yet, some main ones not reported.

[Chris Knipp]

NICOLE KIDMAN AT NYFF FLIGHT PRESS
CONFERENCE [photo by Aubrey Reuben]

FOOTNOTE to NYFF 2012.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center's offerings keep growing with the aid of the new Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center across the street from the Walter Reade Theater, which houses two cinemas, an ampitheater and a café. Reviewing each Main Slate film in detail kept me from thoroughly covering the many sidebar items, though I was impressed by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur’s exhaustive and lovingly assembled documentary, Celluloid Man, which profiles P.K. Nair, the founder and longtime guiding spirit of the National Film Archive of India, who has been compared to the legendary Henri Langlois of the Paris Cinéthèque. For students of Indian film or of film in general this is a must-see. Other sidebar films of the NYFF shown to the press and recommended to me included some strong new documentaries. Philippe Béziat's Becoming Traviata follows the production of the opera in Aix-en-Provence. Francesco Patierno’s The War of the Volcanoes, is about rival film productions on the island of Stronboli by Rossellini with Ingrid Bergman and his ex-lover Anna Magnani. Liv and Ingmar (Dheeraj Akolkar) follows another turbulent film relationship. Curfew, in Program 2 of the Shorts program, is about babysitting. There was also a Masterworks series that included Laurence of Arabia and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Included (which I did see) was Charlie Is My Darling, a 65-min. documentary painstakingly reedited by Mick Gochanour and Robin Klein (who did The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus ) of footage shot in 1965 of the Rolling Stones touring Ireland. It shows the Stones just beginning to be super-famous and includes what is said to be the first performance before an audience of "Satisfaction." Interesting discussion of this film by Richard Brody in his New Yorker movie blog. And as in earlier years there was the NYFF sidebar series Views from the Avant-Garde.


STILLS FROM CHARLIE IS MY DARLING

[CHRIS KNIPP]

[Chris Knipp]

US release of a NYFF 2012 film:

THE GATEKEEPERS (Dror Moreh 2012)

Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. A review in the NY Times by A.O. Scott shows that this strong documentary about Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence/security agency, opened in New York today, released by Sony Pictues Classics at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, Broadway at 62nd Street. (Maybe it will show downtown later.) As Scott points out, nearly all six of the post-1967 Shin Bit heads express a sense that the closing off of Gaza and the continuing indulgence of illegal settlements have been failed policies that have led to continued unrest and insecurity for Israel, and these views are coming from security hardliners who had no objection to the use of torture unto death of Palestinian prisoners.

As I've mentioned before, this film makes an excellent companion piece to the other recent Israeli documentary, THE LAW IN THESE PARTS (Ra'nan Alexandrowicz 2012), which is about how Isreali judges enforced the different legal system devised for Palestinians under occupation in the territories, another moral and political erosion of the country post-1967. I reviewed THE LAW IN THESE PARTS as part of the 2012 SFIFF. Hopefully before long both will become available on US DVDs.

[Chris Knipp]

Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami 2012)

The US release date has now been announced: Feb. 15, 2013, which follows an Abbas Kiarostami retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center February 8-14, 2013. Sundance Selects is the distributor.

[Johann]

HOLY MOTORS


Well, what a film experience Holy Motors was.
It's a definite Masterpiece, despite having one scene that I would completely cut out. There is one scene here with Eva Mendes and chameleon Denis Levant that I would eliminate in short order. The audience knows by the time that that scene happens that the kidnapping was an "assignment" but it is so wierd and just plain indulgent and pretentiously unnecessary that it was nothing more than artistic avant-garde nonsense- the raging hard-on scene where she sings him to sleep. I didn't need to see that, thank you. We knew Mr. Oscar was on assignments, weird ones, but that one is out-to-lunch insane. But I laughed. A lot.
Beautiful movie here. Lots to say about it.