Nyff 2013

[cinemabon]

I've been meaning to ask you if you saw "Strangers by the lake" and wondered what you thought of it for two reasons: one, you're a brilliant film critic whom I admire very much and you are an openly gay man who keenly observes gay portrayals in cinema.

I understand the film is an homage to "Strangers on a train," by Alfred Hitchcock and that the gay scenes were meant to unsettle audiences as much as the blatant violence. Can't wait to read what you thought as I am an ardent studier/fan of Hitch and wonder what you thought about the parallels and comparisons.

[Chris Knipp]

Be patient, that's coming. I don't know about a connection with STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, though. Who said that?

[Chris Knipp]

Roger Mitchell: Le Week-End (2013)

An English couple celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary with a dangerously extravagant return to the site of their honeymoon, Paris. Hanif Kureishi's screenplay provides some bitter, thorny comedy and Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, and Jeff Goldblum, with help from Olly Alexander, provide some suave acting. A pleasing, slightly edgy art house entertainment for the older audience with more class than Mitchell's last-year NYFF comedy, HYDE PARK ON HUDSON.

[Chris Knipp]

Claude Lanzmann: The Last of the Unjust (2013)

A magisterial reediting, in the solemn, epic Lanzmann style, of a Seventies interview in Rome with Benjamin Murmelstein, the last Jewish elder of Theresienstadt, the "model ghetto" in Poland that was a cover or facade for the Nazi death camps. Nearly four hours, necessary for Lanzmann's complex portrait of moral ambiguity. Also first hand information from Murmelstein that undercuts Hannah Arendt's "banality" approach to Adolf Eichman, whom Murmelstein knew and dealt with personally and can impllicate in Kristalnacht and describe as a "devil" throughout the Nazi years.

[Chris Knipp]

Hayao Miyazaki: The Wind Rises (2013)

And speaking of World War II, here's a romanticized animated biopic about Jiro Hirokoshi, the inventor of a Japanese warplane used to bomb Pearl Harbor and in kamikaze operations. The second half slows down for a romantic "Magic Mountain" love story between the engineer and his girlfriend who has TB. It's the famous animator Miyazaki's final film: he's retiring (at 72).

[cinemabon]

I wouldn't care if Miyazaki made a movie of his dog relieving himself, I would rush out to buy it. When he announced his retirement the other day, I joined about a billion people who wept. I own all of his films and watched them frequently. I can hardly wait for the theatrical release and then the DVD. Thanks for the review (I haven't even read it yet!), Chris. I'm a huge follower of animation and have admired those artists all during my life.

Read it. Intrigued. thanks

[Chris Knipp]

This will be your pissing dog then.

[Chris Knipp]

Lav Diaz: North, the End of History (2013)

Some say this is a masterpice of "slow cinema." I'd say it's a very so-so 90-minute Filippino film based loosely on Dostoyevsky in an unfortunate uncut four-hour-plus form, and to be avoided.

[oscar jubis]

Like you cinemabon, I am a huge fan of Miyazaki and have never been disappointed by any of his films although I do have my favorites (of course). Apparently the Nov. release CK announced in his review is only for the purpose of qualifying for Oscars as a 2013 release. It will probably be a week's run in L.A. or NYC. Most of the USA will get it the last Friday in February.

[Chris Knipp]

Alain Guiraudie: Stranger by the Lake (2013)

From Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2013, summer French release got rave reviews. Murder at a gay cruising area in the south of France. Explicit sex boldly used to establish the dominant reality of the place, may shock the squeamish too much, or be too gay for the straight. Obviously I ddn't have that problem. Tight, formal, repetitive construction, economy, suspense. Amoral love affair. A touch of comedy. The best movie-movie so far in the screenings.

[cinemabon]

Oh, Chris - you've such a way with words; which way I've no idea. Is pissing dog anything like Peking Duck?

[Chris Knipp]

It's Miyazaki, so it's more like sushi, maybe.

My review of STRANGER BY THE LAKE that you wanted is up now.

[Chris Knipp]

Rithy Panh: The Missing Picture (2013)

Longtime French resident Panh, whose filmmaking career has mostly focused on the Khmer Rouge/Pol Pot genocidal regime and its aftermath, this time uses clay figurines in dioramas and archival footage to recount his own personal story age 11-15 when he lost a large part of his family but survived 1975-79 in the slave labor "reeducation" camps. A partly poetic and impressionistic account, both specific and vague, results.

[Chris Knipp]

Richard Curtis: About Time (2013)

A rom-com by the writer-director of NOTTING HILL and LOVE, ACTUALLY, only this time instead of Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts we get comer Domhnall Gleeson, who's Irish but does English, and Rachel McAdams, and the action is livened up by the male lead's being able to use time travel to go back and tweak his interactions with the female sex. But wouldn't this be more useful for a teenager than a twenty-something -- and isn't this trick a way to goose a story that's a tad blah? This is where I ask how come this was deemed worthy to be included in the NYFF's Main Slate.

[Chris Knipp]

Fernando Eimbcke: Club Sandwich (20130

Another little gem from this youngish (43-year-old) Mexican director. This one depicts a 15-year-old son with his single 35-year-old mom at a resort off-season when she must come to terms with his not being mamma's boy anymore after a sexy 16-year-old girl turns out also to be staying there.