New York Film Festival 2018 (forum)

[Chris Knipp]

Lincoln Center's important Christian Petzold retrospective opens Fri. 30 Nov. 2018

[press release]
Christian Petzold: The State We Are In Starts Tonight!
Don't miss our highly anticipated showcase of the acclaimed German master, who joins us in person this weekend for the largest U.S. retrospective of his work to date.

Weekend highlights include:
An opening-night sneak preview of NYFF56 hit Transit, featuring a pre-screening reception and director Q&A to follow • Petzold's remarkable debut feature The State I Am In • The critically acclaimed post-WWII drama Phoenix • Berlin Film Festival prizewinner Yella • and much more!

Get Tickets

Nina Hoss in Barbara

[Chris Knipp]

IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (Barry Jenkins 2018)

Barry Jenkins' third feature, adapting the James Baldwin novel about two young lovers in Harlem in the early 1970's, seemed to me (and some others) a little too beautiful and sweet to be true. But it's still moving and still a must-see. It came out in theaters on Christmas Day.

[Chris Knipp]

NYFF 2018 Main Slate films not seen yet (still quite a few):

3 Faces
Dir. Jafar Panahi

La Flor
Dir. Mariano Llinás

Grass
Dir. Hong Sangsoo

Happy as Lazzaro / Lazzaro felice
Dir. Alice Rohrwacher

Her Smell
Dir. Alex Ross Perry

Hotel by the River
Dir. Hong Sangsoo

Image Book, The
Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

In My Room
Dir. Ulrich Köhler

Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Dir. Bi Gan

Ray & Liz
Dir. Richard Billingham

Too Late to Die Young
Dir. Dominga Sotomayor

These are the "hardest" to see, except that Happy as Lazzaro / Lazzaro felice is on Netflix.

[Chris Knipp]

Bi Gan's Long Day's Journey Into Night

Additions to Filmleaf's 2018 NYFF Main Slate coverage.

HAPPY AS LAZZARO (from Netflix) was added soon after the last post.

IN MY ROOM Was added 12 Apr. via the San Francisco Film Festival. Coming shortly will be another addition,

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT A review will appear on Filmleaf shortly. It's soon to be released in San Francisco and Berkeley. It's a big one, much discussed and admired.

That's it for now.
__________________________________

HER SMELL is now showing in San Francisco, but but hard for me to get to right now. No doubt to be seen if only for Elizabeth Moss's performance and it's sure to be available online soon.

3 FACES Us release by Kino Lorber but we missed both its NYC and San Francisco playdates (Mar.-Apr.). It will be available online soon no doubt.

RAY & LIZ will be playing in Baltimore (9 May) in the Maryland Film Festival but US release is uncertain.

HOTEL BY THE RIVER is US released by Cinema Guild and will have limited distribution in 2019.

GRASS came out in NYC 19 Apr. Unfortunately, Filmleaf there.

So: progress. But three out of eight ain't great. Just goes to show you why it's important to attend film festivals - and why it's unfortunate Filmleaf isn't covering the NYFF as press anymore. When we were, seeing and reviewing the entire Main Slate was a given.

[Chris Knipp]

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT/ (Bi Gan 2018)

Another journey back to Kaili by the young talent of KAILI BLUES (ND/NF 2016). An awesome talent. With the rapturous evocations of Wong Kar-wai and a second half that's an over-an-hour continuous take in 3D. Bi Gan may be better when he feels less need to prove his mastery. But this is reportedly the biggest art house success the China mainland has ever had.

Now in US theatrical release by Kino Lorber, I got to screen it because it comes out in the Bay Area shortly.

Watch the FSLC trailer H E R E.

[Chris Knipp]

Back to Louis Garrel's A FAITHFUL MAN/L'HOMME FIDÈLE: I'm rewatching the Lincoln Center Q&A with Garrel. He gives a simple explanation of the odd plot. He and Jean-Claude Carrière - who are about 50 years different in age, and differed in their cinematic taste - wrote the screenplay a little like a surrealist cadavre exquis (exquisite corpses) where successive artists completed drawings without seeing the parts the others had added. Each new scene was a surprise from Garrel or Carrière in turn, with Carrière contributing the "dry" scenes and Garrel adding "sentimental" ones. He doesn't say which scenes were his, but Carrière did the first one, where the protagonist gets the rude shock from his girlfriend. Obviously the boy's story that his mother killed his father is one of the deliberately shocking turnarounds - just when Marienne and Abel were getting back together. It's a playful method that Garrel unifies with the classic and conventional Paris setting, even the Eiffel Tower in the opening shot. It's so shematic that it works, and it's conventional yet strange - which is true also of Chabrol.

See the Q&A with Garrel HERE.

[Chris Knipp]

At last US theatrical release of THE TIMES OF BILL CUNNINGHAM (Mark Bozak 2018) has been announced. The film will open at New York’s Angelika Film Center and Cinemas 1, 2 & 3 on Friday, February 14 with a national expansion to follow (including Los Angeles on February 21).