New York Film Festival 2023

[Chris Knipp]

MICHAEL MANN: FERRARI (2023)


ADAM DRIVER IN FERRARI

Adam Driver plays sruggling Italian car magnate Enzo Ferrari, with Shailene Woodley as Enzo Ferrari's mistress and Penelope Cruz as his wife. Premiered at Venice. Clsing Night film of NYFF61.

[Chris Knipp]

PIERRE CRETON: A PRINCE (2023)


A PRINCE

French art piece about a botanically-inspired gay love triangle

Lee Marshall in Screen Daily described A Prince as "surely one of the most kookily unclassifiable films ever to have screened in Director’s Fortnight". A Prince follows a horticultural student, Pierre-Joseph, whose sexual encounters with his botany teacher and mentors lead to a unusual hybrid tale of science, sex and meditation.

The film was scored by Jozef van Wissem, who previously worked with Jim Jarmusch on the soundtrack for “Only Lovers Left Alive.” Mathieu Amalric, Francois Lebrun and Gregory Gadebois lend their voices as narrators of the film’s poetic sequences. “A Prince” was penned by Mathilde Girard, Cyril Neyrat and Vincent Barre.

A Prince features a striking soundtrack – part Baroque courtly dance, part Doors-like instrumental – by Dutch lutenist Jozef van Wissem best-known for scoring Only Lovers Left Alive.

I feel the influence of somebody like Eugène Green here, but the US distributor, Strand, felt some gay interest tie-in, which may be reflected in future LGBTQ festivals.

A NYFF61 Currents feature, A Prince won the SACD Prize from France’s Writers’ Guild for the best French-language film at this year's Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. It has been bought for US distribution by Strand Releasing. Screened for this review as a NYFF61 Currents feature.