New York Film Festival 2009

[Chris Knipp]

Some summing-up of NYFF 2009


HARMONY KORINE


My Antichrist review is also published on Cinescene. In his dismissive Cannes report Rex Reed sneered of

another loathsome barf job by Danish wacko Lars von Trier called Antichrist, in which pickle-faced Charlotte Gainsbourg, who always looks embalmed, prunes away her genitalia with garden shears. Naturally, it will show up shortly in the New York Film Festival, the official depository for movies nobody wants to see, where torturing the audience has become an acknowledged priority.

Yeah, go Rex! Have fun with it. I enjoy provocative writing even when it's a bit scattershot; but the reality of festival films and the issue of pleasure vs. pain in them is more complicated than this. It was the subject of some interesting speculation in a thoughtful article in the NYTimes by A.O. Scott: "The constricted and forbidding program [the NYFF] offers is not — or not only — due to pusillanimous judgment. It is, rather, a symptom of the divided, anxious state of American, and indeed of global film culture." Both Scott and Stephen Holden (also of the Times) wrote NYFF rounduop pieces discussing the grimness of the fare, and it's true, the NYFF was less fun this year than in 2005, '06,'07, and '08, and maybe not quite as good a slate, though there are blips and triumphs every time. I suggest A.O. Scott's piece for an understanding of how the 2009 NYFF main slate read to an expert.

ANTICHRIST is in limited US release since October 23. Other titles that, like it, I highly recommend from the NYFF are the following. Unfortunately theatrical release is scheduled for only three out of six:

HADEWIJCH (BRUNO DUMONT)--NO DISTRIB.
LIFE DURING WARTIME (TODD SOLONDZ)--NO DISTRIB.
THE WHITE RIBBON (MICHAEL HANEKE)--US RELEASE DEC. 30 FF. (L)
PRECIOUS (LEE DANIELS)--US RELEASE NOV. 6 (L)
TRASH HUMMPERS (HARMONY KORINE)--NO DISTRIB.

How could I choose such stuff as my favorites? I guess maybe in a special sense Rex Reed is right that I enjoy being "tortured," because the hardest to watch of the NYFF, and/or the most provocative, films proved to me to be the strongest and the most memorable -- though of uneven merit; I would not equate Precious or Trash Humpers with the superb craft of Life During Wartime or the absolute mastery of The White Ribbon. I was especially surprised by Life During Wartime, which though it has disturbing content, actually was for me often a pleasure to watch, and occasionally hilarious.

Not in the Rex Reed dismissable category, but NYFF films that fans of the directors and of European (and Asian) arthouse cinema will not want to miss:

JACQUES RIVETTE: Around a Small Mountain
CATHERINE BREILLAT: Bluebeard
PEDRO ALMODOVAR: Broken Embraces
MANOEL DE OLIVEIRA: Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl
CLOUZOT: Henri-Georges Clouzot's 'Inferno' (Bomberg, Medea 2009)
BONG JOON-HO: Mother
PASOLINI--The 'Rage' of Pasolini (Pasolini, Bertolucci, 1963, 2008)
ANDRZEJ WAJDA: Sweet Rush
CLAIRE DENIS: White Material
RESNAIS--Wild Grass

All of these are excellent in their way and doubtless well worth seeing, but do not represent (or in the case of the two documentaries/analyses, refer to) the filmmakers' best work. Some actually think the Rivette and the Resnais are among the directors' best work. I don't, but the films may provide useful insights into their cinema. I wish more room had been opened to younger directors, whose work might provide insights into the cinema to come. The films in my first list above, I can't get out of my head. I applaud their vigor, rigor, energy, and originality.

For exceptional cinematography, you will also want to watch out for:

INDEPENDENCIA (RAYA MARTIN)
NE CHANGE RIEN (PEDRO COSTA)

The documentaries were interesting this year; Zhao Dayang's Ghost Town was too long a slog for me but he may prove a standout documentarian nonetheless. The audience doc favorite was apparently the one about the hijacking of the Barnes Foundation collection,

THE ART OF THE STEAL (DON ARGOTT)

EDWARD LACHMAN, DP OF LIFE DURING WARTIME

MARCO BELLOCCHIO (VINCERE) AND ZHAO DAYONG (GHOST TOWN) AT THE 2009 NYFF