New York Film Festival
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
You probably know by now that the West Memphis 3 (Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin) were released from prison after giving an Alford plea — a guilty plea but not admitting to the act and asserting innocence — in August. At the time directors Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky were locking up their third film on the WM3, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, when they heard the news of the surprise development and raced down to Arkansas. Unable to put the footage of the three being freed in the film before screening it at the Toronto International Film Festival, Berlinger and Sinofsky unveiled the new ending tonight at the New York Film Festival.
And adding to the excitement, Echols, Misskelley and Baldwin were on hand in their first public appearance since being freed.
For Berlinger and Sinofsky, screening at NYFF brings things full circle. As Berlinger noted before the screening, their first Paradise Lost movie screened at New Directors/New Films in 1996.
Like Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, part 3 looks at new findings by the defense team that their clients did not murder the three young boys found in West Memphis, Arkansas in 1993 while backtracking to highlight the prosecution’s questionable tactics to convict the WM3 and look at the families effected by the murders/aftermath. All captured beautifully by DP Robert Richman (An Inconvenient Truth, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster).
Also similar to Revelations, in part 3 the most eye-opening footage is that of the victim’s families. The theatrics by John Mark Byers, the stepfather of one of the victims, is some of the most memorable moments from the first two films. At one point he was even considered a suspect and took a polygraph to prove his innocence. Well, in Purgatory questions are raised about another stepfather of a victim, Terry Hobbs, as new tests show his DNA on one of the ropes used to tie up the victims. Byers, who now believes the WM3 are innocent, shows no quarter to Hobbs as he pulls out … Read the rest
Monday, October 10th, 2011
Perhaps the chilliest press conference I ever attended, one in which the conflicts of the movie seemed to drift right off the celluloid into the audience and then back onto the stage, occurred when Abel Ferrara’s The King of New York played the New York Film Festival in 1990. I was thrilled by the film, particularly its concluding adagio, in which Christopher Walken bleeds out in the back of a taxi cab stuck amidst the traffic of Times Square. The lights came up, and Ferrara, Walken, Wesley Snipes and some others from the cast walked onstage. The questions were contentious. I remember someone asking Walken if he felt any moral responsibility with regards to the roles he chooses. In his distinctive and unpredictable cadence, he said (something like), “I don’t consider morality when I do a film.” There was something about the way he said it, because the room suddenly dropped about twenty degrees. Apparently someone else asked Ferrara if his film might have had more “quality” if he scored it with classical music instead of rap.
Ferrara remembers that press conference too, referencing it during his return to the festival last week when his latest, 4:44 Last Day on Earth screened for journalists. In the clip below, he flashes back to that time and then talks about his new film from the viewpoint of sobriety. Indeed, 4:44‘s essential scene is one at its midpoint, when, as the end of the world approaches, Willem Dafoe’s sober-for-a-couple-years character slips out to a friend’s apartment to score. There he finds a group of partiers, some snorting lines and some, refusing to relinquish their sobriety in the face of earth’s destruction, sipping soda. What follows is a fascinating and resonant talk about the frameworks we choose to make our decisions within.
… Read the rest
Friday, October 7th, 2011
Three films, three male protagonists, all of whom fall for extended periods of time from their elevated perches. In this, the final installment of my coverage of the 49th edition of the New York Film Festival, we see how their descents are manifest in the newest works of three proven talents — okay, all of them men: British director Steve McQueen, the American Alexander Payne, and Frenchman Michel Hazanavicius.
Michael Fassbender’s sexually obsessed Brandon, a seemingly calm, self-contained Manhattan business exec who keeps his personal life to himself in McQueen’s Shame (pictured above), would have been a much more challenging, certainly less demonstrative patient for Fassbender’s starchy psychoanalyst Carl Jung in David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method than Keira Knightley’s over-the-top sexual hysteric Sabina Spielrein. Brandon is as compulsive as they come: he cruises the subway with every ride, hires prostitutes, watches porn continuously on the internet, masturbates at breakneck speed in his home and in the men’s room at his office. Emotional connection or any type of continuity is out of the question. Spielrein, a virgin when the Cronenberg film begins, wears her repression like open sores on every part of her body, while Brandon’s is so deeply-rooted, on top of his being such a solitary creature, that only a specialized shrink might help him regurgitate his past and uncover the depths of his problem.
In Shame, messy sister Sissy (a wonderful Carey Mulligan) takes on that function. An aspiring singer, she arrives unexpectedly — and unwanted‚ at Brandon’s expensive but austere high-rise apartment (he is a neat freak, and there is nothing on the walls). We notice something disturbing when they first see each other: they are both fully naked. (Brandon is totally undressed even in the first scene, and in fact is frequently without clothes, as was Fassbender in Hunger; one of McQueen’s shorts featured two nude men. I think he finds the male torso of tremendous aesthetic interest.)
The siblings exchange roles. He is unable to maintain his sexual habits with her crashing on his couch, yet she, whose sexual … Read the rest
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
That undefinable thing called texture: It is a principal difference between cinematographic imagery from West and East. For starters, take a look at the wall show of French celebrity photos in the Walter Reade Theater’s Roy Furman Gallery, faces and torsos foregrounded with little or no regard for light or materials, and complete disregard for context. Then take a look at the stills pictured here from the four films reviewed below.
In the Canadian/British A Dangerous Method, by David Cronenberg, and the American Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, they are basically head shots, not particularly interesting, and they tell you little about the narrative they are supposed to be emblematic of. On the other hand, the still from Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb’s This Is Not a Film (pictured, right) is a microcosm of the movie’s topic (creating while banned from doing so) and tone (desperation); and the one from Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is a slice, a cross-section, of a serious, moody film in which details such as lighting and composition provide as much or more information than exposition about characters, their baggage, and their relationships.
A lesson in the varying weight of, and respect for, the senses in Western and Eastern visual styles is right there in some of the diverse elements that make up this edition of the NYFF. Like the gallic celeb snaps (selling point: legends caught casual), the stills from A Dangerous Method and Martha Marcy May Marlene (fully posed, with approvals by publicists et al de rigeuer) also say a lot about star power in the West. Yet in the photo from This Is Not a Film, an unadorned Panahi squats on his living-room floor trying to work and explain, while in the image from Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, the performers are not even recognizable: Their have their backs to the camera.
All of the films reviewed here have few principal characters, and not many supporting ones. Can the comparison of stills East and West serve as some sort of … Read the rest
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
On the A train headed back to Williamsburg after a full day of Emerging Visions, Andrew Bird playing on my iPod.
The day began with breakfast at Lincoln Center’s new Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. One of my favorite moments of the day was at the breakfast when each of us had to introduce ourselves. We had to say what our craziest moment as a filmmaker was.
I was reminded of the time I took the G train in the middle of the night wearing a prom-style dress while shooting a music video. The ultimate destination was Coney Island, and we had to get there before sunrise (somehow all my Coney Island experiences involve a camera and getting there before 5:00 AM). This particular time, I was the DP and the director, and I was armed with two cameras — a Flip and a Panasonic DVX. The other crazy moment that came to mind was the one when I decided it would be a fantastic idea to shoot a film on an island during hurricane season. Or was it the time I shot a night scene on a shady Chinatown block — on possibly one of the coldest nights in New York’s history — with a prop gun that looked a little too real? Finally, I decided on the prom dress/G train experience.
To recap and give you an overview of the day (more reflections to come soon):
Before and during breakfast, I immediately started meeting other filmmakers, and I saw my friend Will who’s just finished editing his first feature. After breakfast we heard Doug Liman speak about his filmmaking experiences. One of the many things he said that sticks with me right now was the importance of taking big risks and how the biggest risks in filmmaking aren’t necessarily the physical ones, but rather the emotional ones. Some of the biggest risks and challenges he talked about have come from trying to achieve emotional honesty in scenes he’s directed. Making scenes (and the whole movie) feel their most honest is not about crafting in the editing room but … Read the rest
Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
First, to introduce myself: I’m Kate Barker-Froyland, a Brooklyn-based writer/director. For the past several years I’ve been making short films and music videos. My new project in development is called Song One, a narrative feature I wrote about music and falling in love. The movie’s set in New York, and it’ll be my first feature.
I was really excited when I found out I’d be a part of the first year of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s/IFP’s Emerging Visions program, happening all day tomorrow. Each of us (25 filmmakers) has been paired up with a mentor who we’ll be working with during the day, and the idea is for them to guide us afterwards as we pursue our long-term projects and continue on in our filmmaking lives. I’ll be working with Lisa Cortes, executive producer of Precious. Can’t wait to meet her and am looking forward to hearing her perspective on the project, especially because of her experience working in the music industry. My film is all about music and its power to connect people — a ‘music movie’ you could call it — and one of the main characters is a singer/songwriter.
When my short film Match, played at New Directors/New Films this year, it was an amazing experience for me. Just seeing the film screened at MoMA and the Walter Reade Theater with audiences (and where I’ve seen so many movies growing up) was seriously like a dream. One of the things I loved the most about New Directors/New Films was that it wasn’t just about a couple of screenings, but more about being a part of an ongoing community. I met countless passionate and inspiring filmmakers and have kept in touch with some of them. One of them, also a writer/director, will be in this program too (he just finished editing his first feature last week!). I feel like that’s the approach to Emerging Visions also — that it’ll be more of a long-term focus of the program to guide us as filmmakers as we go forward with our projects and careers. Such … Read the rest
Sunday, October 2nd, 2011
Forgive me if this post comes across clunky, as this is my first blog that has nothing to do with cats.
Instead, I’ll be writing about my experiences during the Emerging Visions Program, which takes place all day tomorrow, on Monday, which I’m told was chosen because Monday is the day people “emerge” from the caves of their dark apartments and return to the outside world after a weekend of healthy sobbing. I’m excited to emerge, myself. Hopefully it’ll put an end to people saying I have the body of a caterpillar.
“But, Adam,” you ask, with a look of concern, “what is the Emerging Visions program?” Well, first of all, you’ve really got to relax. Secondly, Emerging Visions is a program put on by IFP and the Film Society of the Lincoln Center, who have come together to spotlight up-and-coming filmmakers from their various programs. It’s taking place during the New York Film Festival, which is best known (to me) as being “that festival that’s doing the Royal Tenenbaums reunion that I won’t be able to stay in town long enough for.”
The idea behind it is to not only introduce us wobbly-legged, Bambi-like filmmakers to each other and others in the independent film community, but also to provide guidance as we enter this profession, which I’ve heard is as stable as a career in dental hygiene. Basically, it’s like in Angels in the Outfield, when the angels helped that awful baseball team cheat their way to victory. I think that makes Joana Vicente Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Why would anyone help others like this, in this day-and-age of Wal-Mart stampedes? I’m not sure, but from my experiences with them so far, the people behind these two organizations seem to just be all-around wonderful, and I guess that’s what wonderful people do. I use the word “guess” because I’ll never know for myself, obviously.
I’ve just come out of another IFP event, the Project Forum, which I was at with what will hopefully be my second feature, We’re a Wasteland. Like my first film, New Low, it’s a … Read the rest
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
The New York Film Festival is “the most famous and prestigious in the country,” according to the website of the Film Society of Lincoln Center. It may well be–though I think San Francisco and Telluride might balk at the statement. And the term the country only technically leaves out Toronto. Superlatives aside, this 49th edition, quite a good one overall, is nothing if not admirably ambitious.
No longer can the NYFF be accused of replicating Cannes, or of including a disproportionate number of gallic films. What is called the Main Slate, the core of the festival, is, however, top-heavy with Euro and North American fare. There are only two films from Latin America, and, though the Near East is very well represented (Iran, Turkey), that’s as Asian as it gets. I don’t know what all the selection committee had to pick from, but nothing from Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, or Thailand? On the plus side, an effort has been made, with mixed results, to include in the Main Slate films that have not been around much, by directors who have not been canonized on the circuit.
Besides the Main Slate (22 features) and Galas (five), we have Special Events, Special Anniversary Screenings, and, a wise addition, Special Presentations: Documentaries. Simultaneously, a fabulous 36-film series celebrates the upcoming 100th anniversary of Japan’s Nikkatsu Films. The expansion of the NYFF, which means room for some good and/or relevant films that might not otherwise make the list with the big guys and gals but deserve an audience nonetheless, is a positive response to charges of elitism over the years, though being part of Lincoln Center has fed into that. (It also begs the question: Can the Film Society top all this for next year’s 50th NYFF?)
The Special sidebars are promising. Two of the best films I’ve seen so far are the three-part German TV project Dreileben, in Special Events; and, in Special Presentations: Documentaries, Tahrir (pictured above), a welcome human look from an Italian documentarian at the in-progress Egyptian revolution. Neither is made in 35mm or for … Read the rest
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced more titles to the 49th New York Film Festival, including Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky‘s Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, with the much publicized new ending that surrounds the release of the West Memphis 3 (pictured). Oliver Stone will also have a sneak peak preview of his 10-part documentary for Showtime, The Untold History of the United States, which will air in 2012.
Also announced are Masterworks and Special Anniversary screenings. Read the new slate of titles below.
NYFF will take place this year Sept. 30 – Oct. 16. See closing night and NYFF main slate.
MASTERWORKS AND SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY SCREENINGS
Masterworks: THE GOLD RUSH
Chaplin’s personal favorite among his own films, THE GOLD RUSH (1925), is a beautifully constructed comic fable of fate and perseverance, set in the icy wastes of the Alaskan gold fields. Re-released by Chaplin in 1942 in a recut version missing some scenes, and with added narration and musical score, THE GOLD RUSH will be presented in a new restoration of the original, silent 1925 version. In this frequently terrifying and always unpredictable universe of natural and human savagery packed with avalanches, wild bears, predatory dance hall girls and murderous claim-jumpers, the incomparable Gentleman-Tramp arrives, seeking his fortune and facing every imaginable threat to life and limb. The film contains one of Chaplin’s classic comic set pieces in which he elegantly cooks and eats his boot to fend off starvation. THE GOLD RUSH blends action, slapstick comedy and sentiment seamlessly, making it one of the most beloved of Charles Chaplin’s works. The screening features a new score restoration by Timothy Brock (his ninth, commissioned by the Chaplin Estate) live musical accompaniment conducted by Brock and performed by musicians from the NY Philharmonic.
Masterworks: INVASIÓN
A little-known classic of Latin American cinema, INVASIÓN (1969) was the first work conceived specifically for the cinema by the great Jorge Luis Borges, in collaboration with his friend Adolfo Bioy Casares. A kind of updating of The Illiad that breathlessly morphs from police thriller to dream-like fantasy, the film is … Read the rest
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that Alexander Payne‘s The Descendants (pictured) will be the closing night film for this year’s New York Film Festival. NYFF’s main slate was also unveiled and includes David Cronenberg‘s A Dangerous Method and Pedro Almodóvar‘s The Skin I Live In, which both will be screened as special gala presentations; Simon Curtis‘ My Week With Marilyn, which will have a centerpiece screening; and Roman Polanski‘s Carnage, which will open the fest. Read the complete lineup below.
NYFF’s 49th edition will take place Sept. 30 – Oct. 16. General public tickets will become available starting Sept. 12. Learn more here.
49TH NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL
Films & Descriptions
4:44: LAST DAY ON EARTH
Abel Ferrara, 2011, USA, 82min
How would we spend our final hours on Earth? And what does how we choose to die say about how we have chosen to live? In the hands of the inimitable Abel Ferrara (Go Go Tales, NYFF ’07), this thought experiment takes on a visceral immediacy. With the planet on the verge of extinction, a New York couple (Willem Dafoe and Shanyn Leigh) cycle through moments of anxiety, ecstacy, and torpor. As they sink into the havens of sex and art, and Skype last goodbyes in a Lower East Side apartment filled with screens bearing tidings of doom and salvation, the film becomes one of Ferrara’s most potent and intimate expressions of spiritual crisis. An apocalyptic trance film, 4:44 is also a mournful valentine to Ferrara’s beloved New York: the director’s first fiction feature to be filmed entirely in the city in over a decade, and coming 10 years after the September 11 attacks, a haunting vision of doom in the lower Manhattan skyline.
THE ARTIST
Michel Hazanavicius, 2011, France, 90min
An honest-to-goodness black-and-white silent picture made by modern French filmmakers in Hollywood, USA, “The Artist” is a spirited, hilarious and moving delight. A sensation in Cannes, Michel Hazanavicius’ playful love letter to the movies’ early days spins on a variation on an “A Star Is Born”-like … Read the rest
