Nyff 2009

[Chris Knipp]

New York Film Festival 2009



PREVIEW

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the full slate and schedule of the coming 47th New York Film Festival, which you will find here. (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff/nyff.html) Here for Filmleaf readers is the schedule of the 28 new films and one revival:


New York Film Festival 2009
September 25 - October 11
Main Slate

OPENING NIGHT
Wild Grass / Les herbes folles
Alain Resnais, France, 2009; 113m
The venerable Alan Resnais creates an exquisite human comedy of manners, mystery and romance with some of France's - and our - favorite actors: Sabine Azema, Andre Dussollier, Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Almaric. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

CENTERPIECE
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Lee Daniels, USA, 2009; 109m
Precious is sixteen and living a miserable life. But she uses all the emotional energy she possesses to turn her life around. Director Lee Daniel's audacious tale features unforgettable performances by Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey and newcomer Gabourey Sidibe. A Lionsgate release.

CLOSING NIGHT
Broken Embraces / Los abrazos rotos
Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 2009; 128m
Almodovar's newest masterwork is a candy-colored emotional roller that barrels from comedy to romance to melodrama to the darker haunts of film noir and stars his muse, Penelope Cruz, in a multilayered story of a man who loses his sight and the love of his life. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

36 Views of Saint-Loup Peak / 36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup
Jacques Rivette, France, 2009, 84m
The legendary Jacques Rivette returns with an elegiac look at the final days of a small-time traveling circus.

Antichrist
Lars von Trier, Denmark, 2009, 109m
Surely to be one of the year's most discussed films, Lars von Trier's latest chronicles a couple's efforts to find their love again after a tragic loss, only to unleash hidden monsters lurking in their souls. An IFC Films release.

The Art of the Steal
Don Argott, USA, 2009, 101m
Bound to be controversial, this intriguing account of the travails of the legendary Barnes collection of art masterworks and the foundation set up to protect it raises vital questions about public vs. private "ownership" of art.

Bluebeard / La Barbe Bleue
Catherine Breillat, France, 2009, 78m
Two sisters reading Charles Perrault's 17th century tale of perhaps the first "serial killer" becomes a meditation on the enduring fascination with a character who has served as inspiration for countless novels, plays and films.

Crossroads of Youth / Cheongchun's Sipjaro
An Jong-hwa, Korea, 1934, 73m
The oldest surviving Korean film, this recently-rediscovered masterwork will be presented with live musical accompaniment as well as a benshi (offscreen narrator).

Eccentricities of a Blonde
Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France, 2009, 64m
One hundred years young, director Manoel de Oliveira returns with another gem: a wry, moving tale of a pure if frustrated love adapted from a novel by Eca de Queiroz.

Everyone Else / Alle Anderen
Maren Ade, Germany, 2009, 119m
The ups and downs, joys and jealousies, frustrations and fulfillments of a young couple on a summer holiday provide the premise for this brilliant meditation on modern coupling.

Ghost Town
Zhao Dayong, China, 2008, 180m
A revealing, one-of-a-kind look at China far away from the glittering urban skylines, this portrait of a contemporary rural community in China offers extraordinary insights into everything from the role of religion to gender relationships to the place of social deviants.

Hadewijch
Bruno Dumont, France, 2009, 105m
A young woman searches for an absolute experience of faith-and in the process grows increasingly distant from the world around her.

Independencia
Raya Martin, Philippines, 2009, 77m
Maverick director Raya Martin offers a kind of alternative history of the Philippines and its struggle for nationhood in this stylized tale of a mother and son hiding in the mountains after the US takeover of the islands.

Inferno / L'Enfer
Serge Bromberg, France, 2009, 100m
A film buff's delight, Serge Bromberg film resurrects the surviving footage of Clouzot's aborted, experimental film L'Enfer, revealing a slightly mad but beguiling project that will always remain one of cinema's great "what ifs."

Kanikosen
Sabu, Japan, 2009, 109m
Kanikosen is a highly stylized, stirring, manga-flavored update of a classic Japanese political novel, with labor unrest aboard a crab canning ship evolving into a cry of a younger generation aching to break the bonds of conformity.

Lebanon
Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2009, 92m
Debut director Samuel Maoz takes us inside an Israeli tank and the emotions of its crew during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Life During Wartime
Todd Solondz, USA, 2009, 96m
Preparing for his bar-mitzvah, a young man must deal with his divorced mother's prospective fiance as well as rumors that his own father is not really dead.

Min Ye'
Souleymane Cisse', Mali/France, 2009, 135m
A work of startling originality, Souleymane Cisse's first film in over a decade insightfully and incisively chronicles the dissolution of an upper-middle class African marriage.

Mother/ Maedo
Bong Joon-ho, South Korea, 2009, 128m
Convinced that her son has been wrongly accused of murder, a widow throws herself body and soul into proving his innocence. Kim Hye-ja in the title role gives perhaps the performance of the year.

Ne Change Rien
Pedro Costa, France/Portugal, 2009, 103m
A shimmering valentine, Costa's latest is less a portrait than a kind of visual homage, to the artistry of actor and singer Jeanne Balibar.

Police Adjective / Politist, adj.
Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania, 2009, 115m
Discovering a teenager with hashish, a young policeman hesitates about turning him in. But his supervisor has other ideas in this beautifully acted, provocative modern morality play. An IFC Films release.

Room and a Half / Poltory komnaty ili sentimentalnoe puteshtvie na rodinu
Andrey Khrzhanovsky, Russia, 2009, 131m
Former animator Andrey Khrzhanovsky combines scripted scenes, archival footage, several types of animation, and surrealist flights of fancy to create this stirring portrait of poet Josef Brodsky and the postwar Soviet cultural scene. A Seagull Films release.

Sweetgrass
Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, USA, 2009, 105m
This breathtaking chronicle follows an ever-surprising group of modern-day cowboys as they lead an enormous herd of sheep up and then down the slopes of the Beartooth Mountains in Montana on their way to market.

Sweet Rush / Tatarak
Andrzej Wajda, Poland/France, 2009, 85m
Celebrated master Andrzej Wajda returns with a bold, experimental work that juxtaposes a story about a terminally doctor's wife rediscovering romance thanks with a heart-rending monologue written and performed by actress Krystyna Janda about the death of her husband.

To Die Like a Man / Morrer como um homen
Joao Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal, 2009, 138m
This touching, finely-etched portrait follows Tonia, a veteran drag performer confronting younger competition and her boyfriend's demands that she undergo a sex change.

Vincere
Marco Bellocchio, Italy, 2009, 129m
Mussolini's "secret" marriage to Ida Dalser, afterwards completely denied by Il Duce, along with the son born from the relationship, becomes the springboard for this visually ravishing meditation on the fascist manipulation of history. An IFC Films release.

White Material
Claire Denis, France, 2009, 100m
A handful of Europeans try to make sense of-and survive-the chaos happening all around them in an African country torn apart by civil war.

The White Ribbon / Das weisse band
Michael Haneke, Austria/France, 2009, 144m
The Palme d'Or winner at this year's Cannes Film Festival, this is a starkly beautiful meditation on the consequences of violence-physical, emotional, spiritual-in a northern German town on the eve of World War I. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

The Wizard of Oz
Victor Fleming, 1939, USA, 103m
The 70th Anniversary of the timeless classic, presented in a spectacular newly-restored edition makes the film a new experience even for those who practically have it memorized. A Warner Bros. release.

[oscar jubis]

This is the most exciting lineup I can remember. It seems tailored to my tastes.

The new Rivette, which has yet to have its world premiere in Venice. An 84-minute film, I might add, about half as long as most of his films.

Wild Grass by my favorite French director ever (tied with Renoir). A film Amy Taubin called "the only extraordinary film in competition at Cannes" (Film Comment/July-August issue).

Finally, the NYFF shows a film by the highly original Pedro Costa. It's an expanded version of a short by the same title he released in 2005.

The new film by the great Manoel de Oliveira, the 100 year-old Portuguese master who remains under-appreciated and underexposed in the English-speaking world.

New films by Solondz, Cisse and Breillat!!!

And the highly controversial, scandalous, non-P.C. film by Lars von Trier.

[Chris Knipp]

The NYFF has not disappointed me yet, though a certain director's name on a film is not a guarantee of quality. The NYFF is always an elite, fairly conservative selection. Usually one or two duds though. Every festival has them. Further from the press release of yesterday:
The 2009 New York Film Festival was programmed by five critics and curators. Richard Pena, Selection Committee Chair and Program Director at The Film Society; Melissa Anderson, Freelance Critic; Scott Foundas, Film Editor and Chief Film Critic for LA Weekly; J. Hoberman, Senior Film Critic at The Village Voice and Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University; and Dennis Lim, Editor at Moving Image Source and Freelance Critic joined forces to hand-pick the 29 features that make up the main slate. Kent Jones is no longer on the regular FSLC staff and Lisa Schwarzbaum has been replaced by Melissa Anderson. With the new corporate head of the FSLC, 25% of the staff has reportedly been let go to cut costs. Lucily Richard Pena remains as an anchor to maintain quality and a consistent point of view, and J. Hoberman is an important presence. Last year was a great year as far as I'm concerned. I oonly hope this will be as good and that I can be there.

[oscar jubis]

I really hope you can attend the festival again this year!!!
Given the size of the venue and the number of selections, I understand why the festival has to be conservative. However, I am sure Pena and others involved in selecting films in years past wish they hadn't "missed the boat" by failing to feature Pedro Costa and Bela Tarr, to metion two prominent names. Toronto had a Tarr retrospective in '95. It's the kind of event that gives a festival a certain cache. Five years later, NY failed to include Tarr's masterful Werckmeister Harmonies. They should have known better. The subsequent Man From London was not so great. It felt like the NYFF's selection committee was trying to make up for the previous omission. The Costa doc at this year's fest reads as minor Costa (if there is such a thing). I have the impression they are again making up (for failing to show Vanda's Room and Juventud em Marcha).

On the other hand, Jia Zhang-Ke is the filmmaker of the decade and the NYFF certainly recognized his greatness from the beginning. Same goes for Lucrecia Martel (a subject of devotion and adoration for Kent Jones and yours truly).

As far as I am concerned, the best NYFF in recent years was 2007, not 2008. And 2009 looks highly promising with three new films by Masters like Resnais, Oliveira and Rivette. That may never happen again!!!

[Chris Knipp]

You're undoubtedly right. Sometimes they make mistakes. The limited number of selections makes it trickier. I do not judge the festival by the directors it features but by the overall merit of the films. Maybe 2007 was better than 2008, I don't know. I did not rate 2007, I just said 2008 was a great year. Each year has some great ones and some duds. Every year has been good of the four I've attended. A list of my favorites would be culled from all four years. I am not so into ratings and rankings. I just like to watch the films and observe and enjoy what is going on in them. Of course jurors naturally come to champion certain new directors that they particularly like. I would do that too in that position. Definitely the NYFF has pushed Jia Zhang-ke, and some other Asian directors, such as Hong Sang-soo, both of whom Peter was aware of before I was, due to his being close to FSLC screenings, which happily he was responsible for my beginning to attend and write about. Yes, Resnais, Oliveira and Rivette may not be featured again, but there time is passing and others are coming to take their place.

[Chris Knipp]

Resnais fans will be interested in this touring US retrospective: http://www.frenchculture.org/spip.php?rubrique5. Also go here: http://www.frenchculture.org/spip.php?article2849 and to view details log in with "press" and password 'pressattach". 13 restored prints (some are shorts) to be shown at various locations, mostly museums or institutions, from Sept. 2009 to March 2010, starting in Washington, DC at the National Gallery. This was sent me as a press release that I can't give you a link to.

National Gallery of Art
Washington D.C.
Sept 5–22
www.nga.gov

LACMA
Los Angeles, CA
Oct 2–17
www.lacma.org

Gene Siskel Film Center
Chicago, IL
Nov 1–30
www.siskelfilmcenter.org

Pacific Film Archive
Berkeley, CA
Nov 6–Dec 4
www.bampfa.berkeley.edu

University of Wisconsin Madison
Madison, WI
Dec 5–15
www.wisc.edu

Wexner Arts Center
Columbus, OH
Jan 1–Feb 28
www.wexarts.org

Harvard Film Archive
Cambridge, MA
Feb 2–Feb 28
hcl.harvard.edu/hfa

Museum of Fine Arts
Houston, TX
March 1–31
www.mfah.org

[Chris Knipp]

The FSLC has announced the "special events" to accompany the NYFF 2009 The specific events and schedules are here: http://filmlinc.com/nyff/special.html.. The basic outlines are:
Pedro Almodóvar's History of Cinema: A Conversation
The Spanish director hosts a journey through his favorite movies and his career, in a dialogue with NYFF Committee Chairman Richard Peña

New York Premiere of The Red Riding Trilogy
The gripping three-part British neo-noir series, hailed in Britain as a true cinematic opus

Creating Film Culture: A Tribute to Dan and Toby Talbot
The legendary husband and wife team, founders of the seminal New Yorker cinema and distribution company, who brought us Bertolucci, Fassbinder, and My Dinner With André.

And more. For details of the "and more," go to the Filmlinc page linked above.

[oscar jubis]

I am "ecstatic" about ALAIN RESNAIS: THE ELOQUENCE OF MEMORY. Like tou said, the retrospective includes shorts. Three of his very best, including the Oscar winner Guernica. It is a good time to remind film buffs nationwide about Resnais' stature and to give a chance to the younger generation to discover him.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, shorts are definitely featured in the retrospective. I hope you get to see it.

[Chris Knipp]

I've posted a tentative schedule (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=22904#post22904) of the 2009 NYFF press screenings up in the Festival Coverage thread. The order and dates should provide a rough idea of when my reviews for each film will be appearing.

[Chris Knipp]

This poetic amalgam of found footage was the subject of a political controversy. It's restored and given some context here.

Giuseppe Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolnii: RAGE/LA RABBIA (1963, 2008) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=22935#post229355)

[Chris Knipp]

Largely wordless (but still expletive-rich) last song of the American mountain shepherds. An audio-visual record by a couple who are Harvard ethnographer-antropologists and innovative interactive media specialists.

Ilisa Barbash, Lucien Castaing-Taylor: Sweet Grass (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=22937#post22937)

First press screening of an official NYFf 2009 selection film.

[Chris Knipp]

At 87, Resnais adopts yet another new literary sensibility, that of Christian Gailly, whose L'Incident depicts two confused people whose chance linking through a stolen wallet leads them to pursue a romantic connection.

Alain Resnais: Wild Grass (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=22939#post22939)

[Chris Knipp]

Three screenings on the schedule today:

SABU: KANIKOSEN (JAPAN)

ZHAO DAYONG: GHOST TOWN (CHINA)

MARCO BELLOCCHIO: VINCERE (ITALY)

The first is an ironic adaptation of an 80-year-old proletarian novel about a crab boat. The second is a DV documentary Scott Foundas says is worthy of Jia Zhang-ke. The third is a historical film about Mussolini's secret wife and child, whom he never acknowledged in his rise to power.

This is over seven hours of viewing in two venues, but I expect to have my reviews up by tomorrow.

[Chris Knipp]

A proletarian novel about a crab fishing boat-cum-canning factory revolt that was made into manga novles and now has become a partly ironic tragi-comedy. Japanese entry in the 2009 New York Film Festival.

Sabu: Kanikosen (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=22942#post22942)

[Chris Knipp]

Chinese documentary in the New York Film Festival focuses on minority squatters in Yunnan Province high up in the mountains at a former communist party seat. The Chinese entry into the Main Slate of the New York Film Festival, it comes with a big concurrent FSLC sidebar retrospective of classic Chinese films from 1949-1966 to mark the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. Compare: last year's NYFF Main Slate entry from Jia Zhang-ke, 24 City (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=20764#post20764) This one is a whole lot more rambling and random, with mixed results.

Zhao Dayong: Ghost Town (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=22943#post22943)

[oscar jubis]

*Kamikosen:
I'd like to see it. Actually, it'd be cool to watch the more historically-accurate, less tongue in cheek 1953 adaptation of the same novel. But it seems highly unlikely one would get that chance.

[oscar jubis]

*Ghost Town:
In my opinion, film festivals' main reason for being is to unearth films like this one and give audiences a chance to watch them. There isn't an IMdb entry for this film or this director. Obviously Foundas and Lim feel very strongly about it. Good for them. They are giving this independent film a chance to get recognition.If I was attending the NYFF, I would rather watch Ghost Town than any of the films in the fest that already have distribution deals. Yes, even the latest by my favorite French director.

[Chris Knipp]

Obviously one goes to festivals to see films not available (or not yet available) elsewhere, or, if one's a distributor, to find new ones to buy. I should not say dGenerate Films is distributing Ghost Town, rather that they are seeking festival slots for it. Its current length makes it un-distributable.

If you follow my links in the two reviews, you'll find more information, but I didn't realize Kanikosen was made into a film in 1953, origato for that info. The director was So Yamamura. It probably was less comic and ironic, but I don't know about more realistic. I don't see much about it online but this quote on Answers.com that ends: "'This version, filmed in the postwar period, serves as both an indictment of the prewar military government's power and of the postwar government's return to similar practices of artistic censorship.' -- Brian Whitener, All Movie Guide."

It may be a find, assuming that Foundas and Lim went through the other recent Chinese indie docs listed on that website I cite, but I am convinced that Ghost Town is not well edited. You might prefer to watch paint dry than to see the latest Quentin Tarantino movie, but I don't agree with you. It is true that the selection of Jia Zhang-ke's Platform for the New York Film festival was an event and that film was exciting and a revelation, his Unknown Pleasures even more so. Ghost Town is not such an event.

[Chris Knipp]

Marco Bellocchio nearly equals his reimagining of the Aldo Moro kidnapping in Good Morning, Night with the even more sweeping and iconic tale of Italian history: the wrenching saga of Beinto Mussolini's abandoned and imprisoned first wife and son. The style is operatic and swift-moving and elegantly melds actual footage with chiaroscuro scenes in which Giovanna Mezzogiorno plays the unhappy Ida Dalzer. An IFC film that was shown at Cannes, Telluride, and Toronto, and now at the NYFF.

Marco Bellocchio: Vincere (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=22961#post22961)

[Chris Knipp]

In his tiff thread here Johan notes today (Sept. 19, 2009):
The Bell Lightbox is the brand-new hub for cinema in Toronto, and will be ready in about a year I heard. (It's still under construction on King street). Their first program will be THE ESSENTIAL 100. . . That's interesting. Lincoln Center is doing an overhaul ( goes back to the early Sixties), which includes the handsomely renovated Alice Tully Hall, where the public screenings of the NYFF are now going to be held. Across the street from the Walter Reade Theater, where most of the Film Society of Lincoln Center screenings take place including the NYFF press screenings, a big new film center is under construction, which will be finished in a year or so. All the new constructions designed by the architecture firm of Diller Scofidio + Renfro can be viewed on a website (http://architecture.nyc-arts.org/projects/slides?project_id=30&si=9&) that links to over a dozen drawings. The Alice Tully and Julliard School parts (http://architecture.nyc-arts.org/projects/slides?project_id=30&si=9&) are pretty much done, but not quite. It's more sweeping and angular than the old heavily rectalinear original buildings and the interiors are updated and more functional. What's hard to say is where they get the money for all this and how they're going to run the new three-part film center given that the FSLC has fired a lot of people, including ones who've worked there for 30 years, by reports 25% of the staff in the past year. Several people I've talked to have said most of the work will have to be done by "interns." That is people with low salaries, no security, and few benefits. But the building? It's grand.

Lincoln Center is impressive and will be more so and more functional no doubt, but I'm maybe more impressed by the layout in London of the arts and music and drama center at The Embankment, which seems both more organic and more accessible. Of course the Metropolitan Opera, the Jazz center, the Julliard School, the FSLC, New York City Ballet, and the Philharmonic are not to be sniffed at either. Still The Embankment seems a more fun place to hang out at in the eveing, with its various restaurants and its Thames-side views. By the way the LFF is coming soon, and I will be in London, but I don't expect to see the films. But Borys/Michuk will, and will report on them in the Festival Coverage sectioin. He just reported that he's gotten press credentials for it.

[Chris Knipp]

Press screenings for Mon. Sept. 20, 2009:

Today's screenings are The Art of the Steal (Don Argott, 2009, USA, 101 m. ) and A Room and a Half / Poltory komnaty ili sentimentalnoe puteshestvie na rodinu (Andrey Khrzhanovsky, 2009, Russia, 130m.)

Summaries of these films will be found now in the Festival Coverage thread here (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=22975#post22975) .

Coming later this week: new work by Lars von Trier and Bruno Dumont.

[oscar jubis]

Euro's Bad Boys have new provocations to offer, uh?

[Chris Knipp]

Two Euro bad boys in one week. I don't know if my heart can take it. Scott Foundas has a good piece on the new Dumont on CinemaScope (http://cinema-scope.com/wordpress/?page_id=1001) that I expect to crib from for its detailed explanation of how Dumont actors have been reshuffled.

[Chris Knipp]

The story of the Barnes Foundation is one anybody interested in Post Impressionist and Modern art and the public trust needs to know about. This documentary by Don Argott is conventional but technically fine and loaded with good content.

Don Argott: The Art of the Steal (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=22982#post22982)

[Chris Knipp]

A fanciful recreation of the life and exile of the late Russian-American poet Joseph Brodsky by a documentary filmmaker and prizewinning animator (and one can see why: the animated segments are lovely), is, as 70, his first feature. Remarkable for its blending of different looks and styles of image to contrast periods.

Andrey Khrzhanovsky: Room and a Half (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=22985#post22985)

[Chris Knipp]

Centenarian Manoel de Oliveira's new film from a 19th-century short story seems more like a fable than a work of realistic fiction. (Portugal)

Manoel de Oliveira: Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl (2009_ (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=22998#post22998)

[Chris Knipp]

Dogs, aquariums, killer sons, druggie lovers, and a sex change. (Portugal)

Joao Pedro Rodrigues: To Die As a Man (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=23000#post23000)

[Johann]

Excellent reviews Man!
I love the photos too.

Is Michael Moore's film showing at NYFF?
There are a handful of reviews on the imdb and one says that it's the most important film ever made, and that people should be ready to ACT, based on the outrage and anger that Moore stirs up about how corporations and "justice" systems act.

Curiously, that review is from TIFF, where the writer points out that there was a man in front of him who was annoyed to be there (with his girlfriend). He hated Moore, saying he didn't want to sit through another one of his propaganda films (paraphrasing).
Then, at film's end, the man's world seems shattered, and he stands up with everybody else in a standing ovation.

I will be there opening day.
Remember, it wasn't so long ago that Barack Obama was a pipe dream. He's been Prez for almost a year now!
Who's to say that massive reforms would be kickstarted to stop the psychopathic practices that corporations still employ, long after the Imperial Empire of Bush & Cheney allowed that shit to flourish?
This is a MAMMOTH film.
And I've only seen the trailer...

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks. I enjoy the pictures too.

Night before last at Lincoln Center there was a preview event for CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY and Mr. Moore was on hand out on the sidewalk giving a press conference, I gather; I saw the setup for it. But this film is not part of the NYFF. The NYFF generally is not a promotion point for big films about to open wide. The TIFF is.

This should be an interesting day for the screenings. The films are:


ANTICHRIST (Lars von Trier)

"Surely to be one of the year's most discussed films, Lars von Trier's latest chronicles a couple's efforts to find their love again after a tragic loss, only to unleash hidden monsters lurking in their souls. An IFC Films release"

LEBANON (Samoel Moaz)

"Debut director Samuel Maoz takes us inside an Israeli tank and the emotions of its crew during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. "

I don't know what to expect from ANTICHRIST, really. I just hope it will be coherent. So many films barely are, and the word that this was made as the result of a major depression and that it's a farrago of Hieronymous Bosch-esque gore sound like more provocation and visuals than matter for though, but we'll see. What I hear is that LEBANON is, as is no surprise, about the 1982 Israeli Lebanon war, and that it is even better than BEAUFORT and WALTZ WITH BASHIR, but could be almost any war, because it all takes place inside an Israeli tank. We'll look into the assumptions behind such a statement, but since I was impressed by WALTZ WITH BASHIR and even more by BEAUFORT, I expect a well-made film.

[Johann]

Outstanding thread so far, Chris.

Alain Resnais is a cinema God.
My favorite film of his is Last Year at Marienbad, a timeless, mysterious, Epic work. It still stuns me, so many years since it's release...

Looking very forward to hearing what you have to say about Anti-Christ. I wish I saw it here at TIFF...
de Oliveira is 100. Wow.
And glad that Wajda is still out there, creating.
Are you going to review The Wizard of Oz?

And Catherine Breillat & Todd Solondz always memorable...

Thanks for the info on Moore's release in New York.
the 47th NYFF seems to be great this year.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks. I have a review of von Trier up now. Maybe in future more than the "shocking" mements the new glossy 'cinematic" look will be considered the most notable aspect.

No Wizard of Oz for me. I'm mostly skipping sidebar items, though I did watch the Pasolini doc, because of my interest in him and in things Italian. I wish i could see the Brit TV noir series, and somebody I know saw it and said it's great, but I didn't have time for another six hours of viewing in another venue during this period, so I'll have to wait for that.

In retrospect I tend to prefer Hironshima mon amour to Marienbad. I have not seen a lot of Resnais' films in between those and now, and some of those I have seen I have not been impressed so much by. I don't think much of Stavisky, am not a fan of Providence. I also have trouble seeing what they all have in common. Let's not forget there is a new Ravette coming to the NYFF, though it may be a minor work (short anyway).

[Chris Knipp]

Authentic horror? Stunner from Lars.

Lars von Trier: Antichrist (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=23009#post23009)

[Chris Knipp]

Visceral 1982 Lebanon war film from Israel won Samuel Maoz the Golden Lion at Venice for this first film. Like the maker of Waltz with Bashir he is a veteran returning to his experience of 25 years with anti-war sentiments.

]Samuel Maoz: Lebanon (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&s=&postid=23012#post23012)

[Johann]

Jean-Luc Godard is on record saying Jacques Rivette is a better filmmaker than Kubrick. I've liked every film I've seen of his (the last being Va Savoir, several years ago. I need to see more of his stuff.

So Trier's film is a stunner that you don't want to see again?
That sounds fair.
Is there enough in it to recommend it, or is it too offensive?
Does it have anything to contribute to understanding relationships between men and women or is it too "intellectual" as you pointed out? It sounds like the boy's death was the catalyst for the woman's downturn.

[Chris Knipp]

I may not have made myself clear about Antichrist -- it wouldn't be the first time I've failed to get my point across -- but I think if you read my review carefully you'll find answers to most of your questions. I did clearly say "This isn't a film I'm eager to watch again right now." I didn't say never as you imply.

I don't see that I need to recommend Antichrist, especially to you, since you want to see it. My review is quite favorable and I give it a 9/10, my highest rating usually for any recent film. I thought I was making clear that it is neither too offensive nor too intellectual and detached. I specifically said the offense was taken at Cannes but not in New York yesterday.

The problem of detachment sometimes making his films emotionally uninvolving, I was saying, is something that is much less evident here in this film. Throughout, I could use the word I over-used for the film Lebanon, "visceral." It could be seen as an enlightening study of the power struggles of sexual relationships, and a whole lot besides.

Another point that I didn't go into. Generally von Trier has been accused of being abusive toward women in his films. Nicole Kidman is cited as asking him why. Well, in this one, the woman (Charlotte Gainsbourg) has a chance to get back at men (a man) big time, although the man has the last laugh, or the last scream, or last groan, I'm not sure what it is. Curious?

[Chris Knipp]

"It sounds like the boy's death was the catalyst for the woman's downturn."

Well, yeah. Her little boy died. "Downturn" is a funny word to use. As I explain and the chapter heading shows, she is grieving. Then the issue arises of whether she should be medicated because she has collapses from grief, or should go back out of the hospital and stop taking medications and try to confront her grief. Then it turns to anger.

One might hypothesize that the anger is against her husband for manipulating her too much and taking over her case, when as a therapist he shouldn't try to treat his own family member. But she is also obviously angry at herself. She is also afraid. Her fear is of nature, or of herself, or of the chapel of the Church of Satan (Nature) that nature has set up in herself.

She blames herself for the death of her son. Of course his death was accidental. But she believes she knew something her husband didn't know and took a chance he wasn't aware of.

But apart from all that any mother would grieve over the death of her young son. Many mothers who lose young sons are never the same again. It's not a lurid invention of Lars von Trier, but a very legitimate course of events.

[Chris Knipp]

Second new film by octogenarian Andrzej Wajda in the past two years. This one combines short stories and a great actress' actual memories of her cinematographer husband's sudden terminal illness, and is mostly a medication on youth and death.

Andrzej Wajda: Sweet Rush (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=23020#post23020)

[Chris Knipp]

In German director Maren Ade's second film a young couple summering at a villa in Sardinia test the relationship waters, measuring themselves against a seemingly more successful couple.

Maren Ade: Everyone Else (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=23022#post23022)

[oscar jubis]

IFC is releasing Antichrist as part of their Video on Demand service two days before the theatrical (commercial) premiere on October 23rd.

I thought Trier was raised atheist and converted to Catholicism. I have read numerous Trier interviews over the years. He is highly voluble and contradictory. I get the impression sometimes that he is not being honest or straight but saying things for effect or to generate publicity. He is somewhat like Hitch in this regard.

I hope people watching new Rohmer, Rivette and de Oliveira at the NYFF appreciate how lucky they are to be alive and going to a movie theater to watch a new film by these MASTERS. Future cinephiles will be green with envy the way I feel about folks who got to listen to Coltrane live.

[Chris Knipp]

You struck a cord, because I actually do regret not hearing Coltrane or Billie Holiday live; I could have, but I have heard other jazz greats live, and more important, Umm Kalsoum in Cairo. I'm not sure how this is comparable to watching new films by old directors, but you're welcome to your opinion. However, I don't see any Rohmer on the NYFF slate this year. That was Astree et Celadon a couple years ago, but a lot of people found it a bore, including me. I guess I'm not an "auteurist," and just the name of a director doesn't give me a hard-on,* especially not if he's over 80 years old.

*A French saying once quoted by society columnist Taki, if I recall it correctly, was "Il y a des noms qui font bander," there are names (i.e. aristocratic titles) that give you a had-on. I'm probably quoting the French wrong, but you get the idea.

[Chris Knipp]

The new Bruno Dumont: is there a link between violent jihad and ecstatic Christianity? Premiered at Toronto, not opening in France till November 25.

Bruno Dumont: Hadewidjch (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=23026#post23026)

[Johann]

What really interests me about this specific film in Trier's filmography is that it's been made clear in interviews that not only was this a 2-person man & woman story, but that it was also a cathartic exorcising of some demons for the director.
He's been very depressed in recent years.

As for the idea that he's abusive towards women, it's a tough one. He's definitely got some "female" issues. But I can also say in the same breath that he's honored them, too.
Bjork in Dancer in the Dark is a Hero to me, as is Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves and Bryce Dallas Howard & Nicole (as Grace) in Manderlay & Dogville. They all go through extraordianry ordeals, intense situations. But they are all brave women, admirable.
Is Charlotte not brave in AntiChrist?

[Johann]

The Dumont sounds very interesting.
I like "luminosity of some Saint in a medieval panel"

[Chris Knipp]

Is Charlotte not brave in Antichrist? Well, sure, and much more than that. As I said of Gainsbourg's character, "Eventually she rebels, and takes extreme measures against both her husband and herself." I'm no expert on the von Trier "canon," but I'd say she takes more initiative against the Man in the tale than his other heroines. In this one, Lars finally gives his heroine a chance at revenge.


The Dumont [Hadewijch] sounds very interesting.
I like "luminosity of some Saint in a medieval panel."Yes, thanks. I'd have failed if I hadn't made it sound interesting. Tthe new Dumont is indeed interesting, though that's too mild a word. Everything he does is disturbing and gut-wrenching, numbing and provocative. I have been a fan of Dumont all along, except for his one misstep, Twentynine Palms. This one being sweeter and less bestial may even make a very few new converts to his small coterie of passionate admirers, though I'm not sure one can say that of Mike D'Angelo of Not Coming to a Theater Near You (http://notcoming.com/reviews/hadewijch/) , a tireless blog writer who made it to Cannes this year against all obstacles. At last D'Angelo revises his statement, to say now that he sometimes likes films by Bruno Dumont. You may also be interested in what he wrote (http://www.avclub.com/articles/cannes-09-day-five,28137/) back in May about Antichrist, in the form of a love/hate letter to Lars von Trier. (His Cannes reports ran in the Onion's AV Club section.) I can hardly believe the film is not a put-on but he recognizes that the tone of most of it suggests it's serious. He deplores the film but applauds von Trier for having the audacity to make stuff like thisj and says its what Cannes should be like but mostly isn't. Read that discussion -- it's heartfelt and good and goes into more detail than I do.

D'Angelo also has some sharp comments (http://notcoming.com/reviews/lebanon/) on the same blog about Samuel Maoz's Lebanon, which he's even more critical of than I allowed myself to be; I would agree in preferring Bigelow's The hurt Locker. A war movie is an action movie, and to make a good one you've got to be a good action director, as she is. D'Angelo's right that Maoz's views of outside the tank are painfully literal:
Maoz doesn’t understand that the best way to convey maddening, terrifying semi-blindness is to emphasize what’s not quite visible. Instead, he makes such painfully crass moves as a slow, lengthy zoom onto the tear-filled eye of a dying donkey, bludgeoning the viewer with editorial pathos in a way that would make even Steven Spielberg wince.Ouch! D'Angelo is absolutely right that Mao's characters are broadly-drawn and one-dimensional. Basing a script on one's own experience doesn't guarantee an authentic feel. Maoz, who apparently was the rookie gunner, was probably too naive and scared then to observe character in his team members deeply, and seems to lack the skill as a writer today to inject the depth he lacked back then. The movie is exciting and tense, but the "formalist stunt" of shooting everything inside a tank isn't enough to justify a big award at Venice. Nor is this as profound a statement (even granting their limitations of the Israeli point of view) about the Lebanese war of '82 as either Beaufort (a conventional, but intricately suspenseful war film) or(most thoughtful of the lot) Waltz with Bashir.

[Chris Knipp]

Romanian director of 12:08 East of Bucharest uses a police procedural format for an in part dryly ironic discussion of the role of words in action. Another film from the much-heralded new Romanian cinema.

Cornelieu Porumboliu: Police, Adjective (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=23034#post23034)

[Chris Knipp]

Clair Denis returns to Africa in a film about civil war and white plantation owners. "Of course, postcolonial critiques are not wholly unexpected in French art filmmaking, and neither are dramatizations of war-torn Africa from white perspectives uncommon. Yet with Claire Denis at the helm, this is hardly the same old story."--Michael Koresky, Indiewire.

Claire Denis: White Material (2009) (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=23048#post23048)

[Chris Knipp]

Rivette's relatively short (85m) new film about a declining circus troupe and an Italian who seeks the clue to a lady's departure from the troupe fifteen years earlier, may provide a kind of skeleton key to the French master's themes. (French title: 36 vues du pic Saint Loup.)

Jacques Rivette: Around a Small Mountain (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23051#post23051)

[Chris Knipp]

"This is a serious film about guilt and forgiveness, about pedophilia and how the paranoia it inspires has come to poison normal human relations and innocent displays of affection — but it is told in Mr. Solondz’s often very funny, deadpan, surreal manner." --Robert Conway Morris, NYTimes rountdup article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/arts/05iht-venfest5.html?pagewanted=all) on the Venice festival.

Todd Solondz: Life During Wartime (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23054#post23054)

[Chris Knipp]

"Polygamy and the double standards for men and women get a necessary drubbing in Malian director Souleymane Cisse’s first feature set not only in an urban milieu, but also among the country’s bourgeoisie. . . . Tell Me Who You Are, however, fails to deliver much that’s new to the battle of the sexes, despite tackling the issue of polygamy. In addition, few will respond to its visual murkiness and redundant scenes of the up-and-down relationship between the lead couple. "--Howard Feinstein, Screen Daily. (http://www.screendaily.com/5001536.article)


Souleymane Cisse': Min Ye: Tell Me Who You Are (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23056#post23056)

[Chris Knipp]

Visual poetry and relaxed musical moments from Pedro Costa, Philipe Morel, and Jeanne Balibar.
Film from the Director's Fortnight at Cannes, opening in January 2010 in France.



Pedro Costa; Ne Change Rien (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23062#post23062)

[Chris Knipp]

"Can the most regressive work yet by an artist known for arrested development also be a sign of his newfound maturity?" "--Dennis Lim, Cinema Scope.

Harmony Korine: Trash Humpers (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23064#post23064)

[oscar jubis]

I'll say it again: this year's fest has more films from directors I care about than any other I can remember. Just amazing...

The new Rivette reads absolutely delightful to me, even more so than the three previous films he made. But this one does not have a US distributor, at least not at the moment. The Miami fest should show it, along with the Costa one which will not get a theatrical release. Not a chance. Korine has ceased to intrigue me.

*Minor suggestion: correct the spelling of Tourneur. And, because both father and son, Maurice and Jacques, were outstanding filmmakers, perhaps you ought to specify which one is being compared with Pedro Costa.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for your comment, even if it repeats what you said before, I wish there were more comments. I changed the spelling of Tourneur but the first name is not always given in discussions. I think anybody who is interested will know it is Jacques. I didn't say Costa is linked with those directors, but that he has linked himself with them. You could say either, but I made the distinction for a reason.

[Chris Knipp]

"Directed by Lee Daniels, who established himself as a producer (with Monster's Ball and The Woodsman) before making his directorial debut with the risible 2005 mother-and-son assassin romp Shadowboxer, Push isn't half the piece of controlled, confident craftsmanship that Ballast was, but it may be that Daniels's crude, wildly undisciplined, anything-goes directorial style is exactly what the movie calls for. Hothouse melodrama one moment, pungent social realism the next, with dashes of slapstick farce (be they intentional or not) in between, Push takes the better part of an hour to settle on something resembling a consistent tone, yet even when the movie is at its most schizoid, you can't take your eyes off of it."--Scott Foundas' excellent short review from Sundance in the Village Voice (http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2009/01/less_money_fewe.php).

Lee Daniels: Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23069#post23069)

[Chris Knipp]

Breillat continues her new focus on historical costume dramas based on famous French stories, providing a feminist angle on first serial-killer-of-women tale.

"However, the original story is only part of the film. The film is narrated by two young sisters in the 1950s. They update the fairytale's fantastical depictions of curiosity, conflict, cruelty and sisterly love into the everyday. Their love is less confrontational than A Ma Soeur! but it's nonetheless dark (despite the charming interaction). In fact, the abrupt ending results from a sister's avowed refusal to be curious, her attempt to hide from the cruelties of Bluebeard."--Brannavan Gnanalingam in The Lumiere Reader (http://lumiere.net.nz/reader/item/2173).

Catherine Breillat: Bluebeard (2008) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23071#post230711)

[Chris Knipp]

Experimental young Filipino filmmaker makes a film nostalgically evoking the early silents and talkies of his country (now mostly lost) and referring to flight from the American invasion at the turn of the century. "Though everything is obviously shot on a studio set with potted plants and a painted backdrop, the effect is to cast the characters into a magical world that can be both quaint and wondrous. Some silent film tropes are deliciously used, like the characters' dreams of sex and violence which are visualized as quaint "bubbles" over the heads of the sleeper."--Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter. (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ibb9b7bb2eb298a6623d682df87f30dec)

Raya Martin: Independencia (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23073#post23073)

[Chris Knipp]

Elaborate festival presentation, laced with ironies, of the recently discovered earliest extant Korean film, a silent, with live music, two singers in costume, and a costumed dramatic narrator (pyosa).


An Jong-hwa: Crossroads of Youth (1934) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23075#post23075)

[Chris Knipp]

L'Enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot is one of those documentaries, like Fulton and Pepe's Lost in La Mancha, about a movie that never got finished. Clouzot was one of the biggest French directors in 1964 when he got so wound up in elaborate psychological visuals and over-shooting simple scenes that his male lead walked off, he had a heart attack, and there was to be only one more major film from his hand before he died at 70, thirteen yeas later.

Bomberg, Medea: Henri-Georges Clouzot's 'Inferno' (2009_ (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23078#post23078)

[Chris Knipp]

All the NYFF is covered now except two important ones: Almodovar's BROKEN EMBRACES and Michael Haneke's THE WHITE RIBBON come next week.

Here are links to all my reviews but those:

INDEX OF LINKS TO REVIEWS


Anichrist (Lars von Trier 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23009#post23009)
Around a Small Mountain (Jacques Rivette 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23051#post23051)
Art of the Steal, The (Don Argott 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=22982#post22982)
Bluebeard (Catherine Breillat 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23071#post23071)
Broken Embraces (Pedro Almodóvar 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&p=23094#post23094)
Crossroads of Youth (An Jong-hwa 1934) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23075#post23075)
Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=22998#post22998)
Everyone Else (Maren Ade 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23022#post23022)
Ghost Town (Zhao Dayong 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=22943#post22943)
Hadewijch (Bruno Dumont 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23026#post23026)
Henri-Georges Clouzot's 'Inferno' (Bomberg, Medea 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23078#post23078)
Independencia (Raya Martin 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23073#post23073)
Kanikosen (Sabu 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=22942#post22942)
Lebanon (Samuel Maoz 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23012#post23012)
Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23054#post23054)
Min Ye; Tell Me... (Soulaymane Cisse 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23056#post23056)
Mother (Bong Joon-ho 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23067#post23067)
Mummy, The (Shadi Abdel Salam 1969) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23086#post23086)
Ne Change Rien (Pedro Costa 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23062#post23062)
Pier Paolo Pasolini The Rage of Pasolinii (Pasolini, Bertolucci, 1963, 2008) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=22935#post22935)
Police, Adjective (Porumboliu (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23034#post23034)
Precious (Lee Daniels 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23069#post23069)
Room and a Half (Khrzharnovsky 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=22985#post22985)
Sweet Grass (Barbash, Taylor 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=22937#post22937)
Sweet Rush (Andrzej Wajda 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23020#post23020)
To Die As a Man (Rodrigues 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23000#post23000)
Trash Humpers (Harmony Korine 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23064#post23064)
Vincere (Marco Bellocchio 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=22961#post22961)
White Material (Claire Denis 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23048#post23048)
White Ribbon, The (Michael Haneke 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=23092#post23092)
Wild Grass (Alain Resnais 2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=22939#post22939)

[Chris Knipp]

A restored Egyptian film shown at Cannes this year is a sometimes beautiful if overwrought study of a topic dealt with often in Egyptian dramas: the morally dubious role of the villagers who are custodians of ancient Pharaonic temains but also steal them to sell and live off the proceeds.

Shadi Abdel Salam: The Mummy/The Night of Counting the Years (1969) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23086#post23086)

[Chris Knipp]

"With this new film, Michael Haneke returns to his classic themes of guilt, denial and violence as the mysterious symptom of mass dysfunction. The White Ribbon is a period film set in a secluded northern German village on the eve of the first world war, shot in a pellucid monochrome, impeccably acted, and directed with this film-maker's icily exact rigour and severity."--Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian (UK).

Michael Haneke; The White Ribbon (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23092#post23092)

[Chris Knipp]

'"Since the triumphant 'All About My Mother,' Pedro Almodovar has spent the last 10 years making middlebrow melodramas and noirs. . . His latest, the Penelope Cruz-vehicle 'Broken Embraces,' is yet another middlebrow melodramatic whodunit."--Martin Tsai, Critic's Notebook. (http://www.criticsnotebook.com/2009/10/broken-embraces.html)

Pedro Almodovar: Broken Embraces (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&p=23094#post23094)

[Chris Knipp]

Some summing-up of NYFF 2009


My Antichrist review is also published on Cinescene. (http://www.cinescene.com/knipp/antichrist.htm) 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 (Gainsbourg is a handsome woman,a sweetie-pie, and an icon in France, but she does look a bit embalmed at times). Unfortunately the reality of festival films and pleasure vs. pain is more complicated and it was the subject of some interesting speculation in a thoughtful article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/movies/07festival.html) 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 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23009#post23009) 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) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23026#post23026)--NO DISTRIB.
LIFE DURING WARTIME (TODD SOLONDZ) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23054#post23054)--NO DISTRIB.
THE WHITE RIBBON (MICHAEL HANEKE) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23092#post23092)--US RELEASE DEC. 30 FF. (L)
PRECIOUS (LEE DANIELS) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23069#post23069)--US RELEASE NOV. 6 (L)
TRASH HUMMPERS (HARMONY KORINE) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23064#post23064)--NO DISTRIB.
How could I choose such stuff as my favorites? I guess maybe Rex Reed is right, and 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
PIER PAOLO PASOLINI--The 'Rage' of Pasolini (Pasolini, Bertolucci, 1963, 2008)
ANDRZEJ WAJDA: Sweet Rush
CLAIRE DENIS: White Material
ALAIN 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. The first ones, 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)

[oscar jubis]

I am convinced LIFE DURING WARTIME will be picked up for distribution in the States soon. It is showing on Nov. 8th at the American Film Market in Santa Monica where many distribution deals are made (it is the main purpose of this industry festival). I am also convinced distributors have already made offers to the producers, who are probably holding out until they get a deal they like. It seems interest in the film has continued to build after several festival screenings.

I personally don't give credence to anything Rex Reed writes or says.

[Chris Knipp]

I've made a couple of corrections above. I didn't mean to leave out Almodovar. He's a director people go to for the name. Again, this is not his best work, but his greatest fans may greatly enjoy BROKEN EMBRACES, where a lot is certainly going on. 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.

I hope you're right about LIFE DURING WARTIME; I too noticed yesterday it was at the American Film Market. As for Rex Reed, he is I think largely discredited today among his peers, so the effort of dismissing him is unnecessary. But this is also true of Armond White, whose knowledge and independence of judgment are in another category and who needs to be watched for his moments of true insight. I go to Reed because his writing is amusing and expresses in sprightly fashion what a lot of people feel. `His view that the NYFF "tortures" its audiences is not far from the semi-official one of the NYTimes critics. I don't rule out anybody. I welcome writing that wakes one up and makes one think, or gives one perspective on one's own solemnities. I notice you have also forever banished Harmony Korine. That was a mistake.

[Chris Knipp]

My summing-up is also posted on the Festival Coverage NYFF 2009 Festival Coverage thread. (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=23171#post23171)

[oscar jubis]

I wrote that Korine has "ceased to intrigue me" and that reflects only my own personal lack of interest in his films. J. Hoberman, who shares my opinion about him, apparently opines that Trash Humpers is better than his previous films. I have to see it to believe it.

"The fest doesn't lack for provocations, although von Trier's Antichrist strains, Breillat's Bluebeard is over-subtle, and Solondz's Life During Wartime waxes too philosophical. Bruno Dumont's humorless Hadewijch deserves to be rated PFC (pretty fucking crazy), but the wackiest transgression is Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers. I've always considered Korine an untalented poseur, but, as the poet said, a fool persists in his folly until he becomes wise." (Hoberman in The Village Voice)

[Chris Knipp]

I didn't expect to get so much response so quickly -- thank you.

Hoberman's comment on TRASH HUMPERS: That's one way of looking at it. But only vaguely appropriate really. Nonetheless Hoberman is an excellent film writer. Like Dennis Lim, he can do very smart analyses. His summings-up here don't seem to me particularly helpful, but then I'm not so much into summings-up anyway. I can understand your looking to Jim H. for views. Surely he's wiser than Chris K. And has a lot more cinema critic cred.

Notice that Rex Reed and Hoberman both resort to the word "wack" to describe a NYFF film.

Saying Antichrist "strains" is a laugh. That's putting it mildly. Rex Reed gets to the point better. Hoberman is right as far as it goes on Breillat and Solondz, too subtle or too philosophical; they do veer in those directions. His comment on Dumont is rude and pointless really. I don't really go for an older man's using profanity (PFC) to seem youthful or hip; it doesn't work, and is not worthy of him. You can call pretty much any avantgardist an "untalented poseur." There is some truth in it. Until it turns out to have been simply out of step. But the trouble with this self-justifying remark is that what Korine achieves in TRASH HUMPERS isn't as far as I can see anything you can construe as wisdom. His is the movie that's pretty fucking crazy. But crazy in a way that takes you in a new unexpected place. Dumont's makes plenty of sense within various traditions and systems of thinking. He goes in new places for him, but I see nothing wacky or wack job about the film. It actually has much beauty in it, so for an outsider who hasn't seen it, Hoberman's statement may not be particularly helpful (note you're quoting him without having seen the films yourself)l, nor is it altogether hellpful on the other films, though his coming around a bit to allow for Korine's having something there is of value and shows he's flexible.

[oscar jubis]

Finally watched THE WHITE RIBBON a couple of nights ago and can't stop thinking about it. It is certainly "masterful" as you say in your review.

[Chris Knipp]

THE WHITE RIBBON . . .is certainly "masterful" as you say Indeed. I'm glad at least one other contributor has seen it and I hope eventually there will be many more. I've actually seen it twice, not my usual practice with new films. I'm also looking forward to seeing A Prophet/Un prophète by Audiard again, but couldn't make the FSLC preview today; it opens shortly, and I have lots of dialogue subtitles will clear up. Not the Corsican and Arabic -- the French subtitles made those clear -- but the slangy underworld French.

[oscar jubis]

The basic narrative structure in film (and literature) is erotetic. It sets the stage for a set of questions to emerge which are usually satisfactorily answered by the end of the film thus giving the audience a feeling of closure. The first question that THE WHITE RIBBON asks the audience to consider is: who placed a trip wire along the doctor's path presumably with the intent of causing him injury or death? It is the first in a series of "whodunits" in the narrative. I place Haneke's latest in a category of cinema in which the questions raised are either not answered, partly answered or answered ambiguously or vaguely. The oldest members of this category that I can recall are Antonioni's L'Avventura and Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad and the most recent one I have seen is Martel's The Headless Woman. This category of movies defy the erotetic model for a variety of purposes. They subvert our expectations in order to reveal deeper insights, lay bare reflexively the structures of narrative experience, and other interpretative and expressive purposes. What THE WHITE RIBBON suggests is that, at the historical moment in which the film is set, the repressive ideologies of the adult world created the conditions for the emergence of a generation of Germans willing to embrace a leader such as Hitler and carry out his malevolent intentions. Generally a whole society and, specifically, a certain generation was conditioned to execute a holocaust. The individual was lost in a collective subservient to Fascism or Nazism. This is why it is irrelevant for The White Ribbon to tell us precisely who set the trip wire and who blinded the mentally disabled boy (even though, in some instances, we get enough information to infer who is culpable).

Additionally, I see thematic parallels between The White Ribbon and Trier's Dogville and Manderlay, the two released films in a proposed trilogy he calls USA: Land of Opportunity. These films do not share Haneke's narrative strategy of erotetic defiance. What they have in common with Haneke's Cannes winner is that an isolated, small town serves as a microcosm of a nation in order to highlight and expose inherent moral flaws in its character.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, that's putting in more academic terms just about what everybody agrees is going on in THE WHITE RIBBON. Of course it has way, way more of a textured feel of historical authenticity than anything Mr. Trier has ever done.
even though we get enough information to infer who is culpable. I'd amend that to "to guess who might be culpable." There isn't enough information to infer who is. That's kind of been your point.

[oscar jubis]

Because of my projects, I am only watching about 2 new releases per week, usually something outside the mainstream. I have a lot of catching up to do if my list of favorites at the end of the year were to reflect what played in theaters in 2010. I have recently watched Everyone Else, a German film that played at the NYFF hence my posting here. This is drama in the tradition of The Mother & the Whore, as Hoberman mentioned. It deals with psychological minutiae most films don't dare to touch. One patron at the Cosford told me as she walked out into the muggy night that she really feels like she knows Chris and Gitti. Precisely the reaction writer/director Maren Ade seems to be striving to achieve. The movie is quite an accomplishment, very assured in tone, focused from beginning to end. I wonder how many good movies like this one I have missed.I missed A Prophet and Greenberg, for instance. Currently watching and rewatching Mizoguchi as preparation for a piece on Mizoguchi's feminism. Since my proposal for such a paper was accepted for presentation at a Film and History conference, it is foremost in my mind.

[Chris Knipp]

Everyone Else Probably I should have rerun that as a forums thread and then you could have responded directly to the Filmleaf Festival Coverage review (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23022#post23022). I assume you did read it though you don't respond to it, or to the many reviews that have appeared recently since it's been in theatrical release. * No, you restrict yourself to academic publications now and, it appears, have begun producing them yourself. Good for you. Press and industry response when I saw it seemed to be lukewarm and some thought it meandering and self-indulgent, but I found it pretty involving, like you. I commented on the "wonderfully natural acting," "continually interesting to watch," and said the "calibration is subtle, as with Jane Austen."

And that is all in my first paragraph! Any comparison with Jane Austen is as good as it gets as far as I'm concerned. Yet I didn't include this among my choices of the festival's best -- because as you may recall i tended to focus on some of the more provocative items -- WHITE RIBBON, HADEWIJCH, ANTICHRIST, and TRASH HUMPERS. Why exclude EVERYONE ELSE from that list? Well, apart from the fact that it doesn't knock you off your seat, there is the point I also make, that while "it's impossible not to conclude that Ade is doing something right, and has trod familiar paths but avoide""d cliche. She just needs to develop more faith in the value of the cutting room." We're justified in expecting good, maybe great, things from her in the future.

____________
*(In NYC anyway, from April 9; and then it was shown again at the SFIFF April 25.) Metacritic rating 74.

[oscar jubis]

[QUOTE=Chris Knipp;24435] Everyone Else: I assume you did read it though you don't respond to it, or to the many reviews that have appeared recently since it's been in theatrical release.
Right, I read all your reviews. I do respond to some. Other times it is more appropriate to write a comment that doesn't directly refer to your review. I don't usually deal with reception issues, either public or critical, involving new releases. I definitely cannot respond to "many reviews that have appeared" because I have only read Hoberman's and yours. I am also not inclined to casually write anything disagreeable about a review. In this case I might argue with your opinion that Everyone Else's director "needs to develop more faith in the value of the cutting room". My instinct tells me that something would be lost if anything is cut, perhaps a certain authenticity or quotidian balance of tone, a certain dailiness. But perhaps you are right, perhaps a more concentrated cut would give it vitality and sprightliness. Also, I could question your assertion that men are more likely to find Everyone Else "self indulgent and interminable". But, hey, you may be right. So I don't knock it.

No, you restrict yourself to academic publications now and, it appears, have begun producing them yourself. Good for you.
Thanks Chris. I am very excited about presenting at conferences because of the potential to get immediate response from people from around the country (and the world really). Usually your audiences are people who have special interest and expertise in the topic and the discussions that follow are very constructive. It is exciting and scary to deliver a paper to a room full of Japan scholars and "Mizo" fans, for instance, as I will do in November.

[Chris Knipp]

Well there! Now I've gotten a direct reply out of you. And you've brought out the only place where we differ on EVERYONE ELSE. What I said about men being more likely to find it "self indulgent and interminable" is only anecdotal. I didn't do a survey. But I did hear as well as read opinions at the NYFF and afterward. On the other hand, obviously the response has been very favorable. Metacritic rating: 82.

Beware of reading only my reviews and Jim Hoberman's! But I meant not that anybody needs to read every review of a film, just that one needs to be aware of what is going said, which is a different thing. I was perhaps only myself aware of one review when I wrote mine last year, Derek Elley's for Variety ("fuzzy filmmaking of the worst sort. An extraordinary choice for a competition slot at Berlin, pic is headed nowhere"). That, plus some negative men's views I heard at the screening, gave me a skewed picture. I was then somewhat surprised and, I guess, pretty relieved, when the many other quite favorable ones came out following the US theatrical release, with only a tiny minority even mentioning the advisability of editing; most saw the minute detail and rambling structure as necessary virtues. I try to consider faults of even the best movie and vice versa, though sometimes I forget.

Listening to the Truffaut/Hitchcock interviews (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1519) in all their minute, film-by-film detail, I am more and more struck by how often Hitchcock himself -- a man of such firm confidence, forthright speech and decided opinions -- admits to failures and mistakes in his work. (He seems to think far less highly than recent writers of VERTIGO and thinks it had the wrong lead actor, but that's another topic to be discussed elsewhere). When even Homer gladly admits to nodding, I'm the more ready to consider flaws in the work of a young director.

Good luck with the Mizo experts. I hope it's not like a sea full of sharks, that you find some friendly dophins in the waters. And I'm glad you're sticking with this site and hope you can continue to contribute to it.

[oscar jubis]

[QUOTE=Chris Knipp;24438] I was perhaps only myself aware of one review when I wrote mine last year, Derek Elley's for Variety
I like to watch movies not knowing about critical response. It's easier to do at festivals.

Listening to the Truffaut/Hitchcock interviews (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1519) in all their minute, film-by-film detail, I am more and more struck by how often Hitchcock himself -- a man of such firm confidence, forthright speech and decided opinions -- admits to failures and mistakes in his work.
Beware of taking Hitch at his word. One central aspect of his personality is the need to theatricalize himself. This is what motivates his famous cameos, his performances introducing episodes of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", his appearances in commercials and all kinds of promotional events and, most importantly, his use of the camera in a way that calls attention to the sly presence behind it. When Hitch talks he is constantly aware that he is performing and calculating the effect of what he is saying. Hitch was short, pudgy and plain-looking but he made himself a star.

Good luck with the Mizo experts. I hope it's not like a sea full of sharks, that you find some friendly dophins in the waters.
Thanks. A shark might say that Mizoguchi is no feminist; that showing the suffering of women serves the patriarchy because it engenders sadist fantasies in male viewers and masochistic fantasies in female viewers, or something along those lines. It is good to imagine possible counter-arguments ahead of time.

And I'm glad you're sticking with this site and hope you can continue to contribute to it.
I'm a loyal bitch!

[Chris Knipp]

I like to watch movies knowing everything it's possible to know about them, including the critical response and, of course, any information reviews may provide about the film and the filmmakers. The notion that one will enjoy something more if one approaches it as a tabula rasa, in ignorance, seems puzzling to me. Very often even at festivals one is able to be informed and of course at press screenings press kits are usually provided and the more diligent of us try to peruse them beforehand.

Yes Hitchcock was certainly a performer but the fact remains that in the interviews he readily admits mistakes and failures and does so quite voluntarily. Have you heard the interview tapes? Or read the famous Truffaut book? I never had. Its effect must be somewhat different.

I would hope that you stick with Filmleaf not because you're a bitch whatever that vulgar term means in this case but because it's worthwhile to you and to us. i realize this is practically my personal website half the time but that's by default and not my desire.

[oscar jubis]

I do research only after the screening and only read a couple of reviews. There are exceptions usually involving the few films I find... exceptional.

Long ago, I read the first edition of the Truffaut/Hitch book and found it interesting but frustrating because Truffaut never challenges Hitch's assertions. He is no Pete Bogdanovich. I am not so keen on Truffaut as a critic either, by the way. And yet, it is interesting and worthwhile reading. To know Hitch one should read William Rothman's "The Murderous Gaze" and Robin Wood's "Hitchcock's Films".

Writing challenge: write a paper meant to be heard rather than read. It is a totally different dynamic. If I use too many foreign words (Japanese first names for instance) I lose the attention of the audience. Sentences must be shorter, right, so people can follow without too much effort. I am going to write as usual and then simplify, abridge, and clarify as much as I can. Have you ever written a speech? I have not.

I intend to keep this thread alive. How about Mother? Obviously we agree this is nothing special. Certainly less involving and moving than Memories of Murder (#25 Foreign, 2005), which was not quite a great movie. In general, the Korean boom evinced a robust industry but no director I consider a major talent or artist. No Hou, "Joe" or Jia among this bunch. Hong Sang-soo, which you mention, is the single Korean director I know who merits consideration among the truly great. I also love the films of Jin-ho Hur.

[Chris Knipp]

I understand what you do; so? Repeating that is not an argument. Of course it's more worthwhile researching "exceptional" films but the more you know the more you can appreciate and/or judge, and that could just as well go for GET HIM TO THE GREEK. It helps to brush up on Apatow and on Russell Brand. Ignorance is not an aid to viewing or watching. After you've been an academic for a while, you might reconsider your assumptions on this matter. It is because of my own academic background and coming from an overeducated family that I consider preparation valuable at all times. Probably going to a college where a lot of the students were much smarter than me also helped. Of course approaching with an open mind is also important. If you can't do both, prepare and keep an open mind, you're out of luck.

Well, you were the first one to recommend Korean filmmaking to me. Maybe Hong Sang-soo indeed is the best from a western-oriented point of view but I'm sure there are others. Park Chan-wook's films are mind-boggling. The Koreans know how to create a lot of intensity. Sometimes as with Mother it doesn't go anywhere much. I am not yet in love with "Joe." Jia and Hou are also a mixed bag, though at their best they are magic. Maybe "Joe's" magic will hit me eventually. So far it mostly just seems fey and weird. The one I'd say the Koreans definitely can't yet touch is Wong Kar-wai.

I would not trash the Truffaut/Hitchcock tapes on the basis of a criticism of Truffaut as a critic in general or by saying he doesn't challenge Hitchcock. Actually, in the tapes, he is polite, of necessity, but he often challenges him and I'm struck by how frankly he points out certain films were not a success, were a reversion to relatively trivial material, and so forth, and Hitchcock agrees. Truffaut is not Bogdanovitch? Maybe not, but Bogdonovitch didn't do this set of interviews. So what? I am more interested in what the tapes reveal of Hitchcock's approach. There are plenty of directors I find more exciting or intriguing. Hitchcock was more an enthusiasm of my youth. But in terms of basic technique and clarity of form, Hitchcock is hard to beat, and the interviews help us understand why. Needless to say, you cannot critique the tapes on the basis of Truffaut's book, because they are almost certainly different, though I haven't read the book or read a comparison of the two.

I always write to be read aloud. If you haven't been, it's high time you began. If you're talking about Japanese movies you may have to use Japanese names. I'm sure anybody who comes to hear you is ready for that. The very first writing I did that was a success. I read it aloud to the class. Every sentence was a zinger. They were short. They got more and more laughs. It is of course a good idea to go back and cut up your sentences. I have to do that too. I have a friend in England who has pushed me to do that. My academic writing was never written in academic-ese. Maybe that's why I'm not an academic any more and never really was for long. Good writing "to be read silently" or to "be read aloud" ought not be a different "dynamic." Both should be clear and not require the reader or listener to need to go back over earlier sentences to make out what you're saying.

--
www.chrisknipp.com

[oscar jubis]

I understand what you do; so? Repeating that is not an argument.
No argument intended. It's not my aim to convince you that my method is superior. Just to share my thoughts on the matter. Basically, you go into a movie with a set of often-unavoidable expectations based on cast, crew, trailer or movie poster perhaps. More information on top of that might interfere with the basic source of my writing: what tabuno describes as "what you are feeling and thinking during the movie". What is the drawback of waiting until this "feeling and thinking" has happened to do the research? You can always return to the film as needed.

I always write to be read aloud. If you haven't been, it's high time you began.
There are adjustments to be made from text-written-to-be-read to text-written-to-be-heard. I grant you Chris, that your writing would require only minor adjustment compared to other writing styles. But adjustments need to be made. If I may, take for instance the second sentence from your Mother review:
"The starting point of it is Kim Hye-ja, grande dame of Korean acting (around whom the screenplay by Bong and Park Eun-kyo is built), who gets a chance to break away from the long-suffering, boundlessly loving mother image she maintains in the long-running "Rustic Diary" TV series to embrace a juicier, darker, richer role."
The use of parenthetical remarks and ulterior details (the name of the TV series, for example) detracts from the clarity of your central idea when the sentence has to be processed through the ears. You would have to make adjustments if reading this review to people.

I still recommend Korean filmmaking. It's just that I think that it is the lesser of the national cinemas that experienced a resurgence during the past 15 years or so. I know this is a matter of opinion.

[Chris Knipp]

As I said earlier, If you can't do both, prepare and keep an open mind, you're out of luck. "When ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise." I hope you're not confusing knowledge of a film with preconceptions about its merits.

I could have added before that I'm quite fond of long, intricate sentences. I have a bit of a weakness for writing long, portmanteau-style ones at the beginning of a review to pack in all the basic information. Touché on that one you quote. It would not only need to be rewritten to be read aloud; it needs to be rewritten to make it a better sentence, period.

You may be right on Korean films, but I'm not particularly good at "rating" "national cinemas." Too sweeping for me. Did they have a "resurgence"? I didn't know they were ever great before. Didn't they just have a "surgence", so to speak?

Italian movies -- I can say this -- have long seemed to be in decline. Yesterday, though, I was pleasantly surprised by a new one, Luca Guadagnino's I AM LOVE, with Tilda Swinton. With its Viscontiesque grandeur, it harked back to the good old days, without seeming dated.

I hope somebody if not you will listen to the Truffaut/Hitchcock tapes so we can have a discussion. I definitely do not think Truffaut is too wimpy. I wanted to point out to you that Tom Sutpen, whose blog (http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/2006/03/hitchcocktruffaut-tapes-1.html) I got the files of the tapes from, mplies in his comments that Truffaut is too bossy and know-it-all and intrusive. Sort of the opposite of what you were saying about Truffaut based on the book, sounds like. I think Truffaut does a darn good job. Maybe I'm wrong. Again, I have yet to read the book Truffaut made out of the interviews. Nor am I any expert on Hitchcock's "oeuvre."

[oscar jubis]

[QUOTE=Chris Knipp;24445]As I said earlier, If you can't do both, prepare and keep an open mind, you're out of luck. "When ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise." I hope you're not confusing knowledge of a film with preconceptions about its merits.
The issue is simply a personal preference over the timing of the research.

You may be right on Korean films, but I'm not particularly good at "rating" "national cinemas." Too sweeping for me. Did they have a "resurgence"? I didn't know they were ever great before. Didn't they just have a "surgence", so to speak?
Yes, not quite a decade, beginning at the same time as the Nouvelle Vague.

Italian movies -- I can say this -- have long seemed to be in decline. Yesterday, though, I was pleasantly surprised by a new one, Luca Guadagnino's I AM LOVE, with Tilda Swinton. With its Viscontiesque grandeur, it harked back to the good old days, without seeming dated.
Read about it as part of a festival review. Sounds great.

I hope somebody if not you will listen to the Truffaut/Hitchcock tapes so we can have a discussion. I definitely do not think Truffaut is too wimpy. I wanted to point out to you that Tom Sutpen, whose bllog (http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/2006/03/hitchcocktruffaut-tapes-1.html) I got the files of the tapes from, mplies in his comments that Truffaut is too bossy and know-it-all and intrusive. Sort of the opposite of what you were saying about Truffaut based on the book, sounds like. I think Truffaut does a darn good job. Maybe I'm wrong. Again, I have yet to read the book Truffaut made out of the interviews. Nor am I any expert on Hitchcock's "oeuvre."
And I qualify my impression of the interviews by saying it is based on a reading of the first edition of the book quite a long time ago, perhaps the late 80s, and a 2008 reading of the segment concerning Psycho as research for a paper.

[Chris Knipp]

But wait just a minute here: "The timing of the research" could be a crucial issue. You can drop it and move on if you like but it's not as simple a matter as you assert. It concerns nothing more nor less than how you watch a movie.

You confuse me about Korean films. How could their surge be a decade if it began with the Nouvelle Vague, which was in the late Fifties and early Sixties? Or are you just not explaining? What was "not quite a decade"??

I hope I AM LOVE is as good as it seemed to me. I have some reservations about the editing and camerawork, but I was way more impressed than I expected to be.

Do you think there's a big difference between the first edition of the Truffaut/Hitchcock book and later editions? Is that why you keep mentioning that it was the first edition that you read?

I think it's possible to get two opposite impressions of Truffaut from these interviews. At times T. seems very deferential, agreeing to things he says rather enthusiastically. T is always referring to Hitchcock as "Monsieur Hitchcock" while Hitch refers to him as "François" (but they both use the third person because they're talking through Helen Scott, the interpreter).

Hitch agrees readily with things T. suggests too. They're friendly, not combative. At other times young Truffaut holds forth at length, describing a Hitchcock film and giving his opinion about it (which seems to annoy blogger Tom Sutpen no end), or saying a film wasn't a success, or asking if Hitchcock doesn't think it was unsuccessful -- and that hardly sounds meek. Whether you are right that Truffaut "never challenges Hitchcock's assertions" is a slightly different issue and something I'd have to consider but over the course of these many hours I'd be surprised if he doesn't.

But what matters is, does anything of value come out of these interviews, and if so, what? I think they provide valuable insight into how Hitchcock thought about his films. Are you saying as far as you can remember they don't, because Truffaut isn't probing enough?

Let's grant that that may be so. But if he had been more probing, would it have worked? How?

What do you mean when you say "He is no Pete Bogdonovitch." What is Peter Bogdonovitch as a film critic or interviewer of directors that you think Truffaut falls short of rising to?

[Michuk]

"Can the most regressive work yet by an artist known for arrested development also be a sign of his newfound maturity?" "--Dennis Lim, Cinema Scope.

Harmony Korine: Trash Humpers (2009) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23064#post23064)

Chris, you wrote a lot about the film and about how others see it but I'm interested in your opinion. Did you find Trash Humpers to be plotless mess with no value? Or perhaps you saw something new and original outside of this humping nonsense? I attended the screening last night and wrote a short summary of the event here: Ultraculture Cinema #2: Trash Humpers (not really a review) (http://michuk.filmaster.com/review/ultraculture-cinema-3-trash-humpers-not-really-a-review/) but I'm still pretty confused how to interpret the movie (if it's worth interpreting at all).

[Chris Knipp]

I enjoyed the freedom of TRASH HUMPPERS. It's like a sketch, rather than a finished painting. Maybe most films, even like say, Bujalski's BEESWAX (which I just got around to watching), are too polished, and live up too slavishly to what a film's supposed to be and look like. Bujalski has honed his "mumblecore" technique so well that this film looks like a real slice of life. And it's beautifully done, but so what? TRASH HUMPERS is meant to be (as Korine explained in detail; and it's been repeated by others elsewhere) like an old videotape you might find in a dumpster and would be afraid to watch for fear it might turn out to be a snuff film. His wife contributed this idea, as I recall. Korine also said that when he was growing up in this same area, there were some "scary" older people who were like bums wandering around. It's also true that clearly in some places the film refers to the artist personality and there is a speech in a car that highlights this theme.

I wish you'd quoted your Filmaster comment instead of just linking to it. Don't you know some people are too lazy to even click on links any more? You say some things that sound more favorable than your post here on Filmleaf:
If nothing else, "Trash humpers" is a truly original film and it's extremely hard to find any useful references in the history of cinema to make some meaningful comparison. It somehow reminded me of von Trier's The Idiots. It had a similarly obscure climax and the characters' sexual behaviour was also far from normal. Still Korine's film is much more hardcore and after all it's really mostly a movie about old people humping trash. Not the most pleasant visual experience but seriously original and definitely encouraging discussion.
Seriously original and definitely encouraging discussion are positive values in themselves.

OK and what did I think about the film then? Well... it's a movie about people humping trash cans. Bins. And general rubbish. But... it's also a movie about free individuals, artists that may not even realize they are ones. Or at least that's what I thought and actually Korine seems to be suggesting this as well by saying: "There can be a creative beauty in their mayhem and destruction. You could say these characters are poets or mystics of mayhem… comedic with a vaudevillian horror." You are misleading the non-viewer because humping trash cans is only a fraction of the on screen activity of the characters. The artist aspect is definitely there.

I personally liked TRASH HUMPERS because of the way it combines the comical with the threatening and disturbing, the way it seems like an artifact and a piece of amateurism but could hardly have been done by anybody else. And I just found it very cool that the sedate and highly selective New York Film Festival chose this, to be seen side by side with the immaculate perfection of Haneke's THE WHITE RIBBON or the much more tendentious, self-conscious, and glossily-produced provocation of ANTICHRIST.

Again I'd refer viewers to Dennis Lim's exegisis and defense (http://cinema-scope.com/wordpress/web-archive-2/issue-40/spotlight-harmony-korine%E2%80%99s-trash-humpers/) of TRANS HUMPERS.

J.Hoberman in his Village Voice review (http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-05-04/film/harmony-korine-s-trash-humpers-captures-nashville-s-roving-gang-of-wilding-seniors/) has little good to say about the film, yet his concluding paragraph is not so dismissive as some of his remarks along the way:
The outskirts of Nashville might as well be the ruins of a vast mental hospital, with former inmates wandering through its deserted dumps and dead-end streets. As bucolic as the image of a discarded toilet reposing in a field of weeds, Trash Humpers revels in the melancholy beauty of random photographic reproduction—a pair of pink stretch pants illuminating the debris in an overgrown shed or, lit from within, the blue awning that adorns a featureless concrete slab. It's ultimately less a celebration of impulse behavior than a celebration of the parodic impulse to record. After all, Hobrerman was on the jury that selected the Nyff 2009 roster, including TRASH HUMPERS. When I read this passage, I think of some of the great contemporary art photographers of the American South, such as Clarance John Laughlin, Ralph Eurene Meatyard (who made liberal use of masks), and (the ost highly regarded now) William Eggleston. Or we can go to the Eighties specifically, evoked by TRASH HUMPERS' format, to the surrealism of Joel-Peter Witkin; or bo back further to non-southern photograpic cousins like William Klein or, needless to say, Diane Arbus. It's interesting to consider how much still photography has from its origins dwelt on the insane, and on the derelict. Both seem to lend themselves to the medium, and to go together. It's also true that despite all the awe expressed at modern cinematography's tricks and wonders, it rarely achieves the edge or sophistication or complexity of still art photography. Korine is very much a southern artist, and this may be too little noted. For the "parodic impulse to record," take a look at the revealing Michael Almereyda documentary William Eggleston in the Real World (2005). (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443698/) You can get it from Netflix. (http://www.netflix.com/Movie/William_Eggleston_in_the_Real_World/70040497)

[Michuk]

I wish you'd quoted your Filmaster comment instead of just linking to it. Don't you know some people are too lazy to even click on links any more?

Well, bad for them, lazy bastards! :)
The Filmaster non-review was more about the event on which the film was shown than the film itself, so I did not find it useful to copy the whole thing here.


You are misleading the non-viewer because humping trash cans is only a fraction of the on screen activity of the characters. The artist aspect is definitely there.

Yes I know that. They also demolish tv sets and play with fireworks. And read some poems. And play trumpet. But the general feel is that they are insane lunatics out of this world who do nasty stuff in bad taste. This is what I meant. And I think it's good to have that warning because not everyone is willing to overcome their first feelings of repulsion to actually start contemplating the picture and trying to find something in it, under the unpleasant masks of those fake old people.


I personally liked TRASH HUMPERS because of the way it combines the comical with the threatening and disturbing, the way it seems like an artifact and a piece of amateurism but could hardly have been done by anybody else.

I liked it as well. And I think it might have been for the same reasons.

[Chris Knipp]

I liked it as well.

Will, I wish you'd come right out and said so. You seemed afraid your readers would pounce on you?


The Filmaster non-review was more about the event on which the film was shown than the film itself, so I did not find it useful to copy the whole thing her Doesn't matter now but I just wanted you to quote the parts that described and interpreted the film itself.
I think it's good to have that warning because not everyone is willing to overcome their first feelings of repulsion to actually start contemplating the picture and trying to find something in it,If "warnings" really help people to understand films. I didn't know that. I don't really think about it. But Dennis Lim's sort of definitive piece starts out with a warning:
It is perhaps redundant to call Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers a provocation. For starters, the title is meant literally.
--Cinema Scope piece (http://cinema-scope.com/wordpress/web-archive-2/issue-40/spotlight-harmony-korine%E2%80%99s-trash-humpers/) by Dennis Lim. I just objected to your saying the movie is "about humping trash cans." It's not "about" that. The title itself is a warning, if the audience pays any attention to titles. Maybe I have been too fussy about what you wrote because you do explain yourself:
Well... it's a movie about people humping trash cans. Bins. And general rubbish. But... it's also a movie about free individuals, artists that may not even realize they are ones.

[oscar jubis]

[QUOTE=Chris Knipp;24448]You confuse me about Korean films. How could their surge be a decade if it began with the Nouvelle Vague, which was in the late Fifties and early Sixties? Or are you just not explaining? What was "not quite a decade"??
You may be right on Korean films, but I'm not particularly good at "rating" "national cinemas." Too sweeping for me. Did they have a "resurgence"? I didn't know they were ever great before. Didn't they just have a "surgence", so to speak?(CK)
Yes, not quite a decade, beginning at the same time as the Nouvelle Vague.(OJ)

Korean cinema had a "surgence" in the late 50s (same time as Nouvelle Vague) and it lasted less than a decade. The "REsurgence" took place in the late 1990s and into the 2000s. My opinion: what they have now is a vibrant industry that is the envy of similar-sized nations. They have extremely skillful crews, actors, and directors. But in my opinion, it's only Hong who can be compared to the great contemporary Asian directors, WKW included, and he comes short.



Do you think there's a big difference between the first edition of the Truffaut/Hitchcock book and later editions? Is that why you keep mentioning that it was the first edition that you read?
Just clarifying that I have not read the segments added for the 2nd edition and that I do not remember the interviews in detail because it has been a long time since I read them (except from excerpts dealing with Psycho)


But what matters is, does anything of value come out of these interviews, and if so, what? I think they provide valuable insight into how Hitchcock thought about his films. Are you saying as far as you can remember they don't, because Truffaut isn't probing enough?
I said it was interesting and worthwhile reading but it could have been more so, particularly given Hitch's personality, if he was more knowledgeable and more probing (perhaps Truffaut's limited English was a hindrance also).



What do you mean when you say "He is no Pete Bogdonovitch." What is Peter Bogdonovitch as a film critic or interviewer of directors that you think Truffaut falls short of rising to?
Of all American directors, Pete BOGDANOVICH id the most knowledgeable about cinema and film history. He is also an excellent interviewer. His interviews with John Ford, Howard Hawks, and other directors are legendary. The book about Ford and one called "Who the Devil made it: Conversations with Legendary Film Directors" are the class of the field.

[Chris Knipp]

This largely belongs in the Hitchcock/Truffaut thread. So I'll post that part over there. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2847-HITCHCOCK-TRUFFAUT-tapes#post24462)

I get it now about Korean filmmaking to have surged in the late Fifties. I'm sure I've heard that maybe even from you but needed to be reminded; I don't know much of anything about that time in Korean movies though. Have I seen any from then? I don't think so. You may be right on Hong Sang-soo, and hence there are not as many major directors produced by Korea as by Hong Kong or China, which is not too surprising.

[Chris Knipp]

August 17 post from Oscar about WILD GRASS on another newer thread:


I have yet to write anything about WILD GRASS, which I watched on Sunday.

For me, it's clearly one of my favorite movies of 2010. Perhaps my favorite even though it had less emotional impact on me than GREENBERG. I simply had a smile from ear to ear watching this delicious movie-movie. I just can't get over how a Master approaching 90 years of age keeps experimenting with the medium rather than attempting to repeat old successes. WILD GRASS may well be Resnais' most surrealist and playful film even though it is not his best. I love Dussolier and Azema together. I love their neurotic and erotic mania and how it contrasts with the passive enabling of the sedate secondary characters. This is so much fun to watch. I love the fake ending which uses the Warner Brothers fanfare, the non-sequitur real ending, the scene-within-a-scene device, the occasional use of an unreliable narrator,...I could keep going. I hope I find the time to rewatch it before it leaves town.

[oscar jubis]

I had the distinct pleasure of viewing two more films from NYFF '09.
I think period films and adaptations really suit Catherine Breillat. Her take on Perrault's fairytale BLUEBEARD gives you plenty to contemplate and reflect in a small 80 min. package. It is interesting to ponder the autobiographical aspects in the sibling relationship in both the tale itself and the framing story (sisters who are reading it themselves in the attic sometime in the 1950s). Great performances from four young girls with minimal or no acting experience as a consequence, I presume, of Breillat's brilliant casting and direction. I look forward to her new film, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY, also a Perrault adaptation that takes a similar approach to the material. Howard's review of it is quite favorable.

I think SWEETGRASS is a masterpiece. An experiential film about the vanishing art of sheep-farming and herding. Absolutely impeccable lensing and sound design. Had to see it twice in a row and burn copies for my professors.
I will try to continue posting here at filmleaf once a week. I will be extremely busy with my film studies until about Dec. 10th; this includes a trip to Milwaukee to present an illustrated conference essay on the great Kenji Mizoguchi.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for your comments. I hope you will get to this year's NYFF sooner or later. I prefer Breillat's LAST MISTRESS to BLUEBEARD, though it has its points, nice little film. SWEET GRASS I guess is memorable, thought I would not want to watch it twice in a row even if I were tied to a chair.
I hope your Milwaukee Mizoguchi paper is a hit.

By the way I saw André Dusollier on the rue du Bac (7ième) in Paris in April. I walked right by him. He had two shopping bags beside him and was talking on his cell phone.

Speaking of old directors, we had some in the NYFF 2010. De Oliveira's STRANG CASE OF ANGELICA was excellent. He gets the reward for age. Then of course Godard's FILM SOCIALISME. He'll be 80 in two months.

Clint Eastwood is 80 I guess now and I saw his new film HEREAFTER today, the last film of the NYFF, and I liked it.

[Chris Knipp]

Update on the Portuguese gay film from NYFF 2009, Rodrigues' TO DIE LIKE A MAN: In October 2010 Strand Releasing announced that it will open in spring 2011 in US theaters.

Strand also says the film is Portugal’s Official Selection for Best Foreign Language Film in the Academy Awards, 2010 (83rd).

[Chris Knipp]

Todd Soldondz: DARK HORSE

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2784/darkhorsec.jpg
Jordan Gelber and Donna Murphy in Dark Horse.

Shot in 2010, shown at Venice and Toronto in 2011, Solondz's sixth feature will be released June 8, 2012. But I will not see it or review it, because I am not in New York :(

It releases in Ireland and the UK June 29, 2012.

There are already reviews, and its Metacritic rating has gone up from 44 to 52. Armond White has reviewed it here. (http://cityarts.info/2012/05/29/zombie-mantra/) "Solondz abhors irony in Dark Horse" his title is. Is that true? Or is the irony so deep it becomes something else? Anyway White is more sympathetic than most.


[DARK HORSE is] a film about Abe (Jordan Gelber), a 35-year-old Jewish man—overweight, living with his parents, employed in his father’s real estate business yet still playing with toys, desperate to begin his life and enjoy the culture’s empty cheer.

Abe’s not a frontrunner, the sports metaphor used by his father (Christopher Walken). His dim prospects reflect Everyman pessimism through a lower middle-class experience that’s more authentic than Death of a Salesman, yet rarely acknowledged. Solondz, almost alone among Jewish-American filmmakers, presents ethnic uniqueness frankly, with unsmiling mockery. His tough, deadpan compassion is more humane than fashionable cynicism. White calls LIFE DURING WARTIME "almost masterly." It certailnly is -- I reviewed (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23054#post23054) it as part of the NYFF 2009 (cued on page 4 of this thread), and I hope more people get to see it, because I think Solondz's mastery grows from film to film. Antagonistic critics (of which there are always plenty) say he says nothing in DARK HORSE he has not said effectively in HAPPINESS, etc., but the same message plus greater mastery = a must-see. "At bottom, I am always making the same film" -- Fellini.

White mentions the Coens' A SERIOUS MAN, whose deadpan also most reviewers didn't get, but he did, and I sense a link between the two films, a "tough, deadpan compassion" that "presents ethnic uniqueness frankly" and that viewers don't get because they see an irony that isn't really there, and find it cruel. White also mentions Apatow comedies and so has Solondz himself in an interview; he proposes Abe in DARK HORSE as a humane and civilized take on the Jewish schlubs of the Apatow stable. I'm going to follow Mike D'Angelo's practice and avoid viewing trailers or videos.

[Chris Knipp]

Todd Soldondz: DARK HORSE

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2784/darkhorsec.jpg
Jordan Gelber and Donna Murphy in Dark Horse.

Shot in 2010, shown at Venice and Toronto in 2011, Solondz's sixth feature will be released June 8, 2012. But I will not see it or review it, because I am not in New York :(

It releases in Ireland and the UK June 29, 2012.

There are already reviews, and its Metacritic rating has gone up from 44 to 52. Armond White has reviewed it here. (http://cityarts.info/2012/05/29/zombie-mantra/) "Solondz abhors irony in Dark Horse" his title is. Is that true? Or is the irony so deep it becomes something else? Anyway White is more sympathetic than most.


[DARK HORSE is] a film about Abe (Jordan Gelber), a 35-year-old Jewish man—overweight, living with his parents, employed in his father’s real estate business yet still playing with toys, desperate to begin his life and enjoy the culture’s empty cheer.

Abe’s not a frontrunner, the sports metaphor used by his father (Christopher Walken). His dim prospects reflect Everyman pessimism through a lower middle-class experience that’s more authentic than Death of a Salesman, yet rarely acknowledged. Solondz, almost alone among Jewish-American filmmakers, presents ethnic uniqueness frankly, with unsmiling mockery. His tough, deadpan compassion is more humane than fashionable cynicism. White calls LIFE DURING WARTIME "almost masterly." It certailnly is -- I reviewed (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23054#post23054) it as part of the NYFF 2009 (cued on page 4 of this thread), and I hope more people get to see it, because I think Solondz's mastery grows from film to film. Antagonistic critics (of which there are always plenty) say he says nothing in DARK HORSE he has not said effectively in HAPPINESS, etc., but the same message plus greater mastery = a must-see. "At bottom, I am always making the same film" -- Fellini. LIFE DURING WARTIME was one of the delights and surprises of the 2009 NYFF for me. I am eager to see DARK HORSE and disappointed that it may be some time before I can.

White mentions the Coens' A SERIOUS MAN, whose deadpan also most reviewers didn't get, but he did, and I sense a link between the two films, a "tough, deadpan compassion" that "presents ethnic uniqueness frankly" and that viewers don't get because they see an irony that isn't really there, and find it cruel. White also mentions Apatow comedies and so has Solondz himself in an interview (http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/director-todd-solondz-avoids-controversy-in-dark-horse-1.3766251); he proposes Abe in DARK HORSE as a humane and civilized take on the Jewish schlubs of the Apatow stable. I'm going to follow Mike D'Angelo's practice and avoid viewing trailers or videos.