Nyff 2013

[Chris Knipp]

New York Film Festival 2013
September 27 - October 13, 2013

Filmleaf's NYFF 2013 Festival Coverage reviews thread begins here. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013)

Links to reviews:
12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31048#post31048)
About Time (Richard Curtis 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30981#post30981)
Abuse of Weakness (Catherine Breillat 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31004#post31004)
Alan Partridge [Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa] (Declan Lowney 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31011#post31011)
All Is Lost (J.C. Chandor 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31050#post31050)
American Promise (Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31008#post31008)
At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30936#post30936)
Bastards (Claire Denis 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31041#post31041)
Blue Is the Warmest Color (La vie d'Adèle; Abdelatif Kéchiche 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31069#post31069)
Burning Bush (Agnieszka Holland 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31002#post31002)
Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31010#post31010)
Child of God (James Franco 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30940#post30940)
Club Sandwich (Fernando Eimcke 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30990#post30990)
Gloria (Sebastián Lelioa 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013/page3#post31043)
Her (Spike Jonze 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31070#post31070)
Immigrant, The (James Gray 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31039#post31039)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31006#post31006)
Invisible Woman, The (Ralph Fiennes 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31060#post31060)
Jealousy (Philippe Garrel 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30996#post30996)
Jimmy, Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (Arndau Desplechin 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013/page2)
Last of the Unjust, The (Claude Lanzmann 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30961#post30961)
Like Father, Like Son (Hirakazu Koreeda 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30937#post30937)
Missing Picture, The (Rithy Panh 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30979#post30979)
My Name Is Hmmm... (agnès b. 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31017#post31017)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31051#post31051)
Nobody's Daughter (Hong Sang-soo 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30943#post30943)
North, the End of History (Lav Diaz 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30966#post30966)
Omar (Hany Abu-Assad 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31028#post31028)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013/page3#post31066)
Real (Kiyoshi Kurosawa 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31016#post31016)
Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The (Ben Stiller 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31044#post31044)
Square, The (Jehane Noujaim 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31000&posted=1#post31000)
Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30971#post30971)
Stray Dogs (Tsiai Ming-liang 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30998&posted=1#post30998)
Touch of Sin, A (Jia Zhang-ke 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30942#post30942)
Week-End, Le (Roger Mitchell 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30959#post30959)
When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism (Corneliu Porumboiu 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30994#post30994)
Wind Rises, The (Hayao Miyazaki 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30963#post30963)

The main slate has been announced and is here. (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced) There are 35 films, the biggest main slate yet. There are usually 25-30. The Main Slate is also listed at the start of the 2013 NYFF Filmleaf Festival Coverage thread.

REMEMBER: This is the thread where individual Filmleaf reviews of the films will be announced with links to the Festival Coverage section, and it's also the place for members to post any comments they wish about the festival, the films, and the reviews.


A quick tour of the Main Slate. *

A lot from Cannes, as usual

"Familiar faces abound in the lineup, which features over 20 filmmakers making a return to NYFF, some of them for the fifth, sixth, even seventh time! Repeat returnees include Catherine Breillat (Abuse of Weakness), the Coen brothers (Inside Llewyn Davis), Claire Denis (Bastards), Arnaud Desplechin (Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian), Agnieska Holland (Burning Bush), Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive), Alexander Payne (Nebraska), and Jia Zhangke (A Touch of Evil)" -- Filmlinc, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, festival introduction page. All these (except Burning Bush and more come from this spring's Cannes festival, including items that won six of Cannes' big prizes, twelve Cannes films in all. Two other Cannes films included are Jia Zhang-ke's A Touch of Sin and James Gray's The Immigrant (with Joaquin Phoenix and Marion Cotillard). Also included from Cannes is Alain Giraudie's controversial (and admired) French film of anonymous gay sex and murder, The Stranger by the Lake; Strand Releasing will bring this out. And less blessed at Cannes but included is NYFF fave Arnaud Desplechin's Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (ill received and by some, mocked). Last but not least is the top Cannes winner, Abdellatif Kechiche's steamy study of a youthful lesbian affair, Blue is the Warmest Color, with Léa Seydoux. There are some titles from Locarno and Venice too. There are also five English films and eight French ones. Is the fact that there's only one from Latin America due to the absence of Richard Peña? Let's hope not! More likely it's more than anything simply due to what was good and suitable for inclusion in the slate when it was made up this year.

More comedies. . . opening, centerpiece, and closing night films.

This is the first slate supervised by Kent Jones, the new Programming Director and Selection Committee (jury) Chair since Richard Peña retired. Variety (http://variety.com/2013/film/news/2013-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced-1200581141/) suggests that Jones' different taste may be most visible in the greater number of comedies. They start with Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Spike Jonze's Her, the centerpiece and closing night films, respectively; and continue with Around Time (Richard Curtis), Le Week-End (Roger Mitchell), and Alan Partridge (Declan Lowney, with Steve Coogan, an actor who was featured in the NYFF 2005 film by Michael Winterbottom, Tristram Shandy (http://www.filmleaf.net/articles/features/nyff05/tristramshandy.htm) ).

The opening night film is Paul Greengrass's Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks, the true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years. (There are plenty of hijackings these days by Somalis, and the Danish film A Hijacking (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3441-New-Directors-New-Films-and-Film-Comment-Selects-2013&p=29795#post29795) from earlier this year (ND/NF 2013) is a good fictionalized account of one that this will invite comparison with.)

Claire Denis is included, with Basterds. From J.C. Chandor, whose (Margin Call) (http://www.filmleaf.net/articles/features/nyff05/tristramshandy.htm) was a highlight of ND/NF 2011, comes a one-man dialogue-less shipwreck film starring Robert Redvord, All Is Lost. Agnieszka Holland is back with Burning Bush. The Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki is represented with his first film in five years, The Wind Rises, as is NYFF regular Hong Sang-soo with Nobody's Daughter Haewon. Frederick Wiseman is on hand again with At Berkeley. Hirakasu Koreeda is on hand with Like Father, Like Son, another film about kids (like Nodoby Knows and the FCS 2012 I Wish).

There are some films from actors-turned-director: Ben Stiller's Walter Mitty, James Franco's Southern Gothic tale Child of God, and Ralph Fiennes' Dickens biopic, The Invisible Woman. The French clothing designer agnès B. dons the director's mantle with My Name Is Hmmm.

What about heavy stuff?

There may be more lightness, but the traditional NYFF serious, heavy films are not missing. Three or four clearly qualify in this category. One is Rithy Panh's The Missing Picture, about "four years spent under the Khmer Rouge and the destruction of the filmmaker's family and his culture; without a single memento left behind." Panh "creates his'missing images' with narration and painstakingly executed dioramas." Claude Lanzmann's 218 min. The Last of the Unjust rexamines Adolph Eichmann while primarily focusing on Benjamin Memelstein, the last Jewish elder of Theresienstadt. In his 250 min. North, the End of History Filippino director Lav Diaz delivers his version of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. Tsai Ming-liang's 138-min. Stray Dogs concerns a homeless family "living the cruelest of existences on the ragged edges of the modern world." Also serious and political are Jehane Noujaim's portrait of events unfolding in Meidan at-Tahrir, the Cairo epicenter of the Egyptian revolution of 25 January 2011, through the Arab Spring and beyond, an updated documentary. Out of the Palestinian Occupied Territories from Hany Abu-Assad, director of Paradise Now (http://www.filmleaf.net/articles/features/nyff05/paradisenow.htm)(NYFF 2005), comes Omar, "a tense, gripping, ticking clock thriller about betrayal, suspected and real." Unflinching and long is Brewster and Stephenson's 140 min. doc about two black kids who attend Manhattan's prestigious Dalton School, which covers over a decade in a family's life at home and outside.

On the arid, conceptual side from Romanian Corneliu Porumboiu is When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, a "rigorously structured and fascinatingly oblique new film from Corneliu Porumboiu that examines the life of a film director during the moments on a shoot when the camera isn’t rolling."

Other cool stuff?

For fans of independent French cinema and the Garrel family (some detest one or both; I like both) there will be Jealousy, directed by Philippe Garrel and starring his son Louis and Anna Mouglalis.

Sebastián Lelio's Gloria, from Chile, concerns a middleaged woman who finds romance with some comic consequences.

I've already referred to Claire Denis' Bastards twice, but I want to mention it treats a French sex ring scandal as a noir, and is described by Variety (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-bastards-1200489090/) as a "hypnotic nocturnal thriller. " This has Vincent Lindon, Chiara Mastroianni, Julie Bataille -- and Lola Créton "wandering the streets naked except for high heels" (Mike D'Anglo at Cannes for AV Club (http://www.avclub.com/articles/cannes-day-seven-jc-chandor-makes-good-nicolas-win,98071/), who gave it a B).

Breillat's Abuse of Weakness, based on her own 2004 stroke and exploitation by the "star swinidler" Christophe Rocancourt, we may note, stars Isabelle Huppert in the main role.

This post has now mentioned just about all the Main Slate selections, but remember you can see detailed listings of them both in the Filmleaf Festival Coverage NYFF 2013 thread (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013), and on the Film Society of Lincoln Center's website page (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced) for the festival, where you'll find the Film Society's short blurbs describing, and of course hyping, each film.

I will focus on the Main slate in my coverage and will try to provide a review of all the titles. However bear in mind that besides the Main Slate the NYFF includes other gala and special events, documentary sections, spotlights on emerging filmmakers, and panels that will be announced in subsequent days and weeks as well as NYFF’s Views From the Avant-Garde and Convergence programs. Since the Lincoln Center remodel completed two years ago the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center across the street from the Walter Reade Theater provides two small theaters and three screens, permitting more screenings, along with the main public venue, Alice Tully Hall. Watch the NYFF website for news about these other events.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6340/nnm7.jpg (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced)

[Chris Knipp]

ADDITIONAL TITLE.

The FSLC has added another feature film to this year's NYFF Main Slate so now it's 36 instead of 35 (last year it was 28).

REAL (2013) 127m
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Country: Japan
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s first feature since 2008’s Tokyo Sonata, his most romantic movie yet, is an exquisitely crafted sci-fi fable about young love, marriage, and the merging of two psyches in the face of death.

I am happy about this addition but it's looking more and more like the screening schedule will be grueling with so many more movies to watch in the same number of days as before.

[Chris Knipp]

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NYFF51 Gala Tributes will celebrate actress Cate Blanchett and actor/director Ralph Fiennes!
Read More (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-gala-cate-blanchett-ralph-fiennes-blue-jasmine-the-invisible-woman)

[Chris Knipp]

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TELLURIDE, AUG. 29-SEPT. 2, 2013

The 40th Telluride Film Festival has announced its main program, the ‘SHOW,' below. Some of these are NYFF Main Slate items. A notable one excluded from the NYFF is Farhadi's THE PAST, which was much admired at Cannes. LA MAISON DE LA RADIO was delayed from its earlier planned inclusion in this year's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center. THE UNKNOWN UNKNON is a one-one-one interview and review of the career around the Iraq war of Donald Rumsfeld, no doubt a kind of sequel to Errol Morris's famous film about Robert S. McNamara, THE FOG OF WAR. Other titles are worth looking into. Fore more details about this year's Telluride, go here. (http://www.telluridefilmfestival.org/) The Telluride Film Festival, in Colorado, just before the NYFF, was co-founded 40 years ago with James Card and Bill Pence by Tom Luddy, who's still at the helm. Each year the fest chooses a cool "Guest Director," and Errol Morris and Alexander Payne are among these, as well as: Laurie Anderson, Peter Bogdanovich, John Boorman, J.P. Gorin, Edith Kramer, Peter Sellars, Stephen Sondheim, Bertrand Tavernier and Slavoj Zizek.

Titles I'll be reviewing in the NYFF are highlighted in silver. A Cannes prize-winner I miss from the NYFF list is Farhadi's THE PAST, included at Telluride.

Philippe Garrel's BEFORE THE WINTER CHILL isn't listed elsewhere (the NYFF includes what IMDb lists as his newest film, JEALOUSY). CHILL may be the "untitled 2012 project" Allociné lists for Garrel, a sequel to A BURNING HOT SUMMER/UN ÉTÉ BRÛLANT with Louis Garrel, Monica Belluci, Laura Smet, and Michel Piccoli. It looks like he was working on two movies at once, or in close succession.



· ALL IS LOST (d. J.C. Chandor, U.S., 2013)

· BEFORE THE WINTER CHILL (d. Philippe Claudel, France, 2013)

· BETHLEHEM (d. Yuval Adler, Israel, 2013)

· BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (d. Abdellatif Kechiche, France, 2013)

· BURNING BUSH (d. Agnieszka Holland, Czech Republic, 2013)

· DEATH ROW: BLAINE MILAM + ROBERT FRATTA (d. Werner Herzog, U.S., 2013)

· FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS (d. Mitra Farahani, U.S., 2013)

· THE GALAPAGOS AFFAIR: SATAN CAME TO EDEN (d. Dan Geller, Dayna Goldfine, U.S., 2013)

· GLORIA (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile, 2013)

· GRAVITY (d. Alfonso Cuarón, U.S./U.K., 2013)

· IDA (d. Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland, 2013)

· INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (d. Joel and Ethan Coen, U.S., 2013)

· THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (d. Ralph Fiennes, U.K., 2013)

· LABOR DAY (d. Jason Reitman, U.S., 2013)

· THE LUNCHBOX (d. Ritesh Batra, India, 2013)

· LA MAISON DE LA RADIO (d. Nicolas Philibert, France, 2013)

· MANUSCRIPTS DON’T BURN (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2013)

· THE MISSING PICTURE (d. Rithy Panh, Cambodia/France, 2013)

· NEBRASKA (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2013)

· PALO ALTO (d. Gia Coppola, U.S., 2013)

· THE PAST (d. Asghar Farhadi, France/Italy, 2013)

· SLOW FOOD STORY (d. Stefano Sardo, Italy, 2013)

· STARRED UP (d. David Mackenzie, U.K., 2013)

· TIM’S VERMEER (d. Teller, U.S., 2013)

· TRACKS (d. John Curran, Australia, 2013)

· UNDER THE SKIN (d. Jonathan Glazer, U.K., 2013)

· THE UNKNOWN KNOWN (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2013)

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced)
NYFF Revivals, Documentaries, and Convergence Announced

Film Society of Lincoln Center has revealed the lineup for newly-added sections of the upcoming 51st New York Film Festival that spotlight documentaries and restorations, in addition to the Main Slate's Official Selection and Gala Tributes. Plus: the program for three days of NYFF Convergence 2013 has been announced.


TO LEARN MORE click here. (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013)

(Lots of sidebar pieces on these and other new festival aspects there now.)

[Chris Knipp]

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Press screenings schedule announced.

This came with my 2013 NYFF press accreditation today 29 Aug. 2013

View the schedule in the Festival Coverage section HERE. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30845#post30845)

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/12-years-a-slave-will-have-us-debut-at-new-york-film-festival)

Another title added to the NYFF: Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave

For details go here. (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/12-years-a-slave-will-have-us-debut-at-new-york-film-festival) The film's US premiere, this will be screened as a special Film Comment selecton.

Cast includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o, Adepero Oduye, Paul Dano, Brad Pitt and Alfre Woodard. McQueen's third film with Fassbender. Brad Pitt is a producer.

12 Years A Slave is based on the memoir of Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York who was abducted in Washington, D.C. in 1841 and brought to slave trader James Burch (Paul Giamatti) who sold him to a gentleman farmer named William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch). He was then sold to a mentally unbalanced cotton grower, named Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), whose cruelty embodies the evils of slavery.--FSLC.

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[Chris Knipp]

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click on the logo for the festival website.

The Venice Film Festival runs 28th August to 7th September 2013. It contains many titles not in the NYFF and you'll find coverage of it on Flickfeast, UK (http://flickfeast.co.uk/spotlight/70th-venice-international-film-festival/) by Kezia Tooby.

Here's the main lineup, followed by the often more interesting "Orizzonti" (Horizons) series

M A I N .... L I N E U P

MERZAK ALLOUACHE - ES-STOUH Algeria, France, 94'
Adila Bendimerad, Nassima Belmihoub, Ahcene Benzerari, Aïssa Chouat, Mourad Khen, Myriam Ait El Hadj
GIANNI AMELIO - L'INTREPIDO Italy, 104'
Antonio Albanese, Livia Rossi, Gabriele Rendina, Alfonso Santagata, Sandra Ceccarelli
ALEXANDROS AVRANAS - MISS VIOLENCE Greece, 99'
Themis Panou, Eleni Roussinou
JOHN CURRAN - TRACKS Australia, 110'
Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver
EMMA DANTE - VIA CASTELLANA BANDIERA Italy, Switzerland, France, 90'
Elena Cotta, Emma Dante, Alba Rohrwacher, Renato Malfatti, Dario Casarolo, Carmine Maringola
XAVIER DOLAN - TOM À LA FERME Canada, France, 95'
Xavier Dolan, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Lise Roy, Evelyne Brochu
JAMES FRANCO - CHILD OF GOD USA, 104'
Scott Haze, Tim Blake, Nelson Jim Parrack
STEPHEN FREARS - PHILOMENA UK, 94'
Judi Dench, Steve Coogan
PHILIPPE GARREL - LA JALOUSIE France, 77'
Louis Garrel, Anna Mouglalis
TERRY GILLIAM - THE ZERO THEOREM UK, USA, 107'
Christoph Waltz, Matt Damon, Mélanie Thierry, David Thewlis, Lucas Hedges, Ben Whishaw, Tilda Swinton
AMOS GITAI - ANA ARABIA Israel, France, 84'
Yuval Scharf, Sarah Adler, Uri Gavriel, Norman Issa, Yussuf Abuwarda, Shady Srur, Assi Levy
JONATHAN GLAZER - UNDER THE SKIN UK, 107'
Scarlett Johansson
DAVID GORDON GREEN - JOE USA, 117'
Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan, Ronie Gene Blevins
PHILIP GRÖNING - DIE FRAU DES POLIZISTEN Germany, 175'
Alexandra Finder, David Zimmerschied, Pia Kleemann, Chiara Kleemann, Horst Rehberg, Katharina Susewind, Lars Rudolph
PETER LANDESMAN - PARKLAND USA, 92'
James Badge Dale, Zac Efron, Jackie Earle Haley, Colin Hanks, David Harbour, Marcia Gay Harden, Ron Livingston, Jeremy Strong, Billy Bob Thornton, Jackie Weaver, Tom Welling, Paul Giamatti
HAYAO MIYAZAKI - KAZE TACHINU Japan, 126'
(Animation)
ERROL MORRIS - THE UNKNOWN KNOWN USA, 105'
Donald Rumsfeld, Errol Morris (documentary)
KELLY REICHARDT - NIGHT MOVES USA, 112'
Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, Peter Sarsgaard, James Le Gros
GIANFRANCO ROSI - SACRO GRA Italy, 93'
(documentary)
MING-LIANG TSAI - JIAOYOU (STRAY DOGS) Chinese Taipei, France, 138'
Lee Kang-sheng, Lu Yi-ching, Lee Yi-cheng, Lee Yi-chieh, Chen Shiang-chyi

O R I Z Z O N T I

VALERIA ALLIEVI - QUELLO CHE RESTA Italy, 20'
(documentary)
SERIK APRYMOV - BAUYR (LITTLE BROTHER) Kazakhstan, 95'
Almat Galym, Alisher Aprymov
ENRICO MARIA ARTALE - IL TERZO TEMPO Italy, 96'
Stefania Rocca, Stefano Cassetti, Lorenzo Richelmy, Edoardo Pesce, Margherita Laterza
AGNÈS B. - JE M'APPELLE HMMM... France, 120'
Douglas Gordon, Lou-Léila Demerliac, Sylvie Testud, Jacques Bonnaffé, Marie-Christine Barrault, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Jean-François Garreau
RICCARDO BERNASCONI, FRANCESCA REVERDITO - DEATH FOR A UNICORN Switzerland, 15'
Tilda Swinton, Luis Molteni, Lorenzoluca Gronchi, Emma Fossani, Elowen McClaud
SHUBHASHISH BHUTIANI - KUSH India, 20'
Sonika Chopra, Shayaan Sameer, Anil Sharma
CÉCILE BICLER - TOUTES LES BELLES CHOSES France, 17'
Laure Calamy, Marie-Bénedicte Cazeneuve
GIORGIO BOSISIO - UN PENSIERO KALAŠNIKOV Italy, UK, 21'
Paolo Roberto Di Seglio, Lorenza Pisano, Anna Sala
ROBIN CAMPILLO - EASTERN BOYS France, 128'
Olivier Rabourdin, Kirill Emelyanov, Danil Vorobyev, Edea Darcque, Beka Markozashvili
GIA COPPOLA - PALO ALTO USA, 98'
Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer, James Franco, Val Kilmer, Keegan Allen, Nat Wolff, Colleen Camp

[Chris Knipp]

The 2013 Telluride Film Festival winds up

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/730/kicx.jpg (http://www.deadline.com/2013/08/telluride-film-festival-2013-lineup-list/)

The Telluride Festival has ended (2 Sept. 2013), their 40th, producer, curator, and all-knowing film scholar Tom Luddy still at the helm. I first saw him as head of the "FW Murnau Film Society" while a student at Berkeley (as was he), when his film history expertise was impressive. From 1975-1980 Luddy was director of the then-young Pacific Film Society (a part of the Berkeley Art Museum).

Telluride has guest directors each year, announced as a surprise when the fest begins. The six guest directors this year were: Don Delillo, Buck Henry, Phillip Lopate, Michael Ondaatje, film scholar B. Ruby Rich and Salman Rushdie. Don't ask me why, but any event that has Rushdie on hand is guaranteed an increased hipness factor. The fest's coolness was therefore further assured by luring him.

There were some "sneak previews" at Telluride not originally announced in their list including Steve McQueen's 12 YEARS A SLAVE (U.S., 2013)--just added to the NYFF Main Slate, and he was there with Brad Pitt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong’o; Denis Villeneuve’s PRISONERS (U.S., 2013) and Villeneuve was on hand; Shane Salerno’s SALINGER with Salerno and AE Hotchner via Skype and panelists David Shields, Buddy Squires, Jean Miller and Dylan Sellers in person. Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall presented Hayao Miyazaki’s THE WIND RISES (Japan, 2013), and announced that it will be Miyazaki’s last film; he is retiring. The Miyazaki title will also be part of the NYFF Main Slate.

Special recognition awards went to Robert Redford; T Bone Burnett and the Coen Brothers; and Mohammad Rasoulof.

A list of other notables present follows. I have highlighted some names to show why this is the hippest and most exclusive of US fests, in a way, and also includes cool people who don't come solely from the film industry (though most do): Yuval Adler, The Alloy Orchestra, the Americans, Michael Barker, Ritesh Batra, Sarah-Violet Bliss, Frances Bodomo, David Cairns, Patrick Cazals, J.C. Chandor, Ethan Clarke, Philippe Claudel, Linda Jones Clough, Francis For Coppola, Gia Coppola, Mark Cousins, Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón, John Curran, Mark Danner, Robyn Davidson, Don DeLillo, Bruce Dern, Tony Donoghue, Paul Duane, Geoff Dyer, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Mitra Farahani, Asghar Farhadi, Battiste Fenwick, Ralph Fiennes, Joey Figueroa, Michael Fitzgerald, Scott Foundas, Robin Frohardt, Alberto Fuguet, Paulina García, Dan Geller, Jonathan Glazer, Dayna Goldfine, Emily Harrold, Buck Henry, Werner Herzog, Agnieszka Holland, John Horn, Bob Hurwitz, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Annette Insdorf, Oscar Isaac, Tim Jenison, Barry Jenkins, Tamara Jenkins, Penn Jillette, Esther Julie-Anne, Abdellatif Kechiche, Dieter Kosslick, Zak Knutson, Andrej Landin, Sebastián Lelio, Mark Levinson, Phillip Lopate, Colin MacCabe, David Mackenzie, Lauren MacMullan, Emilio Maille, Leonard Maltin, Joshua Marston, Joyce Maynard, Todd McCarthy, Jean Miller, Monique Montgomery, Errol Morris, Dario Nardi, Gregory Nava, Michael Ondaatje, Rithy Panh, Tatiana Pauhofová, Pawel Pawlikowski, Alexander Payne, Nicolas Philibert, Bill Plympton, Michael Pollan, Punch Brothers, Josh Radnor, Tahar Rahim, Alejandro Ramirez, Kirill Razlogov, Godfrey Reggio, Jason Reitman, B. Ruby Rich, Rob Richert, Pierre Rissient, A.V. Rockwell, Bobby Roth, Salman Rushdie, Lisanne Sartor, Dylan Sellers, Léa Seydoux, David Shields, Buddy Squires, Barry Sonnenfeld, Jordana Spiro, Milos Stehlik, Matt Steinauer, Dean Tavoularis, Teller, Gabriel Thibaudeau, David Thomson, Agata Trzebuchowska, Paolo Cherchi Usai, Mia Wasikowska, Alice Waters, Todd Wiseman, Joey Xanders, Sara Zandieh and Farley Ziegler.

But lest I'm misunderstood, let me add that Telluride is considered a particularly friendly and democratic festival. In the Variety Guide to Film Festivals Todd McCarthy wrote, "The Telluride Film Festival represents the rarest jewel in the crown of the festival-going experience. It is the most open, democratic and collegial of festivals, in addition to being one of the best programmed and run." So there!

[Chris Knipp]

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Well, I"m in New York now (9/14) and the Press & Industry screenings of the New York Film Festival begin on Monday, 9/16. See the Festival Coverage Section for the schedule. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013) First day: Frederick Wiseman's 4-hour AT BERKELEY and Koreeda's 127-min. LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON.

[Chris Knipp]

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Frederick Wiseman: At Berkeley (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30936#post30936)

Veteran indie documentarian Wiseman, now 83, provides a generally positive take on the jewel in the crown of the University of California's bevy of campuses as it is today. Four hours.

[Chris Knipp]

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Hirakazu Koreeda: Like Father, Like Son (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30937#post30937)

Koreeda's third film about children separated from their parents this time takes the form of the old babies-switched-at-birth story. It succeeds inso far as it refrains from any easy or definite resolution, though it does not altogether avoid cliché.

[Chris Knipp]

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James Franco: Child of God (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30940#post30940)

Franco has produced a well-made adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's 1973 novel with a dedicated central performance by Scott Haze. But is this novel adaptable?

[Chris Knipp]

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Jia Zhang-ke: A Touch of Sin (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30942#post30942)

Jia, China's most significant independent Sixth Generation filmmaker, has taken a new turn to violence, focused partly on the horrors of the new China and what they lead to. Four episodes. This won the screenwirting award at Cannes, where like CHILD OF GOD it debuted. But the episodes aren't very well balanced, even though they all have some remarkable moments, and wonderful images.

[Chris Knipp]

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Hong Sang-soo: Nobody's Daughter Haewon (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30943#post30943)

You might say Hong, who reiterates the same themes endlessly anyway, is running on empty here. Others just discovering him, or having forgotten the many others, seen at previous NYFFs or elsewhere, may be delighted. But what is clearly new is that a young woman is at the center of the story, and the boy students, profs, or director/profs are on the periphery. Cameo by Jane Birkin, who comments that the actress at the center who plays Haewon (Jeong Eun-chae) resembles her daughter, Charlotte Gaonsbourg (and she does, and is meant to).

[cinemabon]

I've been meaning to ask you if you saw "Strangers by the lake" and wondered what you thought of it for two reasons: one, you're a brilliant film critic whom I admire very much and you are an openly gay man who keenly observes gay portrayals in cinema.

I understand the film is an homage to "Strangers on a train," by Alfred Hitchcock and that the gay scenes were meant to unsettle audiences as much as the blatant violence. Can't wait to read what you thought as I am an ardent studier/fan of Hitch and wonder what you thought about the parallels and comparisons.

[Chris Knipp]

Be patient, that's coming. I don't know about a connection with STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, though. Who said that?

[Chris Knipp]

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Roger Mitchell: Le Week-End (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30959#post30959)

An English couple celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary with a dangerously extravagant return to the site of their honeymoon, Paris. Hanif Kureishi's screenplay provides some bitter, thorny comedy and Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, and Jeff Goldblum, with help from Olly Alexander, provide some suave acting. A pleasing, slightly edgy art house entertainment for the older audience with more class than Mitchell's last-year NYFF comedy, HYDE PARK ON HUDSON.

[Chris Knipp]

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Claude Lanzmann: The Last of the Unjust (2013) (Theresienstadt)

A magisterial reediting, in the solemn, epic Lanzmann style, of a Seventies interview in Rome with Benjamin Murmelstein, the last Jewish elder of Theresienstadt, the "model ghetto" in Poland that was a cover or facade for the Nazi death camps. Nearly four hours, necessary for Lanzmann's complex portrait of moral ambiguity. Also first hand information from Murmelstein that undercuts Hannah Arendt's "banality" approach to Adolf Eichman, whom Murmelstein knew and dealt with personally and can impllicate in Kristalnacht and describe as a "devil" throughout the Nazi years.

[Chris Knipp]

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Hayao Miyazaki: The Wind Rises (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30963&posted=1#post30963)

And speaking of World War II, here's a romanticized animated biopic about Jiro Hirokoshi, the inventor of a Japanese warplane used to bomb Pearl Harbor and in kamikaze operations. The second half slows down for a romantic "Magic Mountain" love story between the engineer and his girlfriend who has TB. It's the famous animator Miyazaki's final film: he's retiring (at 72).

[cinemabon]

I wouldn't care if Miyazaki made a movie of his dog relieving himself, I would rush out to buy it. When he announced his retirement the other day, I joined about a billion people who wept. I own all of his films and watched them frequently. I can hardly wait for the theatrical release and then the DVD. Thanks for the review (I haven't even read it yet!), Chris. I'm a huge follower of animation and have admired those artists all during my life.

Read it. Intrigued. thanks

[Chris Knipp]

This will be your pissing dog then.

[Chris Knipp]

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Lav Diaz: North, the End of History (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30966#post30966)

Some say this is a masterpice of "slow cinema." I'd say it's a very so-so 90-minute Filippino film based loosely on Dostoyevsky in an unfortunate uncut four-hour-plus form, and to be avoided.

[oscar jubis]

Like you cinemabon, I am a huge fan of Miyazaki and have never been disappointed by any of his films although I do have my favorites (of course). Apparently the Nov. release CK announced in his review is only for the purpose of qualifying for Oscars as a 2013 release. It will probably be a week's run in L.A. or NYC. Most of the USA will get it the last Friday in February.

[Chris Knipp]

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Alain Guiraudie: Stranger by the Lake (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30971#post30971)

From Un Certain Regard, Cannes 2013, summer French release got rave reviews. Murder at a gay cruising area in the south of France. Explicit sex boldly used to establish the dominant reality of the place, may shock the squeamish too much, or be too gay for the straight. Obviously I ddn't have that problem. Tight, formal, repetitive construction, economy, suspense. Amoral love affair. A touch of comedy. The best movie-movie so far in the screenings.

[cinemabon]

Oh, Chris - you've such a way with words; which way I've no idea. Is pissing dog anything like Peking Duck?

[Chris Knipp]

It's Miyazaki, so it's more like sushi, maybe.

My review of STRANGER BY THE LAK (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013#post30971)E that you wanted is up now.

[Chris Knipp]

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Rithy Panh: The Missing Picture (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30979#post30979)

Longtime French resident Panh, whose filmmaking career has mostly focused on the Khmer Rouge/Pol Pot genocidal regime and its aftermath, this time uses clay figurines in dioramas and archival footage to recount his own personal story age 11-15 when he lost a large part of his family but survived 1975-79 in the slave labor "reeducation" camps. A partly poetic and impressionistic account, both specific and vague, results.

[Chris Knipp]

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Richard Curtis: About Time (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30981&posted=1#post30981)

A rom-com by the writer-director of NOTTING HILL and LOVE, ACTUALLY, only this time instead of Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts we get comer Domhnall Gleeson, who's Irish but does English, and Rachel McAdams, and the action is livened up by the male lead's being able to use time travel to go back and tweak his interactions with the female sex. But wouldn't this be more useful for a teenager than a twenty-something -- and isn't this trick a way to goose a story that's a tad blah? This is where I ask how come this was deemed worthy to be included in the NYFF's Main Slate.

[Chris Knipp]

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Fernando Eimbcke: Club Sandwich (20130 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30990#post30990)

Another little gem from this youngish (43-year-old) Mexican director. This one depicts a 15-year-old son with his single 35-year-old mom at a resort off-season when she must come to terms with his not being mamma's boy anymore after a sexy 16-year-old girl turns out also to be staying there.

[Chris Knipp]

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Arnaud Desplechin: Jimmy P., Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30992#post30992)

An adaptation of a well-known work from 1951 by Georges Devereux, about the Jewish-Hungarian adopted French anthropologist and psychiatrist's treatment of a war-damaged Native American (he'd had a cranial injury in Europe) sent to Karl Menninger's Topeka Winter Hospital. Starring Matthieu Amalric and Benicio Del Toro as the doctor and patient, respectively. Desplechin's first film in English. Debuted at Cannes.

[Chris Knipp]

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Corneliu Corumboiu: When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30994#post30994)

Romanian blunt realism is dropped in favor of dry conceptualism. References to chopsticks and Antonioni abound. A director's off hours dealt with ironically and formally in eight eleven-minute reels, because the director (for this is a self-referential piece) must work within the traditional temporal confines of film where alone he feels at home.

[Chris Knipp]

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Tsai Ming-liang: Stray Dogs (2013)
(http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30998&posted=1#post30998)
A non-narrative study, much involved with wandering, standing, staring, sleeping, eating, and relieving oneself (but that makes it sound too exciting!), of a family of marginal people living on the edges of Taipei. Admirers of Tsai see this, perhaps his most austere film yet, as a wonder of formal perfection. Alas, for me it seemed like nothing but slow torture designed to put one off film-watching and festivals.

[Chris Knipp]

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Jehane Noujaim: The Square (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31000&posted=1#post31000)

Noujaim (THE CONTROL ROOM) has made a thrilling and moving account of the main events of the Egyptian revolution of January 2011 and its aftermath from the point of view of half a dozen ordinary, yet qutie extraordinary, people who participated and were in Midan Tahrir during the events and whose lives have been changed forever by them. Larger political complexities and some of the historical details are missing at some points, but this remains a remarkable document and political filmmaking such as one rarely gets a chance to witness. Surely Noujaim's most accomplished work yet, perhaps ever.

[Chris Knipp]

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Agnieszka Holland: Burning Bush (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31002#post31002)

Agnieszka Holland's superb three-part HBO Europe miniseries, this year's Czech Best Foreign Oscar entry, is a picture of events in Czechoslovakia following a dramatic act of protest in 1969.

[Chris Knipp]

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Catherine Breillat: Abuse of Weakness (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31004#post31004)

She was herself yet not herself, says the conned artist in Breillat's neat, elegant memoir in which Isabelle Huppert brilliantly plays the filmmaker, who really had this experience. After a serious stroke, semi-disabled, she discovered a jailbird and con man on late night TV who would be perfect to play that kind of character in her next film. She contacts him, and he begins to be indispensable, and eventually cons her out of nearly €1 million.

[Chris Knipp]

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Joel, Ethan Coen: Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31006#post31006)

A musical film follows the winter Odyssey of a young folksinger in 1961 New York, said to be based on Dave von Ronk, broke, out of luck, with a trip to Chicago, couch surfing, and dead ends in his recording career.

[Chris Knipp]

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Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson: American Promise (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31008#post31008)

Following the Michael Apted "Up" principle but focusing on their own son and one other boy, African-American filmmakers provide a rich chronicle of Idris Brewster and Seun Sommers over a 12-year period, from age 5 to age 18, from kindergarten at the prestigious Manhattan Dalton School till they go their separate ways in high school and both are admitted as college freshmen. Issues of race, opportunity, competition and dozens of moments from the lives make this a rich human document. A PBS POV film coming in Feb. 2014.

[Chris Knipp]

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Paul Greengrass: Captain Phillips (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31010#post31010)

Docudrama ace Greengrass films this feature of the first hijacking of a US ship in around 200 years, by Somalis, and Tom Hanks stars. The film excels as usual for the director in its violent action and vérité effects, but falters in its second half and is outshone by the Danish film A HIJACKING, about a similar incident, also involving Somali pirates, but featuring tense negotiations. The Americans just sent in the Navy. The gala opening night film of the NYFF, this was also the film's world premiere. Hanks does provide a memorably emotional finale.

[Chris Knipp]

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Declan Lowney: Alan Partridge (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31011#post31011)

Steve Coogan stars in a broad English comedy expanding his egocentric comic character, a Norwich radio emcee, who gets to grandstand by playing negotiator/mediator when a rival, downsized at his suggestion, stages a siege. Armando Ianucci of THE THICK OF IT and IN THE LOOP is among the writers who contribute to the high-speed dialogue. The full original title of the film which opened in the UK this summer is ALAN PARTRIDGE: ALPHA PAPA.

[Chris Knipp]

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agnès b.: My Name Is Hmmm. . . (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013/page2)

The fashion brand name for Agnès Troublé, owner of the cosmetic and clothing business (it dressed RESERVOIR DOGS and KILL BILL), is responsible for this film about an 11-year-old French girl sexually abused by her father who runs away from home and goes on a ride with a Scottish truck driver through the south of France. The seriousness of the material and some name actors initially give weight to a film that seems otherwise too drawn out and self-consciously arty.

[Chris Knipp]

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Hany Abu-Assad: Omar (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31028#post31028)

Palestinian territories' new Best Foreign Oscar entry, about suspicions and betrayals created by the situation of Arabs in Israel, centered on three young men who kill an Israeli soldier. Abu-Assad's first film set in Palestine since his PARADISE NOW (NYFF 2005)

[Chris Knipp]

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Poster outside Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center

[cinemabon]

Outstanding coverage, Chris. I'd love to see "Captain Phillips" and "Partridge" sounds like fun. I was a little confused about the country of origin for "Omar." Israel? "Jimmy P; Psychotherapy..." also looks intriguing. Your prose is elegant as usual.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks Cinemabon for the compliments and most of all for following the NYFF coverage. You probably will see CAPTAIN PHILLIPS in a theater real soon. I've seen a trailer in NYC. JIMMY P. and ALAN PARTRIDGE, more iffy, but eventually on DVD for sure.


Hany Abu-Assad's Omar has been selected by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. The political thriller debuted in the Cannes Un Certain Regard section where it received a Jury Prize. Abu-Assad's Paradise Now was nominated in the category in 2005. This is from the current FSLC website right now filmlinc (http://www.filmlinc.com/daily/entry/nyffs-omar-selected-for-best-foreign-language-oscar-consideration). Maybe you didn't know The Palestinian Territories was a Best Foreign country designation. They've had six submissions since 2003. But the 2009 film AJAMI, which was jointly directed by an Israeli (Jew) and an Arab (Palestinian) was officially Israeli-produced and was Israel's Best Foreign submission that year. For the Palestine Best Foreign Oscar submissions go here List of Palestinian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_submissions_for_the_Academy_Aw ard_for_Best_Foreign_Language_Film)

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Adam Bakri in OMAR

[Chris Knipp]

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Kiyoshi Kurosawa: Real (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31016#post31016)

The other Kurosawa (whose well received TOKYO SONATA was in the 2008 NYFF) returns to feature film after the 2012 mini-series PENANCE (SFIFF 2013), this time for a doom-ridden romance laced with sci-fi and fantasy. Overlong, repetitious, confusing, and ultimately treacly, this is a real disappointment and was a late addition to this year's NYFF Main Slate that might have as well been left off. The technique is there, but not the bite.

[Chris Knipp]

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James Gray: The Immigrant (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31039#post31039)

An unusually decent scoundrel (Joaquin Phoenix) falls for the Polish Catholic immigrant woman (Marion Cotillard) whom he exploits in this beautiful but somewhat limp costume drama set early in the Prohibition era.

[Chris Knipp]

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Claire Denis: Bastards (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31041#post31041)

An intriguingly mysterious non-linear nightmare of . . . revenge? After a family has been ruined, with corporate evil and sexual deviation involved. Vincent Lindon, Michel Subor, Chiara Mastroianni, Alex Ducas, Grégoire Colin, Lola Créton are among cast members.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg
Ben Stiller: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31044#post31044)

The famous 1939 James Thurber story was made into a film by Danny Kaye in 1947, and now Fox Studios has done it again, starring Ben Stiller. The basic idea gets lost but the latter part of the film has its points. NYFF Centerpiece Film, also its world premiere. It opens in US theaters on Christmas Day 2013.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced)
Last week of press screenings
Final week of P&I screenings coming up, and it's going to be a good one with some of the year's best films. And now that the festival is running full-dress cast-and-crew appearances, so to speak, are happening for Q&As. Reviews of these will round out Filmleaf's complete Festival Coverage of the 2013 NYFF.

MONDAY OCTOBER 7
10AM Steve McQueen's 12 YEARS A SLAVE (134m)
*Press conference to follow with director Steve McQueen.
TUESDAY OCTOBER 8
10AM J.C. Chador's ALL IS LOST (107m)
*Press Conference to follow with director J.C. Chandor and Robert Redford.
1PM Alexander Payne's NEBRASKA (115m)
*Press conference to follow with director Alexander Payne, Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb and Stacy Keach.
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 9
10AM Ralph Fiennes' THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (111m)
*Press conference to follow with director and star, Ralph Fiennes, and Joanna Scanlan.
THURSDAY OCTOBER 10
10AM Jim Jarmusch's ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (123m)
*Press conference to follow with director Jim Jarmusch, Tilda Swinton, Jeffrey Wright and Anton Yelchin.
FRIDAY OCTOBER 11
1PM – 4PM Abdeletif Kechiche's BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (LA VIE D’ADÈLE) (179m)
*Press conference to follow with director Abdellatif Kechiche and Adèle Exarchopoulos.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12
10AM Spike Jonzes's HER
Press conference to follow to follow with director Spike Jonze, Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Rooney Mara.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg
Steve McQueen: 12 Years a Slave (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31048#post31048)

The London-born artist's third big feature, based on a true account of a Saratoga, New York free black man, a violinist with a family, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. It's probably unsafe not to like this one, with its popular Toronto award and Oscar tweets, powerful emotions and strong acting, but I dare to offer a few criticisms. It's protagonist (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) who's a model of self restraint and martyrdom is consistent with the earlier two played by Michael Fassbender. I still like HUNGER best.

Limited US release begins Oct. 18.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced)
J.C. Chandor: All Is Lost (3013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31050#post31050)

A man adrift in a yacht 1,700 nautical miles from land in the Indian Ocean struggles to survive. Virtually without words, only one actor, Robert Redford. A visceral, kinetic, utterly lean and pared-down tour de force. Great stuff. One of my clear favorites of the festival. And you will be able to see it starting 18 Oct. 2013. I would.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced)

Alexander Payne: Nebraska (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31051#post31051)

After California (SIDEWAYS) and Hawaii (THE DESCENDANTS), Payne returns to his home state for a story in which a son takes his old dad on a wild goose chase from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska, to collect a million dollars that is just a publishers ad letter gimmick, so they can spend some time together. Along the way they stop in the small town where dad grew up and visit old friends and old memories. Hilarious and touching. Bruce Dern won the Best Actor award at Cannes for his performance. It is one worth watching. In black and white, with fiddles, and banjos, shot by Payne's usual cinematographer. US release 22 Nov. 2013.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg
Ralph Fiennes: The Invisible Woman (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31060#post31060)

It's pronounced "Rayfe." A tame sub-Masterpiece Theater costume drama starring and directed by Ralph Fiennes about Charles Dickens' 12-year affair with a young actress Nelly Ternan (played by Feliciy Jones). Tied in with an evening (9 Oct. 2013) at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall celebrating Fienne' career. Maybe we need to celebrate more great directors, not famous actors who turn directors.

[Johann]

With this kind of coverage (with no pay) we are truly lucky to have you here Chris.

Integrity, Class, Intelligence.
You've always been a triple threat. ;)

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks a lot Johann. Just read the reviews and give me feedback, that's the best pay.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced)
Jim Jarmusch: Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31066#post31066)

Jarmusch's vampire movie gives us jaded hipsters with British accents. They've been lovers for centuries; now they are living on separate continents, he in Detroit, she in Tangier, Morocco. I admire Tom Hiddleston's impeccable diction and cool disdain, more touching here than in THOR. Anton Yelchin plays a young American human, appealing and funny. Tilda Swinton has already looked like a vampire so long it's too late. This film is soaked in dark beauty and yellow shadows, but it also seems to go on for centuries. It may be enjoyable to re-watch as films that are pure style often are, but it seems a disappointment. D'Angelo was ultimately disappointed too, but it gave him so much hope starting out that he ranked it second of all the films he saw at Cannes this year, after Asghar Farhadi's THE PAST. That one should have been in the NYFF this year but it's not. I can't understand that. We got most of the other top rated Cannes films -- BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR, STRANGER BY THE LAKE, INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, ALL IS LOST, NEBRASKA. Well, not all: not VENUS IN FUR either.

CANNES FESTIVAL CRITICS PANEL (http://www.ioncinema.com/news/film-festivals/2013-cannes-critics-panel-day-11-jarmuschs-only-lovers-left-alive).

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced)
Abdellatif Kechiche: Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)] (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31069#post31069)

A powerful, controversial film. This three-hours-long lesbian love story from first passion through breakup and just beyond contains nothing original in the basic narrative, but the specificity and fluidity of shooting in the long-running graphic sex scenes and all the other sequences and the committed intensity of the two young actresses, Adèle Exarchopoulos, 19 and Léa Seydoux, 27, cannot fail to involve, move, and impress. He takes you through the experiences. He could have more perspective or humor. How come a straight male director can get away with this, and a gay equivalent wouldn't be likely to go over well at all with the straight audience? Anyway, the film and the two actresses won the top film competition award at Cannes, the Palme d'Or, plus the FIPRESCI prize. Many festivals, US release starting 25 Oct.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced)

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7928/rijx.jpg

Today Saturday, 12 Oct. will be the final P&I screening for the 2013 NYFF: Spike Jonze: Her, starring Joaqun Phoenix. Eventually there will be a roundup.

Stay tuned!

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/nyff-new-york-film-festival-main-slate-announced)
Spike Jonze: Her (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31070#post31070)

This Jonze film about a mustachioed sad sack (played by Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his new sophisticated computer OS, which has the voice of Scarlett Johansson, was written by him alone. Without Charlie Kaufman or even Dave Eggers channeling Maurice Sendek, he produces soft sweet mush. But that may be what the NYFF wanted for its closing night, and Jonze has his mad adoring fans, as was clear at the press screening Q&A.

This is the last screening and concludes my reviews of the NYFF 2013 Main Slate. It's also the final day of the festival. Goodbyes and thanks. It's no rest for Glenn, Jeff, John, and David et al. They've begun the huge FSLC Jean-Luc Godard series. But I'm going to Paris for two weeks, and will report on some movies I see thee.

Last day of new films. However there is a special feature now (borrowed from Tribeca). Tomorrow, 13 Oct., is the final day. The most popular NYFF films this year based on having to have additional screenings, will be shown again. They are as follows:

13 SUNDAY
The Square 12:30pm
Burning Bush 1:30pm
Gloria 2:00pm
Bastards 3:00pm
12 Years a Slave 5:00pm
Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil le Clercq 6:00pm
The Dog 6:30pm
Blue Is the Warmest Color 8:30pm

Sorry, I don't have reviews of Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil le Clercq or The Dog -- those were not Main Slate films, though they were popular.

[cinemabon]

Loved your review of "Her" - sort of taking the computer voice (talking cars, navigators, Siri, etc) one step further as companion, which in my mind has always smacked of "be careful what you wish for..." Plot sounds more satire than sci-fi (although set in future). I can see how 30-somethings would want this aspect of their electronic devices as they become more and more isolated into their cell phones as refuges from loneliness (my subterfuge). Having an electronic "someone" to talk to instead of engaging others may the dream of the extremely introverted but nothing substitutes reality, no matter what shape it comes. Hope the comedy worked at least.

You must be exhausted after that marathon. Excellent work as always, Chris. Your devotion to film and cinema as art is one of the most admired and appreciated from this quarter. I would suggest a good meal, followed by a good stiff drink and a long walk on the beach with your favorite non-electronic person.

"Afternoon of the faun" anything to do with Debussy?

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, I agree, that is the implication, that the young may confuse the electronic device with the human, and cyber life with real life. But the film sucks. I felt is blew the sci-fi opportunities. And it was not funny. There were some funny films though in the festival.

I'll put up my list of favorites and recommendations.

Tonight I went to the new Broadway production of Terence Rattigan's 1946 play THE WINSLOW BOY with a friend I know from the screenings who gets comp tickets to every play, and used to go to every opening night, when he worked for Playbill; that was my walk on the beach. I also saw James Gray today, who may have grown up at Brighton Beach. That's in Queens. I'm not really tired, because the last week was much easier. The play tonight kept me from feeling let down now it's over. But it is a letdown because it's intense and fun, meeting people, seeing interesting new films under nearly ideal conditions, and all for free.

Tanqquil LeClercq is a famous ballet dancer and Afternoon of a Faun is the ballet with Debussy's music, yes. I think Nijinsky first danced it. But as I said I didn't see that film. My loss; maybe I'll get a chance to see it later.

[Chris Knipp]

New York Film Festival 2013
September 27 - October 13, 2013


Links to reviews:

12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31048#post31048)
About Time (Richard Curtis 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30981#post30981)
Abuse of Weakness (Catherine Breillat 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31004#post31004)
Alan Partridge [Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa] (Declan Lowney 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31011#post31011)
All Is Lost (J.C. Chandor 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31050#post31050)
American Promise (Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31008#post31008)
At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30936#post30936)
Bastards (Claire Denis 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31041#post31041)
Blue Is the Warmest Color (La vie d'Adèle; Abdelatif Kéchiche 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31069#post31069)
Burning Bush (Agnieszka Holland 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31002#post31002)
Captain Phillips (Paul Greengrass 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31010#post31010)
Child of God (James Franco 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30940#post30940)
Club Sandwich (Fernando Eimcke 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30990#post30990)
Gloria (Sebastián Lelioa 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013/page3#post31043)
Her (Spike Jonze 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31070#post31070)
Immigrant, The (James Gray 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31039#post31039)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31006#post31006)
Invisible Woman, The (Ralph Fiennes 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31060#post31060)
Jealousy (Philippe Garrel 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30996#post30996)
Jimmy, Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian (Arndau Desplechin 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013/page2)
Last of the Unjust, The (Claude Lanzmann 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30961#post30961)
Like Father, Like Son (Hirakazu Koreeda 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30937#post30937)
Missing Picture, The (Rithy Panh 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30979#post30979)
My Name Is Hmmm... (agnès b. 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31017#post31017)
Nebraska (Alexander Payne 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31051#post31051)
Nobody's Daughter (Hong Sang-soo 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30943#post30943)
North, the End of History (Lav Diaz 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30966#post30966)
Omar (Hany Abu-Assad 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31028#post31028)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013/page3#post31066)
Real (Kiyoshi Kurosawa 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31016#post31016)
Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The (Ben Stiller 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31044#post31044)
Square, The (Jehane Noujaim 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31000&posted=1#post31000)
Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30971#post30971)
Stray Dogs (Tsiai Ming-liang 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30998&posted=1#post30998)
Touch of Sin, A (Jia Zhang-ke 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30942#post30942)
Week-End, Le (Roger Mitchell 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30959#post30959)
When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism (Corneliu Porumboiu 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30994#post30994)
Wind Rises, The (Hayao Miyazaki 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30963#post30963)

[Chris Knipp]

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4889/arvs.jpg (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/encore-screenings-on-final-day-of-nyff51)

13 October 2013. The final day of the NYFF (though last night was the closing night film - Spike Jonze's HER). On this day they are showing as a promotion the most popular films of the fest judging by ticket demand. They are shown above from the SFFS website. Ciick on the image to go there.

Noujaim's excellent and moving documentary of the Egyptian revolution of 2011, THE SQUARE (NYC release later this month)

English directo Steve McQueen's powerful 12 YEARS A SLAVE (which is coming out)

Abdellatif Kechiche's lesbian love story BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR, the Cannes top prize winner (which is coming out)

Agnieszka Holland's Czech TV miniseries THE BURNING BUSH

GLORIA, the Mexican film about a 50ish divorcee who looks for love (the Berlin Best Actress winner)

Two docs, THE DOG and TANAQUIL LECLERCQ

[Chris Knipp]

Both 12 YEARS A SLAVE and ALL IS LOST opened in NYC today with big reviews in the NY Times. Both have very high Metacritic ratings but 12 YEARS A SLAVE has the edge, 92 vs. 89. I would put my ratings the other way around, but SLAVE brings out the political correctness and to some, the solitary struggle to survive of a well-off white man gets no points.

Actually the interesting new movie today is the controversial (if you are a WikiLeaks/whistleblower supporter) film about Julian Assange, which he has strongly opposed from the get-go for clear reasons. I cannot comment further because I have not seen it. THE FIFTH ESTATE is the name of it and it is by a director of no particular prior merit, Bill Condon. Benedict Cumberbach evidently does a decent job at what he took on to do and did with what he considered clean motives. You can see Assange's long-winded letter to Cumberbach refusing to meet with him and opposing the film and Cumberback's well-meaning, not very educated-sounding reply. There is nothing wrong with Cumberbach's education: he attended Harrow, the most prestigious public school after Eton, and went to Manchester University, one of the old brick universities, and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/10/11/benedict-cumberbatch-julian-assange/

[Johann]

Cumberbach's performance in The Fifth Estate has been praised, but the film itself is considered weak- I've read three separate reviews that say the story wasn't very cinematically handled and that it's weak in a lot of ways.
I haven't seen it either Chris.
Not sure if I want to. Julian Assange is a man I have no feelings for, pro or con.
I'm all for exposing governments for evil behaviors, but Assange is a pretty mild character to "step up" and do it in a way that gains worldwide attention.




Look for 12 Years A Slave to be showered with Oscar nominations.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, Cumberbach is talented, and has played all sorts of characters, wherever his lean, tall, slightly odd look would work. I've read the NY Times review of THE FIFTH ESTTE by A.O. Scott, who has had a good week. His admiring review of ALL IS LOST is fine. I think he says Assange is a polarizing figure, but one can also be ambivalent about him. Well, one can be "polaried" within oneself about Assange: one can respect what he has accomplished in shaking up governments and goosing the press into action, and one can dislike or feel uneasy about his pomposity, self-importance and paranoia (the latter not unwarranted given the personal danger he lives but perhaps a trait before the danger grew to a high pitch). I have watched and listened to Julian Assange a lot.

It's hard to separate Wikileaks accomplishments from Assange's personal issues. He IS Wikileaks. The same problem comes in Alex Gibney's WE STEAL SECRETS: THE STORY OF WIKILEAKS (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2412), which I reviewed earlier this year. I might point out that that phrase "we steal secrets" which sounds obviously like a reference to Wikileaks, is actually a phrase spoken by a US government official referring to what a branch of government like the NSA does. Gibney does a good job, but he also indulges in sensationalism about Bradley Manning and Assange, presumably to sell tickets to his film. It is NOT just the "story of Wikileaks," in the end, at all.

Assange is a control freak, not the less for being in a situation that is out of his control. Hence he would want to block any film that did not depict him in the most favorable terms, and given what has happened, the number of toes he has treaded upon, that could never happen. But isn't it a tad soon to make a feature film about these events?

[Johann]

Yes it is.
I actually wondered if the wikileaks story deserves a whole movie.
Assange seems to be a guy who wants to be a revolutionary but has skeletons in his closet that prevent him from being on a Shepard Fairey poster.
He is polarizing, much like Edward Snowden, who I think does and did a much better job of exposing big government.

[Johann]

Assange looks eerily like Pierre Poilievre with white hair.

And did you know that Ian Curtis of Joy Division is almost a dead-ringer for Stephen Harper?
I wonder if Harper does those wild jerky movements with his arms when he dances, like Ian did.....

[Chris Knipp]

These titles from the NYFF are showing in New York presently (Halloween 2013):

At Angelika Film Center:

All Is Lost (J.C. Chandor)
‎1hr 40min‎‎ - Rated PG-13‎‎ - Action/Adventure‎ - Trailer - IMDb
‎10:00‎ ‎11:30am‎ ‎12:30‎ ‎2:00‎ ‎3:00‎ ‎4:30‎ ‎5:30‎ ‎7:00‎ ‎8:00‎ ‎9:30‎ ‎10:30pm‎

All at IFC Center:

Blue Is The Warmest Color (La Vie d'Adèle, Abdellatif Kechiche)
‎2hr 59min‎‎ - Rated NC-17‎‎ - Drama‎ - Trailer - IMDb
‎10:30‎ ‎11:30am‎ ‎12:30‎ ‎1:45‎ ‎2:45‎ ‎4:00‎ ‎5:15‎ ‎6:15‎ ‎7:30‎ ‎8:45‎ ‎9:45‎ ‎11:00pm‎

American Promise (Brewster & Stephenson)
‎2hr 20min‎‎ - Documentary‎ - IMDb
‎10:40am‎ ‎1:00‎ ‎3:00‎ ‎7:35pm‎

A Touch Of Sin (Jia Zhang-ke)
‎2hr 13min‎‎ - Drama‎ - IMDb
‎9:50pm‎

Bastards (Claire Denis)
‎2hr 0min‎‎ - Drama‎ - Trailer - IMDb
‎10:35am‎ ‎3:30‎ ‎5:35‎ ‎7:40‎ ‎10:15pm‎ ‎12:25am‎

Regal Union Square:

12 Years a Slave
‎2hr 13min‎‎ - Rated R‎‎ - Drama‎ - Trailer - IMDb
‎11:50am‎ ‎12:50‎ ‎2:10‎ ‎3:00‎ ‎4:00‎ ‎6:10‎

Captain Phillips
‎2hr 14min‎‎ - Rated PG-13‎‎ - Drama‎ - Trailer - IMDb
‎11:40am‎ ‎12:40‎ ‎2:50‎ ‎3:50‎ ‎6:00‎ ‎7:00‎ ‎9:15‎ ‎10:15pm‎

[oscar jubis]

I'm posting for the first time in 8 or 9 weeks, having successfully defended my dissertation. I finally have time to catch up on what I've missed since summer. Will watch 12 Years a Slave and Gravity soon, but I started last night with Palme d'or winner Blue is the Warmest Color, a film guaranteed to finish in the top 5 in any best-of poll this year. "Blue" enters the canon of coming-of-age films immediately. What makes the film stand out and distinguish itself is the camera's devotion to capture the extraordinary performances by the principals and the recognition that the performances deserve and demand the contemplative, long-take treatment. The realist aesthetics of Bazin and Mizoguchi have a skillful and faithful adherent in Abdellatif Kechiche.

[Chris Knipp]

Welcome back and congratulations. You are always missed. I wouldn't qquestion that it's a very notable coming of age film, but don't think LA VIE D'ADELE: CHAPITRES 1 ET 2 aka BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR is only notable for capturing the performances of the two women. I was particularly impressed by Kechiche's staging of group or crowd scenes and how fluid the camerawork is on them. It's the fluidity of all the staging and of the camera work covering it that impressed me most. I think it's too long, but who cares? It's still a great film.

I would not advise 12 YEARS A SLAVE and GRAVITY as the important films to lionize by worshipful viewing before all others. I really prefer NEBRASKA and ALL IS LOST by a mile to either of those. I'm behind on making my Best Lists though.

I'm kind of disappointed by the NYFF this year, especially given that its main slate was 8 films bigger than any previous year's. Hope you get to see some of the outstanding French films in it, BASTARDS, ABUSE OF WEAKNESS, and STRANGER BY THE LAKE. You'll probably want to see Jia Zhangke's A TOUCH OF SIN -- more fluid staging and beautiful cinematography. I didn't warm to INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS but I can see it is very well put together.

[oscar jubis]

Thank you very much. I am still quite busy but I have some time to watch new movies. I still have some work on the dissertation: a final read-through, formatting, citations, placement of screen captures, etc. and I have to deliver a 1500-word piece on Guitry's La poison to Film International journal by December 1st. I am also applying for academic positions that begin next Fall. It's very time-consuming.
We showed Bastards at the Cosford and I simply did not have time to watch it. I will make sure I do. as well as other films you recommend. I second your comments about Kechiche's staging and camera coverage, which you made initially in your review of the film but merit reiteration. I plan to attend a press screening of Inside Llewyn Davis.

[Chris Knipp]

You do indeed sound very busy. I see LA POISON came out on Blu-Ray early this year; I've never seen it though. Look forward to your reactions to any of the new films. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS is one of the NYFF films I plan to rewatch, and BASTARDS is another, since while it may be "fairly straightforward" (Mike D'Angelo), it's pretty disorienting the first time through. Don't forget NEBRASKA and ALL IS LOST.

Another one I recommend but neglected to mention -- now in US release -- is Sorrentino's LA GRANDE BELLEZZA. Not to be missed.

Hope to be in NYC again before year's end to catch the best of the final new releases as they come out. Let's hope there will be some good new US ones by the end of the year, maybe Scorsese's and David O. Russell's. . . I need to see THE ARMSTRONG LIE. That's Gibney; he's good, most of the time. Hopefully IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY will still be showing, Gondry + Chomsky = a must-see, for me. Film Forum is showing Sokurov's FAUST -- you've seen it? Did you see WADJDA?

[oscar jubis]

No. I have seen very few 2013 movies. I've re-watched everything directed by Antonioni, Resnais, Haneke (even Funny Games, urgh) and Martel in the past 6 months. Two of my favorites I haven't mentioned in earlier posts are the Mexican docu-fiction Here and There and Museum Hours. Guitry's La Poison is my least favorite film I have ever reviewed for publication. The fact that this black comedy is extraordinarily mean to women is unpleasant to me, and quite dated.

[Chris Knipp]

Anyway I don't think I can get LA POISON on Netflix. However though they don't have Leos Carax's MAUVAIS SANG I decided to buy a DVD, which I found for cheap. i have not seen it before and I so liked HOLY MOTOERS.

I also like MUSEUM HOURS: as you may recall I reviewed it as part of the SFIFF. HERE AND THERE , part of the 2012 NYFF, I didn't warm to, though it won the Critics' Week prize at Cannes. I thought you had mentioned it favorably here, but I guess not. I have seen the new US-made Funny Games but not the original German one. Ugh is right.

I recall you liked FIRST COUSIN ONCE REMOVED very much, also 2012 NYFF, and it is good. Banker White and Anna Fitch's THE GENIUS OF MARION (Cinema by the Bay series, just shown in San Francisco), which I reviewed (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3623-SFFS-CINEMA-BY-THE-BAY-Nov-22-24-2013&p=31289#post31289)last week, relates to it.

[oscar jubis]

No, I haven't seen First Cousin Once Removed either. I'm going to watch the Sorrentino movie tomorrow, and my friend wants to watch 12 Years a Slave, so why not? La poison, which as you probably know is slang for a mean, conniving woman, is a UK release so Netflix doesn't carry it. They must have the 4 films in the Guitry box I reviewed in same journal. It includes his pre-War films, which I prefer. Thing is that Michel Simon plays the protagonist in La Poison and he is one of my favorite actors: a hugely redeeming facet.

[Chris Knipp]

Well, let us know when you've seen all this stuff.

[cinemabon]

I tried to watch the online version, but without subtitles and my French being extremely poor, I watched for esthetic reasons. Here is a recent link. Thanks for your posts. As usual, you are the enlightened duo.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/mar/03/la-poison-dvd-guitry-review

[oscar jubis]

Thanks cinemabon. I think French is right when he writes that The Story of a Cheat is Guitry's "supreme" film. It is a U.S. release (Eclipse series) along with The Pearls of the Crown, which is very enjoyable too. Interesting that French ascribes the misogyny in the film to the character played by Simon and not to the film, ignoring that the characterization of the female protagonist is ugly caricature and that other characters ridicule women throughout.

[Chris Knipp]

I take it from that Philip French GUARDIAN article on LA POISON that Guitry is seen quite generally as a kind of precursor of the Nouvelle Vague.

If the mena and women are unpleasant as well maybe the film is misantropic rather than misogynistic? And if the title means "a mean, conniving woman" (one definition (http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/dualgender_2.htm) is simply "unpleasant woman"), is it a surprise she'd be represented negatively? But I have not seen the film.

[Chris Knipp]

Jehane Noujaim: The Square (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31000&posted=1#post31000)

Jan. 18, 2014: This film is now available both on Instand Play from Netflix. I strongly recommend this excellent, moving doc about the Egyptian revolution in its early days of transformation and hope.


The Square2013NR
Nominated for the 2014 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature, this critically praised documentary chronicles the history-making revolution in Egypt that captivated the world with scenes of courage and freedom in the face of violent opposition.

Cast:Khalid Abdalla, Dina Abdullah, Dina Amer, Magdy Ashour, Sherif Boray, Aida Elkashef, Ramy Essam, Ahmed Hassan, Bothania Kamel, Khaled Nagy, Ragia Omran, Salma Saied, Ahmed Saleh, Alaa Seif, Pierre Seyoufr
Genre:Social & Cultural Documentaries, Political Documentaries, Foreign Documentaries, Documentary
--Netflix blurg. http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640x480q90/837/bve4.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

Rithy Panh's THE MISSING PICTURE/L'IMAGE MANQUANTE has a US theatrical opening coming via Strand Releasing:

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ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILIM

OPENS IN LOS ANGELES ON MARCH 21, 2014:
LAEMMLE'S ROYAL THEATRE & PLAYHOUSE 7

And possibly Wed., March 19 in NYC.


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[Chris Knipp]

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ADAM BAKRI IN OMAR

OMAR (Hani Abu-Assad 2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31028#post31028)

FRI., 21 FEB, 2014.
This intense drama about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that debuted at Cannes MAY 2013 (Un Certain Regard, Jury Prize) and was seen at the fall 2013 New York Film Festival (click for Filmleaf review above) has just opened in New York and Los Angeles. A.O. Scott reviews it in today's NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/movies/in-omar-the-west-bank-is-a-backdrop-for-betrayal.html?nl=movies&emc=edit_fm_20140221)and notes the conflict has been "a boon to ambitious genre filmmaking" and OMAR, "tightly plotted and cleanly shot (and an Oscar nominee for best foreign-language film), has the speed and suspense of a crime thriller." Scott notes that Omar, the protagonist played by Adam Bakri, is "the sensitive one, handsome and athletic with the soul of a poet."

[Chris Knipp]

In NYC for the 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center.
I've watched a couple of non-French films.

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A FIELD IN ENGLAND (Ben Wheatley 2013). Wheatley's previous films, DOWN TERRACE, KILL LIST, SIGHTSEERS, have been most interesting. Here he and his wife-collaborator and cowriter Amy Jump, who does most of the initial scripting, have tried something different, a costume piece, though it is as mean, odd, and violent as before. This time events transpire during the 17th century during a battle of the English Civil War. Four men meet in the eponymous field in England. One of them is n alchemist assistant who has run away from his employer, two are deserters, and the last is an Irishman in fine clothes called O'Neill, who takes control over the others. Some kill others, and some reappear again at the end, restored to ife. Very puzzling and deeply English in flavor, this piece allows the team to indulge their taste for the occult, and also to explore avantgardist visual possibilities, incorporating double images, flash-editing, and a succession of sudden tableaux in which the principals strike meaningful poses. A very peculiar film, not to my mind as satisfying as their earlier ones focused more on crime and criminals (KILL LIST is my favorite so far), but savory for its language, its acting, its costumes, and its very handsome, crystal-clear black and white photography. Repeated viewings might be necessary for it all to make sense.

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AFTERNOON OF A FAUN: TANAQUIL LECLERCQ (Nancy Buirski), a documentary sponsored by Martin Scorsese, was a sidebar of the NYFF 2013, now showing in NYC. It's standard filmmaking, but a must-see for ballet fans. Essential to know about Miss Leclercq (pronounced "Tanakill Leclaire", but everybody calls her "Tany"), a major muse for George Balanchine, his 5th wife, and longtime off and on-love of Jerome Robbins. Leclercq had already made a significant mark on ballet when she tragically was stricken with polio in 1956 when only 27, never dancing or walking again. This was in the early years of the Salk poliovaccine. Other Balanchine company members were inoculated but Leclercq had held off. One arm and both legs remained non-functional. Yet she defied doctors' predictions she would not live beyond the age of 40 and lived on, with remarkable grace and good humor, till the age of 69. This is attributed in the film to her strength of character, determination and the egocentrism she had cultivated as a diva (with a stage mom whom she had to stave off in later life). She was active as a choreographer and coach at the Dance Theater of Harlem with its founder and codirector Arthur Mitchell, who had danced with Balanchine. Jacques D'Amboise was another of Leclerq's major partners. All these voices and more are heard in the film. It might have been nice to get more detail about Leclercq's unique look and style as a dancer, the choreography written for her, and a bit less about the touching and uplifting but still less important story of the illness and brave survival. Screened at Cinema Village.

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CHILD POSE (Calin Peter Netzer), debuting at Film Forum, comes from Romania. It has interesting writing by Razvan Radulescu (script consultant with Cristian Mungiu on 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, AND 2 DAYS), but is an unsatisfactory movie, unclear and unfocused in places, meandering, with much of the acting indifferent, poor use of locations, and with horrible jittery camerawork in some key scenes. It is however worth watching for the intense performance of Luminita Gheorghiu (known for THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU, NYFF 2005 (http://www.filmleaf.net/articles/features/nyff05/lazarescu.htm)) as Cornelia, the main character, the mother of a young man who, speeding on a freeway, has hit and killed a 14-year-old boy who ran in his path. The story of CHILD'S POSE focuses on the dysfunctional relationships in the fatal driver's family and the wealthy and formerly accomplished mother's relentless effort to insure that her son will not go to jail for causing the boy's death. Everything is left inconclusive, but Gheorghiu has some impressive scenes. I notice Mike D'Angelo reviewed (http://www.avclub.com/review/r-a-romanian-new-wave-film-childs-pose-is-surprisi-201229)this film in more detail for AV Club. He gives it a B- but his title is "For a Romanian New Wave film, Child’s Pose is surprisingly sloppy," and D'Angelo, rightly I think, suggests that it's only because of the good but diffuse screenplay and good acting its"formal ineptitude" doesn't "sink the picture." He particularly emphasizes as I would how terrible the camerawork is. Screened at Film Forum, where it is having a US premiere.

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EASY MONEY: HARD TO KILL/SNABBA CASH II (Babak Najafi Karam 2013i), same Swedish crime series, same star, Joel Kinnaman (the new RoboCop and TV star of "The Living"), same main characters from the first film; new (Iranian Swedish) director, delivers a dark prison-break-drug-deal-gone-wrong story with violent action, obvious cross-cutting, succinct editing delivering a shorter run-time and setting fans up for SNABBA CASH III. Still hard to see how the tall, patrician, bright-eyed Kinnaman can be cast as a loser and man who goes wrong. He has winner written all over him. This movie delivers, but the setup and storyline are not as interesting as the original's. In Swedish, Serbian, Arabic, English. Screened at Cinema Village, where the projection seemed of dubious quality during low-lit sequences.

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ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME (Chiemi Karasawa 2013) A live portrait of the indomitable Broadway and cabaret regular completed a couple years ago when she was nearing age 87 (b. 1925) and did "farewell" shows at the Cafe Carlyle, TownHall, and other venues. Most review of Stritch's past is real-time except for one or two clips. Mainly Karasawa just follows her around as she talks, rehearses, and struggles with Type 1 diabetes and memory lapses. It's interesting to see how she falters in rehearsals, but blooms in front of an audience, especially a larger one. To criticize this movie would be to criticize the very unvarnished and honest essence of this feisty, blunt-spoken star of stage and film (and TV: especially "30 Rock," where she played Alec Baldwin's mother for six years). Notably, though she now drinks one Cosmo a day (or is it two?), she is a recovering alcoholic who was sober for 25 years -- she is shown heading for an AA meeting; so when she says she learned a long time ago that deception was lethal and honesty essential, she may be referring to the lessons of addiction and recovery. Stritch has reportedly now "retired," left NYC and moved back to her native Michigan. A portrait of the pure essence of a performing artist. Screened at IFC Center.

[Chris Knipp]

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Roger Mitchell: Le Week-End (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=30959#post30959)

This new collaboration with the writer Hanif Kureishi (MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE) opened in the US in limited release this weekend 4 April 2014. It stars Jim Broadbent, Lindsey Duncan, and Jeff Golblum, with olly Alexander. It's not the greatest selection of NYFF 2013. I wrote, "Ultimately this is a film with very few false steps and a number of good moments, and yet it tends to cancel itself out and end by being a fine diversion but not terribly memorable." But in today's movie scene you could do a lot worse.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/4690/ey7f.jpg (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013/blog/12-years-a-slave-will-have-us-debut-at-new-york-film-festival)

Declan Lowney: Alan Partridge (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31011#post31011)

This BBC comedy series based movie from the 2013 NYFF has opened in limited release today also, 4 April 2014. For fans of Steve Coogan and very British silly comedy this is highly recommended. Others need not apply.

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[Chris Knipp]

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Another NYFF 2013 feature coming out in US theaters.

Jim Jarmusch: Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013/page3#post31066)

Unfortunately this movie is slow as molasses and not conceptually original or even smart about the vampire genre, but it's drenched in beauty, moodiness and hipness and a must-see for Jarmush fans.

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[oscar jubis]

I finally watched Claire Denis' Bastards and to my eyes it is her least successful film. As you probably know by now, I appreciate films that are enigmatic and mysterious, and come to an end without answering all the questions they pose. This is one of those films but not a very interesting or inspired one. Additionally, many of the shots have a very narrow depth of focus, like the films of Lynne Ramsay, but in combination with a depleted color palette and dim lighting, the result is a very ugly film to watch. The plot involves murder, suicide, rape, kidnapping, extortion, corporate greed, bankruptcy, estranged families, etc. etc. but I don't think the film (Denis) really cares about any of it. It's all "mood" which opens the door for charges of exploitation and nihilistic posturing. I am going to continue watching everything she does because her record indicates that she will come up with another Beau Travail or, even better, 35 Shots of Rum. Vincent Lindon is always good though, even here.

[Chris Knipp]

You are not saying anything surprising. That's more or less what I said, and a lot like what I quoted D'Angelo as saying, except I don't dislike it; it's more fun for me than WHITE MATERIAL, going by my memory of that, even if unraveling BASTARDS reveals not much there, the unraveling is fun, or the initial mystery perhaps more so. I like THE INTRUDER/L'INTRUS a lot. That is the one that made me a fan, not BEAU TRAVAIL. Also liked NENETTE ET BONI, but was not aware of her as a director yet then. Big favorite now: 35 SHOTS OF RUM. And I agree, she will come through with more good stuff in future, we can certainly hope. I like the people she works with, Alex Descas, Gregoire Colin. Always like Vincent Lindon, but he didn't come in for the best one. I found FRIDAY NIGHT too grueling and drawn out and did not know who Vincent Lindon or Clair Denis were yet then. Would probably like it more now since I respect them both so much.

Do you not like shallow focus? What would you think of Xavier Dolan's 1:1 screen ratio for his new film, MOMMY? I watched the whole conference de press with him and his three stars yesterday, which is 40 percent in English and 60 percent in French, first time I saw him, and I found him very likable. His English is also excellent, no accent, in fact less of an accent than his native Canadian French! Also watched Taraantino's press conference, first time I've watched that long of him, and I really like the guy. He is so up front, passionate, and funny. He is really huge fun to watch.

Shalliow focus makes me think of the ultra-orthodox Israeli arranged marriage flick FILL THE VOID, which uses a lot of that. It's very pretty. I can't relate much to the movie and think it somewhat overrated. There are better Israeli movies, quite a few.

French critics' ratings going by Allociné

4.3 BEAU TRAVAIL
4.0 VENDREDI SOIR
3.9 WHITE MATERIAL (don't agree)
3.8 35 RHUMS
3.6 L'INTRUS
2.9 BASTARDS (big drop, actually)

Earlier ones -- no press ratings:
CHOCOLAT
NENETTE ET BONI
J'AI PAS SOMMEIL
S'EN FOU LA MORT

[Chris Knipp]

P.s. I love Vincent Lindon's robin's egg blue Alfa Romeo in BASTARDS. One of the prettiest cars in movies. That's why I used that still.

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[oscar jubis]

My evaluations of films directed by Denis are mostly in agreement with the composite French critics' ratings you quote except I would put 35 Rums first (but its 3.8 is still a high rating so I'm not really in disagreement here).
I would qualify your NYFF review of Bastards as "mixed". When you listed it 4th in your 2013 best foreign film list, I thought to myself that you probably had re-watched it and liked it more the second time around.

"Do you not like shallow focus? What would you think of Xavier Dolan's 1:1 screen ratio for his new film, MOMMY?(CK)"

As you know, multiple elements of cinematography function jointly (to form what David Bordwell calls simply "style"). Of course, one cannot isolate a single element such as depth of field and state that one likes or doesn't like, for instance, shallow focus. My specific point is that in this film, the frequent use of shallow focus in combination with the way the film is lit and its use of color makes for visuals that look downright ugly to me. Film students tend to overuse shallow focus because they don't have to bother with staging-in-depth and blocking (of course Denis is no "student"). Shallow focus is also highly directive, even dictatorial (if I may) in that there is no freedom to look around and figure out the hierarchical relationships between elements in the visual frame. The film tells the viewer that the only thing that matters is the narrow area that is sharply focused. Chris, I cannot help but admire the artistry and preparation involved in compositions-in-depth in films by Orson Welles and William Wyler (with and without Toland) but shallow focus can be just as admirable.

I like Xavier Dolan's films, including how they look. I watched Tom at the Farm recently at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and I thought it was very good. Why bring him up here? Does he use a substantial amount of shallow focus in Mommy? One filmmaker that uses shallow focus substantially and to beautiful effect is Andrea Arnold (Red Road, Fish Tank and, especially, Wuthering Heights).

P.S. I love that car also.

[Chris Knipp]

Again, nothing to take exception to. Agree I'd rate 35 RHUMS over WHITE MATERIAL but yes, 3.8 is high, 3.9 not that much higher. Main thing is how much lower BASTARDS is than all the others. I just like Denis more than other filmmakers, so I ranked BASTARDS high in a list. I contradict myself, I contain multitudes. I also probably like the storyline however shallow in theme as well as focus the movie is.

Brought up Dolan up here because I wanted to talk about the Cannes press conference. Also if shallow focus is an "innovation" or a high style gesture, so is his use of the square ratio in MOMMY. Have not seen TOM AT THE FARM and would like to. Some don't like Dolan. Yough whippersnapper full of himself etc. So glad to see he showed no signs of snootiness on camera for 40 mins. I do think clearly as Rooney of HOLLYWOOD REPORTER says his technical craft outruns his dramatic depth, so far. It's easy to like his images and visual style. He was wise to leave himself out of MOMMY and NOT do another portrait of himself and his own mom. Time will tell. A prodigy can crash later; or will have to change and grow up.

[oscar jubis]

Handsome, charming and talented young man. I'm enjoying watching Xavier Dolan develop as a filmmaker. I'll keep track of any distribution deals or video releases of Tom at the Farm and Mommy. I don't know of any films shot in "square" or 1:1 ratio. Some of the great silents of the 1920s were shot in 1.19:1 aspect ratio, but it has seldom been used since then. Dolan says 1:1 is the preferred ratio for photographic portraiture, and also the shape of music albums (records and CDs). It's obvious from his films that he is a music fan, and that he has a special knack for matching music to visuals.

[Chris Knipp]

Catherine Breillat: Abuse of Weakness/Abus de faiblesse (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31004#post31004)

Reviewed on Filmleaf in the 2013 NYFF. Limited US theatrical release begins 15 August 2014 at Lincoln Center. Distributed by Strand Releasing. Watch for other dates and locations, or the US DVD. Current Metacritic rating (2 August 2014): 79%.

[Johann]

Great stuff. And I love that car too!

[Chris Knipp]

Don't get me started on how boring most contempo cars are, and the drab, monotonous colors. That robin's egg blue is sweet and unique. Just seeing a car like that in a tasteful and imaginative color can make my day. My own car is silver, like so many others, but at least it is a natty Mazda Miata with a light tan top. If I could afford a Porsche or BMW sports car I'd have one. Not Italian. Those are exciting to look at but too unreliable, as were the classic English ones. I have owned two MG's. An a black MG Midget I got new when my grandmother died and left me a little money, and a hunter green MGB/GT with a hand crafted wooden driver's wheel and Blaupunct AM/FM radio so nifty I guy who stole it and got arrested on Telegraph hill while driving it tried to reclaim it pretending it was his. By a truly absurd coincidence we both went in to claim it at the same time and in the same place, the San Francisco Hall of Justice. I had had a description of the thief and knew this was the guy. He did not leave. I did.

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1966 black MG Midget

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1970 hunter green MGB/GT

The MGB/GT was the niftier looking; the Midget more fun to drive.

Some find Isabelle Huppert's Breillat-standin character in ABUSE OF WEAKNESS too cold and unappealing. I think she embodies well the neutrality and passivity of the character, still imbuing her with her signature cool.

[Johann]

I love Isabelle, but yes, she is intense sometimes. I watch 8 Women every now and then, and she seems to be having the least fun, even though she fits perfectly into the movie. Cars today are indeed drab and blah. You have to go to car shows to see any good vintage or custom cars these days. God Bless the antique collector crowd.

[Chris Knipp]

I agree on both counts.

[Chris Knipp]

Just a reminder that Catherine Breillat's ABUSE OF WEAKNESS/ABUS DE FAIBLESSE came out in NYC (Lincoln Center) today, Friday, August 15, 2014. It may now appear at a theater near you, or be available as VOD or on DVD. It is a unique film that only Breillat and Isabelle Hukppert could have made, and only you could properly appreciate. Strand Releasing's DVD release date is November 10.

Catherine Breillat: Abuse of Weakness/Abus de faiblesse (2013) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3583-New-York-Film-Festival-2013&p=31004#post31004)

Reviewed on Filmleaf in the 2013 NYFF. Limited US theatrical release begins 15 August 2014 at Lincoln Center. Distributed by Strand Releasing. Watch for other dates and locations, or the US DVD. Current Metacritic rating (2 August 2014): 79%.

"Of all living actresses, only Huppert could capture nuances that alternately elicit sympathy and fierce sexual attraction to a recent stroke victim."--Peter Debruge, Variety.

"Abuse of Weakness is a frustrating experience, yet one that feels utterly unique and relentlessly watchable." -- Christopher Schobert, The Playlist.

"Abuse Of Weakness is the director’s attempt to account for actions that seem inexplicable, and make the audience understand and sympathize in kind."--Scott Tobias, The Dissolve.

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