Nyff 2014

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52biglogo.jpg


Links to reviews:

'71 (Jann Demange 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32745#post32745)
Beloved Sisters/Die geliebten Schwestern (Dominik Graf 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32759#post32759)
Blue Room, The/La Chambre bleue (Mathieu Amalric 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32805#post32805)
Citizenfour (Laura Poitras 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32837#post32837)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32829#post32829)
Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32786#post32786)
Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32836#post32836)
Gone Girl (David Fincher 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32800#post32800)
Goodbye to Language/Adieu au langage (Jean-Luc Godard 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32751#post32751)
Heaven Knows What (Josh & Benny Safdie 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32770#post32770)
Hill of Freedom 자유의 언덕/Jayuui Eondeok (Hong Sang-soo 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32758#post32758)
Horse Money/Cavalo Dinheiro (Pedro Costa 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32789#post32789)
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32822#post32822)
Iris (Albert Maysles 2014)--Spotlight on Documentary (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32818#post32818)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32796#post32796)
Life of Riley/Aimer, boire et chanter (Alain Resnais 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32785#post32785)
Listen Up Philip (Alex Ross Perry 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32832#post32832)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32791#post32791)
Merchants of Doubt (Robert Kenner-Spotlight on Documentary (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32830#post32830)
Misunderstood/Incompresa (Asia Argento 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32744#post32744)
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32820#post32820)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman 2014)--Spotlight on Documentary (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32810#post32810)
Pasolini (Abel Ferrara 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32782#post32782)
Princess of France, The/La principessa de Francia (Matías Piñeiro 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32783#post32783)
Red Army (Gabe Polsky 2014)--Spotlight on Documentary (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32819#post32819)
Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32806#post32806)
La Sapienza (Eugène Green 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32769#post32769)
Seymour: An Introduction (Ethan Hawke 2014)--Spotlight on Documentary (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32777#post32777)
Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait/ماء الفضة/maa' al-fiḍḍa (Ossama Mohammed, Wiam Simav Bedirxan 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32790#post32790)
Tales of the Grim Sleeper (Nick Broomfield 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32827#post32827)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32812#post32812)
Time Out of Mind (Owen Moverman 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32795#post32795)
Two Days, One Night/Deux jours, une nuit (Jean-Pierre, Luc Dardenne 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32787#post32787)
Two Shots Fired/Dos disparos (Martin Rejtman 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32752#post32752)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32799#post32799)
Wonders, The/Le meraviglie (Alice Rohrwacher 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32760#post32760)


Filmleaf NYFF 2014 Festival Coverage: click. (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32593#post32593)

Lincoln Center's NYFF news click. (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013)

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg. . . .http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/52logo.jpg. . .. . . . . . .http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52blacklogo.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

Some 2014 NYFF revivals have been announced:

NYFF52 REVIVALS « Main Series Listings

Burroughs: The Movie
HOWARD BROOKNER | 1983 | 86 MINS
An evocative and one-of-a-kind portrait of William Burroughs, built around a series of encounters with the great American writer himself and interviews with many friends, including Allen Ginsberg, Terry Southern, John Giorno. and Brion Gysin. A true New York movie.

The Color of Pomegranates
SERGEI PARAJANOV | 1968 | 88 MINS
A cine-poem of the life of the 18th-century Armenian/Georgian poet and singer Sayat-Nova by Sergei Parajanov, which Michelangelo Antonioni once called a film of “stunningly perfect beauty,” now impeccably restored.

Hiroshima Mon Amour
ALAIN RESNAIS | 1959 | 90 MINS
This debut feature from Alain Resnais, written by Marguerite Duras, a story told in two tenses about the aftereffect of the atomic bomb as experienced by two lovers in Hiroshima, is one of the great masterworks of modernist cinema, now fully restored.

Once Upon a Time in America
SERGIO LEONE | 1984 | 251 MINS
Sergio Leone’s final and perhaps greatest film, a New York gangster saga housed within an intricate construction that shuttles through time, with Robert De Niro, James Woods leading a remarkable cast. This restoration, including material previously unseen in the U.S., preserves the director’s original structure.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

http://www.chrisknipp.com/nyff2014/sils.jpg

All of the 2014 NYFF Main Slate list has now been announced. See below.

The 52nd New York Film Festival (2014) Main Slate

Opening Night Gala Selection
GONE GIRL
Director: David Fincher

Centerpiece Gala Selection
INHERENT VICE
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Closing Night Gala Selection
BIRDMAN OR THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE
Director: Alejandro G. Iñarritu

BELOVED SISTERS (Die geliebten Schwestern)
Director: Dominik Graf

THE BLUE ROOM (La chambre bleue)
Director: Mathieu Amalric

CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA
Director: Olivier Assayas

EDEN
Director: Mia Hansen-Løve

FOXCATCHER
Director: Bennett Miller

GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE (Adieu au langage)
Director: Jean-Luc Godard

HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT
Directors: Josh & Benny Safdie

HILL OF FREEDOM (Jayuui Eondeok)
Director: Hong Sang-soo

HORSE MONEY(Cavalo Dinheiro)
Director: Pedro Costa

JUAJA
Director: Lisandro Alonso

LIFE OF RILEY (Aimer, boire et chanter)
Director: Alain Resnais

LISTEN UP PHILIP
Director: Alex Ross Perry

MAPS TO THE STARS
Director: David Cronenberg

MISUNDERSTOOD (Incompresa)
Director: Asia Argento

MR. TURNER
Director: Mike Leigh

PASOLINI
Director: Abel Ferrara

THE PRINCESS OF FRANCE (La Princesa de Francia)
Director: Matas Pieiro

SAINT LAURENT
Director: Bertrand Bonello

LA SAPIENZA
Director: Eugne Green

'71
Director: Yann Demange

TALES OF THE GRIM REAPER
Director: Nick Broomfield

TIMBUKTU
Director: Abderrahmane Sissako

TIME OUT OF MIND
Director: Oren Moverman

TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (Deux jours, une nuit)
Directors: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne

TWO SHOTS FIRED (Dos Disparos)
Director: Martn Rejtman

WHIPLASH
Director: Damien Chazelle

THE WONDERS (Le meraviglie)
Director: Alice Rohrwacher

http://www.chrisknipp.com/nyff2014/ROS.jpg
GONE GIRL: ROSAMUND PIKE, BEN AFFLECK

The selection committee: Kent Jones, chair, plus Dennis Lim (FSLC Director of Programming), Marian Masone (FSLC Senior Programming Advisor), Gavin Smith (Film Comment Editor), and Amy Taubin ( Film Comment and Sight & Sound Contributing Editor).

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

Main Slate. Comments on the selections.

To a significant extent, as usual, a third of the total this time, the Slate constitutes a Best Of (and Other Interesting Items From) Cannes (Two Days, One Night; The Wonders; Foxcatcher; Mr. Turner, Clouds Of Sils Maria, Goodbye To Language, Saint Laurent, Maps to the Stars, Juaja, The Blue Room, Timbuktu), plus a few very top as yet unreleased titles from Sundance (Whiplash, Listen Up Philip).

The rest of the 2014 Main Slate predictably includes new films from longtime NYFF faves (Abel Ferrara, Hong Sang-soo, Pedro Costa, Alain Resnais, Abderrahmane Sissako, Asia Argento). Eden and Pasolini will come out first at Toronto and Venice. I am a fan of Mia Hansen-Løve, and the FSLC has featured every one of her previous films in one series or another.

It's always worth seeing the best of Cannes, a category that includes many of the year's finest films. The Dardennes and Mike Leigh have never disappointed me and Assayas rarely has. I liked Rorhwacher's first feature more than most did. Whiplash sounded like the must-see of the festival when I was following Sundance.

The featured American film premieres, David Fincher for the opening night film and Paul Thomas Anderson for the centerpiece, look very interesting, and PTA's offering will draw cinephiles hot to see a December release (Gone Girl comes out October 3rd). Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance in the closing night slot sounds more doubtful -- though Venice response has been positive. I'm pleased they're including Bonello's Saint Laurent. The French at Cannes appreciated it more than English-language writers; and I like Bonello and Ulliel and want to compare this with the earlier-released tamer Bergé-approved YSL biopic with Pierre Niney. Bonello's will come out in France around this time so we can see how it does critically there.

Nick Bloomfield's Battle for Haditha (2007) was the best film about the Iraq war. His new one, a documentary, returns to a topic he has filmed before, a serial killer. Oren Moverman has been good and I'm interested in new German film: Dominik Graf did one of the Dreileben films of several years ago, a bit disappointing then but we'll see. Amalric hasn't seemed as good a director as actor and at Cannes the Variety wasn't impressed. Alonso's Juaja is an atmospheric headscratcher and period Viggo Mortensen vehicle enthusiastically received at Un Certain Regard.

Every year they edge up the number of selections. It was 28, then 29, then 30. This time though last year's raft of somewhat dubious English comedies is happily missing, and the selection is more international.

There doesn't look to be much torturous or long-slog material here, and what may be hidden between the lines will be from distinguished sources (Costa, Godard). Goodbye to Language, by the way, is in 3D.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/nyff2014/roxy.jpg
GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE

[Chris Knipp]

NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 12, 2014: The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the opening, closing, and centerpiece films for the fall festival.

In addition to the previously announced Opening Night selection, David Fincher's Gone Girl, the lineup will include Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon, and Benicio Del Toro, as Centerpiece and Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance, starring Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone, and Naomi Watts, as Closing Night.


http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/ptavice.jpg
PTA directing Daniel Day Lewis in THERE WILL BE BLOOD [from THE DISSOLVE] (http://thedissolve.com/news/1580-paul-thomas-andersons-inherent-vice-is-imminent/)

Paul Thomas Anderson's INHERENT VICE, from the Thomas Pynchon novel, the NYFF 2014 Centerpiece film, will debut in some cities December 12. THE DISSOLVE presents a brief preview of it currently with a photo showing a different looking Joaquim Phoenix, whose favoring by important directors (Anderson, James Gray) now makes him more than rival his beloved brother the late River. INHERENT VICE also features Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, and Benicio del Toro. You will get to read about this much anticipated new film in detail first right here in the Filmleaf Festival Coverage section's NYFF 2014 thread.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/affleckgone.jpg
BEN AFFLECK IN DAVID FINCHER'S GONE GIRL


http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/52logo.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/joshjoaquin.jpg


Josh Brolin and Joaquin Phoenix [from Indiewire], Inherent Vice.

[Chris Knipp]

Toronto 2014 (4-14 September).

Mike D'Angelo has given his "first pass at" a schedule of, at this point, 49 films he plans to watch in nine days at this year's Toronto Film Festival. Seveb are NYFF titles, several more Cannes. http://www.panix.com/~dangelo/prev/tiff14.html. Single-time scheduling of a bunch of films he wants to see early on prevents him from seeing them. He explains reasons for each choice. Some are due to "dead slot" times when nothing he wants to see is showing in press screenings. Directors include Lucas Belvaux, Céline Sciamma, Roy Andersson, Takashi Miike, Laurent Cantet, Tetsuya Nakashima, Martin Rejtman, Jason Reitman, David Gordon Green (MANGLEHORN is the title), Johnnie To, Christian Petzold, Noah Baumbach, Nick Broomfield (NYFF), just to give a few.

As before he will no doubt provide on-the-spot Tweet reviews with his "fanatically" precise numberical 1-100 ratings of each.

[Chris Knipp]

D'Angelo noted scheduling issues in these two tweets this morning:


Of the 40 or so films on my TIFF shortlist, 18 (!!!) are screening for press on Day One and only on Day One. Unreal.

and
(And I’ve already seen a bunch of other major films that are also screening only that first day: Ceylan, Dardennes, Dumont, etc.)

Film festival scheduling is not rocket science, but it's not easy, evidently (I have enough trouble scheduling my own life). I've noted how the NYFF press screenings bunch up sometimes so it becomes much harder some days than others. But if you are available you can see all the main slate films. What he's saying is for Toronto he can't begin to see all his first choices. You can never get it all out of one festival.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

FSLC announces 15 'Spotlight on Documentary' titles.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/koreandiary.jpg
Jung Yoon-suk's Non-fiction Diary.

Posted Aug. 20, 2014. You'll find them all here. (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2014/blog/new-york-film-festival-adds-15-documentary-premieres)

'Nonfiction took the spotlight Tuesday as the Film Society of Lincoln Center unveiled 15 documentaries, including one World Premiere and four U.S. Premieres, slated to join the lineup of the 52nd New York Film Festival. New films by Les Blank, Debra Granik, Ethan Hawke, Robert Kenner, Albert Maysles, Joshua Oppenheimer, Ed Pincus, Martin Scorsese, J.P. Sniadecki, Frederick Wiseman, are part of this year's roster.

Highlights from yesterday's additions include Scorsese and David Tedeschi's look at The New York Review of Books, The 50-Year Argument and Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence, his follow-up to his Oscar-nominated The Act of Killing, about the aftermath of genocide in Indonesia. Documentary mavericks Albert Maysles and Frederick Wiseman's latest works also join the lineup. Maysles's Iris focuses on fashion- and interior-design master Iris Apfel, while Wiseman's National Gallery centers on the art of painting.

Les Blank and Ed Pincus will also return to NYFF and the Film Society. Blank and Gina Leibrecht’s How to Smell a Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock in Normandy chronicles a visit by Blank to Leacock in which the two filmmakers spend time together discussing, among other things, Leacock’s philosophies of living and filmmaking. Pincus and Lucia Small’s One Cut, One Life, meanwhile, reunites the two filmmakers for a treatise on life with a demonstration of the necessity of love, work, and beauty.

Filmramming and Selection Committee Chair. "It’s kind of a commonplace to think of documentary as an add-on to fiction, something extra, and of course nothing could be further from the truth: cinema started with documentary, and it will always be at the core of the art form. These 15 films, so vastly different in outlook and method and tone, represent the best in documentary filmmaking today. And I need to say that the presence of new work by some of the greatest figures in the documentary strain known as vérité—Fred Wiseman, Al Maysles, and the final films by Ed Pincus and Les Blank, whose doc is about Ricky Leacock—is, for me, both exciting and moving."


Other highlights include Gabe Polsky’s Red Army, which explores the story of the Soviet Union’s Red Army hockey team—arguably the most successful sports dynasty in history; Robert Kenner’s Merchants of Doubt, which sheds light on the methods with which opponents of policy to counteract climate change go about their work to confuse and muddy the issue; and J.P. Sniadecki’s The Iron Ministry, in which the filmmaker looks at the lives and personalities of the people that ride the railway cars crossing China every day.

Additional special screenings, events, filmmaker conversations and panels, as well as NYFF’s Projections and the full Convergence programs, will be announced in subsequent days and weeks."maker Debra Granik, whose 2010 film Winter's Bone received four Oscar nominations, returns to the director's chair this time with Stray Dog, a documentary portrait of Ron “Stray Dog” Hall—who appeared in Winter's Bone—an aging biker, RV park manager, and veteran in southern Missouri who was transformed by his tours in Vietnam and dedicates his life to helping his loved ones and fellow vets. Actor Ethan Hawke also takes a turn behind the camera to look at the life of pianist Seymour Bernstein with Seymour: An Introduction. Hawke traces the life’s journey and the balance ultimately achieved by a man that mastered the piano very early and had great success on the concert circuit before giving it all up to devote his life to helping others develop their talent.

"This section of the festival has become increasingly important to us, and to me personally," commented Kent Jones, NYFF's Director of Programming."'

Last year's NYFF docs included Afternoon Of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq p, The Dog, about the real person Dog Day Afternoon was based on, and Joachim Pinto's What Now? Remind Me,.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

The Press & Industry screening schedule has been announced. It will run from Monday, September 15 to Friday, October 11. This schedule will determine the order in which my Main Slate reviews will appear. Stay tuned!

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Alejandro G. Iñárritu's BIRDMAN - the buzz.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/bird.jpg

Iñárritu's BIRDMAN recently debuted as the opening night film at Venice and reviews give an impression of a major tour de force; the dp is the same who did fellow Mexican Cuarón's GRAVITY, the tour de force that was the opening film at Venice last year. The London Telegraph says "Birdman isn’t much like anything else at all. Think Black Swan directed by Mel Brooks and you’re in the vicinity, but only just." This combination does not appeal to me at all, but for some reason descriptions make me think of Cronenberg's COSMOPOLIS, which I loved.

Peter Debruge in his Variety review says, "it’s a thrill to see Inarritu back from whatever dark, dreary place begat '21 Grams,' 'Babel' and 'Biutiful,' three phony, contrived melodramas engineered to manipulate, while posing as gritty commentaries on the harsh world we inhabit." Debruge says the film's "a triumph on every creative level, from casting to execution, that will electrify the industry, captivate arthouse and megaplex crowds alike, send awards pundits into orbit and give fresh wings to Keaton’s career."

Why do I feel so resistant to it, in advance? (I like that Debruge came out and called those earlier films "phony." Maybe AMORES PERROS was "phony" too, but the first part was so good it didn't quite matter, and the introduction of Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal and a new generation of strong Mexican directors to an international audience.) Of course it is useless, even wrong, to comment on a movie one has not yet seen. But this is one of the featured films at NYFF 52, and it is going to be one of the most talked-about of the year, I imagine. So let the chatter begin!

NB: This is a social satire, not a superhero movie; this still is a flashback to the Keaton protagonist's most famous role.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

More on Cannes at the 2014 NYFF. Prizes; on-the-spot comments from D'Angelo.

A number of the 2014 NYFF jury's selections that debuted at Cannes were big prizewinners there. The top prize, Palme d'Or, winner, WINTER SLEEP (Nuri Bilge Ceylan), isn't included in the NYFF; but dissents saying it's a big bore (and correspondingly very long slog to watch) may help explain its exclusion. (I found Ceylan's last film (http://filmleaf.com/?p=269) ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA, included in the 2011 NYFF, a terrible slog.) Anyway WINTER SLEEP (telling title?) begins limited US theatrical release 19 December.
THE WONDERS (Alice Rohrwacher) won the (second-to-top) Cannes Grand Prize.
FAREWELL TO LANGUAGE (Jean-Luc Goadard) won one of two Cannes Jury Prizes.
Timotny Spall of MR. TURNER (Mike Leigh) won Best Actor at Cannes. This offsets the fact that European critics liked this film less than some other contenders.
Julianne Moore of MAPS TO THE STARS won Best Actress.
FOXCATCHER (Bennett Miller) won Best Director. (Not sure yet what that may mean.)
TIMBUKTU (Abderrahmane Sissako) won both the Ecumenical Jury Prize and the Françcois Chalais Prize. This was a European critics' favorite.
MAPS TO THE STARS won Best Soundtrack.

In this context I just reread Mike D'Angelo's ten days of Cannes 2014 bulletins on The Dissolve (http://thedissolve.com/features/postcards-from-cannes/). He is overall remarkably unenthusiastic about FOXCATCHER and MAPS TO THE STARS. He has mixed but good things to say about MR. TURNER. He finds (http://thedissolve.com/features/postcards-from-cannes/569-day-4-shivers/)THE WONDERS a "A minor work, but thoroughly enjoyable." He says of the Dardennes' TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT, "These guys may yet sell me on this whole 'humanism' thing." He likes TIMBUKTU, and appreciates its being less social-critically didactic than recent previous films (BAMAKO, in NYFF 2007 (http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=15959#post15959). Of Assayas' CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA he tweeted "Relentlessly brainy, to the point where it's constantly interpreting itself. Really sharp, though." He finds all Godard's late work baffling, but loves the exceptionally innovative use of 3D in FAREWELL TO LANGUAGE and this is his favorite Godard film since WEEKEND, which was made before he was born. But there were other films at Cannes this year that D'Angelo waxed enthusiastic about, IT FOLLOWS (Mitchell), BIRD PEOPLE (Ferran, already showing at the NYC IFC theater), and TU DORS NICOLE (Lafleur) The NYFF Cannes choices are safer and more conventional than some of D'Angelo's.

In VARIETY from Cannes Justin Chang gave FOXCATCHER is a rave for the acting and the drama; but Peter Debruge thoroughly panned MAPS TO THE STARS as a "toxic," tone-deaf piece based on an old screenplay that had passed its expiration date. That leaves one wondering, if MAPS TO THE STARS is a stinker and FOXCATCHER is blah, why include them? Other Cannes films in the NYFF that didn't get prizes D'Angelo rated high, TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT and CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

A current FSLC series.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/waters.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Confirmations have now been sent out to us that pretty much all the highest profile premiere film NYFF 2014 stars and directors as well as filmmakers of the main documentaries shown in the upcoming P&I screenings will be present for the press conferences. The decision has been made to have no remote Skype Q&As this year.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Press and Industry screenings for the 52nd NYFF, 2014 edition, begin today (15 October).

Asia Argento: Misunderstood/Incompresa (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32744#post32744)

Argento softens her fiestiness for this semi-autobiographical tale of a nine-year-old girl in Rome growing up alternately ignored and mistreated, with rich and famous and spectacularly egocentric parents. A bold, indigestible, colorful gesture of a movie, a bit more gesture than substance.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Yann Damange: '71 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32745#post32745)

French-born English TV director's stunningly good debut feature with rising star Jack McConnell as a teenage British private sent to Belfast during the Troubles who gets wounded and accidentally abandoned by his squad in a street clash in a dangerous Catholic district. All the complexity and ambiguity is there of the political situation along with the physical danger of the wounded, disoriented kid on he run for his life.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

http://www.chrisknipp.com/nyff2014/snowden.jpg

NYFF to include world premiere of Laura Poitras’ CITIZENFOUR.

Press release today. The film will be shown to press & industry on its premiere day October 10th also but in the morning. This is a newsworthy item that if really good can add luster to the NYFF 2014 documentary content. Laura Poitras worked directly with Glenn Greenwald in channelling Edward Snowden's NSA revelations so she has an inside channel on this big story.

"New York Film Festival director Kent Jones said today that the Film Society of Lincoln Center has added the world premiere of Laura Poitras’ CITIZENFOUR to its Main Slate lineup. The presentation will run Friday, October 10 at 6 PM at Alice Tully Hall. Poitras will also participate in a free HBO Directors Dialogues the following day at 4 PM, at the Walter Reade Theater. The film, from RADiUS in association with Participant Media and HBO Documentary Films, opens theatrically October 24."

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

A screening day of avant-garde, hard-to-follow stuff.

Jean-Luc Godard: Goodbye to Language/Adieu au langage (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32751#post32751)

Beautiful, more accessible, and containing 3D tricks so neat people fail to note them. But as ever since the Nineties Goadard is a full-on avant-garde filmmaker, and this is like something you would encounter in the darkened room of an art museum, not a cinema.

Martin Rejtman: Two Shots Fired (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32752#post32752)

A spiraling sequence of deadpan interlocked stories from the absurdist Argentinian director, his first feature in a decade, is not up to the wit or appeal of his bet work.

[Chris Knipp]

P&I screenings for Wednesday, September 17 offered three features from Korea, Germany, and Italy:

10AM HILL OF FREEDOM (Hong Sang-soo) (66m)
11:30AM BELOVED SISTERS (Dominik Graf) (170m)
2:45PM THE WONDERS (Alice Rohrwacher) (110m)

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Hong Sang-soo: Hill of Freedom (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32758#post32758)

This is the eighth Hong film to be included in the Main Slatre of a New York Film Festival and it shows him at his most sweet and accessible. Every Hong film is drenched in love and alcohol and plays with time and narrative through a succession of lively conversations. This time most of them are in English, and the use of this language by a Japanese man (played by Ryo Kase of LETTERS FROM IWA JIMA) and the Koreas he beds and longs for and otherwise meets makes for a slightly gauche directness, truth, and humor.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Dominik Graf: The Beloved Sisters (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32759#post32759)

German filmmaker Graf's lush and smart historical film about the dawn of German romanticism depiects a love trio at a turning point in European cultural and political history: key poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller and two sisters, both of whom he was in love with for decades.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Alice Rohrwacher: The Wonders/Le meraviglie (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32760#post32760)

Rohrbacher's Cannes Grand Prix-winning sophomore film is a semi-autobiographical depiction of a German-Italian family of impoverished beekeepers in the middle of Italy whose eldest daughter is drawn to a tacky Felliniesque TV contest promoting rural economy and the Etruscans.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Yesterday was a heck of a good screenings day. Today was interesting and certainly varied but less dazzling, though the following two films had enthusiastic fans.

Eugène Green: La Sapienza (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32769#post32769)

Despite its erudition and elegant art film style, strong intellectual underpinnings, and handsome architectural images from the Italian baroque era, LA SAPIENZA is pulled down by its lugubrious dialogue and its sub-Oliveira philosophical whimsy.

Josh and Benny Safdie: Heaven Knows What (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32770#post32770)

The Safdie brothers have made a feature about young heroin addicts living on the streets of the Big Apple. The lead, Arielle Holmes, is playing herself and the action, dominated by a kind of sad doomed romance, is closely based on her own memoirs. But despite intensity and grim docudrama realism to burn, it winds up feeling less distinctive and compelling than the Safdies' semi-autobiographical 2009 DADDY LONGLEGS.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

NYFF SPOTLIGHT ON DOCUMENTARY

Ethan Hawke: Seymur: An Introduction (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32777#post32777)

A treat for classical piano buffs and portrait of an unusually articulate and wise 85-year-old pianist, teacher, and thinker about life. The subject just fell into Hawke's lap, but he has produced a superior film with exceptional access, editing, camera work, and sound. Seymour (now 87) and Ethan were on hand for a lively Q&A after the screening.

Also shown in press screenings today from the doc sidebar but not reviewed here: THE LOOK OF SILENCE, recent MacArthur award winner Joshua Oppenheimer's sequel to his THE ACT OF KILLING (ND/NF 2013). Both concern Indonesian mass murders.

Terry Gilliam's THE ZERO THEOREM (http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2837) opened in NYC today. I have reviewed it.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Abel Ferrara: Pasolini (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32782#post32782)

Tragedy by the beach: Ferrara films the genius, politics, and tragedy of Pasolini, delivering a well-researched and surprisingly classy (but also shocking) non-linear short film about the Italian writer and filmmaker and his brutal death. But the stunt-casting of American Willem Dafoe speaking (mostly) English with a mostly Italian film otherwise will be a stumbling block for many viewers.

Matías Piñeiro: The Princess of France/La Princessa de Francia (20140 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32783#post32783)

Young Argentinian director Piñeiro's fifth feature shows him still playing with young actors mixing Shakespeare and their own romances. He seems to remain in the safe hermetic world of timidly experimental festival fare. His lightweight material could be charming and fun, but it looks like that isn't going to happen.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Alain Resnais: Life of Riley/Aimer, boire, et chanter (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32785#post32785)

His swan song is his third and most accessible and witty adaptation of a play buy British dramatist Alan Ayckbourn with a brilliant cast of regulars and two new additions.

Mia Hansen-Løve: Eden (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32786#post32786)

A decade-plus of her brother (and cowriter) Sven's up and down life as a successful Paris Garage rave DJ is a beautiful gray haze in the talented director's fourth feature.

Jean-Pierre, Luc Dardenne: Two Days, One Night/Deux jours, une nuit (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32787#post32787)

The Dardennes' profound humanism and understanding of working class hard knocks melds with the sublime emotional authenticity of Marion Cotillard in this moving film from Cannes.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Press screenings today included an estheticizing of poverty (Pedro Costa), an estheticizing of violence (two Syrians, one Arab and one Kurdish), and a clueless skewering of Hollywood ego and evil (Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, which is brought down by its pointless and outdated screenplay). Horse Money (Costa) is ravishing but a slog; Silvered Water is brutal and will make you weep; all I can say of Maps is it made no sense to me at all.

Pedro Costa: Horse Money/Cavalo Dinheiro (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32789#post32789)

Mohammed and Bedirxan: Silvered Water, Syria Self Portrait//ماء الفضة/maa' al-fiḍḍa (2014 (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32790#post32790))

David Cronenberg: Maps to the Stars (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32791#post32791)

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Wanderings. Oren Moverman depicts Richard Gere, disappeared into the persona of a homeless person, wandering the streets of New York City in search of food and shelter. Lisandro Alonso, in an Un Certain Regard Cannes picture that won the FIPRESCI Prize this year, shows us Viggo Mortensen as a Danish cavalry officer in the 1880's wandering the wilds of Patagonia in search of his 14-year-old daughter, who has run off with a young Argentinian soldier.

Oren Moverman: Time Out of Mind (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32795#post32795)

Lisandro Alonso: Jauja (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32796#post32796)

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Friday, September 26, 2014.

The 52nd New York Film Festival officially begins, and the day's big press screening is of the gala opening night film, David Fincher's GONE GIRL. Both these movies are flashy gripping watches about warped people: a sadistic music teacher whose soul-destroying methods may or may not bring out great talents -- are his methods justified, or actionable? -- and a neurotic couple, a crazy, ice-queen wife and husband not good at telling the truth: the wife's disappearance on their fifth wedding anniversary brings suspicion upon her husband.

Damien Chazelle: Whiplash (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32799#post32799)

Starring J.K. Simmons as the brutal boot-camp-style music teacher and rising star Miles Teller as his ambitious drum student, this was one of the breakout hits of Sundance this January. Chazelle's second film, it's far more structured and emphatic than his first. It hits you like a ton of bricks, sacrificing subtlety to spotlight its moral dilemma in a series of rapid-fire scenes.

David Fincher: Gone Girl (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32800#post32800)

An amazing twittering machine of a movie, this navigates its narrative complexity, multiple action, and constant shocks and revelations with fine-tuned precision. Destined to be one of the best American movies of the year and probably a prime Oscar contender and popular hit. You may feel overstuffed, but despite the 2 1/2 hour run-time, this is an enjoyable watch.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg

Trailer out now of Paul Thomas Anderson's INHERENT VICE (the NYFF Centerpiece film, based on a Thomas Pynchon novel, showing this Saturday) suggests it's a comedy.

INHERENT VICE TRAILER (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTg9m4M0G5g)

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

As a lighter week of P&I screenings begins, Monday offered two French films, by Bertrand Bonello and Mathieu Amalric.

Mathieu Amalric: The Blue Room/La Chambre bleue (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32805#post32805)

This is a bit of a head-scratcher, a neatly made but bloodless adaptation of a Georges Simenon crime novel directed by and also co-starring the actor. Just a little over an hour. Much tighter and cunningly crafted than his previous meandering show biz saga ON TOUR, but this time Amalric seems to have captured the police procedural and narrative elements and lost the eroticism and passion.

Bertrand Bonello: Saint Laurent (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32806#post32806)

An unofficial, non-Pierre Bergé sanctioned not-quite biopic about YSL during the years 1967-1976. Freer, more decadent, and with a more interesting cast than Jalil Lespert's also 2014 biopic YVES SAINT LAURENT. A somewhat odd topic for Bonello, but it has a lot of good stuff in it, and also Gaspard Ulliel, Louis Garrel, Valeria Tedeschi, Léa Seydoux, and other interesting actors. Some brilliant scenes and excellent use of split-screen and a combination of classical and 60's-70's soul.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

From the Spotlight on Documentary NYFF sidebar, a quickie from Frederick Wiseman -- only three hours.

Frederick Wiseman: National Gallery (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32810#post32810)

You can learn a lot about restoration and about the content and histories of the paintings (14th to 19th centuries) in this movie about London's National Gallery. But the constant focus on gallery lectures gets repetitions and Wiseman's choices seem naive at times.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

Anthony Lane of The New Yorker reviews (together) GONE GIRL, THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY, and THE BLUE ROOM this week. I reviewd, or talked about, them all this week too. Maybe not as wittily. . . Two of these are included in the New York Film Festival; the third is now showing in New York, and it's worth seeing (THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY).

Lane's review. (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/theydunnit)

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/nyff2014/retrologo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

NYFF52 AT A GLANCE: DAY SIX
October 1, 2014

TODAY'S P&I SCREENINGS
10AM TIMBUKTU (100m)
*Press conference to follow with Director Abderrahmane Sissako

FREE NYFF TALKS!
NYFF Live: Joshua Oppenheimer (The Look of Silence) 7:00pm | Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater

TODAY'S SCHEDULE
Non-fiction Diary 3:00pm | Howard Gilman Theater
Spotlight on Documentary U.S. Premiere. Q&A with director Jung Yoon-suk.
How to Smell a Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock in Normandy 5:00pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Spotlight on Documentary Q&A with co-director Gina Leibrecht
The Man from Laramie 6:00pm | Walter Reade Theater
Revivals Directed by Anthony Mann
Timbuktu 6:00pm | Alice Tully Hall
Main Slate U.S. Premiere. Q&A with director Abderrahmane Sissako.
Beloved Sisters 6:00pm | Howard Gilman Theater
Main Slate North American Premiere.
Dreams Are Colder Than Death 7:00pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Spotlight on Documentary Q&A with director Arthur Jafa.
All About Eve 9:00pm | Alice Tully Hall
Joseph L. Mankiewicz Retrospective
Goodbye to Language (3D) 9:00pm | Walter Reade Theater
Main Slate
The Look of Silence 9:00pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Spotlight on Documentary Q&A with director Joshua Oppenheimer.

LOOKING AHEAD: TOMORROW
Free NYFF Live talk with The Look of Silence's Joshua Oppenheimer; the first public screening of Timbuktu; the final screening of Mankiewicz's iconic All About Eve, Goodbye to Language, The Look of Silence, Beloved Sisters and The Blue Room; and more.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/nyff2014/retrologo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

Abderrahmane Sissako: Timbuktu (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32812#post32812)

Sissako's serene, poetic vision of jihadist oppression in northern Mali. Abderrahmane Sissako, born in Mauritania and educated in Mali, is an African director whose concerns and outlook are broader and loftier than most. In Timbuktu, when he looks at the way the temporary jihadist takeover of northern Mali by the Ansar Dine group in 2012 quickly undermines the human dignity and way of life of the people, he does so with a surprising serenity that is at once poetic, gently ironic, ferocious, all-encompassing, and brave.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/nyff2014/retrologo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

Gabe Polsky: Red Army (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32819#post32819)

Sports and politics from a Cold War perspective in a talking heads doc about Russian ice hockey players that is interesting and fast-paced. From the NYFF Spotlight on Documentary series.

Mike Leigh: Mr. Turner (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32820#post32820)

A non-biopic biopic of the great unorthodox working-class-origins English painter (1775-1851) that skirts convention so subtly conventional audiences may not get it. Timothy Spall won Best Actor at Cannes for his towering, idiosyncratic performances.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

NYFF52 AT A GLANCE: DAY NINE
October 4, 2014

TODAY'S P&I SCREENINGS

10AM INHERENT VICE (148m)
*Press conference to follow with Director Paul Thomas Anderson, Joaquin Phoenix, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Benicio Del Toro, Sasha Pieterse, Joanna Newsom, Hong Chau, Jena Malone, Martin Short, Maya Rudolph

FREE NYFF TALKS!
NYFF Live: Making Mr. Turner 7:00pm | Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater
Panelists include cast members Marion Bailey and Dorothy Atkinson, as well as producer Georgina Lowe, director of photography Dick Pope, and production designer Suzie Davies.

TODAY'S SCHEDULE
Projections Program 5 1:00pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Mr. Turner 2:00pm | Alice Tully Hall
Main Slate Q&A with director Mike Leigh and actors Timothy Spall, Marion Bailey, Dorothy Atkinson, and Dick Pope.
Projections Program 6 3:00pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Red Army 3:15pm | Walter Reade Theater
Spotlight on Documentary Q&A with director Gabe Polsky
The Wonders 3:15pm | Howard Gilman Theater
Main Slate North American Premiere. Q&A with director Alice Rohrwacher.
Projections Program 7 5:15pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Centerpiece: Inherent Vice —
5:30pm & 9:00 | Alice Tully Hall
5:45pm, 9:15pm, & Midnight | Walter Reade Theater
Projections Program 8 7:00pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Projections Program 9 9:45pm | Francesca Beale Theater

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/nyff2014/retrologo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

Paul Thomas Anderson: Inherent Vice (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32822#post32822)

PTA's adaptation of the 2009 Thomas Pynchon novel about a stoner private dick in 1970 Southern California with a miasma of drugs, corruption, and goofiness gets a bit lost in its intricate details. My biggest disappointment of Anderson's films; I even found ways to like PUNCH DRUNK LOVE. I could love re-watching this, but it makes too little sense in the first overview and I suspect he adds too little to what apparently is only (in Michiko Kikutani's words) "Pynchon-lite" to begin with.

The NYFF's Centerpiece film and a red carpet special, the movie's world premiere. Limited release comes in early December and wide release in January 2015.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

NYFF52 AT A GLANCE: DAY TEN
October 5, 2014

TODAY'S P&I SCREENINGS
NO P&I SCREENINGS TODAY

FREE NYFF TALKS! Sponsored by HBO
NYFF Live: Marion Cotillard 1:00pm | Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater
HBO Directors Dialogues: Mike Leigh (Mr. Turner) 2:30pm | Walter Reade Theater

TODAY'S SCHEDULE
The King and the Mockingbird 11:00am | Francesca Beale Theater
Special Events Directed by Paul Grimault. Tickets just $7 for everyone!
The Princess of France 12:00pm | Walter Reade Theater
Main Slate U.S. Premiere. Q&A with director Matías Piñeiro and actress Maria Villar.
On Cinema: Paul Thomas Anderson 12:30pm | Alice Tully Hall
NYFF Talks Sponsored by HBO.
Projections Program 10 1:30pm | Francesca Beale Theater
The Iron Ministry 3:00pm | Howard Gilman Theater
Spotlight on Documentary Q&A with director J.P. Sniadecki.
Two Days, One Night 3:00pm | Alice Tully Hall
Main Slate Q&A with directors Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne and actress Marion Cotillard.
Projections Program 11 4:00pm | Francesca Beale Theater
National Gallery 4:00pm | Walter Reade Theater
Spotlight on Documentary U.S. Premiere. Directed by Frederick Wiseman.
Guys and Dolls 5:30pm | Howard Gilman Theater
Joseph L. Mankiewicz Retrospective
Time Out of Mind 6:00pm | Alice Tully Hall
Main Slate U.S. Premiere. Q&A with director Oren Moverman and actor Richard Gere.
Projections Program 12 6:30pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Heaven Knows What 8:00pm | Walter Reade Theater
Main Slate U.S. Premiere. Q&A with directors Josh and Benny Safdie, actors Arielle Holmes and Caleb Landry Jones.
Projections Program 13 8:30pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Red Army 9:00pm | Howard Gilman Theater
Spotlight on Documentary Q&A with director Gabe Polsky.
Eden 9:00pm | Alice Tully Hall
Main Slate U.S. Premiere. Q&A with director Mia Hansen-Løve, writer Sven Hansen-Løve, and actors Felix De Givry & Greta Gerwig.
Today's standby screenings include: The Princess of France, On Cinema, Projections programs 10 & 12, The Iron Ministry, Two Days, One Night, National Gallery, Guys and Dolls, Time Out of Mind, Heaven Knows What, and Red Army.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

Monday's P&I screening.

Nixk Broomfield: Tales of the Grim Sleeper (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32822#post32822)

Broomfield tours LAPD racism & ghetto evil w/ "crack whore" Pam, the 52nd NYFF's only Main Slate doc. Maybe it's his "magnum opus"; it's more high-profile than other recent Broomfield films, and it is impressive the amount of detail he unearths about this long-ignored case and its ugly implications about ghetto life as a fertile ground for unchecked murder especially when he victims are black prostitutes the cops of LA categorize as subhuman. A clear, well-laid-out and cleanly-made documentary.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

Wed., 8 Oct. P&I screenings and public showings of Assayas' CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA (heavily attended) and Robert Kenner's MERCHANTS OF DOUBT (Spotlight on Documentary sidebar)

Olivier Assayas: Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32829#post32829)

About acting, about aging, about intergenerational rivalry, about the media circus and handheld devices and social media, about the Swiss Alps, about theater vs. film, this movie was conceived as a vehicle for Juliette Binoche. Well it's a well acted, serious and impressive film, but I found it heavy-handed and overlong; Kristen Stweart great though fore sure, a revelation. She is relaxed, quick, sophisticated, smart -- and makes a place for herself as one of our best young actresses and should get more European roles as well.


Robert Kenner: Merchants of Doubt (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32830#post32830)

The issue is very important: global warming. The angle is the paid liars and hype artists, wearing various hates as scientists or writers or media mavens, who work for Exxon Mobil or the Koch brothers and sell the idea that global warming is nothing to worry about, that it doesn't exist, that it exists but is a good thing. The film compares this game to magic tricks and finds that a number of the same people work working several decades ago to sell the idea that cigarettes are good for you and nicotine isn't addictive. Kenner's previous film was the 2009 FOOD, INC., showing that most food production in the US is controlled by the same five big companies.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

Alex Ross Perry: Listen Up Philip (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32832#post32832)

For this Sundance hit, indie filmmaker Perry received Hollywood producer backing and was able to assemble a dream cast of Jason Schwartzman, Elizabeth Moss, Jonathan Pryce, Dree Hemingway, Krysten Ritter, and Joséphine de La Baume with Eric Bogosian as voice-over narrator for his acid and sometimes hilarious portrait of a cruel narcissistic young novelist mentored by a famous older version of himself based on Philip Roth. Schwartzman is Philip. A very New York film that might be considered Perry's SQUID AND THE WHALE (http://www.filmleaf.net/articles/features/nyff05/squidandwhale.htm) (which similarly had a home town debut in the 43rd NYFF, in 2005 (the first one covered in Filmleaf).

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

NYFF52 AT A GLANCE: DAY 15
October 10, 2014

TODAY'S P&I SCREENINGS [done!]
11:15AM FOXCATCHER (134min)
*Press conference to follow with Director Bennett Miller, Steve Carell, Mark
Ruffalo, Anthony Michael Hall, Sienna Miller, Channing Tatum and Vanessa Redgrave
6PM CITIZENFOUR (TBD) LOCATION: BOW TIE CHELSEA CINEMAS, 260 W 23rd St (b/t 7th Ave & 8th Ave)

FREE NYFF EVENTS! Sponsored by HBO
NYFF Live Talk: Albert Maysles (Iris) 7:00pm | Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater

TODAY'S SCHEDULE
Iris 3:45pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Spotlight on Documentary World Premiere. Q&A with director Albert Maysles and Iris Apfel.
CITIZENFOUR 6:00pm | Alice Tully Hall
Main Slate World Premiere. Directed by Laura Poitras
The Forest 6:00pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Special Events U.S. Premiere. Directed by Arnaud Desplechin. Screening with Claire Denis's Voilà l’enchaînement.
Hiroshima Mon Amour 6:00pm | Walter Reade Theater
Revivals Directed by Alain Resnais.
A Letter to Three Wives 6:30pm | Howard Gilman Theater
Joseph L. Mankiewicz Retrospective
Suddenly, Last Summer 9:00pm | Howard Gilman Theater
Joseph L. Mankiewicz Retrospective
Listen Up Philip 9:00pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Main Slate Q&A with director Alex Ross Perry and actor Jason Schwartzman.
Life of Riley 9:00pm | Walter Reade Theater
Main Slate U.S. Premiere.
Foxcatcher 9:00pm | Alice Tully Hall
Main Slate Q&A with director Bennett Miller and actors Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Vanessa Redgrave, Mark Ruffalo, Sienna Miller, and Anthony Michael Hall.

LOOKING AHEAD: TOMORROW
Closing Night screenings of Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance; final screening of Foxcatcher, CITIZENFOUR, and Life of Riley; and free HBO Directors Dialogue with Laura Poitras! Plus, join us Sunday for encore screenings of some of NYFF's sold out films. See schedule here

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

From yesterday:

Bennett Miller: Foxcatcher (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32836#post32836)

Based on a true story of crime in the world of the very rich in the Nineties. Strange old-money American millionaire John E. Dupont maintains a wrestling training camp at his Pennsylvania estate. Over time he eventually shoots and kills one of the wrestlers, one of two brothers who have been at the camp for some time. An oppressive and somewhat heavy-handed film. With Sienna Miller, Mark Ruffalo, Steve Carell, and Channing Tatum.

Laura Poitras: Citizenfour (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32837#post32837)

A nicely edited first-hand account of the Edward Snowden story. It provieds full context and meanings, but the key element is seeing Snowded himself up close in his Hong Kong hotel room as he and Guardian correspondents, mainly Glenn Greenwald, publish his revelations about NSA spying into personal details of everybody.

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

NYFF52 AT A GLANCE: DAY 16
October 11, 2014

TODAY'S P&I SCREENINGS [done!]
10AM BIRDMAN (119m)
*Press conference to follow with Director Alejandro G. Innaritu, Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, Amy Ryan, Andrea Riseborough
LOCATION: AMC Lincoln Square, 1998 Broadway (between W67th/68th)

FREE NYFF TALK!
HBO Directors Dialogues: Laura Poitras (CITIZENFOUR) 4:00pm | Walter Reade Theater

TODAY'S SCHEDULE
CITIZENFOUR 1:00pm | Walter Reade Theater
Main Slate World Premiere. Directored by Laura Poitras
Foxcatcher 2:00pm | Alice Tully Hall
Main Slate Q&A with actors Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, and Anthony Michael Hall.
Life of Riley 2:00pm | Francesca Beale Theater
Main Slate U.S. Premiere.
CLOSING NIGHT! Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance
Main Slate Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu and select cast members in person at ATH screenings.
6:00pm & 9:00pm | Alice Tully Hall (ATH)
6:15pm & 9:15pm | Walter Reade Theater
6:30, 6:45, 9:30, 9:45 | Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

TOMORROW: BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
Join us all day tomorrow for encore screenings of previously unavailable festival favorites! Sponsored by Citibank. See schedule here (http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2014/nyffschedule)

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

Alejandro G. Iñárritu: Birdman, or (The Unexpected Virtues of Ignorance) ( 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32843#post32843)

The Closing Night film, a tour de force and a complete change of pace for the Mexican director, again as in GRAVITY working in English with an American cast. Still overly ambitious, maybe, but the heavy-handed "significance" of 21 GRAMS, BABEL and BIUTIFUL is gone in favor of humor and satire and the main actors, Michael Keaton and Edward Norton, had great fun with this material. Another of the New York Film Festival's many "New York movies" this year, shot almost entirely at the St. James Theater on 44th and Broadway, from whence Keaton wanders through Times Square clad only in his skivvies followed by the director's virtuoso dp Emmanuel Lubezki in one more of the film's seamless long takes accompanied by the beat of drums, a sequence that clinced my feeling this was somehow similar to Leos Carax's mind-bending HOLY MOTORS (NYFF 2012).

[Chris Knipp]

ROUNDUP: 52nd New York Film Festival 2014

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52biglogo.jpg

ROUNDUP: 52nd New York Film Festival 2014

As usual, the New York Film Festival had depth and high quality. If there wasn't anything to sweep me away like Amour and Holy Motors, any amazing trip like Lif of Pi, anything as smart and witty as The Social Network or as profound as Sokurov's The Sun, this isn't the selection committee's fault, because this year seems a bit light on dazzlers. Personally I wasn't deeply impressed by any of the American features, but New York-related films came through strong with the street drug story Heaven Knows What, Gere's stunt as a homeless person Time Out of Mind, Perry's smart and mean Listen Up Philip, and Mexican director Iñárritu's Broadway theater tour de force Birdman.

Then we come to "foreign" films that were various kinds of delight. '71 is an intense historical thriller set in Bellfast at the height of the Troubles, and with it the French-born Yann Demaarge, who works in England, emerges as a world class filmmaker. The Film Society favorite Hong Sang-soo's Hill of Freedom is another disarmingly slight-seeming little gem. Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner is both grand and quiet, a marvel of acting and the recreation of period the Brits can do so well. Abderrahmane Sissako shows himself to be one of the world's great filmmakers in the serene, beautiful, memorable Timbukto, which, almost surprisingly, is about jihadist brutality and violence in northeastern Mali. It still seems like a visual poem. There were a number of smart and elegant French films (nothing great from Latin America, nor anything else from Asia): the one I liked best is Bertrand Bonello's dreamy and beautiful Saint Laurent, for which he was able to assemble some tolerably cool actors, to say the least. Graf's German historical film Beloed Sisters was rich and beautiful. It's almost a miniseries though. And why are so many features over two hours? Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria is an example of a serious art house film with ideas that overstayed its welcome because its editor put away his scissors too early.

The three "major" films idea, opening, centerpiece, and closing, is a bit phony from the cinephile POV, burt the Film Society's choices this year made sense. Fincher's big glitzy Gone Girl was an entertaining opener. I don't know what P.T. Anderson was doing with Inherent Vice, but he is a director I get excited about whose work gets into cineplexes. The closing film, Iñárritu's Birdman, is a welcome change of pace for him and a whild tour de force, if not as profound as it may think it is.

Below is a list I made up for a poll. Don't take it too seriously: five is an arbitrary limit, and I forgot to mention some things I liked, like the Hong Sang-soo, and made upt the list before seeing Iñárritu's Birdman, which clamors for award consideration in various categories. So apparently does Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher, but I found that film very unsatisfying, far too long and too one-note, despite how uneasy it makes you. Something of the same could be said of Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, which is clever and slick but makes no sense and misses its targets, its satire probably out of date. But as with some other choices (compare PTA), it's a film by a filmmaker whose failures you still have to see .

Another late item was Poitras' Citizenfour, which makes sense to include in the Main Slate though a documentary because of the outstanding importance of its subject, Edward Snowden at the moment of his NSA revelations in Hong Kong, and their meaning, but is also an exceptionally cleanly made film. The Festival had a lot of Spotlight on Documentary sidebar films and there were press screenings of some that showed merit, though mostly documentaries are something you watch if you're interested in the material, and they're rarely moving and unique as for example Man on Wire, To Be and To Have, or My Architect happen to be. Doc masterpieces are scarce as hen's teeth but "interesting" (to somebody) docs are very common and very available nowadays (a good thing, but a cause for festival jury reserve: for example, "Spotlight" NYFF film Merchants of Doubt was "interesting," but there are many films on closely related topics and the technique and look were boilerplate. Wiseman is an icon, like Maysles in his eighties still making documentaries and everything he does demands festival attention. But what a bore he can be sometimes! Let me mention Ethan Hawke's doc debut Seymour: An Introduction, a charming and informative film about a remarkable elderly New York piano teacher (another New York film!), very well made and not to be dismissed because its maker is a kind of celebrity.

BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
You can vote for up to 5 films.
1. '71 (Jann Demange 2014)
2. Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh 2014)
3. Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako 2014)
4. Two Days, One Night/Deux jours, une nuit (Jean-Pierre, Luc Dardenne 2014)
5. Saint Laurent (Bertrand Bonello 2014)
[6. Beloved Sisters/Die geliebten Schwestern (Dominik Graf 2014)]

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
1. Citizen Four (Laura Poitras)
2. Tales of the Grim Sleeper (Nick Broomfield 2014)
3. Red Army (Gabe Polsky 2014)
4. Seymour: An Introduction (Ethan Hawke 2014)
5. Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait/ (Ossama Mohammed, Wiam Simav Bedirxan 2014)
[6. National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman 2014)]

BEST DIRECTOR
1. Mike Leigh, Mr. Turner
2. Abderramane Sissako, Timbuktu
3 Yann Damange, '71
4. Jean-Pierre, Luc Dardenne, Two Days, One Night
5. Bertrand Bonello, Saint Laurent

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE
1. Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)
2. Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner)
3. Jack O'Connell ('71)
4. Richard Gere (Time Out of Mind)
5. Ibrahim Ahmed (Timbuktu)

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE.
1. Kristen Stewart (Couds of Sils Maria)
2. Hannah Herzsprung (Beloved Sisters)
3. Ben Vereen (Time Out of Mind)
4. Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
5. Carrie Coon (Gone Girl)

BEST SCREENPLAY
1. Timbuktu
2. Mr. Turner
3. Listen Up Philip
4. Gone Girl
5. Saint Laurent

BEST ENSEMBLE
1. Mr. Turner
2. Saint Laurent
3. Heaven Knows What
4. Two Days, One Night
5. Birdman [originally Foxcatcher]




---

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

The lists above were fitted to the template of an Indiewiere poll, whose "best picture" poll results are given below. Obviously I am on a a different wavelength, except that it's nice to see Timbuktu so much appreciated. I do not share the enthusiasm for Sils Maria, Whiplash, Horse Money, The Wonders, anything till you get down to nos. 13, 16, and 17. This is, obviously, also not just a list of Main Slate films but "best films" of the festival. In some of the other categories, my choices came up higher than here, e.g., the screenplay of Listen Up Philip. was in the top five. See full details of this poll go here (http://www.indiewire.com/survey/best-films-and-performances-from-nyff-2014/).

Indiewire 2014 NYFF Best Picture poll

1. Inherent Vice
2. Timbuktu
3. Clouds of Sils Maria
5. Birdman
6. Whiplash
7. Gone Girl
8. Horse Money
9. The Wonders (2014)
10. Foxcatcher
11. The Blue Room
12. Goodbye to Language
13. Mr. Turner
14. La Sapienza
15. Maps to the Stars
16. Saint Laurent
17. '71
18. Heaven Knows What
19. Jauja
20. Listen Up Philip
21. Eden (2014)
22. Li'l Quinquin
23. Pasolini
24. CITIZENFOUR
25. Hill of Freedom
26. Beloved Sisters
27. Queen and Country
28. Hiroshima, mon amour
29. Eden
30. Time Out of Mind
31. Two Shots Fired (Dos Disparos)
32. Misunderstood

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/nyff2014/fslogo.png

Sad FSLC note: R.I.P. Don Shul, Chief Projectionist, Walter Reade Theater
(Chief screening venue of the Film Society of Lincoln Center)

http://www.chrisknipp.com/nyff2014/shul.jpg

In Remembrance of Our Friend and Colleague Don Schul (1949-2014)


The Film Society of Lincoln Center has lost a longtime friend and admired colleague. Don Schul, who served as our Chief Projectionist and is recognized as a pioneering force in helping establish the Walter Reade Theater as one of New York's finest exhibition venues, died on Sunday, November 2, at his apartment in Greenwich Village. He was 65 years old.

A New York City native, Don Schul began work at the Film Society just as the Walter Reade Theater opened nearly 25 years ago. Prior to that he worked at the Magno Screening Room in Times Square where he developed a relationship with the New York Film Festival programming committee, including then Programming Director Richard Peña, who regularly viewed films at the venue along with former Film Society Executive Director Joanne Koch.

Hailed by his colleagues as "The Man Who Built the Walter Reade Theater," Don Schul was certainly responsible for building its reputation as a premier New York City cinema. REST OF ARTICLE (http://www.filmlinc.com/daily/entry/in-remembrance-of-our-friend-and-colleague-don-schul-1949-2014)

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako 2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32812#post32812)

Now in theatrical release in the US Wed. 28 January 2015 starting at Film Forum, NYC. A Best Foreign Oscar nominee. Of my top five narrative feature choices of NYFF 2015 it's the mot unusual. A marvelous film. Don't miss it.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/FF.jpg

ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEE!
Best Foreign Language Film

"CRITICS’ PICK. A rich evocation of daily life. A political film in the way that THE BICYCLE THIEF or MODERN TIMES is a political film. It feels at once timely and permanent, immediate and essential."
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times
Read the full review here. (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/28/movies/timbuktu-an-abderrahmane-sissako-film-about-radical-islam.html?ref=movies&_r=1&utm_source=Film+Forum+E-Mail+List&utm_campaign=fbbe5c43aa-2014_02_26_Film_Forum_Newsletter2_21_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_463035a28a-fbbe5c43aa-386251686)

"Gorgeous. Visually stunning."
– Violet Lucca, Village Voice

"Top 10 films of 2014"
– James Quandt & Amy Taubin, Artforum

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/Abd.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/nyff2014/retrologo.jpg[/URL]

TIMBUKTO is now showing in Northern California.

Abderrahmane Sissako: Timbuktu (2014) (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32812#post32812)

Sissako's serene, poetic vision of jihadist oppression in northern Mali. Abderrahmane Sissako, born in Mauritania and educated in Mali, is an African director whose concerns and outlook are broader and loftier than most. In Timbuktu, when he looks at the way the temporary jihadist takeover of northern Mali by the Ansar Dine group in 2012 quickly undermines the human dignity and way of life of the people, he does so with a surprising serenity that is at once poetic, gently ironic, ferocious, all-encompassing, and brave.

New Yorker (Anthony Lane) review (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/02/adventures-rothland)
NY Times review (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/28/movies/timbuktu-an-abderrahmane-sissako-film-about-radical-islam.html?_r=0)

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/tku.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

Ethan Hawke's SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION is in limited US theatrical release. Highly recommended. If you love classical piano or if you love intelligent and wise maturity, this is a must-see. Landmark theaters. In the Bay Area at the Albany and Embarcadero Cinemas.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/sey.jpg
SEYMOUR BERNSTEIN IN SEYMOUR: AN INTROCUCTION

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

The Safdie brothers' HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT officially opens tomorrow Friday, 29 May 2015 (Landmark Sunshine NYC); actually started playing there Thursday evening.

Metiocritic rating 76% but based on 7 reviews.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/hNw.jpg

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)

D'Angelo is now (Labor Day 2015) listing the Safdie brothers'Heaven Knows What in his 2015 top ten.* It didn't grab me that way. I have better memories of the unexpected performance of Richard Gere (directed by I'm Not There script writer Oren Moverman) in a down-and-out-on-the-streets-of-NYC role in Time Out of Mind.Well, that one is opening in theaters Wed., 9 September 2015.

_____________
*The Duke of Burgundy
Right Now, Wrong Then
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Forbidden Room
Carol
It Follows
Breathe/Respire
Tu dors Nicole
Heaven Knows What
Mustang
(More info on this list here. (http://www.panix.com/~dangelo/2015.html))

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nyff52smalllogo.jpg (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014)


Asia Argento's MISUNDERSTOOD/INCOMPRESA (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3800-New-York-Film-Festival-2014&p=32744#post32744)gets US release tomorrow, Fri., 25 Sept. 2015 - Metacritic rating 62..