New Directors/New Films and Film Comment Selects 2013

OUR NIXON

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6792/ournixon.jpg

An opening date has been announced for Penny Lane's private White House footage film frm ND/NF 2013, OUR NIXON: August 30, 2013.

Review here.

I don't know how you manage to write so many well-written reviews in such a short time. You are both very talented and hard-working. And here I am complaining that your review of STORIES WE TELL is unnecessarily revealing, or revealing in a way that would have diminished my enjoyment of the film had I read the review before watching the film. I also wish you would analyze the way this doc is just as much about cinematic narrative as it is about a family's history. This film is as self-conscious as movies get. Brilliant!

You say

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I don't know how you manage to write so many well-written reviews in such a short time.

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Then you say

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I also wish you would analyze the way this doc is just as much about cinematic narrative as it is about a family's history.

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Well, there is your answer to the first question. I can manage to write so many well-written reviews in such a short time by not going into every analytical possibility.

I've always been warned I tend to tell too much. However I invariably find out that there have been in-print mainstream reviews in New York publications that turn out to have revealed just as much about the movie in question or even more.

In the case of Sarah Polley's documentary, revelation is the name of the game. What comes up, is whether the revelations are really ultimately true. Or how much the arrangement of revelations is calculated to create a distorting effect. Whatever the case, it all works very well, and though I had doubts about Polley, severe after her second film, this convinces me she is good and has talent and staying power.

However I think, for instance, Alan Berliner's First Cousin Once Removed (NYFF 2012) makes for a family/personal intimate documentary study that is as deep and interesting or more so. Self-consciousness comes with the game, in making family docs.

You're right.
It's just that for me what truly makes this movie extraordinary, what makes it worth seeing more than once, what elevates this film beyond the curiosity it generates about Polley's origins, are certain notions about the nature of remembrance and memory and, even more so, the self-consciousness of its narrative process.
Do you know whether the Berliner film is scheduled for US release?

No, it's still being shown at a lot of festivals. Follow it on its Facebook page.

Viola (MATÍAS PIÑERO)

Viola was released theatrically by the Film Society of Lincoln Center Frid., July 12, 2023. It has gotten rave reviews (Metacritic 85), though this is based on only seven reviews, and AV Club (D'Angelo, oft an independent) gives it B- (but in his severe personal rating system only a 46) VIOLA shows promise and a distinctive style and point of view, were the needed jolt out of the hermetic festival world I've spoken of to come. The accolades surprise me; the positive reaction is due to rewakening to Shakespearean cinematic possibilities via Wheedan's MUCH ADO, plus the summer blockbuster doldrums with Guellermo del Toro's new one beautiful but numbing and even Almoddovar coming out with a bad movie.

Our Nixon (Penny Lane 2013)

The film premieres Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013 on CNN. As mentioned theatrical release begins with IFC Aug. 30. The film's own website will give you locations and dates in the future.

Though I think there's less than meets the eye, or less than people expect, it has botten very good reviews judging by a Metacritic rating: 74.

INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ROTTERDAM 2103
SXSW 2013
NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS (CLOSING NIGHT FILM) 2013
WINNER, "Best Documentary" Seattle International Film Festival 2013
WINNER, "Adrienne Shelly Award for Excellence in Filmmaking" Nantucket Film Festival 2013
WINNER "Karen Schmeer Editing Award" Independent Film Festival Boston 2013
WINNER "Ken Burns Award for Best of the Festival" Ann Arbor Film Festival 2013

OSCAR JUBIS:

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Do you know whether the Alan Berliner film is destined for US release?

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I can answer your question now (Aug. 7, 2013):

HBO Debut: Monday, September 23 [2013]

> Susan Norget Film Promotion | 198 Sixth Avenue | Suite 1 | New York | NY | 10013

"FIRST COUSIN ONCE REMOVED
ACCLAIMED FILMMAKER ALAN BERLINER'S
INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF HIS COUSIN, POET EDWIN HONIG
AND HIS JOURNEY THROUGH ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE
HBO Debut: Monday, September 23"