Film Comments Selects And New Directors, New Films 2010

Film Comment Selects And New Directors, New Films 2010

Festival Coverage for some reviews of films from these two Film Society of Lincoln Center series for February-March-April 2010 begins here.

These are shown at the Walter Reade Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC, and at the Museum of Modern Art, The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1 at MoMA.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has three important film series at this time of year:
Film Comment Selects: February 19 – March 4.
Rendez-Vous with French Cinema: March 11-21.
New Directors/New Films: March 24–April 4, 2010
In this thread again this year I will link to Festival Coverage reviews of some selections from FCS and ND/NF. But I will not provide reviews of all the films as for the Rendez-Vous.

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I've seen six of the Film Comment Selects series and will report on them briefly. The FSLC page for this series is here.

The FCS films I have watched are:

Persecution (Patrice Chéreau 2009)
Be Good/Sois sage (Juliette Garcias 2009)
Kinatay (Brillante Mendoza 2009)
Like You Know It All (Hong Sang-so 2009)
Happy End/Les derniers jours du monde (Armand and Jean-Marie Larrieu 2009)
The Time That Remains (Elia Suleiman 2009)


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I will attend some of the press screenings of New Directors/New Films and will report on them. They begin March 8, 2010. The list of films in the series and schedule of public screenings will be found here.

Patrice Chéreau: Persecution (2009)

Click on the title above for the CK Filmleaf Festival Coverage review of this film. Unfortunately the talents and charisma of Romain Duris, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jean-Hugues Anglade, and other participants are wasted here because Chéreau's operatic melodrama of neuroticism, obsession, and imploding emotion never develops an objective correlative for the agoonizing and brow-wrinkling.

Juliette Garcias: Be Wise (2010)--FCS

(Click on the title above to go to the CK Festival Coverage review of this film, part of the Film Comment Selects series, 2010.)

A slow, creepy, beautiful movie about a young woman posing as someone else working at a summer job in the country and stalking a man with whom she has a strange relationship. A mood piece, a think piece, and a sexual horror film that's like Fatal Attraction filtered through the sensibility of Catherine Breillat in a new style we're now discovering, that of this talented first-time director.

James Raisin: Beautiful Darling (2010)--ND/NF

Take a walk on the wild side.

A documentary about the life and early death of Warhol Superstar Candy Darling.

Hélène Cattani and Bruno Forzani: Amer (2009)--ND/NF

Slick pastiches of Italian gialli with lush sound design.

Sander Burger: Hunting & Co. (2010)--ND/NF

Modern marital meltdown.

In this accomplished second film by the Dutch director Sander Burger, a young married couple seem to have everything gong fine until the wife becomes pregnant. The trajectory may be a bit too patly predetermined, but Burger knows his craft.

Lixin Fan: Last Train Home (2009)--ND/NF

Another documentary, and a vivid and well-photographed one by a young Chinese director who immigrated to Canada, about social upheaval in modern China. Fan focuses on the Zhangs, a small family torn apart by the parents' factory work in a big industrial city far from their farmland home, and the sullen resentment of their young son and teenage daughter over being abandoned for the duration of their youth. Fan also shows the horrific conditions of the Guangzhou railway station when some of the 120 million essential but abused and exploited migrant workers suffer borderline humanitarian disaster conditions to make their annual New Years trip home, the Zhangs among them.

Mads Brügger: "Red Chapel" (2009)--ND/NF

Said to be a cross of Borat and Michael Moore, but this documentary of a visit to North Korea by a young two-man DAnish comedy team (both born in Korean) is bankrolled by Lars von Trier's Zentropa company, and it recalls Jorgen Leth's Five Obstructions: it's a challenge to make a filmed exposé of a dictatorship in the capital of that dictatorship, shooting footage that is wholly vetted by authorities. The linchpin is Jacob, whose cerebral palsy makes his subversive remarks in Danish incomprehensible to the North Koreans, and whose complex reactions also make him the conscience of the film. The film becomes as much about him as about the nasty toy kingdom of North Korea. This film won the World Cinema Grand Prize at Sundance.

Hong Sang-Soo: Like You Know It All (2009)--FCS

Kim Tae-woo stars in another treatment of narcissism and cluelessness in scenes of sexual misadventure, posturing, and drunkenness with a filmmaker protagonist who's an ironic version of the director. Both precise and relaxed, this rich, interesting film film is also one of Hong's funniest.

Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat: The Man Next Door (2010)--ND/NF

This young team of filmmakers from Argentina have made a sly study of bourgeois insecurity and cowardice that unfolds when a neighbor knocks a hole in the wall next to a designer's very special house. Winner of the cinematography prize at Sundance, El hombre de al lado will be released in Argentina in September 2010.

Alexei Popogrebsky: How I Ended This Summer (2010)--ND/NF

A nail-biter about psychological conflict at a Russian Arctic weather station that won high honors for acting and visual artistry at the Berlin festival (Berlinale) this February.

Xavier Dolan: I Killed My Mother (2009)--ND/NF

Droll, pouty, strident gay French Canadian coming-of-age flick won prizes at Cannes and has been in over 20 film festivals. It's no masterpiece, but you have to cut the director some slack. He wrote it when he was 17 and produced and directed and starred in it at 19. There could be some promise here. "Fests will come knocking," VARIETY'S Jay Weissberg prescienty declared at Cannes, "and even Stateside arthouse isn't unthinkable."

Mia Hansen-Love: The Father of My Children (2009)--ND/NF

The life and death of legendary French independent film producer Humbert Balsam, who got many an edgy project made against all odds, is the inspiration for Mia Hansen-Løve's second feature, an elegant, sensitive portrait of a passionate man of the cinema and those around him in the period up to and after his suicide. The Father of My Children confirms the impression already given by the director's 2006 All Is Forgiven that she is a fine new talent with a special gift for delineating families and showing how children grow up under pressure with and without difficult fathers.

Click on this title for my Festival Coverage review:

Tanya Hamilton: Night Catches Us (2010)--ND/NF

This Sundance-supported and -premiered first feature is written and directed by a Jamaica-born, USA-raised black woman.

ND/NF blurb:
USA. Directed by Tanya Hamilton. The debut feature from Tanya Hamilton exposes the realities of African-American life during the final days of the Black Power movement, as potluck suppers, run-ins with the authorities, and lingering radicalism threaten to set off a neighborhood teetering on the edge. Set in Philadelphia in 1976, Night Catches Us focuses on two former Black Panther activists (Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington) who reunite during the summer before Jimmy Carter’s election. Through two people drawn together despite their past, the film paints a fresh perspective of the era and gives an allegory for our own times in the age of Obama. Playing two friends forced to confront personal and political demons, Mackie and Washington give spectacular performances, while Hamilton’s use of a compelling soundtrack (by The Roots) and moving archival footage bring to life the history of black resistance. 90 min.
Sun Mar 28: 6:00 (FSLC)
Mon Mar 29: 9:00 (MoMA)

Ben Wheatley: Down Terrace (2009)--ND/NF

ND/NF blurb:
Great Britain. Directed by Ben Wheatley. Mike Leigh meets The Sopranos in this extraordinary family crime drama, shot in eight days largely in one location. Fresh out of jail, Bill (Robert Hill) is obsessed with finding out who snitched on him. His son, Karl (Robin Hill), also just released, is similarly concerned but has other things on his mind—namely, what to do about his pregnant girlfriend. Bill, eager to ferret out the informer, lays out a series of traps and ruses for his associates—that is, when he’s not singing old Fairport Convention songs while accompanying himself on guitar. Director Ben Wheatley (BBC’s The Wrong Door) makes a powerful feature-film debut, creating an astonishing sense of normalcy laced with jet-black humor. A Magnet release. 89 min.
Mon Mar 29: 6:15 (MoMA)
Tue Mar 30: 9:00 (FSLC)

Nader T. Homayroun: Tehroun (2009)--ND/NF

First feature about a man from the provinces who gets into criminal activities in the Iranian capitol. The protagonist rents a child to use for begging. The child is stolen by a prostitute posing as a student. This leads to further crimes to pay off an extortionist child trafficker.

Click on title below for the Festival Coverage review of:

Laura Poitras: The Oath (2010)--ND/NF


Documentary about two brothers-in-law, Abu Jandal, Bin Laden's bodyguard and guest house manager, interrogated by the FBI in Yemen after 09/11, and Salim Hamdan, of the famous case, Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, later released in Yemen, Bin Laden's driver. Both were jihadis, but neither planned nor executed any terrorism. Part of a trilogy about the aftermath of 9/11. Winner of the Documentary Cinematography award at Sundance, a Zeitgeist Films release now along with another ND/NF film, Lixan Fan's Last Train Home.

ND/NF screenings:
Fri Mar 26: 6:15 (FSLC)
Sun Mar 28: 4:00 (MoMA)

Warwick Thornton: Samson and Delilah (2009)--ND/NF

Star-crossed lovers in the Outback. This first feature written, directed, and shot by a young aboriginal filmmaker in Australia won the Caméra d'Or award at Cannes last year. A sad romance full of realism but with the feel of a fable too, it shows a sure hand.

Samson & Delilah: Perhaps the best film playing at the MIFF that I didn't get to watch.
Mainly writing to say hello to everyone. I am attending the Society for Film Studies conference in L.A. and don't have much time to post at length. A few projects lined up when I get back home but will find the time to check-in and post comments whenever possible.

I'm glad to see you're still reading my listings, and perhaps even my reviews, though you're busy and away. I hop to see more of your responses later.

Samson and Delilah is certain an original, strong, and memorable film.

Link to Festival Coverage review: click on the director and title below:

Richard Press: Bill Cunningham New York (2010)--ND/NF


On the go: capturing street chic

ND/NF blurb:
"In a city of dedicated originals, New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham stands out as one who both knows how to capture the essence of the singular personality and clearly represents one himself. Entering his ninth decade, Cunningham still rides his Schwinn around Manhattan, putting miles between his street-level view of personal style and what the titans of fashion will come to discover down the road." Opening night film of the New Directors/New Films series at the Walter Reade Theater of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Wed Mar 24: 7:00 (MoMA)
Wed Mar 24: 7:30 (MoMA)
Thu Mar 25: 9:15 (FSLC)

ND/NF runs from March 24-April 4, 2010

(Click here for: Some snapshots of ND/NF 2010).


New Directors/New Films

Each year, New Directors/New Films, a co-presentation of The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Society of Lincoln Center, unveils a brand new line up of fresh faces on the filmmaking scene. The festival is now in its thirty-ninth year, and you may recognize some names that appeared in past festivals: Pedro Almodóvar, Kelly Reichardt, Atom Egoyan, Spike Lee, Richard Linklater, Sally Potter, John Sayles, Steven Spielberg, Wim Wenders and Wong Kar Wai were all featured as part of New Directors/New Films early in their careers.

Where are they now? View notable alumni or visit the ND/NF online archives.

Click on title below for the Festival Coverage review of:

Laura Poitras: The Oath (2010)--ND/NF


Documentary about two brothers-in-law, Abu Jandal, Bin Laden's bodyguard and guest house manager, interrogated by the FBI in Yemen after 09/11, and Salim Hamdan, of the famous case, Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld, later released in Yemen, Bin Laden's driver. Both were jihadis, but neither planned nor executed any terrorism. Part of a trilogy about the aftermath of 9/11. Winner of the Documentary Cinematography award at Sundance, a Zeitgeist Films release now along with another ND/NF film, Lixan Fan's Last Train Home.

ND/NF screenings:
Fri Mar 26: 6:15 (FSLC)
Sun Mar 28: 4:00 (MoMA)

THE OATH opened in San Francisco Bay area Landmark Cinemas (the Lumiere in San Francisco, Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley) June 18, 2010.

Coming soon to the E Street Cinema in Washington DC.