Global View of Film at N.Y. Festival : Movies: The event offers exposure to many of the world’s truly adventurous filmmakers.
NEW YORK — Let’s say you’re Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou (“Raise the Red Lantern,†“Ju Douâ€) making a rare visit to Manhattan because your new film, “The Story of Qiu Ju,†is at the New York Film Festival. Do you make sure to check out the competition? See as many festival films as you can? Take the pulse of the international film world?
No, you go see “Unforgiven.â€
“When I heard there was a Western playing,†Zhang said through his interpreter, “I had to go immediately.â€
Zhang can be forgiven, of course; Clint Eastwood isn’t your usual Chinese fare. But for those lulled into half-consciousness by a diet of mainstream motion pictures, the festival is issuing its annual wake-up call.
Since “The Exterminating Angel,†the Luis Bunuel film that opened the first festival 30 years ago, the Lincoln Center event, presented by the center’s Film Society, has introduced a dizzying roster of names to the American public--Godard (the most-shown director with 20 films), Fassbinder (10 films), Scorsese, Bertolucci, Herzog, Jarmusch, Wenders and more. Not that everything shown so far--the festival opened Sept. 25--has been an unqualified success, but that’s true of any film festival. What the festival does do, however, is offer exposure to many of the world’s really adventurous filmmakers, which is critical at a time when both money and outlets for their films are drying up.
“We do try to achieve a festival that, though it might not please all tastes, will hopefully be challenging,†said Richard Pena, program director of the Film Society and chairman of the festival’s five-person selection committee. Pena’s own tastes are notoriously global. “I hope I never slight American cinema, especially independent cinema. But we’ve grown. Five years ago, when I first started working for the festival, I remember people saying, in outraged terms, ‘You mean you have two Chinese films in the festival?’ This year, people are saying to me, ‘You mean there are only two Chinese films in the festival?’ â€
Those two films, “Qiu Ju†and “Autumn Moon,†Clara Law’s romantic comedy from Hong Kong, couldn’t be more different, but they emphasize the fact that Chinese filmmaking has progressed to the point where one simply cannot ignore it and remain abreast of the state of world cinema. And they emphasize the international flavor of the NYFF, and much of its pan-ethnic appeal: Large numbers of Chinese-Americans came out for the Chinese films; Iranian-Americans came out in droves for Abbas Kiarostami’s “And Life Goes On.†And when “The Oak,†by director Lucian Pintilie, was shown, Pena said “all you could hear in the lobby was Romanian.â€
Not that Americans have been slighted. Of the 31 featured films being shown (chosen out of 1,200 entries), eight are from the United States, as are many of the shorts. Perhaps the most eagerly awaited feature is “Night and the City,†director Irwin Winkler and screenwriter Richard Price’s adaptation of the 1950 film noir by Jules Dassin. Starring Robert De Niro and Jessica Lange, the film will close the festival Sunday.
Two American independent works are on the schedule: “Zebrahead,†director Anthony Drazan’s semi-autobiographical drama about high school race relations; and “In the Soup,†the grand prize winner at last January’s Sundance festival, and a film that’s been on the festival tour ever since. The performance given by veteran character actor and John Cassavetes alumnus Seymour Cassel has been generally acclaimed (the Sundance jury voted him a special award). But for some, the high point comes during a scene in which Cassel and co-star Steve Buscemi are burgling a house, and the owner, played by Sully Boyer, appears, engaging Buscemi in an Alzheimer’s-induced reminiscence about his dead wife and sex. During a press conference following a press screening, Boyer said he’s brought a lifetime of experience to that one short scene. And, he said, he’d like to do more.
The press conferences at the festival have supplied some comedy. There are the usual performances by foreign journalists who don’t so much ask questions as make pronouncements. Zhang’s interpreter, understandably enough given the director’s schedule, began speaking English to Zhang and Mandarin to the audience. And when Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov (“The Second Circleâ€) appeared after a screening of his new work, “Stone,†he made things perfectly clear: Was the bearded, pince-nez wearing ghost in the bathtub really, as the press materials implied, “the spirit of pre-Revolutionary Russiaâ€? Or was it, as viewers suspected, a particular dead playwright? Sokurov was to the point: “It’s Chekhov, OK?â€
“Disturbing†is a word that’s been used to describe several films, and rightly so. The festival opener, “Olivier, Olivier†by Agnieszka Holland (“Europa, Europaâ€) is a very troubling account of a missing child and his presumed reappearance six years later. “The Crying Game,†Neil (“Mona Lisaâ€) Jordan’s thriller about an IRA terrorist, has generated a lot of discussion and its reviews have been tantalizing: Halfway through the film, Jordan unleashes a twist that no one wants to give away, but which is, to say the least, shocking.
“I would say there are a couple of films with pretty strong word of mouth going for them,†Pena said. “The Belgian film, ‘Man Bites Dog,’ was enormously controversial at Cannes, and although it did wind up winning one of two international critics prizes, it was also controversial at Toronto. So I’m anxious to see how New York reacts to it.â€
Also eagerly anticipated is “La Vie de Boheme,†the new film by Aki Kaurismaki, the Finnish director who has had two films at previous NYFFs. “I was pleased to read in New York magazine,†Pena said, “Aki being described as one of the ‘established directors’ being shown at the festival. I said, ‘Wow!’ If you’ve seen him, or worse if you know him, you’d never think of Aki as an established anything. He’s a great guy, a wonderful artist, but it was funny seeing him put on the same level with someone like Eric Rohmer.â€
But that sort of sums up the New York Film Festival, where the unusual is de rigueur , the outrageous has a place at the table, and the pedestrian is out the window.
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