The 2004 New York Film Festival

As all interested New Yorkers already know, tickets have gone on sale for the 2004 NYFF. It's Filmbrain's guess that many of the high-profile films are sold-out, but there are undoubtedly some titles with tickets still available. What follows is Filmbrain's take on the festival. There's both good and surprising news about this year's lineup. The good news is that a quite a few of the films have already found US distribution, so if you are unable to get tickets there will be opportunities to see some of the highly anticipated films. The surprising news (surprising to Filmbrain at least) is that several major films that were at Cannes are absent. Filmbrain was sure that Wong Kar-wai's 2046 would be on the lineup, and was pretty confident that critical faves Clean (Olivier Assayas), Mondovino (Jonathan Nossiter), and Nobody Knows (Hirokazu Kore-eda) would be included as well. Even NYFF regulars Emir Kusturica and Abbas Kiarostami were overlooked, though their entries at Cannes this year were not highly praised. Even with the omissions, the selection this year is wonderful. The festival, which runs from October 1 through 17, opens with Agnès Jaoui's Look at Me and closes with Alexander Payne's Sideways -- both have piqued Filmbrain's interest for some time now. The other titles on Filmbrain's must-not-miss list are: Godard's Notre Musique (naturally!) Arnaud Desplechin's Kings and Queen Hong Sang-soo's Woman is the Future of Man* Mike Leigh's Vera Drake (fresh from its win at Venice) Jia Zhangke's The World Ousmane Sembene's Moolade Ingmar Bergman's Saraband (that came as quite a surprise!) Hou Hsiao-hsien's Cafe Lumiere. *Filmbrain has already seen Woman is the Future of Man on DVD, though he really wants to see it on the big screen. Look for his review in the next few days. Filmbrain will also try to catch: Eric Rohmer's Triple Agent (Rohmer does a spy film, of sorts) Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady (even though he really didn't care for Blissfully Yours) David Gordon Green's Undertow (even though he felt All the Real Girls was highly overrated) Jonathan Caouette's Tarnation (for all the buzz it got at Sundance) Pedro Almodóvar's Bad Education (one of the main characters is a screenwriter -- how can Filmbrain not see this?) Zhang Yimou's House of Flying Daggers (even though he (embarrassingly) hasn't seen Hero yet!) Lodge Kerrigan's Keane (Filmbrain is a fan of Clean, Shaven) Todd Solondz's Palindromes (even though Storytelling was weak weak weak). Other events at the festival this year include the 158-minute restoration of Sam Fuller's The Big Red One, Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue, which is a filmed document of his performance at the 1970 Isle of Wight festival, the Infernal Affairs Trilogy, a very impressive Avant-Garde lineup, and an incredible mini-festival of a dozen classic Shaw Brothers titles. (Filmbrain will dedicate a separate post to this.) Complete details for the festival can be found HERE. October is going to be a very busy film month!

Comments

[Sal C.]

I don't know, I stopped attending the festival a few years ago as it seems the tickets prices have gone up a dollar a year for awhile now. I simply can't justify paying $15 - $17 a ticket, especially when a lot of the films already have distributors and will be in theaters for $10 in the next several months.
Maybe that sounds cheap, but I still kills me to pay $10 for a movie ticket, let alone $15. It's the principal of da thing, as they say.

[Aaron H.]

Yeah, it's expensive. But a festival atmosphere can be contagious... I bought tickets for Undertow, knowing full well I'll be able to see that and most of the other competition entries for $10 or less the following month. Maybe I'm paying for early-viewing bragging rights? *sigh* Definitely expensive...

[FIlmbrain]

My only hope is that Godard shows up. I somehow doubt that he will, but it would be tremendous if he did.

[Aaron]

I'm going to just about everything you said you'll try to catch and almost nothing you said you won't miss! :-) I actually specifically didn't get "Notre Musique" tickets because I would bet mucho mucho money that Godard won't be there, just like Rohmer won't be there either. Their movies are always in the festival, but they never show. Meanwhile, Notre Musique will be opening at Film Forum shortly after, and then probably some other theater after it ends its run. Palindromes, Undertow and Bad Education, on the other hand, I wouldn't miss because Solondz, Green and Almodovar will surely be there. I did also get tix for Saraband (no, Bergman won't show), as well as Vera Drake and The World, Keane and Look at Me. Unfortunately, I have to go to a wedding the night of Sideways, and I'm out of town the day of the Infernal Affairs trilogy too. I don't even want to think about how much I spent. :-P

[girish]

You've got a formidable line-up ahead of you!

A few impressions from Toronto:

--My favorite film of them all was Hou's "Cafe Lumiere". An intimate, serene, perfect film!
--Of the NYFF films that I saw, I also really liked "Notre Musique", "The World", "Tropical Malady" and "Kings And Queen".
--I despised "Palindromes" even though I like all his other three films. Maybe it was just me, but I found it misanthropic and totally unfunny.
--The brief "Hell" section of "Notre Musique" was devastating. Chantal Akerman, in her Q&A for "Demain On Demenage", blasted Godard for being an anti-Semite. She has been a big admirer of his (until now, I guess). See "Notre Musique" and judge for yourself! (I didn't share her impression).
--Best settings for a film--"The World". Also best, most unexpected scene transitions. Guaranteed to surprise, especially if you are used to the distance and austerity of "Unknown Pleasures" and "Platform"!

[Filmbrain]

Girish --

Just saw Notre Musique this morning -- review to follow.

Can you provide any more detail about Akerman's claims? I'm very curious. . .

[girish]

Each film screens twice at Toronto. I caught the second screening of the Akerman, where she didn't allude to Godard, but my friend Darren Hughes (of the Long Pauses blog) saw the first screening and told me about the Godard comment. I don't think Akerman explained her condemnation, other than to say that the reason was "Notre Musique".

Akerman has always claimed that "Pierrot Le Fou" was the life-transforming experience that turned her into a filmmaker. So, this was a bit of a surprise.