BY RANIA RICHARDSON | Autumn is upon us, and with it comes the onslaught of fall season arts events that can overwhelm even the most organized New Yorker. Luckily, the New York Film Festival (NYFF) shines as a beacon at this time of year, with a highly curated selection of movies which quickly become the talk of the town, and fuel awards season speculation for months to come.
The 53rd New York Film Festival will screen selections from the best of world cinema from Sept. 25–Oct. 11, in Alice Tully Hall and other venues at Lincoln Center. While just 26 films comprise the highly anticipated main slate, the lineup also includes programs of documentaries, shorts, interactive experiences, experimental work, revivals, and director discussions.
The festival’s opening night film, Robert Zemeckis’ “The Walk,” world premieres one day later than usual (Sat., Sept. 26), in anticipation of transportation snarls due to the visit by Pope Francis.
The film focuses on the true story of a high-wire amble between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing the role of acrobat Philippe Petit. With a cadre of co-conspirators, he mounts stakeouts and rehearsals, and weathers close calls and betrayals to execute his audacious plan.
Will the film be as riveting as the documentary, “Man on Wire,” that mined the same territory in 2008? The PG-rated drama will be projected using a specially installed RealD system, effectively giving audiences the feeling of being right in the action. Billed as a “technical marvel,” “The Walk” boasts a 3D re-creation of Lower Manhattan in the 1970s that makes this a must-see.
Three other films will world premiere at the festival: “Miles Ahead,” the directorial debut of Don Cheadle, who also wrote and stars in the Miles Davis biopic; Steven Spielberg’s Cold War-era “Bridge of Spies,” starring Tom Hanks as a lawyer who negotiates the exchange of a U-2 pilot for a Soviet agent; and “Don’t Blink – Robert Frank,” a documentary portrait of the seminal photographer/filmmaker by Laura Israel.
For many film festivals, world premieres are essential to build excitement, exhibit industry leadership, and gain attention from the press. Other festivals use their platform to bring already lauded work from around the globe to local audiences. The NYFF does both, with a tilt towards the latter, significantly culling from major international festivals.
The programmers keep a keen eye on award winners from what is considered to be the preeminent film festival in the world — Cannes. Held in the south of France in May, it is far enough in advance of the fall season to be a key source for the NYFF.
Several of these award winners are among the selections that originated at Cannes. Yorgos Lanthimos envisions an absurdist future in “The Lobster,” where single people must pair up or turn into animals. “Carol,” the latest from Todd Haynes, is based on Patricia Highsmith’s semi-autobiographical novel, and stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara as lesbian lovers in the 1950s. Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “The Assassin” may be a delicately plotted and glacially paced Tang Dynasty royal court drama, but viewers can luxuriate in stunning cinematography, sets, and costumes, and gain a new appreciation for sound design.
Slotted in the special events section, “Son of Saul” does not shy away from immersing viewers in disturbing events. The debut feature from Laszlo Nemes tells the harrowing tale of a man in Auschwitz who delivers his fellow Jews to the gas chamber. At Cannes, the film divided critics.
The special events section also includes work from performance artist Laurie Anderson, Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow, and Paul Thomas Anderson. Also included is a new work by Athina Rachel Tsangari, a cohort of Yorgos Lanthimos in the quirky style referred to as the “Greek Weird Wave.”
Tsangari is currently the filmmaker-in-residence at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the nonprofit organization that hosts the NYFF in the fall, New Directors/New Films (in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art) in the spring, and general programming year-round. During her residency, Tsangari will be shooting footage for her new film in New York.
A city with seemingly limitless stories, New York appears frequently in the NYFF lineup. Besides “The Walk” and “Miles Ahead,” there is “Maggie’s Plan,” a romantic comedy by Rebecca Miller, and John Crowley’s “Brooklyn,” about a girl who leaves Ireland in search of a better life.
Among New York filmmakers presenting their work are Laura Israel (of the aforementioned “Don’t Blink”) and Michael Almereyda, two Downtown denizens who came of age creatively in Greenwich Village in the 1980s.
Israel made music videos for Patti Smith, Lou Reed, John Lurie, and many others before embarking on her first feature about her friend, Robert Frank, for whom she has been archiving video work.
During his decades of independent filmmaking, Almereyda’s imaginative undertakings have included shooting with a toy camera and adapting “Hamlet” to the present day while preserving Shakespeare’s dialogue. His new film, “Experimenter” (starring Peter Sarsgaard), follows the social psychologist and researcher Stanley Milgram, whose experiments included instructing participants to administer electric shocks to other subjects.
Beyond our borders, countries around the world have berths in the lineup, with a good showing from Asia — Thailand, Taiwan, China, Japan and South Korea are all represented in the main slate. Both Hou Hsiao-hsien and Jia Zhangke will be on hand to discuss their oeuvre with festival director Kent Jones. Jia Zhanke will also be on both sides of the camera, as director of the then/now epic of loss and progress “Mountains May Depart,” and as the subject of a documentary on his life by Walter Salles.
Todd Haynes and Michael Moore will also participate in discussions of their life’s work. Moore continues to kick up controversy — although this time with a lighter touch — with “Where to Invade Next,” in which he travels extensively to examine the policies of other countries. Another provocative film on tap is the latest from Danny Boyle, who takes on a new genre, the biopic, with a revealing if fictionalized story of a genius, in “Steve Jobs.”
Make a few selections from the well-curated 53rd NYFF program, and you are guaranteed to hit the bullseye.
For the full schedule of events and tickets, visit filmlinc.org.
