NYFF Overflows with Fascinating Auteurs & Oscar Contenders
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 10:15PM 
Gael Garcia Bernal gets licked at the New York Film FestivalSince I'm not doing Toronto this year (I hope to convince a few volunteers to do coverage for the site. If you're going and you're a reader/writer...) I plan to go full hog on the NYFF. I will also be enlisting at least one extra member of the Film Experience team to join me so that we have more for you. Below you'll find the final lineup culled from the official site but I've divvied it up for you into categories. Please do let us know in the comments which films you're most interested in hearing about, or, if you're in NYC, which films you plan to see.
Buzzy Indies
Martha Marcy May Marlene, in which Elizabeth Olsen leaves a cult in time for her Oscar campaign, directed by Sean Durkin (USA)
A Separation, a tense family drama that keeps winning awards, directed by Asghar Farhadi (Iran)
Shame, directed by Steve McQueen, in which sister Carey Mulligan visits her sex addict brother Michael Fassbender. From the director of Hunger so therefore MUST-SEE... even if constant Michael Fassbender sex scenes weren't enough (UK)
Will Their Countries Submit Them For Oscar's 'Best Foreign Language Film'?
The Kid With A Bike, directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, is about an abandoned 11 year old. It won prizes at Cannes because it's a rule that all Dardenne Brothers films do, don'cha know. (Belgium)
Le Havre, directed by Aki Kaurismäki (Finland)
Miss Bala in danger
Miss Bala, directed by Gerardo Naranjo, in which a beauty pageant contestant runs into trouble with a drug cartel. I'm curious about this one. (Mexico)
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan -- I've never really understood the cinephile adoration -- it's a crime drama about the search for a missing body(Turkey)
The Student, directed by Santiago Mitre, a political thriller about a student who falls for a radical organizer (Argentina)
Oscar Players... Maybe
The Artist, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, an homage to Old Hollywood (France)
Carnage, directed by Roman Polanski, an adaptation of the hit play (see previous posts) (France/Germany/Poland)
The Descendants, directed by Alexander Payne, in which George Clooney has multiple crises (USA)
My Week With Marilyn, directed by Simon Curtis, about a week in Marilyn's life during the filming of The Prince and the Showgirl (see previous posts) (UK)
Auteur Mania... (I don't make a habit of missing films by these men)
A Dangerous Method, directed by David Cronenberg, about Freud (Viggo Mortensen), Jung (Michael Fassbender) and their crazy subject (Keira Knightley), (UK/Canada/Germany)
Melancholia, directed by Lars von Trier, in which Kirsten Dunst's wedding plans are plagued by the impending apocalypse. (see previous posts) (Denmark)
The Skin I Live In, directed by Pedro Almodóvar, in which the director finally reunites with Antonio Banderas for a gruesome tale of revenge involving a plastic surgeon. (previous posts) (Spain)
Miscellania
4:44: Last Day On Earth, directed by Abel Ferrara, bills itself as an "apocalypse trance film". Starring Willem Dafoe. (USA)
Corpo Celeste, directed by Alice Rohrwacher, is about a young girl struggling with religion. (Italy)
George Harrison: Living In The Material World, music documentary directed by Martin Scorsese (USA)
Goodbye First Love, directed by Mia Hansen-Løve, tracks a first love over eight years (France/Germany)
Pina, directed by Wim Wenders, which is a 3D dance film and tribute to Pina Bausch (Germany/France/UK)
Play, directed by Ruben Östlund, which is a provocative movie about African immigrants taking advantage of Swedish peacefulness (Sweden)
Policeman, directed by Nadav Lapid, which includes wealthy anarchists and anti-terrorist police (Israel/France)
Sleeping Sickness, directed by Ulrich Köhler who won Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival. It involved doctors combating an epidemic of, well, the title (Germany/France/Netherlands)
The Loneliest Planet, directed by Julia Loktev, is an English language drama about a couple falling apart. Starring Gael Garcia Bernal. Yay. (USA/Germany)
The Turin Horse, a meditation "on the interconnectedness of things", directed by Béla Tarr and Agnes Hranitzky (Hungary/France/Germany/Switzerland/USA)
This Is Not A Film, directed by Jafar Panahi who is currently appealing his prison sentence in Iran, and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb (Iran)
Have at it in the comments!
Reader Comments (24)
Great post, Nath
I strongly believe Mexico must choose "Miss Bala" as an contender for Oscar's 'Best Foreign Language Film. Great film and the best of this year's finalists. Plus: Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna are executive producers. Finally, this film is based on the real story of Laura Zuñiga ex beauty queen (Miss Sinaloa)
The Biography:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Z%C3%BA%C3%B1iga
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5boX9ngglU
Argh, so envious. In order of my anticipation: Melancholia (Dunst under Von Trier!), Shame (McQueen! Fassbender! Mulligan!), The Turin Horse (Tarr! totally deserves to be under "Auteur Mania", btw), Carnage (Waltz under Polanski!), My Week with Marilyn (hmm! Michelle as Marilyn...), A Dangerous Method (Fassbender + Keira + Viggo + BDSM. don't really take to Cronenberg's new stuff, though).
Funny that you didn't write so much about Le Havre. Right now (August) it's the favorite to WIN Foreign Language.
I couldn't be more jealous. You guys got A Separation in NY and we didn't get it here in Toronto. :(
It's not every year that an Iranian movie makes it this big and even then, god knows when we'll get to see it in theatres.
I honestly don't know how I'm going to wait until November for Melancholia. Kirsten has been like my favorite actress since I was about 9 or something like that, and the fact that she could get awards traction for this + was the first American actress to win the Cannes award since Holly Hunter in 93 for the Piano gets me SO excited. Plus Von Trier. My computer background is a wallpaper of Kirsten in the wedding dress in the river/lake. And they have a random scene on movieclips.com that I've watched numerous times. Lol. /obsessed
Also interested in Martha Marcy May Marlene, My Week With Marilyn, Carnage, and The Skin I Live In.
Also, to a lesser extent: The Artist and A Dangerous Method.
I think you meant that Pedro Almodóvar finally reunites with Antonio Banderas. Otherwise, great article, as always on TFE.
I'd love to hear your thoughts about "Pina", especially about Wenders' use of 3D. :)
I'm most interested in reasing about:
Shame
Carnage
My Week With Marilyn
A Dangerous Method
Interested but less so:
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Melancholia
What James T. Said.
Am from little old NZ, have seen Melancholia, would love to know your thoughts, mine are very mixed, but it was an intense experience in the cinema nonetheless.
Carnage *How's Waltz doing outside his villain role
My week with Marilyn* Can Judi get a supporting nom at all this year?
A Dangerous method - Keira and Viggo
and is the hype behind MMM and Elizabeth Olsen really all that?
I'm so excited by the two Iranian movies chosen, and not just because they happen to be Iranian (but because they look monumentally great). I've seen Anatolia, really not my kind of thing. I think I'll be seeing The Artist, Shame, and Martha Marcy May Marlene in addition to the two Iran selections but I'm also considering the likes of Sleeping Sickness, The Turin Horse or The Kid With a Bike.
Do you assume Iran will submit A Separation? They submitted About Elly by the same guy but that missed out for some reason.
What a lineup! I'm going to see... I don't know, all of it? And that's just the main slate, then there's the Nikkatsu side bar and, no doubt, additional non-main slate screenings to come. It'll be two weeks of (probably exhausting) heaven. Almost makes my trip to Toronto this year redundant (but not really).
I checked whether The Student would qualify as Foreign Language Film, since it has not yet had its commercial release in Argentina. But it's coming out September 1st, so it would. In any case, right now there's no clear favorite. It's really a mixed bag.
Pretty excited about the Almodovar and the Cronenberg ... two of my favorite directors. Definitely want to see the Pina Bausch film and Shame sounds great . . . and wouldn't mind seeing Gael Garcia Bernal in something else. He's quite a talent (and not bad to look at!)
Oh, and The Artist!
I'm most interested in hearing about
Pina (I'm a big Wim Wenders fan)
A dangerous method (as already mentioned so often by many, Viggo+Fassy+Keira+Vincent+Cronenberg)
The loneliest planet (!GGB!)
Jack - The Iranian committe is making the decision in the next couple of weeks. Since they've fallen out with Farhadi over his open support of Jafar Panahi in Berlin, it's likely that they'll skip A Separation. The other film they're considering is a godawful pro-government film about the 2008 election protests but it's just a laughably embarrassing film. (It doesn't have an English language title yet.)
Some of Iran's biggest directors are petitioning for Farhadi's film to be submitted though, so here's hoping.
*I meant to say 2009 elections.
Also, the film's name translates to Thesis. As I said, that's not official though, so not sure if they'll go ahead with that title.
This lineup is so fantastic, it's so hard to choose. I'm hoping to see at LEAST Melancholia and Carnage, but hopefully Shame as well? A lot of the "misc" films look extremely intriguing as well...
This my first NYFF in NYC. I know tickets are on sale Sept. 12th, but how does the process work exactly? I assume they go very quickly
Zach -- i wish i could give you pointers. They do sell out quickly but i always go to the critics screenings instead of the actual event so Im not sure.
can anyone offer pointers?
I never used to get Ceylan either but Once Upon a Time in Anatolia blew me away. It's a very strange film - a kind of police procedural anti-thriller - and it plays at a strange rhythm that takes some getting used to. But it has the intricacy and acuity of a Russian novel.
Of the films I've seen, I would also highly recommend A Separation - quite gloomy but very accessible social drama, where you know things are about to get worse at every minute but you can't look away.
And Melancholia, obviously - though I doubt you need my recommendations,
The Kid with a Bike is probably my favourite Dardennes joint of this side of the past ten or so years.
Le Havre is probably my least favourite Kaurismaki joint of the corresponding period - it's sweet and very likable but also very familiar.
Martha Marcy May Marlene made an impact on me but not quite to the level I expected. It actually feels a bit artificial, especially compared to its gorgeous-haunting short film prequel. In any case, it's certainly worth seeing and Olsen is quite good (a tad limited in some scenes, but that's partly due to the writing).
Turin Horse is the Bela Tarr Experience cranked up to 11.
And Play is just the worst piece of sh-- let me rephrase -- Play is a smug exercise in sub-Haneke sadism. A relatively bloodless farthouse version of torture porn, with the already unsubtle subtext overtly spelled out in bad dialogue at the end.
I haven't seen the rest (though I'm dying to).
I am going to a film festival myself, Norway's very own in Haugesund, this weekend, and I will see A Separation (I loved About Elly!), Le Havre and Pina there. I will also catch up on some essential TFE-material such as The Help, Drive and The Tree of Life (ah, the sweet agony of reading about films here and then waiting for weeks or even months before they open in Norway...), and potential Oscar contenders Oslo, August 31st and Sons of Norway.
As for the NYFF-films, I am longing to see (and read about) A Dangerous Method, The Skin I Live In, Carnage, MMMM and Shame.
THE LONELIEST PLANET is the one to watch; if anyone's seen Julia Loktev's first feature, DAY NIGHT DAY NIGHT, you'll know what I mean. Both are utterly unforgettable.
Myself and my colleague are going up to view Carnage on opening night. Can anyone share any advice who has been to the NYFF opening night screening before? Is there a dress code for just the screening attendees?