NYFF Lineup: Call me by your florida project, Meyerowitz

The New York Film Festival's 55th edition begins on September 28th and runs through the first two weeks of October. This year they're super hooked on France (not that there's anything wrong with that) and their longstanding compulsion to screen every single thing that the prolific South Korean director Hong Sang-Soo has ever shot results in him hogging 2 of the 25 slots. Predicting a Hong Sang-Soo at NYFF is like saying "Woody Allen is filming an untitled new project this year"... it's always true so you will always be prophetic. 

Joachim Trier's THELMA - will it be Norway's Oscar submission?

The results of the NYFF lineup are helpful when planning your Toronto festival because many of the titles overlap. If it's showing at NYFF I try to avoid it in Toronto knowing I can see it in just two weeks time. But in some cases the need to shove something in your eyeballs will be too great to wait. 

How many of the foreign titles after the jump will be Oscar submissions this season? I'm guessing at least a few with the most likely being Sweden's The Square and Norway's Thelma. Other possibilities are Argentina's Zama (though Argentina often has several options), Finland's The Other Side of Hope (Finland's sole nomination comes from this director) and Poland's Spoor (two of Agnieszka Holland's previous movies have received an Oscar nomination, Europa Europa in screenplay and In Darkness for foreign language film).

The lineup is after the jump... 

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Interview: '4 Days in France' Director Jérôme Reybaud on Grindr and the Sensuality of Syntax

By Jose Solís

Courtesy of Cinema Guild

Jérôme Reybaud 4 Days in France (which I reviewed here) is a sensual travelogue that follows Pierre (Pascal Cervo) a privileged Parisian man who leaves his lover (Arthur Igual) behind to go on an aimless road trip into the French countryside accompanied only by Grindr and his desire. An evocative, funny, and quite sexy film, 4 Days in France is surprisingly Reybaud’s directorial debut, quite the feat given how secure he is in his choices, and how much he relies on elements - gay sex onscreen, older female characters, poetic dialogues - that would make other filmmakers run for the woods, no pun intended.

As the film opens in New York and select markets in the US, I spoke to Reybaud about his bold directorial choices, his fascination with online dating, and how he ended up casting a Tony nominated legend.

JOSE: The first time I saw the film I was struck by how little it seemed the audience around me knew about Grindr, I’m pretty gay so I know it very well, but others seemed baffled about an app like it existing. Have you encountered that reaction at all?

JÉRÔME REYBAUD: Yes! I don’t have Grindr or a cell phone myself, but I didn’t expect the Grindr ignorance I’ve seen with some Parisian or NY guys. I assumed a heterosexual couple in provincial France wouldn’t know it, so I added a little information about the app for people who wouldn’t know what it was.

[Read the rest of the interview after the jump]

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More TIFF Lineups: Midnight Madness and Platform

Another day another festival announcement. TIFF keeps adding to the festival. Even though they've reduced the number of films this year it's still SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM IN EACH SECTION. Herewith the Midnight Madness and Platform choices. Let us know which ones you're most curious about!

Gael García Bernal in the French film "If You Saw His Heart"

PLATFORM
This section of 12 films, which tends to focus on directors in early stages of their careers, is actually juried (though TIFF isn't known for awards really outside of "People's Choice" which tends to have a strong correlation to eventual Best Picture nominations at the Oscars).

“Platform is the place to look for the distinct stamp of today's most interesting directors as they establish their reputations.
- -Cameron Bailey, TIFF's artistic director

The three-person jjury for 2017's Platform are directors Chen Kaige (China), Malgorzata Szumowska (Poland) and Wim Wenders (Germany)

• Beast (UK) A troubled woman becomes involved with a suspected killer in this debut from Michael Pearce [WORLD PREMIERE]
• Brad's Status (US) Screenwriter Mike White returns to the director's chair for this story about a man (Ben Stiller) comparing himself unfavorably to friends while touring colleges with his teenage son [WORLD PREMIERE]...

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Jeanne Moreau (1928-2017)

by Nathaniel R

Jeanne Moreau in BAY OF ANGELS (1963)

The greatest French New Wave icon Jeanne Moreau has passed away at 89 years of age. I didn't immediately understand the fuss over her in my earliest years of cinephila. That's no reflection on the silver screen goddess herself but rather a byproduct of my uncommon disinterest in François Truffaut's classic Jules et Jim (1962) in which Moreau is the object of both titular men's affections. That movie reliably excites almost everyone who shares the affliction of cinephilia so I can't say why it did so little for me!

But one day, nine years ago, my dear friend Vern who had been experiencing back pain and whose wife was off travelling somewhere brought over Bay of Angels (1963) for me to watch...

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Venice Lineup 2017: mother!, Bardem & Cruz, and more...

Fall Film Festival season is rapidly approaching. TIFF let us know their "special presentations" with many more announcements to come and now Venice (which actually starts sooner at the tail end of August) has announced its whole lineup. The films, including out of competition reunions of two iconic screen couples (Javier Bardem & Penélope Cruz / Jane Fonda & Robert Redford), are after the jump...

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