Festival Circuit 2022

[alacal2]

Pleasantly surprised to see St Omer come away with two prizes. Looking forward to this at the London Film Festival.

[hearthesilence]

The Sally Potter short seems to be the deleted Chris Rock subplot from her last movie The Roads Not Taken. I hated most of what actually made it into Roads Not Taken so I can't say I'm optimistic about what she cut out.

I haven't followed Potter's most recent work, but Chris Rock the comedian? Given his remake of an Eric Rohmer film and an earlier attempt to join an aborted remake of Kurosawa's High and Low, surely he must be a cinephile at heart. (When is he going to visit Criterion's closet?)

They actually paired this with the Orlando restoration at Metrograph. I actually liked it quite a bit - it doesn't really sink in until the end, when you realize what the film's final lines (spoken by Rock) imply and how it has indeed been reflected in the horrendous course taken by the American right this past year.

[Black Hat]

Pleasantly surprised to see St Omer come away with two prizes. Looking forward to this at the London Film Festival.

St Omer was very good.

For the New York contingent, I'd recommend checking out Unrest, Dry Ground Burning and the Currents Shorts programs has some good stuff in it too. I enjoyed the new Joanna Hogg, The Eternal Daughter, very much, Panahi's Two Bears wasn't easy but, also good. Overall the best one for me this year may be Albert Serra's Pacifiction.

[Calvin]

The Centre for the Moving Image, the charity behind the Edinburgh International Film Festival as well as owners of the Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh and Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen, has went bust with cinemas closed and staff made redundant with immediate effect. The EIFF was the world's oldest continually running film festival until the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the pandemic.

The sudden closure and redudancies have provoked anger in the film community in Scotland. Firstly, because there was no public attempts to save it before closure and what's been interpreted as a rather passive response from the CEO of the British Film Institute who, to give them credit, have made an effort to be less London-centric in recent years. Secondly, confusion as to what exactly led to this sudden announcement. We're all well aware of the difficulties that cinemas have had in recent years but, as recently as last month, there was £60m planning application submitted for a new 9-storey Filmhouse 'entertainment complex'.

[hearthesilence]

St Omer was very good.

For the New York contingent, I'd recommend checking out Unrest, Dry Ground Burning and the Currents Shorts programs has some good stuff in it too. I enjoyed the new Joanna Hogg, The Eternal Daughter, very much, Panahi's Two Bears wasn't easy but, also good. Overall the best one for me this year may be Albert Serra's Pacifiction.

I'll have to check these out (though I probably missed the boat with the Currents Shorts programs). I still have EO coming up, and I did see some very good films, but this may be one of the few editions of the NYFF I've been to where there wasn't a film that knocked me out as some sort of towering masterpiece. (I did see Pacifiction - it's not that long even though people seemed to make endless jokes about that, but I was a little underwhelmed. I do like his work so I'll probably see it again to get a better assessment.)

I'm a little wary of Decision to Leave and Women Talking, both of which I skipped as they'll be opening Oct. 19 and Dec. 1 respectively - I hope to be surprised in either case. (As much as I like Polley, some of the mixed reactions I've heard have lowered my expectations.) I think Aftersun had some great word-of-mouth though and that's opening soon.

FWIW, the best ones I've seen so far were R.M.N. [Cristian Mungiu] and A Couple [Frederick Wiseman]. I was planning to see Two Bears - they actually gave away free tickets to the Sunday afternoon screening to members - but unfortunately I had prior commitments. The best parts of De Humani Corporis Fabrica were also pretty excellent, but it also felt a little uneven.

[hearthesilence]

Two more notes about the festival:

Albert Serra was highly entertaining during his Q&A's - like somebody should cast him in a comedy. I went to the late screening of his film and I think he pushed the Q&A to 1 a.m. after it started close to midnight. He actually got few questions - his answers just turned out really long.

And I went to the free talk on criticism with a handful of critics and filmmakers including Laura Poitras (which may never be released because they didn't turn on the microphones until very late into the talk), and Poitras was subjected to some pretty bizarre and snotty criticism from someone who kept saying "who is [your film, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed] for?" The only elaboration they would give was that tickets cost $80, so giving them the benefit of the doubt, I'm guessing they didn't realize that the NYFF usually charges a steep ticket price for opening night, centerpiece and closing night films as they're more or less the "fundraising" screenings, and Poitras's film was picked as the centerpiece. (Poitras did say she was surprised by the ticket price herself.) Even then, it still comes off as asinine when none of the films are meant to be exclusive to the festival itself and virtually everything that's been programmed on the main slate in recent years has find its way into theaters and streaming services within weeks to at most six months. (Since HBO is distributing, Poitras's film will probably be in theaters before the end of the year to qualify for awards, then hit HBO Max soon after.)

[colinr0380]

The Centre for the Moving Image, the charity behind the Edinburgh International Film Festival as well as owners of the Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh and Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen, has gone bust with cinemas closed and staff made redundant with immediate effect. The EIFF was the world's oldest continually running film festival until the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the pandemic.

The sudden closure and redudancies have provoked anger in the film community in Scotland. Firstly, because there was no public attempts to save it before closure and what's been interpreted as a rather passive response from the CEO of the British Film Institute who, to give them credit, have made an effort to be less London-centric in recent years. Secondly, confusion as to what exactly led to this sudden announcement. We're all well aware of the difficulties that cinemas have had in recent years but, as recently as last month, there was £60m planning application submitted for a new 9-storey Filmhouse 'entertainment complex'.

I immediately thought that David Cairns might have something to say about this: here's his post from his Shadowplay blog.

[therewillbeblus]

And I went to the free talk on criticism with a handful of critics and filmmakers including Laura Poitras (which may never be released because they didn't turn on the microphones until very late into the talk), and Poitras was subjected to some pretty bizarre and snotty criticism from someone who kept saying "who is [your film, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed] for?" The only elaboration they would give was that tickets cost $80, so giving them the benefit of the doubt, I'm guessing they didn't realize that the NYFF usually charges a steep ticket price for opening night, centerpiece and closing night films as they're more or less the "fundraising" screenings, and Poitras's film was picked as the centerpiece. (Poitras did say she was surprised by the ticket price herself.) Even then, it still comes off as asinine when none of the films are meant to be exclusive to the festival itself and virtually everything that's been programmed on the main slate in recent years has find its way into theaters and streaming services within weeks to at most six months. (Since HBO is distributing, Poitras's film will probably be in theaters before the end of the year to qualify for awards, then hit HBO Max soon after.)

Ha, meanwhile I got into a free Q&A with the film's subject Nan Goldin and asked her how (what I imagine the film's audience are:)everyday people can access/engage in radical activity for macro social justice interests pertaining to the opioid epidemic, especially those who devote their lives to assembling groups treating addiction on a micro-level, but she didn't have an answer

[hearthesilence]

Ha, meanwhile I got into a free Q&A with the film's subject Nan Goldin and asked her how (what I imagine the film's audience are:)everyday people can access/engage in radical activity for macro social justice interests pertaining to the opioid epidemic, especially those who devote their lives to assembling groups treating addiction on a micro-level, but she didn't have an answer

I couldn't make that, but I heard the line was one of the longer ones for the festival. It just makes the "who is this for?" person seem even more like a conceited asshole, but regardless I hope they upload Goldin's talk soon. FWIW Annie Ernaux has a free talk today too at 6pm, but given the Nobel Prize from last week, I'm sure the line's going to be long. (If I could go, I'd get there no later than 4pm.)

[Black Hat]

St Omer was very good.

For the New York contingent, I'd recommend checking out Unrest, Dry Ground Burning and the Currents Shorts programs has some good stuff in it too. I enjoyed the new Joanna Hogg, The Eternal Daughter, very much, Panahi's Two Bears wasn't easy but, also good. Overall the best one for me this year may be Albert Serra's Pacifiction.

I'll have to check these out (though I probably missed the boat with the Currents Shorts programs). I still have EO coming up, and I did see some very good films, but this may be one of the few editions of the NYFF I've been to where there wasn't a film that knocked me out as some sort of towering masterpiece. (I did see Pacifiction - it's not that long even though people seemed to make endless jokes about that, but I was a little underwhelmed. I do like his work so I'll probably see it again to get a better assessment.)

I'm a little wary of Decision to Leave and Women Talking, both of which I skipped as they'll be opening Oct. 19 and Dec. 1 respectively - I hope to be surprised in either case. (As much as I like Polley, some of the mixed reactions I've heard have lowered my expectations.) I think Aftersun had some great word-of-mouth though and that's opening soon.

FWIW, the best ones I've seen so far were R.M.N. [Cristian Mungiu] and A Couple [Frederick Wiseman]. I was planning to see Two Bears - they actually gave away free tickets to the Sunday afternoon screening to members - but unfortunately I had prior commitments. The best parts of De Humani Corporis Fabrica were also pretty excellent, but it also felt a little uneven.

Women Talking is not good but, EO wasn't bad. I did like the Wiseman quite a bit. Trenque Lauquen was a lot of fun, would definitely recommend - I'm pretty sure they're giving away tickets for tonight — but, for me, this festival will be remembered for Dry Ground Burning. So, so good. Screens again tomorrow at Maysles try and check it out.

Edit: from a Criterion perspective, The Long Farewell is pretty mind blowing.

[hearthesilence]

Something about EO's production values (and to a lesser extent the music) brought Disney to mind - on some level, it's like Disney or Universal asked Skolimowski to take over a production that was ready to go, but instead of delivering them another Incredible Journey or Babe (this time with a donkey!), he gave them something else.

I wish they mentioned something earlier but Skolimowski cancelled his appearance due to health. He recorded a charming video intro of himself in a UK phone booth, saying that he gave so much of himself to the film that it's taken its toll. He apologizes and says his doctor urged him not to fly anywhere. He adds that he had to adjust another trip he had in mind, forcing him to take a train. A shame, I was hoping to see him talk in-person for the first time.

Also tonight's screening was something I hadn't encountered in a while - a movie played way too loud. This was a common problem at some Chicago-area art house theaters I went to and it was even a problem at MoMA for a while - the volume would be enough to leave my ears ringing at the end of the film (which happened the one time I tried to sit through it) and either I had to ask someone to turn it down or pop in my ear monitors which kind of double as ear plugs. Well, tonight, as soon as the NYFF montage opened the screening, this person next to me immediately complained "oh no, it's not loud enough!" (which I completely disagreed with). They immediately gestured at an usher to come over, made the same complaint, and sure enough the movie ended up being really fucking loud, especially during the blaring music layered over the first long journey (the one with the wind turbines) and the victory party at the bar.