2012 NYFF Masterworks Sidebar Showcases Rare Russian Silent & Classic American Indies

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 14 October 2012 00:14

Written by Jack Angstreich

The recurring  New York Film Festival (September 28 - October 14, 2012) "Masterworks" sidebar is usually the most exciting component of the festival but it is compromised by two debilitating flaws: the inadequacy of film projection in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center and the current reliance, by studios and archives, upon digital versions of classic films. Digital formats don't yet seem to be adequate to reproduce the full range of contrast of film and the Film Society's decision to screen great works in DCP would strikes me as a colossally poor one.

There were a few notable exceptions, however, such as the full-length restoration in an excellent 35-millimeter black-and-white print of Pierre Chenal's adaptation of Richard Wright's celebrated novel, Native Son — a curiosity starring the author in the lead role himself! But, although Federico Fellini's extraordinary Fellini Satyricon was screened on celluloid, the print was clearly struck from a digital restoration and consequently looked terrible. Also disappointing was Manoël de Oliveira's towering masterpiece, The Satin Slipper, which was projected in an unsatisfactory print.

The glory of the art of cinema did receive something of its due in the presentation — in a good, if not pristine, 35-millimeter print — of Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg's wonderful, rarely shown The Overcoat, after Nikolai Gogol's classic story, exhilaratingly accompanied here by the outstanding Alloy Orchestra. This ensemble is unsurpassed in its silent-film scores — its emphasis upon rhythm in its approach to accompaniment is truly transformative as well as eloquently cinematic. With their creation of the Factory of the Eccentric Actor, Kozintsev and Trauberg were among the most creative protagonists of the explosion of energy in Soviet filmmaking in the 1920s and The Overcoat is a perfect testament to their remarkable originality.

Even more rewarding, however, was the screening of a stunning new print from the Library of Congress of Michael Roemer's underappreciated masterpiece, Nothing But a Man, which proved to be the most memorable experience of the entire festival. The film, about the difficulties confronting a maverick black worker and an understanding schoolteacher as they build a future together, is photographed in gorgeous black-and-white by the brilliant cinematographer (and, later, distinguished director) Robert M. Young and features outstanding performances by Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln, as well as Yaphet Kotto, in a noteworthy early role.

For more info, to to:  http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2012

New York Film Festival 2012
FilmSociety of Lincoln Center
70 Lincoln Square #4
New York, NY

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