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Another Great Year for Romanian Cinema

Details: Parent Category: Film Festivals; Category: Previews; Published on Friday, 29 November 2013 11:19; Written by Jack Angstreich

When Evening Falls on Bucharest

The emergence of three remarkable filmmakers in the past decade — Cristi Puiu (The Death of Mr Lazarescu), Corneliu Porumboiu (Police, Adjective) and Cristian Mungiu — has catapulted the contemporary Romanian cinema to the forefront of international attention, a fact registered by Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema 2013, an exciting series at the Film Society of Lincoln Center presented from November 29th to December 3rd, 2013.

Although, the series primarily showcases new features — including Porumbuiu’s latest, When Evening Falls on Bucharest — it also highlights several extraordinary older titles. These include Porumboiu’s first two features, 12:08 East of Bucharest and Police, Adjective, along with a program of his short films, and two outstanding films from the Czech New Wave — Slovak director’s Stefan Uher’s under-appreciated, beautiful The Sun in a Net from 1962 and Jiri Menzel’s indelible Larks on a String from 1969, which was originally banned.

Also being screened is a bizarre curiosity, the so-called "Transylvanians Trilogy”, an homage to American westerns, presented in new 35-millimeter prints: The Prophet, the Gold and the Transylvanians (Dan Pita, 1979), The Actress, the Dollars and the Transylvanians (Mircea Veroiu,1981) and The Oil, the Baby and the Transylvanians (Dan Pita,1982).

Puiu's confounding new feature, Three Exercises in Interpretation, is an omnibus film that in three episodes tells the story of three groups of individuals who ultimately come together for a séance in a French city. The film is inspired by a work of the neglected Russian Orthodox Christian writer, philosopher and mystic Vladimir Solovyov. It also bears a dedication to the memory of Eric Rohmer.

Three Exercises in Interpretation sustains a certain overt resemblance to the work of Rohmer, whose hallmark was a combination of abstract dialogue and a neorealist style. A couple of differences are especially salient, however — in Rohmer's work, unlike here, the characters' dialogues function to signal their ultimate contradiction from what they affirm or believe in their subsequent behavior. Also, Rohmer ultimately conforms to a classicism which has no parallel in Puiu's more radical approach to the construction of narrative.

Puiu's long, opening sequence suggests that his style in this work will be also be more radical and less classical than Rohmer's, filming entirely in long shot and a single take. After this beginning, however, the director startlingly introduces close-ups and crosscutting.

With its emphases upon enigmas, mystical coincidences, and its employment of structures of extended duration, Three Exercises in Interpretation recalls the work of Jacques Rivette as much as that of Eric Rohmer and, for much the same reasons, represents a new departure in Puiu's filmmaking.

Given the abundant bright light found in many of Puiu's settings here — in contrast to those of his remarkable debut feature The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, for example, which is set entirely at night — the digital format, with its narrow range of contrast, proves to be something of a liability, with many scenes having a regrettably washed-out look. (The film would also have benefited from a higher-definition digital format — the image-quality is cruder than need be.) The director and his cinematographer are also guilty of minor lapses from the formal rigor they so steadfastly uphold, as with some infelicitious zooms. On the whole, though, this is a gratifyingly challenging opus from one of the more interesting filmmakers working today.

Calin Peter Netzer's A Child's Pose follows the machinations of a possessive mother trying to protect her resentful son from the legal consequences of a car accident in which he killed a 14-year-old boy. The director's style is extremely close to that of the Danish Dogme school, involving a highly mobile handheld camera with many abrupt cuts, visually at odds with the relative austerity found in the films of Puiu, Mungiu, and Porumboiu — but, in its psychological, familial and sociological incisiveness, and in its lugubrious view of contemporary Romania, it seems to be nonetheless very much of a piece with the most notable works of this New Wave.

A Child's Pose is anchored by the extraordinary performance by the veteran actress Luminița Gheorghiu — who appeared in The Death of Mr Lazarescu — as the mother. Here, too, the achievement is diminished by an inevitable reliance upon digital — here a digital intermediate — but Netzer is nevertheless a filmmaker to watch.

Making Waves: New Romanian Cinema 2013

November 29th to December 3rd, 2013

Film Society of Lincoln Center

The NY Chinese Film Fest Celebrates 4th Year

Details: Parent Category: Film Festivals; Category: Previews; Published on Wednesday, 30 October 2013 20:36; Written by Renzo Adler

Love in the Buff Celebrating the cinema of China and Hong Kong, The New York Chinese Film Festival returns for its fourth year, running November 5th to 7th, 2013. The 2013 NYCFF, presented by the Chinese American Arts Council (CAAC) and the Chinese Movie Channel (CCTV) not only exposes great works of Chinese cinema to American audiences, but also promotes a dialogue between the two nations by having talent from the films in attendance, including Vicky Zhao Wei, Miriam Yeung, Donnie Yen, Larry Yang, Wesley Wong.

Films being screened include

So Young (Directed by Vicky Zhao Wei, attending the screening will be Director Zhao Wei. )
Sorry, I Love You (Directed by Larry Yang, attending the screening will be Director Larry Yang, Actor Wesley Wong and Producer Hang Hon.)
Finding Mr. Right (Directed by Xue Xiaolu, attending the screening will be Actor Wu Xiubo.)
Love Undercover (Directed by Joe Ma attending the screening will be Actress Miriam Yeung.)
Love in the Buff (Directed by Pang Ho-Cheung, attending the screenin will be Actress Miriam Yeung)
IP Man (Directed by Wilson Yip, attending the screening will be Actor Donnie Yen.)
Special ID (Directed by Clarence Fok Yiu-leung, attending the screening will be Actor Donnie Yen.)

The CAAC brings Chinese arts and performances to New York and the NY Chinese Film Fest brings some fresh Chinese cinema to the States. Opening night is at Alice Tully Hall (1941 Broadway) on November 5th, screenings are at the AMC Empire 25 theatre (234 W 42nd St.) on November 6th and 7th. Closing night, awards ceremony and gala are at the opulent Capitale (130 Bowery) on November 7th.

To learn more, go to http://www.nycff.org/2013/

The New York Chinese Film Festival
November 5 – 7, 2013

Alice Tully Hall
1941 Broadway
New York, NY 10023

AMC Empire 25
234 W 42nd St.
New York, NY 10036

Capitale
130 Bowery
New York, NY 10013

First Ever Middleburg Film Festival Announces 20 Film Lineup

Details: Parent Category: Film Festivals; Category: Previews; Published on Thursday, 24 October 2013 17:46; Written by Kyle Sittig

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Offering a good mix of foreign and independent film, the first Middleburg Film Festival will run from October 24^th through the 27^th, avoiding some of the more obvious choices from this year, in favor of many newcomers. Opening the festival will be Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, starring Will Forte and Bruce Dern. The centerpiece will be Justin Chadwick’s Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom, starring The Wire’s Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela. Other films include Stephen Frears’s Philomena, John Wells’ August: Osage County, and Teller’s Tim’s Vermeer.

Executive Director of the Middleburg Film Festival Susan Koch said, “We are thrilled to present out line up for the first Middleburg Film Festival. Our goal was to curate an engaging slate of films, drawing from the U.S. and abroad and across all genres, that will satisfy casual movie goers and avid film lovers alike. We are grateful for the generous support of our distributors and are looking forward to a glorious weekend of film, music and conversation.”

Middleburg’s film list verifies Koch’s statement. It should have a little bit of something for everyone. Even the independent films on the list look palatable to mainstream audiences, while remaining artistic enough for the hard-core movie scholars. Tickets are now on sale. For tickets, showtimes, and a complete film list, go to www.middleburgfilm.org.

The Middleburg Film Festival

October 24^th-27^th, 2013

Las Vegas’ Life is Beautiful Festival is Almost a Week Away

Details: Parent Category: Film Festivals; Category: Previews; Published on Friday, 18 October 2013 05:51; Written by Evan Pearson

As if anyone needed another reason to go to Las Vegas. Now, in addition to being a roving pleasure park with over 120 casinos and more clubs then you can go to in a weekend as well as the location of the wildly popular EDM festival the Electric Daisy Carnival, Las Vegas is home to the Life is Beautiful Festival, a banquet of music, arts, food and learning in downtown Las Vegas. The first, hopefully annual two day festival takes place on Saturday, October 26^th and Sunday, October 27^th and is expected to be widely attended. Between Vegas’s incumbent attractions and the weekend festival of high-profile musicians, speakers, craft-cocktails and arts both theatrical and installed, the festival promises to entertain and enrich in equal measure. Whether it skews more towards learning or boozing is a matter of choice with a lineup as jam-packed as this one.

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