2013 NYFF Masterworks Sidebar Unearths Cinematic Glories

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 20 September 2013 04:17

Written by Jack Angstreich

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has recast its New York Film Festival "Masterworks" sidebar under the new rubric, "Revivals", this year featuring a handful of outstanding classics in beautiful 35mm prints.

Arthur Ripley's underrated, experimental, early film noir, The Chase, about a down-on-his-luck ex-GI who tries to help the beautiful wife of a menacing gangster who employs him as a chauffeur, is being shown in the fine UCLA restoration print. The Chase boasts outstanding credits — a screenplay by Philip Yordan, adapted from one of Cornell Woolrich's "Black" series novels, and photographed by the great Franz Planer — but Ripley's demonstrates an authorial sensibility that can also be detected in his later Thunder Road. Some of the nightmarish elements and unorthodox structure must be owed to Woolrich but the elegance of the realization must largely be credited to Ripley's mise-en-scène. Robert Cummings is characteristically lackluster as the hero but Steve Cochran as the heavy provides the requisite menace while Michele Morgan — still alive at age 93! — as the wife radiates the necessary glamour; however, the film is stolen, unsurprisingly, by Peter Lorre as the gangster's henchman.

Screening with The Chase are two short, recent animated films directed by Mark Kausler and produced by Greg Ford, presented here in digital video: It's The Cat! (2004) and Some Other Cat (2012) — these successfully attempt to recapture the distinctive qualities of 1920s and 1930s Hollywood cartoons, replete with period music.

Nicholas Ray's first feature, the classic film noir They Live by Night, about a pair of young lovers on the run, is one of the most impressive debuts in the history of cinema. Based on a classic crime novel, Thieves Like Us by Edwin Anderson — and later filmed by Robert Altman in the early 1970s, this features the most memorable performances of Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell, as the doomed lovers. The film was screened in a handsome, restored print.

Another recent Ray restoration in a very fine print was also shown:  the wonderful The Lusty Men, about an ex-rodeo-performer — played with effortless aplomb by Robert Mitchum — who takes up with a younger ranch-hand (Arthur Kennedy, effectively cast) trying to earn big money on the circuit. The great cinematographer Lee Garmes achieves an evocative, lyrical naturalism while Susan Hayward shines as the ranch-hand's wife. Arthur Hunnicut as a voluble ex-rodeo-star steals every scene he is in.

The digital restoration of Martin Scorsese's magnificent Edith Wharton adaptation, The Age of Innocence, screened from a DCP, was deeply unsatisfactory with disastrous loss of detail, even at 4K, and range of contrast. Under such circumstances, one's attention is directed to the work of the actors and the film's score, both of which are stellar.

For more information, go to: www.filmlinc.com and follow @filmlinc on Twitter.

The 51st New York Film Festival
Septermber 27 - October 13, 2013

Three of 2013’s Most Promising Frame 21st HIFF

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Saturday, 14 September 2013 12:26

Written by Kyle Sittig

Since its roots in 1992, the Annual Hamptons International Film Festival has been dedicated to offering a broad perspective on issues through the films they feature. This year looks to be no different. The 21^st Anniversary of HIFF will run from October 10^th -14^th at the Hamptons in New York.

The festival will open with John Krokida’s feature length directorial debut, Kill Your Darlings, a film based on the true story of the beat generation’s inception, featuring Daniel Radcliffe as Alan Ginsberg.

Playing at Guild Hall, HIFF’s Sunday Centerpiece film will be Alexander Payne’s (Sideways) Nebraska. This black-and-white film features Bruce Dern and Will Forte, a father and son on a road trip to claim a Mega Sweepstakes prize.

The closing night film will be the highly anticipated 12 Years a Slave, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery alongside Brad Pitt as an abolitionist. Directed by Shame director Steve McQueen, the film is already being heralded by critics, some of which have compared it to Schindler’s List. Pitt said of the film, “I just have to say, if I never get to participate in a film again, this is it for me, it was a privilege."

All three of these films, no doubt, are distinctly American. They examine exploitation, bigotry, freedom, as well as the rugged individualism inherent in the American Dream. At their heart exist distinctly human themes, however dark they may be.

Hamptons International Film Festival
October 10^th - 14^th
Hamptons, NY

A Look at Toronto Film Fest '13

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Thursday, 12 September 2013 16:36

Written by Eric Lurio

When Hollywood wants to reveal to the world the yearly Oscar contenders, it turns to The Toronto Film Festival -- the so-called “festival of festivals” -- for its showcase. Returning for its 36th edition, the sprawling festival runs from September 5th to the 15th, 2013. Imagine: nearly 400 films from 70 countries around the world, an army of volunteers, and 28 screens spread throughout the city. TIFF is, in a word, Huge.

This is the biggest thing to happen to this Canadian city all year (not counting the time when Mayor Ford allegedly smoked crystal meth), and quite a few in the metro area work a couple of weeks in the hot Northern sun so they can take their summer break in the dark on the latter side of Labor Day.

So as to what’s in the Oscar-bait category, check out the Fall Previews in the current USA Today or Entertainment Weekly. All the major films, except for a few reserved for the NY Film Festival are going to show up here.

Here’s a few examples with a short description:

Gravity. Drected by Alfonso Cuarón
From acclaimed Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Y Tu Mamá También), this film features George Clooney and Sandra Bullock getting lost in space with barely a tether to save them.

Parkland. Directed by Emilio Estevez
Charlie Sheen’s older brother made a film about RFK getting shot. This drama looks at the lives of the people who were on duty at Parkland Hospital in Dallas the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated starring Zac Efron among others.

Tracks. Directed by John Curran
Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, The Kids Are All Right) stars in the true story of Robyn Davidson, who in 1977 set out on a solo journey by foot across the entire Australian Outback accompanied only by her dog and four camels.

12 Years A Slave. Directed by Steve McQueen
This Steve (the other one) McQueen (Hunger, Shame) directs Chiwetel Ejiofor as a real-life free Black kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery in Louisiana. Benedict Cumberbatch co-stars as the plantation owner who buys him, with Michael Fassbender as the evil owner he is further sold to. Also starring Brad Pitt, Michael Kenneth Williams and Alfre Woodard.  

The Double. Directed by Richard Ayoade
Ayoade adapts Fyodor Dostoevsky's almost classic novel into a modern allegory about workplace alienation. Jesse Eisenberg stars as a schlub who starts to question his sanity when asked to work side-by-side with his doppelganger.

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Directed by Justin Chadwick
Idris Elba is in top form as Nelson Mandela in this biopic of South Africa's first democratically elected president when he was young and good looking.