Movies, movies, movies that cover the spectrum from
world and New York premieres of top-drawer cinema, documentaries, classics of
the silver screen, restored classics seen again on the wide screen, the
avant-garde, witching hour movies that'll have you
cringing and shrieking, and star-studded galas are what you can expect
as the milestone 50th New York Film Festival begins unreeling Friday,
September 28, and having its final credit crawl on October 14.
The much-lauded Film Society of
Lincoln Center's 17-day Festival continues its missions of screening the best
in world cinema not only from celebrated directors but also emerging
filmmakers. The 50th Anniversary is a special occasion and this
year's lineup is the biggest ever.
Richard Peña, FSLC
Program Director and NYFF Selection Committee chair, says, "This year's
films have a quality of fearlessness uniting otherwise disparate works - films
that take the risk of taking audiences places they might rather not go."
Big ticket Main Slate atttractions
include works by directors that include Noah Baumbach, David Chase, Brian De Palma, Ang Lee, Sally Potter, and Robert
Zemeckis.
Opening night premieres Life
of Pi [Fox 2000] from Lee [Brokeback
Mountain]. It's based on Yann Martel's best-selling novel, a magical
adventure of an Indian zookeeper's son who finds himself in the company of
motley animals, including a 450-pound Bengal tiger, after a shipwreck -
legendary French actor Gérard Depardieu co-stars.
Denzel Washington, John Goodman,
Don Cheadel, and Melissa Leo star in the Closing Night gala, the thriller Flight
(Paramount) from director Zemeckis (Back
to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?), loosely-based on 2001's incident
of a pilot, following a fueled one-nighter, guiding a fuel-less
superliner from certain crash and becoming a hero until the
subsequent investigation reveals
troubling details.
Among the eagerly-anticipated hot
tickets are director Roger Michell and writer Richard
Nelson's Hyde Park on Hudson [Focus
Features], a look behind the scenes into the secret life of FDR on the occasion
of King George VI and wife Queen Elizabeth to the president's New York retreat,
starring Bill Murray, Laura Linney, Samuel West as King George VI, and, as Mama
Roosevelt, stage and screen veteran Elizabeth Wilson; the
semi-autobiographical Not Fade Away [Paramount Vantage],
the Festival's Centerpiece, from
director/writer Chase (The Sopranos,
Northern Exposure), starring James Gandolfini, newcomer John Magaro, and
Brad Garrett as 60s New Jersey friends forming a rock band they hope is
destined for the big time.
Additional
galas honor Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman and FSLC's program director
Richard Peña, a Festival guiding force for 25 years. Kidman will take part in an onstage
conversation at the screening of director Lee Daniels's raw, pulp The
Paperboy (Millenium
Entertainment), one of the most talked about entries at this year's Cannes, with
Kidman as the sultry fiancée of a death row inmate (John Cusack). Matthew McConaughey,
as a journalist, and Zac Efron, in a departure from his his PG image, as his
brother.
Award winners having New York premieres
include După
Dealuri (Beyond the Hills) (Romania), director
Cristian Mungiu's gripping modern exorcism
tale of two former orphans, starring newcomers
Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, who shared Cannes Best Actress prize. Men of Cinema and Masterwork documentaries
include films on the work of Busby Berkeley,Luis Buneul, George Cuckor, Fritz
Lang, Jerry Lewis, Max Ophuls, Otto Preminger, Martin Scorsese, and Raoul
Walsh.
A Festival special event will be
Oliver Stone's controversial three-hour Showtime miniseries, Untold
History of the United States.
The Film Society and NYFF
receive support from American Airlines, Royal Bank of Canada, The New York Times, Stella Artois,
National Endowment for the Arts, and New York State Council on
the Arts.
Galas are sold out. Remaining
individual tickets are $20 for Main Slate showings. Purchase at the NYFF box
office or NYFF Tickets section of www.filmlinc.com/nyff2012, where you'll find information on the full line-up, schedules, special events, and
panels. Follow #filmlinc on Twitter.
Films to watch for in theatres
post New York Film Festival:
Director Roger Michell and writer
Richard Nelson's Hyde Park on Hudson [Focus
Features], a look behind the scenes into the secret life of FDR on the occasion
of King George VI and wife Queen Elizabeth to the president's New York retreat.
Shot in various Roosevelt homes, the film is based on diaries kept by a cousin
who was one of the president's mistresses. It boasts award-worthy performances
from Bill Murray [a revelation], Laura Linney, Samuel West as King George VI,
and, as Mama Roosevelt, stage and screen veteran Elizabeth Wilson, who darn
well knows how to steal a movie. In some opinions, it far exceeds The King's Speech and should definitely
be up for award nominations.
The semi-autobiographical Not Fade Away [Paramount Vantage],
the Festival's Centerpiece, from
director/writer Chase (The Sopranos,
Northern Exposure) co-stars James Gandolfini, newcomer John Magaro, and
Brad Garrett as 60s New Jersey friends forming a rock band they hope is
destined for the big time.
Cannes
Palme d'Or winner Amour (Austria/France/Germany - Sony Classics), Michael
Haneke's poignant portrait, co-starring France's acclaimed Jean-Louis
Trintignant and Isabelle Huppert, of a couple dealing with the ravages of old
age.
The affectionate but much too long
[with at least six endings!] memoir from acclaimed actress, Liv
and Ingmar: Painfully Connected, in which she recounts her longtime
affair and partnership with and insecurities of late Swedish master director.
Sir Laurence Oliver in a
meticulously-restored print of 1955's Richard III.
Peter O'Toole's career high in David
Lean's 1962 masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia (Sony Pictures
Repertory), also restored.
The U.S.' first animated feature,
Disney's 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
