Twenty-seven film, one retrospective. There will also be sidebar series items, Views from the Avant Garde featuring Guy Dubord and a series In the Realm of Oshima. I expect to cover all the official selection slate items with reviews here and on Filmleaf. The film descriptions below are from the Film Society of Lincoln Center's announcement.
The Class / Entre les murs Laurent Cantet, France, 2008; 128m A tough, lively and altogether revelatory look inside a high school classroom, enacted by real teachers and students.
CENTERPIECE Changeling Clint Eastwood, USA, 2008; 140m Angelina Jolie is a single mother whose troubles are just beginning when her son goes missing in Clint Eastwood’s majestic fact-based period drama.
CLOSING NIGHT (AVERY FISHER HALL) The Wrestler Darren Aronofsky, USA, 2008; 109m Mickey Rourke gives the performance of a lifetime in Darren Aronofsky’s raw and raucous new movie.
24 City / Er shi si cheng ji Jia Zhangke, China/Hong Kong/Japan, 2008; 112m The rise and fall of a Chinese factory town is chronicled in this film, straddling the border between fiction and documentary.
Afterschool Antonio Campos, USA, 2008; 122m When two students at a posh prep school accidentally overdose, a student filmmaker struggles to create an appropriate tribute for them.
Ashes of Time Redux Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong, 2008; 93m The final, definitive version of Wong Kar Wai’s modernist take on the classic Chinese martial arts tale.
Bullet in the Head / Trio en la cabeza Jaime Rosales, Spain/France, 2008; 85m A powerful, engrossing meditation on politics and the contemporary cult of surveillance.
Che Steven Soderbergh, France/Spain, 2008; 268m Steven Soderbergh’s two-part Spanish-language epic about Che Guevara’s revolutionary military campaigns in Cuba and Bolivia features a brilliant lead performance by Benicio del Toro.
Chouga / Shuga Darezhan Omirbaev, France/Kazakhstan, 2007; 91m A Kazakh, minimalist adaptation of Anna Karenina.
A Christmas Tale / Un conte de Noël Arnaud Desplechin, France, 2008; 150m Arnaud Desplechin’s grand banquet of a movie brims with life, as Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos and the other members of a marvelous ensemble cast come home for Christmas.
Four Nights with Anna / Cztery noce z Anna Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland/France, 2008; 87m This visually mesmerizing tale of a shy man and his obsession with the woman across the way marks the triumphant return of Polish maestro Jerzy Skolimowski.
Gomorrah / Gomorra Matteo Garrone, Italy, 2008; 137m A blistering version of Roberto Saviano’s modern true crime classic about the modern-day Neapolitan mafia.
Happy-Go-Lucky Mike Leigh, UK, 2008; 118m An affectionate portrait of an unattached, 30-something London schoolteacher coming toterms with the fact that she’s no longer young.
The Headless Woman / La mujer sin cabeza Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/France/Italy/Spain, 2008; 87m Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel’s powerful third feature takes us into an altered perceptual state with a woman who hits something with her car.
Hunger Steve McQueen, UK, 2008; 96m British visual artist Steve McQueen’s feature film debut is an uncompromising look at the hunger strike led by IRA prisoner Bobby Sands in 1974.
I’m Going to Explode / Voy a explotar Gerardo Naranjo, Mexico, 2008; 103m Two Mexican teenagers go into hiding to see the reactions their disappearance will get from relatives and friends.
Let It Rain / Parlez-moi de la pluie Agnès Jaoui, France, 2008; 110m A portrait of a rising feminist politician may be the ticket to fame and jobs for two aspiring filmmakers.
RETROSPECTIVE Lola Montès Max Ophuls, France/West Germany, 1955; 115m The life of the legendary courtesan and circus performer—lover of kings, knaves and Franz Liszt—is presented in its definitive, restored version.
Night and Day / Bam guan nat Hong Sang-soo, South Korea, 2008; 144m When his life in Seoul becomes too complicated, an artist hightails it to Paris—but things don’t get any easier.
The Northern Land / A Corte do Norte João Botelho, Portugal, 2008; 101m A woman searches for the truth about her life in the stories of ancestors and the distant manor house they inhabited.
Serbis Brillante Mendoza, Philippines/France, 2008; 90m A family tries to quell the tensions tearing it apart while it struggles to keep the family business—a porn movie theater—afloat.
Summer Hours / L’heure d’eté Olivier Assayas, France, 2008; 103m Juliette Binoche is one of three siblings brought face-to-face with time and mortality by the sudden death of her mother in this moving new film from Olivier Assayas.
Tokyo SonataKiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan/Netherlands, 2008; 85m A Japanese family struggles to re-define itself after the father loses his corporate job.
Tony Manero Pablo Larrain, Chile/Brazil, 2008; 98m In the dark days of the Pinochet dictatorship, a John Travolta wannabe blazes a murderous trail through the back alleys of Chile.
Tulpan Sergey Dvortsevoy, Germany/Kazakhstan/Poland/Russia/Switzerland, 2008; 100m Winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Tulpan charts an aspiring herdsman’s efforts to win the attention of his intended.
Waltz with Bashir / Vals in BashirAri Folman, Israel/Germany/France, 2008; 90m Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman’s haunting autobiographical memory piece about his experiences as a soldier during the 1982 war in Lebanon are given a hyper-real spin by state-of-the-art animation.
Wendy and Lucy Kelly Reichardt, USA, 2008; 80m In Kelly Reichardt’s follow-up to her acclaimed Old Joy, Wendy (Michelle Williams) searches for her dog Lucy. The troubled spirit of modern America is beautifully evoked along the way.
The Windmill Movie Alexander Olch, USA, 2008; 80m Filmmaker Alexander Olch, using material left by the late filmmaker Richard Rogers for a never completed film autobiography, attempts to make sense of the life of his former teacher and friend.
_________________ ©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.
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