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NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL 2002 (I) Send This Review to a Friend
From the opening night through the closing night, the pickings from the 40th annual New York Film Festival were generally of a high caliber and rewarding, save for a few misfires judged from my perspective. But there were so many really good films on the program that the overall impact was particularly strong. In addition to the survey here of films that I managed to see, there'll be full reviews as the films open commercially.
Opening night selections are generally choices that reflect the need to please the prestigious festival backers as well as those looking for artistic choices rather than crowd pleasers. This year's opener, ABOUT SCHMIDT, touched all of the bases. Directed by Alexander Payne, it is a superb film with an award-level performance by Jack Nicholson as Warren Schmidt, a Nebraska insurance executive who upon retirement finds his life empty and aimless, and when his wife suddenly dies, sets off on a revealing journey.
The skill of the film, with a screenplay written by Payne and Jim Taylor from a Louis Begley novel, lies in its being so funny and satirical even while being sad. Nicholson says more with his expressions than words might accomplish in situations that he encounters. The portrait of middle America that emerges is droll and condescending, yet there is also affection for the types that we meet even while laughing at them. The emptiness in Schmidt's life is what makes the film sad, and yet by the ending he is reached emotionally and so are we.
Kathy Bates is uproariously funny as the mother of the waterbed salesman who is to become Warren's son-in-law in the Denver wedding that is pending. Warren heads for the wedding in his motor home but has misgivings about the man his daughter (Hope Davis) has chosen. He also assumes he has a closer relationship with his daughter than the one that exists. Bates has a great scene in which she plops nude into a hot tub in a come-on that scares the daylights out of Warren, who recoils from the mere idea.
The story is punctuated by letters (spoken by Schmidt in voiceover) that he writes to Ndugu, a six-year-old boy in Tanzania, whom he supports for $22 monthly as a result of his do-gooder response to a charity organization.. He pours out his heart and soul in these letters that the kid couldn't possibly understand, but it gives him a chance to vent his feelings, and we're informed what's on his mind. The idea is very funny, but also tuned to the emotional finale. Given that Nicholson plays the protagonist, you may think of his road movies "Easy Rider" and "Five Easy Pieces." Seeing Nicholson look as old as he is made to appear in this film is a shocker, but his performance is a demonstration of what a magnificent actor he continues to be at this stage of his life.
The closing night film, TALK TO HER, the latest from Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, was another wise choice. The film is wonderfully original and moving as well. It involves Benigno (Javier Cámara), a male nurse who is in love with a beautiful ballet student in a coma and Marco (Darío Grandinetti), a writer whose bullfighter girlfriend is also in a coma after having been gored. The film focuses on the friendship between the men and feelings of loneliness and loss, as well as making observations about communication and chance. "Talk to Her" is a strong, complex story filmed with the customary panache that characterizes Almodóvar's work. It is also quite strange in parts, with the feelings and conversations aimed at the comatose getting very close to the idea of necrophilia. An added treat is the director's use of the Pina Bausch dance company.
Some of the films have opened commercially already (see reviews in Film section), including Paul Greengrass's jolting BLOODY SUNDAY, about the brutal shooting of Irish demonstrators by British forces; SAFE CONDUCT , Betrand Tavernier's exploration of filmmakers working under the Nazi occupation of France, plus a film which I found unworthy of festival attention, PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's romantic comedy--neither sufficiently funny nor sufficiently romantic--starring Adam Sandler.
One of my favorites from the New York Film Festival is THE MAGDALENE SISTERS, Peter Mullan's devastating drama based on the true enslavement in Catholic Church-run laundries in Ireland, places where supposedly wayward young women were sent and cruelly treated. The film has immense power, and there are numerous strong performances. The problem existed into the 1990s, and Mullan's astonishing film does a great job as an exposé as well as riveting drama.
Another high point was Finish director Aki Kaurismäki's THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST, a delightful satirical comedy that sheds light on aspects of Finnish society by following the fortunes of a man who is robbed and brutally beaten, then rises from a hospital bed after being judged dead and wanders about without memory of who he is. This may be he director's best work to date as we follow the story of the amnesiac (Markku Peltola) and his exploits, including falling in love with a Salvation Army worker (Kati Outinen). In "The Man Without a Past" we see various sides of Finnish life, including generosity, bureaucracy, crime and clever ways to survive.
From Italy came MY MOTHER'S SMILE, Marco Bellocchio's spoof on the sainthood process of the Catholic Church, in this case involving an attempt to get the Church to bestow sainthood on a woman who was murdered by a mentally ill son. At the center of Belloccho's story is Sergio Castellitto as Ernesto, brother of the murderer. He is a non-believer who thinks the idea of making his late mother a saint is ridiculous, and he bears the brunt of family members trying to push through sainthood for their own selfish reasons. Ernesto dotes on his young son, and falls for a woman who says she's the boy's religious teacher. This is a very witty, droll and accomplished film that has many things to say about life, church-wise and otherwise, in contemporary Italy.
AUTO FOCUS, a film by Paul Schrader wisely chosen by the New York Film Festival, is an effectively acerbic drama based on the real-life character of television star Bob Crane, who met with a grim end. Greg Kinnear is dynamic as he depicts Crane leading a life of debauchery and linking up with John Carpenter, played by Willem Dafoe as a man who lives vicariously through Crane yet deeply resents him. Carpenter gets him women and feeds his desire to photograph as well as bed them.
Beginning in 1960s Los Angeles, "Auto Focus," based on a book by Robert Graysmith and scripted by Michael Gerbosi, follows Crane's rise to fame though the television hit comedy "Hogan's Heroes" and his subsequent decline. Ron Liebman delivers a strong performance as Crane's agent, who tries to tone down his behavior, and there are also good performances by Rita Wilson and Maria Bello as women in the actor's life. Following Crane's brash adventures and obliviousness to the toll they are taking is entertaining, and yet the film is a shocker for the way things turn out, even if you know the real story in advance. Schrader is in top form.
French director Claire Denis is especially adept at telling a story with emphasis on the visual, and she follows this pattern effectively in FRIDAY NIGHT, in which Laure (Valérie Lemercier) becomes stuck in a Paris traffic jam during a strike. As a result she meets Jean (Vincent Lindon) and they retreat for a torrid night of sex. Did it really happen, or was it in Laure's imagination stimulated by concerns about the next phase of her life? Reality or fantasy, it doesn't really matter because the incident goes to the heart of her emotional needs.
The film moves slowly and very deliberately as Denis works her special approach to the hilt. At a Unifrance and French Cultural Office luncheon, I asked Denis about what was intended, and she said that perhaps Laure wasn't sure herself whether it happened. She added that when the idea has been discussed men mostly seem to think it was fantasy while women are more certain it happened. Perhaps that says something in itself.
Director Otar Iosseliani is another who depends on visual ideas to tell much of a story. In MONDAY MORNING he follows the path of Vincent (Jacques Bidou), a bored factory worker who enjoys painting. One day Vincent leaves his wife without a word and heads for Venice, where life opens up for him to some extent, although despite the surface indications, others have a similar sameness to what he has at home. But Vincent will never be the same as a result of his expedition. Like the work of Denis, this film moves slowly as we are invited to follow Vincent, and as you would expect, Venice is not at all hard to look at.
WAITING FOR HAPPINESS, another in the intensely visual mode, is a subtle work from Africa by Abderrahmane Sissako. Set in a village on the West African coast, the story follows a 17-year-old young man who returns home and is trying to re-adjust to the ways of local life and to his family. We are given insight into the patterns of life there, and it soon becomes clear that the young man's future lies elsewhere. The film is very rich in atmosphere as it entices the viewer into the surroundings with authenticity and beauty.
In THE SON directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne ("Rosetta" and "La Promesse") tell a story of a man who takes a troubled youth as his apprentice in a woodworking shop. The youth had been locked up for the killing a child during a robbery, but is now trying to rehabilitate himself. His new employer has had a tragedy in his life and the smoldering facts lead to an ultimate confrontation. The directorial style is hand-held camera photography, which makes the film exceptionally jangling in looks and tension. I'm not convinced this style is necessary to get the impact needed, but there it is, and the result is strong, realistic drama with both personal and social content.
Documentary realism could be found in the extraordinary LOVE AND DIANE, produced and directed by Jennifer Dworkin. This turned out to be one of the most moving and powerful films of the festival, all the more so because it is raw reality. Dworkin follows the fortunes of a mother and daughter, two African-Americans with a raft of problems as they work their way through the social system and try to get back on a constructive track. Diane, wracked by drug problems, can't care properly for her children, who are taken away from her, and this has been especially devastating to one of them Love. Finally, Diane and her children are reunited, but there still are acute problems.
The mother-daughter confrontations are followed, and we see Diane's efforts to make a new life for herself, just as we see Love trying to get her life together and not repeat her mother's pattern. We also follow the ways of the social system that tries to help but is hindered by circumstance, money and the enormity of the problems that can result in a vicious circle. This is dynamic, wrenching filmmaking, and by the time the film ends we can feel that we know the subjects intimately.
One work that bored me silly was "Russian Ark," which some have hailed as something of a treasure. Russian director Alexander Sokurov takes us inside the renowned Hermitage in St. Petersburg. and as we tour under the guidance of a stranger, the film attempts to interweave Russian history with the art, but the result is ponderous, particularly a long ballroom scene that, although gorgeous, goes on and on and on. The gimmick of the film is that it was done in one long take, but the unusual nature of the feat doesn't make the result any less tedious even as we may admire the concept and execution.
There has been an emphasis on Asian films in recent New York Film Festival editions. One of this year's selections was TURNING GATE from South Korea. Directed by Hon Sang-soo, it is a love story involving an actor who finds two women attractive, one who turns out to be the lover of his good friend, the other a young woman who is married. What can happen? The film shows some candid sex, and while the story isn't very moving, it does give us a picture of contemporary life in parts of South Korea.
A totally different experience was to be found in the unsettling but informative BLIND SPOT--HITLER'S SECRETARY, an Austrian export co-directed by André Heller and Othmar Schmiderer. It is totally a retrospective interview with Traudl Junge (who has died since the film as made), a handsome woman who guiltily reminisces about her days as a secretary to Hitler. Starting in 1942, she was one of the secretaries who worked with him and eventually observed the final days in the bunker before his suicide. Blind spot indeed. The lady tries to be hard on herself, regretting that she was an oblivious young girl when she went to work for Hitler and only much later discovered the evil that was done. Her comments are filled an attitude of apology and self-disgust at not having understood what was happening.
But while one can understand how a young person could enthusiastically attach oneself to the excitement of the period, how oblivious can one be? What did Hitler dictate in the letters she took? Merely innocuous stuff? Yet there is no need to judge Junge; the importance of her story lies in her close-up descriptions of Hitler and her intimate account of the final days. The film contributes historically to the portrait of the Nazi collapse and that makes for a fascinating documentary, although of course, an upsetting one.
(More to Come)
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