2003 New York Film Festival (1 Viewer)

[Pascal A]

Just wanted to post a reminder that tickets to the 2003 NYFF go on sale starting today.

Also, program listings for the accompanying series, Yasujiro Ozu retrospective and Views from the Avant-Garde have been posted online:

Here's the schedule:

MYSTIC RIVER (Clint Eastwood) - opening night
10/3 8:00 P.M. (Alice Tully Hall) & 9:00 P.M. (Avery Fisher Hall)

PICCADILLY (E.A. Dupont) - restored 1929 silent
10/4 2:00 P.M.

A THOUSAND MONTHS (Faouzi Bensaidi)
10/4 5:3O P.M., 10/5 8:30 P.M.

DOGVILLE (Lars von Trier)
10/4 8:30 P.M., 10/5 4:30 P.M.

S21: THE KHMER ROUGE KILLING MACHINE (Rithy Panh)
10/5 1:30 P.M.

MANSION BY THE LAKE (Lester James Peries)
10/6 6:00 P.M., 10/7 9:15 P.M.

PORNOGRAPHY (Jan Jakub Kolski)
10/6 9:15 P.M., 10/7 6: P.M.

YOUNG ADAM (David Mackenzie)
10/8 6:00 P.M., 10/9 9:15 P.M.

THE FLOWER OF EVIL (Claude Chabrol)
10/8 9:00 P.M., 10/9 6:00 P.M.

GOOD MORNING, NIGHT (Marco Bellocchio)
10/10 6:00 P.M., 10/11 3:30 P.M.

ELEPHANT (Gus Van Sant)
10/10 9:15 P.M., 10/11 1230 P.M.

THE FOG OF WAR (Errol Morris) - festival centerpiece
10/11 6:30 P.M., 10/12 2:00 P.M.

FREE RADICALS (Barbara Albert)
10/11 9:15 P.M., 10/12 5:00 P.M.

BRIGHT LEAVES (Ross McElwee)
10/12 8:15 P.M.

SINCE OTAR LEFT (Julie Bertuccelli)
10/13 6:00 P.M., 10/14 9:00 P.M.

CRIMSON GOLD (Jafar Panahi)
10/13 9 P.M., 10/14 6 P.M.

GOODBYE DRAGON INN (Tsai Ming Liang)
10/15 6:00 P.M.

DISTANT (Nuri Bilge Ceylan)
10/15 9:00 P.M., 10/16 6:00 P.M.

PTU (Johnnie To)
10/16 9:15 P.M., 10/18 3:30 P.M.

RAJA (Jacques Doillon)
10/17 6:00 P.M., 10/18 9:30 P.M.

THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (Denys Arcand)
10/17 9:15 P.M., 10/18 12:00 P.M.

MAYOR OF THE SUNSET STRIP (George Hickenlooper)
10/18 6:30 P.M.

21 GRAMS (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu) - closing night
10/19 8:30 P.M.

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT (Jeff Stein) - Walter Reade companion program
10/4 12:00 P.M., 10/11 8:00 P.M. & 11:00 P.M.

THE BEST OF YOUTH (Marco Tulio Giordana) - Walter Reade companion program
10/12 4:00 P.M.

STALINGRAD (Sebastian Dehnhardt) - Walter Reade companion program
10/16 7:30 P.M.

 

[David Ely]

Definately go see "THE BEST OF YOUTH"!!! I caught it Friday afternoon at the Toronto Film Festival. Abosolutely stunning film. Don't let the 6.5 hour run
Co time scare you away.

 

[Pascal A]

Okay, I'll admit that I was scared off; 6 1/2 hours of Italian history! :b It looks as though 10/12 won't be a conflict for me (I have Ozu's The Only Son scheduled as backup in case I miss the 10/6 screening), so I'll see if I can nab tickets to that along with Since Otar Left and Distant, which I held off on getting tickets in case I didn't get Goodbye Dragon Inn (the only Week #2 film that I really want to see). Thanks for the tip.

I have tickets to the following so far:

Dogville (Lars von Trier)
Mansion by the Lake (Lester James Peries)
Pornography (Jan Jakub Kolski)
Young Adam (David Mackenzie)
The Flower of Evil (Claude Chabrol)
Good Morning, Night (Marco Bellocchio)
Elephant (Gus van Sant)
Free Radicals (Barbara Albert)
Goodbye Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming Liang)

 

[MichaelPe]

Pascal,

You must absolutely go see 21 Grams!! I just saw it yesterday, and it's become my favorite film of the year.

Another strong recommendation goes to The Barbarian Invasions, which won some major prizes at Cannes this year.

I've been hearing great things about Mystic River (the book), and the film looks great too. Other films with a lot of buzz right now are The Fog of War, Good Morning, Night and Mayor of the Sunset Strip.

 

[Pascal A]

Hey, don't rub it in! :frowning: Unfortunately, I couldn't take off the full two weeks for the festival and although I actually preferred the Week #2 NYFF programming, I preferred Week #1 of the Ozu programming. I'm already overstretching my vacation to 1 1/2 weeks, but there was no way to squeeze both (even Distant is stretching it since my flight is at 8:00 am on the 16th). I'm also flying in on Friday night, 10/3, so I won't make it in time for Mystic River either.

I figured that I'd have another shot at Mystic River and 21 Grams since they're fairly big indie releases (I believe that both are already sold out at NYFF), but additional screenings of Arcand's film are probably going to be rare.

The ones that I'm intentionally passing on for now are A Thousand Months, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, Bright Leaves, and Crimson Gold, but I'm always open to suggestions. I'll see if I can get tickets to The Fog of War, but I need to do some schedule juggling for that.

 

[David Ely]

You must absolutely go see 21 Grams!! I just saw it yesterday, and it's become my favorite film of the year.

That's great to hear! I'll be catching it Wednesday afternoon.

I wasn't overly thrilled with Elephant, S21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine or PTU.

Big thumbs up to The Fog of War and Dogville!

It's too bad 11:14 isn't screening in New York. It premiered in Toronto and is extremely fun.

 

[Ted Todorov]

I am going to:
MYSTIC RIVER (Clint Eastwood)
PICCADILLY (E.A. Dupont)
DOGVILLE (Lars von Trier)
PORNOGRAPHY (Jan Jakub Kolski)
YOUNG ADAM (David Mackenzie)
THE FLOWER OF EVIL (Claude Chabrol)
ELEPHANT (Gus Van Sant)
THE FOG OF WAR (Errol Morris) - festival centerpiece
FREE RADICALS (Barbara Albert)
BRIGHT LEAVES (Ross McElwee)
GOODBYE DRAGON INN (Tsai Ming Liang)
PTU (Johnnie To)
RAJA (Jacques Doillon)
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (Denys Arcand)
MAYOR OF THE SUNSET STRIP (George Hickenlooper)

15 films total... A new NYFF record for me (I think). There is a lot more than usual that I am especially excited about. Indeed there are several additional films that I would love to see (not to mention most of the conflictingly scheduled Ozu retro), but I can see only so much and go to work...

Ted

 

[Ted Todorov]

Seen so far:

Mystic River is Eastwood's best film since Unforgiven and indeed has many of the same themes as well, specifically revenge and its
consequences and redemption. The similarity ends there however: while
Unforgiven played with deconstructing and reconstructing the genre,
Mystic River plays it totally straight. It is also a much heavier
film. The acting is just as great as one would expect. Eastwood also
wrote the superb score.

The main problem with the thoroughly marvelous 1929 UK silent
Piccadilly was the score, newly written for this occasion. Piccadilly whose jazz age setting (and on screen jazz band and dancing) positively invites an exciting, over the top score is ill served by the bland, very repetitive, mildly jazzy thing that was written for it (although it was very well played live by an 8 piece ensemble).

Everything else about Piccadilly was great -- the BFI restoration is a
work of art and the film itself is wonderful, with a cool story and
standout performances from the entire cast, especially Anna Mae Wong
and Charles Laugthon in a bit part.

Dogville is a great film, probably the best I've seen this year. By far
the best film Lars von Trier has ever made (admittedly I am not a von
Trier fan, of his previous work I only really like Breaking the Waves).

I make it a practice to know as little as possible about the films I am
about to see, and was extremely well served by this with Dogville -- thus I'll say as little as I can not to ruin it for anyone. I will say
that for a completely staged and abstract allegory it packs an amazing
emotional punch. It all delivers a very complex, multifaceted, thought
& discussion provoking message.

I can't imagine how they could cut any of the film (what are they going
to do, remove chapters 4 and 5?) So do what you need to do to see it
in its proper form. How it will play in "public" is anyone's guess. I
do suggest finding a theater where the lights stay dark during the
closing credits. We had just about the prefect presentation: I had to
wonder if the man who got up after the film was over and started
yelling that it was "a hateful piece of shit" was employed by the
producer as he proved Dogville's point so thoroughly. This was further enhanced by a preacher in our car on the number 1 train right
afterwards.

Ted