One of the most prestigious exhibitions of the best in world cinema, featuring top films from celebrated filmmakers as well as emerging talent, gets underway this week as the 51st New York Film Festival prepares to screen 35 Main Slate films, more than ever. The 17-day fest features A-List stars, directors, documentaries, classic revivals, shorts, a Jean-Luc Goddard retrospective, gala tributes, and more.
Diverse is the apt description for this year's arrivals, many of which took awards at Cannes, Berlin, and Sundance. The U.S. will dominate with 12 films. There'll be fare from 16 other countries and territories, including, of course, France and the U.K.
Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips. Credit: Columbia Picture
The NYFF 51 reels off Thursday with two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks, one of moviedom's biggest, most dependable box office stalwarts, in Paul Greengrass' edge-of-the-seat thriller Captain Phillips [Columbia Pictures, opening theatrically October 11], based on the 2009 Somali pirate capture of a U.S. cargo ship.
This year’s galas celebrate the careers of Cate Blanchett, on October 2, and actor/director Ralph Fiennes, on October 9.
Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine
Since her breakthrough in Oscar and Lucinda in 1997, opposite Fiennes, coincidentally, Blanchett has consistently mesmerized audiences. A recipient of five Lead and Supporting Oscar nominations (one of each in 2008) and a Supporting win for her Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator (2004), this year she’s captivating as a society grand dame in downfall in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, a role that’s generated Oscar buzz. Her evening feature an onstage conversation, clips, and guests.
Fiennes, Oscar-nominated for Schindler’s List (1993) and who continually raises the standard of excellence, will be in conversation and comment on his latest film, The Invisible Woman, about an affair between Charles Dickens and a young actress. The U.S. premiere of the film follows.
The October 5 Centerpiece attraction is Ben Stiller, Kristen Wiig, and Oscar winners Sean Penn and Oscar winner Shirley MacLaine in a remake of James Thurber's comic fable about a mild-mannered man who lives through heroic daydreams, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty [20th Century Fox, opening Christmas], which Stiller directed.
The Festival closes with Spike Jonze's melancholy comedy set in the near future, Her [Warner Bros., opening mid-December], starring three-time Oscar nominee, and Golden Globe and Emmy winner Joaquin Phoenix, four-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams, Oscar and Golden Globe nominee Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde, and, as the voice of the "advanced operating system" Phoenix falls in love with, Scarlett Johansson.
Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake in Inside Llewyn Davis. Credit: Columbia Pictures
Eagerly anticipated features in NYFF51 include 12 Years a Slave (the big winner at the Toronto Film Festival has lots of Oscar buzz) from director Steve McQueen, based on a true story of a freed slave (Chiwetel Ejiofor) abducted into slavery; Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis [Columbia Pictures, opening early December], set against the '60s Greenwich Village folk music scene and headlining Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan; Jim Jarmusch's take on the vampire genre, Only Lovers Left Alive [Sony Pictures Classics], starring Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers); Nebraska [Paramount], Alexander Payne's spin on a father-son (Bruce Dern, Best Actor at Cannes Film Festival, and Will Forte) road trip so dad can collect a money prize; and Richard Curtis' time-travel rom-com, About Time [Universal Picures], starring Lindsay Duncan, Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, and Bill Nighy.
Robert Redford in All Is Lost. Credit: Daniel Daza
Also screening will be Robert Redford (who received raves at Cannes) in All Is Lost [Roadside Attractions], giving a near-wordless performance as he valiantly tries to keep his yacht afloat in violent waters after an at-sea collision; and Roger Michell's quite watchable bittersweet comedy/drama, Le Week-End (Music Box Films), centered on a decidedly-different Jim Broadbent and brilliant Tony and Drama desk-winning (Private Lives revival) and nominated (Les Liaisons Dangereuses) Lindsay Duncan as a bewildering middle class English couple enjoying an unaffordable anniversary weekend in Paris.
The three-week Goddard retrospective, The Spirit of the Forms, October 9-30, honors the long-heralded beacon of the French New Wave. Included are dozens of films/TV features and shorts from his trailblazing early 60s to his latest feature, Film Socialisme (2010), a very weird compilation that aptly fits the title of the series and requires great focus and patience. Among the films are: Breathless (1960), Contempt (1963), Band of Outsiders (1964), and King Lear (1987). From his TV oeuvre: France/Tour/Détour/Deux Enfants (1979), and the eight-part Histoire(s) du Cinema.
A majority of the Main Slate films screen twice nightly in Alice Tully Hall, the nearby Walter Reade Theatre, theatres at the Elinor Burin Munroe Film Center (across from Tully). NYFF51 general public tickets, subscription packages, VIP Passes are on sale now. Main Slate screenings in Tully, $20 members /$25 non; other venues, $15/$20. Main Slate opening night, $75/$100; Centerpiece, closing, and galas $50/$75. Other programming, $10/$15. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com.
