2005 New York Film Festival Reviewed

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Category: Jack Angstreich

Published on Saturday, 22 August 2009 22:48

Written by Jack Angstreich

This year's New York Film Festival opened with George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck, an entertaining film with strong performances but limited by its unwillingness to challenge the prejudices of its intended audience.

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu by Cristi Puiu utilizes real time to powerful effect.

The Dardenne brothers continue their investigations into contemporary proletarian life with L'enfant, which again suggests an anti-idealist remake of a film by Robert Bresson — in this case, Pickpocket.

Avi Mograbi's Avenge But One of My Two Eyes is a serious, highly intelligent, and cinematic essay on Zionist racism.

Steven Soderbergh's Bubble is an intriguing departure for this uneven director, with convincing non-professional performances.

Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale further confirms the director's talent for original dialogue and eccentric characterizations, abetted by his remarkable cast.

A new film by the relatively unknown Dorota Kedzierzawska is always welcome; her I Am  does not confound expectations.
Bennett Miller's Capote is a sensitive, tradition-of-quality enterprise featuring a tour de force — if slightly studied — performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Park Chan-Wook's Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is either a bold experiment in cinematic form or a lurid, exploitation drama; this viewer remains undecided.

This viewer also wonders whether Lars Van Trier's Manderlay, a sequel to Dogville, is not a mere outrageous political provocation or, alternatively, if it succeeds ultimately as an audacious, Brechtian parable.

Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto, the festival centerpiece, is sustained by its central performance (Cillian Murphy), energetic wrtiting, and creative mise en scène.

Jean-Paul Civeyrac's Through the Forest is a captivatingly enigmatic foray into the fantastic.

Mitsuo Yanagimachi's Who's Camus Anyway? also confused this viewer: was it a subtle meditation on contemporary alienation or a sluggish, overly conceptual failure?

Hou Hsiao-hsien's Three Times is the work of a master; no more need be said.

Hany Abu-Assad's Paradise Now  relies on conventional filmmaking but tells a powerful story well.

Michael Winterbottom's ebullient Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story reimagines Laurence Sterne's classic novel in cinematic terms; his attempt is engagingly offbeat.

Patrice Chéreau moves from strength to strength with his mesmerizing Conrad adaptation, Gabrielle.

Alexander Sokurov's The Sun is a difficult work by a great artist; it demands to be reseen.

The festival revived Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger in a new print; it remains a strong, intellectual thriller.

The festival closed with Michael Haneke's mysterious Caché which further ramifies the exploratory criticism to be found in the director's other works.

Special events this year included: stimulating dialogues with the Dardennes brothers, Michel Winterbottom, and Patrice Chéreau; a screening of an obscure, early Graham Greene film, The Green Cockatoo; Shinya Tsukamoto's unsettling horror video, Haze; and an exciting video transcription of a performance of a modern Kabuki play, Nezumi Kozo.

This year's sidebar was a tribute to 110 years of films from Shochiku studios with a generous selection of titles, most presented in outstanding prints.

Views from the Avant-Garde featured a new work by Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, a revival of Andy Warhol's Blue Movie followed by a lively appearance by Viva, a screening of The Grandfather Trilogy by Allen Ross, an excellent Larry Gottheim program, a gorgeous Heinz Emigholz selection, and new (and some old) work by many other major and good, minor artists.