NYFF 2010 - Oki's Movie

Hong Sang-Soo's Oki's Movie is one of his best films as it plays with multiple narrative structures in a way reminiscent of his rarely-seen A Tale of Cinema. It consists of four segments, each introduced by the same crude credit sequence on a blue background as Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance is repeated, supplying a short pause for reflection between the separate episodes. The four seemingly autonomous tales (as in Rohmer's Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle) actually build upon each other as the focus subtly shifts from the two male characters' point of view to that of Oki, the woman who narrates the final episode and comes to control events through her voiceover analysis of her simultaneous relationships with the two men, an older film professor and a younger film student. Hong continues to work variations on the same basic themes in all his films but has yet to exhaust the possibilities. Not to mention that his Q&A was hilarious and worthy of an appearance in one of his films.

NYFF 2010 - Day 5

Radu Muntean's brilliantly acted tale of adultery, Tuesday, After Christmas, was shot in only 30 long takes whose form doesn't call attention to itself because the naturalistic drama is so compelling. The film begins almost in mid-story with a post-coital scene between the husband and his mistress, and sets up the approaching revelation and its aftermath with a precise, behaviorally convincing logic which is a tribute to Muntean's writing and extensive rehearsal with his actors. The remarkable Romanian New Wave seems to show no sign of flagging any time soon.

Alexsei Fedorchenko's Silent Souls is a poetic miniature full of indelible images of northern Russia and the rituals of grief, eroticism, childhood memories and the longing for both a deceased wife and a vanishing culture and way of life. Some images brought to mind the tableau style of Paradjanov, and the overall mood struck me as one of serene melancholy.

NYFF 2010 - Day 6

Day 6 was dominated by Jean-Luc Godard's dazzlingly beautiful meditation/collage/puzzle, Film Socialisme. All I can do at the moment is echo the title card that ends what will possibly be Godard's last film, No Comment.

Wednesday also offered Benjamin Heisenberg's The Robber, an Austrian film about a champion marathon runner who doubles as a bank robber, constantly running to escape capture. It's an absorbing genre film in which the character's motivation remains ambiguous.

NYFF 2010 - Day 3

Day 3 of the NYFF consisted of Michelangelo Frammartino's contemplative Le Quattro Volte and Lee Chang-Dong's followup to Secret Sunshine, the powerfully resonant, masterfully written and acted Poetry.

Before these two films, however, was the HBO Directors Dialogue with Apichatpong Weerasethakul and selection committee member Dennis Lim. There were well-chosen clips from his three most recent features as well as the short video/installation piece Primitive, which I had never seen before. To top off this event, I was able to get Joe to autograph my copy of James Quandt's essential book Apichatpong Weerasethakul. He was extremely gracious as he inscribed the pink inside front cover "For Jim with Love, Apichatpong W." which I will treasure forever. My last glimpse of him came later that evening as I spotted him walking to dinner with Richard Peña and other festival guests just after having dinner myself. It was a Zenlike convergence worthy of an Apichatpong film.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Empire

NYFF 2010 - Day 2

This is Day 2 of the NYFF but Day 1 for me. Apichatpong Weerasethakul's exquisite Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, winner of the Palme d'Or this year at Cannes, is the hands-down winner of my own Palme d'NYFF although I've only seen 5 of my 20 scheduled films thus far. I can't find words adequate to describe the experience of being immersed in Joe's world of wonder, where uncanny ghosts and reincarnations are part of the natural order of life in this remote region of northeastern Thailand (and a bit of modern urban life in the final section for good measure). The sound design, mixing a myriad of animal, bird and insect sounds with an eerie ambient drone familiar from Syndromes and a Century, is even richer than in that previous masterpiece. As in Tropical Malady, the contrast of extreme darkness and radiant light is wondrous (for instance, no one films a canopied bed more beautifully than Apichatpong). Rather than the bifurcated structure of his previous three features, in Uncle Boonmee Apichatpong applies six different visual strategies to the roughly six acts of the film. The most stunning is a playful evocation of a Thai royal costume drama involving a princess and a catfish; this section temporarily abandons the family drama of the rest of the film while maintaining the spirit of mysticism and transcendence evident throughout. Holding it all together is a deeply moving love story between Uncle Boonmee, dying of kidney failure, and his wife Huay who died 19 years earlier but has returned as a ghost to share his last moments and lead him to the next world. They are joined by other family members including Boonsong, a son who has returned after a long disappearance in the form of a monkey ghost. The embrace of Boonmee and Huay, pictured above, takes a triangular form matched by the inverted triangle of the bed canopy above them; this harmonious composition adds immeasurably to the poignance of this scene. One other detail which I found extremely powerful is the moment in the cave shortly before Boonmee's death when the tube attached to his kidney is opened to release a flow of urine onto the ground, as if draining his last lifeblood. Then there's a very erotic scene in which Tong, Boonmee's nephew (Apichatpong regular Sakda Kaewbuadee), takes off his orange Buddhist monk's robes and takes a shower. And once again Joe uses a catchy pop tune at the end simply because he likes it, and why not celebrate the joy of continuing life in just this way? I can't wait to see this film again and to see where my favorite contemporary film director goes in his next work.

Xavier Beauvois's Of Gods and Men was an excellent fictionalized recreation of the massacre of a community of monks in Algeria in 1996, aided by great performances from Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale. Finally Michael Epstein's John Lennon documentary LENNONYC, although fairly conventional in approach, benefited from a great subject (Lennon's post-Beatles years in New York with Yoko Ono) and access to some terrific audio and video of recording sessions, radio shows and concert appearances. A special bonus was the post-screening appearance in the guest box of Yoko Ono, waving a peace sign to the cheering audience.

BONUS UPDATE: Here is the video of that "catchy pop tune" mentioned above, titled Acrophobia:

The Next Director: João Pedro Rodrigues at BAM

O Fantasma

To Die Like a Man

BAM Cinematek will be presenting a retrospective of João Pedro Rodrigues's three features and two of his short films in October. Unfortunately my NYFF schedule conflicts with two of the screenings, for Odete and To Die Like a Man, but I will be seeing his remarkable debut, O Fantasma (above) plus a short, Happy Birthday!, and there will be a discussion with Rodrigues after the films. Why BAM perversely decided to program these films at the same time as the New York Film Festival is a mystery to me.