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<title>2003 - 41st Festival </title>
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<p align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:24.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>2003 � 41<sup>st</sup> Festival<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p>It may be due to the times we are living through, but, for whatever reason,
the recently ended 41<sup>st</sup> Edition of the New York Film Festival was
the most unremittingly dark and generally angriest collection of films I can
remember.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The two films with the lightest
and most humorous feeling were BARABARIAN INVASIONS and THE FLOWER OF EVIL�the
former about aging and death and the latter about incest and murder.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Nevertheless, there was, as always, an
wonderful array of fascinating films�and the incredible joy of the NYFF is
opportunity to discover great films you have to no reason to expect would be
good. (I once again urge all of you in the NYC area to join the <a
href="http://www.filmlinc.com/">Lincoln Center Film Society</a> and attend the
NYFF next Fall.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Here are descriptions
of the films we saw, and a heads up about films to be on the lookout for�and,
in this regard, the two you should most definitely see when they are released
in the next two months are BARBARIAN INVASIONS and THE FOG OF WAR (see below).
I have placed in bold type the films that already are scheduled for release in
the US and have given release dates where they are currently available.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>(For those who are interested, the entire
2003 NYFF program and the Film Society descriptions of each film can be found
at<a href="http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff/nyff.htm">
http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff/nyff.htm</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">��
</span>My reviews of past years of the NYFF can be found at <a
href="http://www.rlrubens.com/nyff.html">http://www.rlrubens.com/nyff.html</a>
.)</p>
<p><u>MY FAVORITES (wonderful, well-made, enjoyable films):<o:p></o:p></u></p>
<h1><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt'>BARBARIAN
INVASIONS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span></span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt;font-weight:normal'>(�Les
invasions barbares�; Canada; </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:
24.0pt;font-weight:normal'>to be released </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:24.0pt'>21 November</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:24.0pt;font-weight:normal'> by Miramax)<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>This film was <i>the</i> major surprise of
the Festival:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>it was simply
wonderful!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>We laughed out loud, we
cried�and even sobbed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Denys Arcand has
written and directed a masterpiece about aging and death�and life and love,
family and friendship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Using the
characters from his 1986 film, �The Decline of the American Empire,� Arcand
explores his themes through the experience of the dying R�my, unsuccessful as
an academic, as a father, and as a husband�but highly adept as a
philanderer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Arcand, himself, explained
at the screening that the �barbarians� are simply �others��that everyone is a
�barbarian� to someone; and the �invasions� explored or at least alluded to in
the film are multiple and many-layered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>Although it seems at the outset to be an expos� of socialized medicine
in Canada, the film ultimately succeeds in raising a myriad of questions on a
multitude of levels; and, while one may disagree with or not even approve of
some of the philosophical world view, it is incredibly successful as a work of
art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The humor is trenchant and
hilarious:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>when a caring nun warns R�my
that he may end up in the afterlife roasting in the fires of Hell, he retorts
that she may end up floating on a cloud in Heaven between the Pope and Sister
Theresa�eternally caught �between a surly Pole and a slimy Albanian.�<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The characters are deep and rich, the story
compelling, and the banter totally absorbing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>But there is also an unexpected level of emotional poignancy.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>This is a must see.</span><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt;font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black;mso-font-kerning:0pt'>FOG OF WAR:
Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara</span><span
style='font-weight:normal'>.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:
24.0pt'> </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:24.0pt;
font-weight:normal'><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�</span>(Centerpiece; USA;
to be released </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:24.0pt'>19
December </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:24.0pt;
font-weight:normal'>by Sony Pictures Classics).<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes">� </span>This is a most important and totally wonderful documentary by
Errol Morris (�Fast, Cheap & Out of Control�) about Robert S. McNamara, who
was, assuming you don�t hate him enough to still remember, Secretary of Defense
under both Kennedy and Johnson, and the man most identified as the architect of
the Vietnam War�or, at very least, its main spokesman.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>This film is mostly footage of McNamara
talking about his life and public life in particular (filmed using Morris�
�interatron,� a system he invented using two cameras and two teleprompters�the
teleprompter on the camera focused on the interviewee showing the feed from the
camera focused on the interviewer, and vice versa�thus allowing the interviewee
to be looking directly down the lens of the camera while seeing the face of the
interviewer).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�� </span>McNamara comes off as an
almost sympathetic and likable, dedicated and certainly intelligent
person�which, in the end, actually heightens the sense of the evil he was
involved in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>McNamara in his 80s is
reflecting back on life, apparently trying to come to terms with things, but at
the same time justifying and defending the very choices he is questioning.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The film moves through McNamara�s roles in
World War II, the Cuban missile crisis, and, its main focus, the Vietnam
War�about which it is an extremely important explication; but it is the deeper
question of evil and its subtleties that this film is ultimately about.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>As striking as are his comments about the
Vietnam War and his role in it, his comments about his role during WWII, and
about the decision�apparently largely at his suggestion�to use incendiary bombs
on 67 cities in Japan are even more unsettling.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes">� </span>There is a shocking sequence about the fire bombing of Tokyo
(which resulted in the death of 100,000 civilians and the destruction of half
of the mostly wooden city in a single night) and of the many other Japanese
cities that received similar treatment, that leads to McNamara�s concluding
that he and General Curtis �Bomb them back to the Stone Age� Le May would have
been tried as war criminals had the US lost WWII�a particularly powerful idea,
given that this was a war considered to be just by most people, at least in its
underlying rationale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Although the
project was begun and most of the filming completed before the events of
September 11, the ideas in the film seem incredibly pertinent to our current
situation in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The question of
how power is used, and, in particular, how its use is supported by governmental
deception, is put in high relief. For example, McNamara says of the Vietnam War
that the fact that none of our allies and other like-minded countries
supported our actions in Vietnam should have given us reason to reassess
our thinking�but didn't.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The score by
Phillip Glass (whose work I am not particularly partial to) is extremely
effective in this film:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>as Errol Morris
noted, �No one does �existential dread� as well as Phillip Glass.�<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The �eleven lessons� in the title (they are from
Morris, not McNamara) give a not-totally successful framework to the documentary,
but the film nevertheless works incredibly well as a gripping cinematographic
experience, as well as being an important historical document.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>It is something every American ought to see.<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p><b>GOOD MORNING, NIGHT.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>(�Buongiorno, notte�; Italy;)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">��
</span>Marco Bellocchio has created a powerful<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>and beautifully compelling masterpiece in this unusual film about the
kidnapping and killing of Aldo Moro, who had been the five-time premier of
Italy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Aldo Moro was a law professor
deeply committed to the theory of historical compromise:<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">�� </span>from the beginning of his political career
in the late 50s, he was responsible for moving his Christian Democratic Party
away from its more right wing extremes�inviting the Socialists into the coalition
government he formed when premier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>In
1978, no longer in government office, Moro was the President of the Christian
Democrats and was in the process of pushing for the formation of a solidarity
government that would include the Italian Communist Party.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>He was kidnapped by members of the radical
Red Brigade (Brigate Rosse), held for two months, and eventually murdered by his
captors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Bellocchio�s film, however,
takes place entirely within the apartment in which he imagines Moro to have
been held prisoner�and it creates an almost domestic feel to the drama.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The focus is on the experience of the one
female terrorist, wonderfully portrayed by Maya Sansa.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>While perhaps a little politically
simplistic, the film nevertheless succeeds in creating a gripping human drama.</p>
<p><u>FILMS DEFINITELY WORTH SEEING (while not the complete, all-around
successes of the films listed above, these films are wonderful in their own
right and worthy of your attention):<o:p></o:p></u></p>
<p><b>PICCADILLY</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>(NYFF
Retrospective Presentation; World Premier of the restored print and score; UK;
to be released by Milestone Films, and, after a <b>spring</b> run in theatres,
on DVD and VHS).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Directed by German
expatriate E. A. Dupont in 1929, this classic British silent film was made just
at the point that the industry was turning to talking pictures, and there are
moments in the film when one can feel the intense desire for dialogue.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The story line is dated and fairly silly,
but the performances, the sets, the camera work, and the brilliant visual
sense of the director make PICCADILLY an intensely wonderful experience and a
cinematographic treasure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>There is a
magnificent sequence of Charles Laughton (in his feature debut) unhappily and
demandingly eating in a Piccadilly club that alone would justify finding a way
to see this film. (I am going to purchase a copy of this movie the moment it
becomes available and watch this scene over and over again.)<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>There are fascinating performances by Cyril
Ritchard, Jameson Thomas, and American Gilda Grey�and even an uncredited appearance
by the young Ray Milland.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>But it is the
Chinese-American Anna May Wong who steals the show.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes">� </span>Born in Los Angeles in 1905, by the age of 19 she had appeared
with Douglas Fairbanks in the 1924 silent film, �The Thief of Bagdad�; and by
1928, she had become one of the few non-white movie stars.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Due to Hollywood�s rigid racial codes,
however, Ms. Wong abandoned her successful American career for more adventurous
roles abroad.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�� </span>In PICCADILLY, she<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>brings depth and intensity to the role of
Shosho, the Chinese dishwasher turned dancer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>Her performance is no mere racial stereotype: she<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>is beautiful, sexy, and complex�even though
at one point she does a rather erotic dance in what seemed to be a
stripped-down Balinese costume, in a style that is most reminiscent of a
hula.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>There is a level of sensitivity
and complexity to the racial portrayals and issues in this movie that are far
beyond anything one imagines could have been part of any American film of the
time�or for some time to come. At the NYFF�s world premier of the British
Film Institute�s magnificently and lovingly restored print of PICCADILLY, the
newly composed score for the film was played live by a seven-piece ensemble,
led by composer Neil Brand.<u><o:p></o:p></u></p>
<p>GOODBYE DRAGON INN.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>(Taiwan)<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Tsai Ming-Laing, whose WHAT TIME IS IT THERE
was one of our favorites from the 2001 NYFF, returns this year with this most
unusual and riveting film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>It is
certainly not for everybody:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>it has
very little action, a series of extremely long, unbroken shots, and only four
lines of dialogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Nevertheless, it is
an eloquent, funny, evocative work that is sure to please those who have the
taste for such things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The film takes
place within an aging movie theatre on a stormy night in Taipei.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>On screen is DRAGON INN, a classic martial
arts film of thirty years ago by the legendary King Hu.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>In the audience are a collection of people,
including two older men who are actually the actors who starred in the film on
the screen, although this is never explicitly mentioned.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The experience is about the passage of time,
aging, and the darkened world of the movie experience�and of life in
general.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The movement and silent
interactions of the people in the theatre are sad, comic commentaries on human
interaction in general�with repeated violations of spatial conventions (e.g.,
people sitting down right next to each other in a huge, nearly empty theatre;
and a scene in the men�s room that is one of the most quietly hilarious things
on film).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>At moments the men wandering
the back corridors of the theatre quite directly evoke the world of gay men
cruising.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>And, all through it, a female
employee who walks though the corridors of the building at an incredibly slow
pace, dragging her crippled leg as she goes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>While bizarrely unusual, the film is a tour de force.</p>
<p><b>THE FLOWER OF EVIL.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>(France; <b>released 10 October</b>)<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>In this, his fiftieth movie, Claude Chabrol
demonstrates the masterfully firm hand of a brilliant and experience film
maker: it is a beautifully done piece.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>In his typical style, Chabrol deftly and humorously skewers the mores of
the French provincial bourgeoisie and French political life.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The back story is that there is an accident
in which the husband in one of two couples who were friends and the wife in the
other are killed together in an accident, and their spouses subsequently marry
each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>In this story, the wife is
entering politics, and the husband hates it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>The actors are wonderful, especially the man�s son, Beno�t Magimel, who
has just returned to the family after a long sojourn in the US, and the woman�s
daughter, the very beautiful M�lanie Doutey, who, somewhat predictably, is in
love with him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Suzanne Flon, who plays
the aging Aunt Line, all but steals the show, however.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Hints of betrayal, murder, adultery, incest,
and wartime collaboration play in and out of this multi-generational family
plot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>But, in the end, it is an
engaging story, lightly told, despite all of its darkness.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span></p>
<p>CRIMSON GOLD.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>(Iran)<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The latest film by director Jafar Panahi
(whose film THE CIRCLE was a very successful entry in the last year�s NYFF) has
a screenplay written by another NYFF Iranian film maker, Abbas Kiarastomi (last
year�s TEN, and, earlier, THE WHITE BALLOON).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>It is ostensibly about a botched jewelry store robbery, but it is really
a film about the problems of Iranian society, told through the story of the
main character Hussein.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>At the story
unfolds, we learn that Hussein is a veteran of the Iraq-Iran war, a victim of
chemical warfare still acutely suffering from its debilitating effects.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>But his life also throws into high relief
Iran�s economic stagnation and inequities, the cruelty of its class
distinctions, its deadening bureaucracy, and the presence of its police state
controls.</p>
<p><u>INTERESTING, IF FLAWED:<o:p></o:p></u></p>
<p><b>21 GRAMS.</b> (Closing Night; USA; <b><span style="mso-spacerun:
yes">�</span></b>to be released <b>14 November</b> by Focus)<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>In 2002, Mexican director Alejandro Gonz�lez
I��rritu came to the NYFF with his first feature, the powerful and disturbing
AMORES PERROS, which, like this new film, was written by Guillermo Arriaga
.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>There are things about 21 GRAMS that
are very good (and it was in my opinion much better than the NYFF�s opening
night film), but there are many things that are not; and while many will find
this movie excellent, I thought it was very disappointing.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Culminating the dark mood of this Festival�s
films, 21 GRAMS is about the suffering and intolerable loss involved in death
for those who are left behind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The
portrayal of the grief, disorientation, pain, guilt, and even insanity
attendant to such traumatic loss is clearly the film�s biggest achievement�and
I��rritu�s directorial abilities in this regard are very impressive.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The acting is good:<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Sean Penn gives an outstanding
performance�playing a seriously ill academic who is soft and (for the most
part) compassionate in a way that I do not remember him ever successfully doing
before, even though he does revert to type at moments; Naomi Watts is
convincing�and beautiful (but nowhere near as versatile as she was in <i>Mulholland
Drive)</i>; and Benicio Del Toro is wonderful, as always (if you haven�t seen
it recently, go back and look at his fabulous work in <i>Fear and Loathing in
Las Vegas</i>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>But I��rritu attempts
to cover the weaknesses of the plot by cutting up and confusing the time
sequence of events in a way that only almost works; and the �positive message�
at the end (connected to the reference in the title�the �21 grams� that
supposedly represents the amount of weight the human body loses at the moment
of death) is particularly hokey and unsatisfying.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes">� </span>I would like to believe that he was aware of the pathology in
both Sean Penn�s character and that of Naomi Watts, and the craziness of their
relationship with each other, but I fear that he sees it far more romantically
than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>There are things about the
film that are gripping and successful, but overall its integrating vision leaves
much to be desired.</p>
<p><b>MYSTIC RIVER.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>(Opening Night;
USA; <b>8 October </b>by Warner Brothers)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>I am certainly going<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>to be in
the minority on this one, but I did not really like this latest film by Clint
Eastwood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>(One thing that has to be taken
into consideration here is my strong prejudice against a lot of violence in
films, although it is far from the only problems I had with this movie.)<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Billed as a �crime thriller,� MYSTIC RIVER
is set in a working-class Boston neighborhood (Chelsea?) near the Mystic River
Bridge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>It begins with a traumatic
event in the childhood of three friends, and then shifts to the ways their
lives intersect as adults around another traumatic event.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The three friends are magnificently played
by Kevin Bacon, Sean Penn, and Tim Robbins�and, in fact, the main redeeming
feature of this film is the splendid acting of virtually all members of the
cast.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The two main female roles are
similarly well acted by Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Tim Robbins turns in a particularly
spectacular performance in the midst of what is an incredibly well-acted
movie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The problem here is the story,
and the pretentiousness with which it is treated.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes">� </span>Ultimately, the plot is rather trite, melodramatic, and shallow,
while at the same time being treated as profound.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes">� </span>There are a myriad of artificially introduced coincidences and
contrived interrelationships that add an almost laughable level of
unnecessarily complex meanings to many of the plot�s turning points�while, in
the end, one of the most important occurrences is not given any meaningful
explanation at all (although it easily could have been).<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>While not the film�s fault, the worst thing
was that many commentaries about the film that called it �tragic� or, worse,
compared it to �Greek tragedy.�<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>There
is currently a terribly unfortunate tendency to confuse pathos and even
melodrama with tragedy:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>tragedy (and
particularly with the modifier �Greek�) is <i>not</i> about terrible or sad
things happening to people, but about people of great stature confronting the
meaning of life in extreme situations and with tremendous courage.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>(For those more interested in my thoughts on
this subject, see my old paper, <a
href="http://www.columbia.edu/~rr322/Tragedy.html">�Psychoanalysis and the
Tragic Sense of Life.�</a> ) There are some good moments in the film, but there
are also too many embarrassingly bad ones; and, on the whole, it does not
effectively hang together in an integrated way. [And just one
psychoanalytic observation I can�t restrain myself from making:
I�d suggest that Kevin Bacon rethink the domestic decision he makes at the end
of the movie: boy, is he making a <em>big</em> mistake!] </p>
<p>RAJA. (France)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Jacques Doillon has
produced a film that is quite interesting in moments, but disappointing in its
overall vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Fred�rique, a wealthy
Frenchman living the life of ease and luxury in Morocco, becomes fixated on a
local, young Arab woman, Raja, who comes to work in his garden.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Does Fred love Raja?<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Is Raja just using him?<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>At times it seems like a love story that is
painfully running amok because neither really can speak the other�s
language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>But Raja is a deeply damaged
person, an orphan who has suffered the harsh inequities and degradations of her
impoverished, male dominated world; and, it turns out that Fred is an even more
inadequate person�infantile and narcissistic in the extreme.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Even this could possibly have made for an
interesting (if depressing) story; but, unfortunately, it is not clear that Doillon
is fully aware of the pathology of his characters and therefore tends to treat
them�and the story�far too romantically.</p>
<p>PORNOGRAPHY.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>(�Pornografia�;
Poland)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>This film by Jakob Kolski is an
adaptation of a novel by Polish author Witold Gombrowicz, which Gombrowicz
described as �a descent into the dark limits of the conscience and body.�<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>It is set in Nazi-occupied Poland, and it is
most effective in the way it captures the feeling of that time�the darkness and
despair of the intelligentsia, the German soldiers roaming the woods shooting
people, the moral dislocation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The
texture of the cinematographic style wonderfully and effectively reflects the
darkness of the situation being portrayed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>The two main characters,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>a
writer, Witold, and his strange theatre and film director friend, Fryderyk, end
up at the country home of a third friend, Hipolit.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes">� </span>Their relationship, and Fryderyk�s weird infatuation with a young
woman seem quite involving; but, eventually, the story takes an even darker
manipulative twist that is too unpleasant to be supported successfully by the
story, and it becomes trite in a rather dreary way.</p>
<p>YOUNG ADAM. (Scotland)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>This film by
David Mackensie is a picturesque, beautifully photographed, and well-acted
work�with a particularly strong performance by Tilda Swinton, and a good, if
unappealing, performance by Ewan McGregor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>The action takes place on a barge working the canals of Scotland.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The problem resides in the fact that the
film is full of rather graphic sex�all of which is angry and destructive, at
the very minimum, and violent and sadistic, at its worst.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The result is that the film is far more
upsetting and disconcerting than it is worth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span></p>
<p><u>ONE THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN IN THE FESTIVAL IN THE FIRST<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>PLACE:<o:p></o:p></u></p>
<p>MAYOR OF SUNSET STRIP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>(USA)<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>This documentary by<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>George Hickenlooper about the �career� of
Rodney Bigenheimer�a pathetic figure from the fringes of LA�s music industry�is
a depressing and painful exploitation of a sad and dysfunctional man that
should never have been glorified by inclusion in the NYFF.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>It was a complete embarrassment.</p>
<p><u>AND ONE<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>WE SPECIFICALLY CHOSE NOT
TO SEE (and, from what I�ve heard, we made the right decision):<o:p></o:p></u></p>
<p>DOGVILLE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>(Denmark/Sweden/France)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>I have
never forgiven Las von Trier for making BREAKING THE WAVES, and I don�t think I
ever shall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Mercifully, that means we
were spared watching the three hours of this film.</p>
<p><u>SHORT FILMS<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>One of the treats of
the NYFF are the short films that often accompany the main features.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>They are sometimes wonderful, sometimes
weird.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>The following are what we found
to be the good ones:<o:p></o:p></u></p>
<p>LITTLE CLUMPS OF HAIR. (UK; 11 minutes)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">�
</span>Jim Hosking�s wonderful piece about a group of young people�s reaction
to their friend�s new moustache�and to differences in general. (How could I <i>not</i>
be partial to this one?)</p>
<p>THE SHADOWS COMPANY. (�La Compagnie des ombres�; Switzerland; 12
minutes)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>A totally marvelous piece by
Christophe Perrierabout what <i>appears</i> at first to be a prostitution
service.</p>
<p>DESTINO.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>(USA/France; 6
minutes)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Directed by Dominique Monfery,
this is the realization of a project jointly undertaken decades ago by Walt
Disney and Salvador Dali, using Dali�s original storyboards.<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>It is wonderful at moments, but at times it
is a little too clearly �Salvador Dali meets Snow White��although even the
bizarreness of that is fascinating.</p>
<p>TWINS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>(USA; 16 minutes)<span
style="mso-spacerun: yes">� </span>Martin Bell�s footage of interviews with a
series of identical twins at a �twins convention�:<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes">� </span>exploitive, but at time hilarious.</p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><img border=0 width=573 height=6
id="_x0000_i1025" src=line1.gif></p>
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