at age 60, new york film festival Handsome, middle-aged, wise and energetic, with nothing to prove. The past few years have been difficult — the pandemic has been difficult for arts organizations that rely on in-person audiences — the world is changing and the arts institutions born in the It may be out of date. .
But Friday’s festival at Lincoln Center remains more or less the same and remains relevant.according to Film historian Tino BarrioAt its inception, the festival “served a cultural purpose by presenting the latest developments in international filmmaking, much of which probably would never have been publicly screened in New York.” It also “functioned as a pre-release showcase for films that had been previously acquired by lower-tier distributors. Only a small percentage of the festival’s presentations were slated for commercial release, and the box office did not do well.” Very few were successful.”
This sounds like a solemn analysis, but it’s actually a mission statement. And while a lot has changed over the decades, some of those “lower tier distributors” have been replaced by specialized departments of studios and then streaming platforms, their mission is Yes, there have been concessions to popularity, the news media, the Oscar race, and special screenings of commercially coveted releases, but the festival remains a self-assured claim that cinema is art. It is based on.
In 1963, that may sound like a pretty radical proposition, but it’s still one that needs to be defended against snob pseudo-populist accusations. Thing. what kind of art? for whom? For what?
As it happens, some of this year’s selections are less about movies, and more obsessed with these questions in the more tenuous world of classical music and visual arts. “Tar” by Todd Field And Kelly Reichardt’s “Showing Up” is miles apart in mood and setting—fury in Berlin. Ennui, Oregon — But when viewed in the kind of serendipitous juxtaposition that film festivals invite, they seem like two sides of a coin.
Each is a portrait of an artist in a period of existential crisis. In “Tár,” Cate Blanchett plays a world-famous conductor caught in her own #MeToo drama. Rather than recycle the banal question of whether it is possible to separate the artist from the art, modern celebrity culture and the orchestral tradition of maestro-worship make it impossible. Passion, creative ambition, and predatory wielding of power.
Finding stinging drama and ironic comedy in a struggle to do something, “Showing Up” seems to lack all of that. If Blanchett’s Lydia Tarr is larger than life, Michelle Williams’ Lizzie Carr certainly has a rhyming name that’s a coincidence. Her life is shrinking before her eyes. Lizzie, a potter who works at an art school, finds herself quietly overwhelmed by other people’s demands for her time and care. Everything seems to be conspiring against her desire to do her important work for her.
Lydia swans through sophisticated and elegant spaces (including Lincoln Center), enveloped in the generosity and fame of her philanthropic efforts. Lizzie traverses a sleeker, more bohemian outpost of the same non-profit cultural system. Both “Tár” and “Showing Up” pay attention to material conditions (financial arrangements) that allow the protagonist to devote himself to creating value that cannot be measured in money.
I stick with these films because they represent the festival in two ways. And as a snapshot of the sociological universe it inhabits. It does not provide an overview of cinema as an art form, but rather a catalog of what aspirational, established, and comfortably underwritten institutions define as art.
I don’t mean to sound cynical, nor do I recognize my own role in this system. You have to think about the market itself.
The festival opens with ‘White Noise’, Noah Baumbach’s faithful and energetic adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel. It’s a fascinating film and, in some ways, a starting point for Baumbach, working on a larger scale than before and having more resources at his disposal. It’s a thicket of heavy contemporary themes—fear, the nature of time—embedded in sharp campus satire. Baumbach considers all of that while finding his suite his spot in emotional observation and half-sour domestic comedy. Marriage is at the heart of the film, with Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig as the heads of a busy household.
We’ll have more to say about “White Noise” when it hits Netflix around Christmas. For now, it’s a very modern product, and note how it feels like a throwback to old ways. Not only because it’s a period film set, but also because it reminds us of a nearly extinct breed of studio filmmaking: a big picture based on a big book with big ambitions and big stars. What we call Netflix movies today.
Is it a sign of hope or a harbinger of doom that the opening night feature of this venerable film festival is destined to stream? This isn’t the first time Netflix has opened New York. Either way, algorithms are the place for movies these days. That fact makes the festival more valuable and narrower as watching movies other than blockbusters becomes an increasingly professional pursuit.
An obvious shift that has taken place since 1963 is that, thanks to streaming, a larger audience for festival films is possible, at least in theory. So New Yorkers are lucky, and those who get festival tickets are very lucky.
They’ll have the chance to see Albert Serra’s post-colonial fantasia, The Pacification, in all its ludicrous, languid widescreen glory.And for a taste of opera’s decadence and anachronistic wit “Corsage” by Marie Kreutzer Vicky Kriebs played Empress Elisabeth of Austria. Extravagant, sprawling movies like “Tár,” “White Noise,” and Claire Denis’ sweaty “Stars at Noon” look better on the big screen.
And for that matter, intimate, smaller stories like “Showing Up.”and Charlotte Wells “After Sun” A father-daughter story that stood out at Cannes and Telluride, Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, a restrained and at the same time explosive courtroom drama, The Master Gardener, and Paul Schrader’s story of a man in moral turmoil. The latest portrait, Joel Edgerton, is a gardener on the run from the past.
And, and, and…At its best, the New York Film Festival is selective and rich, gathering diverse films to support its central thesis. They are important for reasons that they may or may not. There is no discussion here.
The New York Film Festival runs from Friday through October 16th. For more information, filmlinc.org.