Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The films for this years New York Film Festival

They have announced the films to be shown on the main slate at the New York Film Festival. Its a sedate group of films where nothing really pops out other than the Opening Night Film (David Fincher's Social Network), the Centerpiece ( Julie Taymor's Tempest) and Closing Night Film (Clint Eastwood's Hereafter). There are a bunch of films I'm interested in depending upon the actual schedule, but nothing that I would be upset if I didn't see . Although with a number of films being released by IFC Films I know I'll get see many of them. (And while I'm at it- is IFC a programmer of the festival? I mean so many of the films the past few years seem to have been released by them.)

What I'm disappointed about is not so much the scarcity of Asian films that Grady Hendrix (NYAFF) has spoken about at Twitch Film, rather it's that that the line up is full of dramas and not much else. Yes, there are some crime dramas, biographical films and some other twists but most of the films seem to be lacking anything but a mainstream dramatic bend. There appears to be no animation, no midnight style movies, no film that seems completely out of place (other than the cannibal film which depending on the review you read maybe close to normal). It appears to be a safe line up...

...of course I'm certain that as in other years the line up will reveal many gems that we never expected, but right now the list seems bland.

In the interest of full disclosure I do have a nice set of films made up that I want to see which will depend entirely upon my wallet and the schedule. I mean something like Olivier Assayas' Carlos which runs five and a half hours, is not going to work on a school night.

As with many of the previous film festivals here in New York I will be there, as will some of my comrades in arms, so reports from the trenches will be forth coming.

No comments:

Post a Comment