Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying opens the fifty-fifth New York Film Festival this week
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, Bruno Walter Auditorium, Alice Tully Hall
West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
September 28 – October 14
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.org/nyff2017
The New York Film Festival turns fifty-five this year, with another powerful lineup of shorts, features, documentaries, animation, and more from around the world, with Richard Linklater’s road movie, Last Flag Flying, kicking it all off on September 28. The centerpiece selection is Todd Haynes’s Wonderstruck, based on a YA novel by Brian Selznick, with Woody Allen’s Coney Island-set Wonder Wheel closing things out on October 14. Divided into Main Slate, Convergence, Projections, Talks, Retrospectives, Revivals, Shorts, and Spotlight on Documentary, this year’s lineup also features works by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Arnaud Desplechin, Agnès Varda and JR, Greta Gerwig, Claire Denis, Noah Baumbach, Aki Kaurismäki, Agnieszka Holland, Claude Lanzmann, Rebecca Miller, Griffin Dunne, Abel Ferrara, and Hong Sang-soo, most of whom will be on hand for Q&As following select screenings. There’s also a twenty-four-film salute to Robert Mitchum celebrating the centennial of his birth; revivals of works by Jean Vigo, Jean-Luc Godard, Hou Hsiao-hsien, James Whale, Philippe Garrel, Jean Renoir, Jean-Pierre Melville, and others; experimental films by Xu Bing, Luke Fowler, Kevin Jerome Everson, Barbara Hammer, and more; immersive and interactive experiences; and panel discussions and dialogues. Below is a list of at least one highlight per day for which tickets are still available or the event is free; keep checking twi-ny for reviews and further information.
Thursday, September 28
Last Flag Flying (Richard Linklater, 2017), introduced by Richard Linklater, Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne, J. Quinton Johnson, and Darryl Ponicsan, Alice Tully Hall, $100, 6:00
Friday, September 29
Convergence, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, free, 3:00 – 6:00 (also 9/30 and 10/1, 12 noon – 6:00)
Saturday, September 30
On Cinema: With Richard Linklater, moderated by Kent Jones, Walter Reade Theater, $25, 6:00
Spoor (Agnieszka Holland, in cooperation with Kasia Adamik, 2017), followed by a Q&A with Agnieszka Holland and Kasia Adamik, Alice Tully Hall, $25, 9:00
Sunday, October 1
HBO Directors Dialogues: Lucrecia Martel, Howard Gilman Theater, free, 3:00
Film Comment Live: The Cinema of Experience, amphitheater, free, 7:00
Woody Allen’s Wonder Wheel closes the fifty-fifth New York Film Festival
Monday, October 2
HBO Directors Dialogues: Agnès Varda & JR, Francesca Beale Theater, free, 6:00
Zama (Lucrecia Martel, 2017), followed by a Q&A with Lucrecia Martel, Alice Tully Hall, $25, 6:00
Tuesday, October 3
L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934), Howard Gilman Theater, $15, 3:45
Wednesday, October 4
Film Comment Presents: A Gentle Creature (Sergei Loznitsa, 2017), Walter Reade Theater, $25, 6:00
Thursday, October 5
A Story from Chikamatsu (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954), Francesca Beale Theater, $15, 3:30
Friday, October 6
Spielberg (Susan Lacy, 2017), introduced by Jessica Levin and Emma Pildes, Walter Reade Theater, $25, 8:45
Saturday, October 7
Claude Lanzmann’s Four Sisters: The Hippocratic Oath (Claude Lanzmann, 2017), introduced by Claude Lanzmann, Alice Tully Hall, $25, 1:00
Good Luck (Ben Russell, 2017), followed by a Q&A with Ben Russell, Francesca Beale Theater, $15, 6:15
Sunday, October 8
Projections Program 5: Urban Rhapsodies, followed by a Q&A with Ayo Akingbade, Fern Silva, Ephraim Asili, and Michael Robinson, Francesca Beale Theater, $15, 12 noon
Let the Sun Shine In (Claire Denis, 2017), followed by a Q&A with Claire Denis, Alice Tully Hall, $25, 3:30
Monday, October 9
HBO Directors Dialogues: Hong Sang-soo, amphitheater, free, 7:00
Tuesday, October 10
HBO Directors Dialogues: Philippe Garrel, amphitheater, free, 8:00
Wednesday, October 11
Master Class: Vittorio Storaro and Ed Lachman, moderated by Kent Jones, Walter Reade Theater, $25, 6:15
Thursday, October 12
Hallelujah the Hills (Adolfas Mekas, 1963), introduced by Jonas Mekas, Howard Gilman Theater, $15, 6:00
Lucía (Humberto Solás 1968), Howard Gilman Theater, $15, 8:00
Friday, October 13
Ismael’s Ghosts (Arnaud Desplechin, 2017), Director’s Cut, followed by a Q&A with Arnaud Desplechin, Alice Tully Hall, $25, 6:00
Saturday, October 14
Farewell, My Lovely (Dick Richards, 1975), introduced by Robert Mitchum’s daughter, Petrine Mitchum, Howard Gilman Theater, $15, 1:30
If you didn’t know any better, you might think that Elvia Lund’s extraordinary Bobbi Jene was a fiction film. Danish director and cinematographer Lund, editor Adam Nielsen, and composer Uno Helmersson have employed narrative story techniques in crafting a bold and intimate tale about fear and desire, romance and ambition. But Bobbi Jene is actually a deeply personal documentary about a woman turning thirty and taking stock of her life. “I want to get to that place where I have no strength to hide anything,” Iowa native Bobbi Jene Smith says, and that is evident from the brief opening scene of Bobbi dancing naked and alone. When she was twenty-one, Bobbi moved to Israel to become a member of the world-renowned Batsheva Dance Company, led by choreographer Ohad Naharin, developer of the unique Gaga movement language. (I’ve seen her dance several times with Batsheva and have been touched and impressed by her abilities.) Now that she’s nearly thirty, Bobbi has decided to go back to America and create pieces herself, which she tells Naharin, with whom she had a relationship. “I love being in the company. I love dancing for you,” she says during their talk at a busy café. “I just feel it’s time for me to go make my own work.” Naharin carefully responds, “So it’s painful, but it’s probably also what you need.” Bobbi is not only leaving the troupe but her boyfriend, twenty-year-old company dancer Or Schraiber, who loves her but does not want to leave Tel Aviv. We see her struggling with her decision, trying to convince herself that she can both make a career in the States while also maintaining a long-distance relationship with Or. Once back in America, Bobbi concentrates on her durational solo piece A Study on Effort, a raw, intense work that combines power with vulnerability as she explores pleasure and pain. As she prepares to perform the piece at the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem, all the different parts of her life threaten to overwhelm her.
After her lover, Paul (Damien Bonnard), hangs himself, Gina (Lindsay Burdge), a rather dim flight attendant, hooks up with Jérôme (Bonnard again), a bartender at a strip club. But what is a one-night stand for Jérôme turns into a dangerous obsession for Gina in Nathan Silver’s Thirst Street, a dark comedy that is neither dark nor funny. The problem is that until a rousing finale, Gina and Jérôme are not sympathetic characters that the audience will care about in the slightest. It doesn’t appear that it’s the suicide that drives Gina nuts; she’s already a dull, uninteresting person before that, and Jérôme is not exactly someone you can get behind either. Silver has said that Gina was inspired by Don Quixote, but she’s more of a disappointing combination of the protagonists from Aki Kaurismäki’s Match Factory Girl, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie, and Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction as seen through the lens of Brian De Palma and Wes Anderson (especially when it comes to Anjelica Huston’s narration). Burdge (The Midnight Swim, A Teacher) turns in a brave performance, and Esther Garrel is terrific as punk rocker Clémence, Jérôme’s former flame, but the rest of the cast fails to ignite, despite boasting such actors as Jacques Nolot as nightclub owner Franz and Françoise Lebrun as Gina’s landlady. (Silver also once again casts his mother, Cindy, this time as one of Gina’s fellow flight attendants; let’s just say she doesn’t do him any favors with her acting ability.) Silver (Uncertain Terms, Stinking Heaven) never quite grasps what the film should be, resulting in a confusing mess of multiple genres that merely brushes the surface of his tongue-in-cheek (or is it?) narrative. Thirst Street opens September 20 at the Quad, with Silver and Burdge participating in Q&As following the 6:55 screenings on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night. 
