Not just content to look back at a great 50 years, the New York Film Festival is looking to make its mark today with world premieres booked for the opning and closing nights. A 3D film will open for the first time in the festival's history. The main slate lineup is bursting with foreign fare comprising the best of the festival circuit, with Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner 'Amour' starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva among the many to decamp from the French Riviera to the Eastern Seaboard. Other films of note making the transatlantic pilgrimage include 'Beyond the Hills' (După Dealuri), by Romanian Cristian Mungiu and French film 'Camille Rewinds' (Camille redouble), directed by Noemie Lvovsky.

 Still from 'Cesare Must Die'

The Berlinale Golden Bear winner 'Caesar Must Die' (Cesare deve morire) directed by Paolo Taviani & Vittorio Taviani will compete with the likes of Miguel Gomes' 'Tabu' and  Christian Petzold's 'Barbara'.

 Christian Petzold's 'Barbara'

As part of the Festival's 'Masterworks' section which allows a platform for the restaging of some of Cinema's most important works; an 8k digital restoration of David Lean's epic 'Lawrence of Arabia' and  David Hand's seminal 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), will be screened'.

 Peter O'Toole and Anthony Quinn in 'Lawrence of Arabia'

Also featuring is a showing of Rob Reiner's 'The Princess Bride' (1987), with Reiner and cast members available for a candid talk about the making of the film that surprised everyone by becoming a modern classic. Nicole Kidman will be honoured at the Gala event while the film 'The Paperboy' in which she stars with Zac Efron and Mathew McConaughey will be screened.

 Still from 'TABU'

Opening the festival will be Ang Lee's interpretation of the 'Life of Pi', which is based on Yann Martel's Man Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name and will be the first 3D feature to open the festival. The film has bee described as " a perfect combination of technological innovation and a strong artistic vision".

 Ang Lee's 'The Life of Pi'

Robert Zemeckis' 'Flight' will close the 50th NYFF on Sunday, October 14 and stars Denzel Washington as a pilot who saves his passengers after a miraculous crash landing. Not your usual run-of-the-mill action flick, Zemeckis has created an edge-of-the-seat examination of one man's voyage of self-discovery. Similar territory to his last big-screen work 'Cast Away' almost 12 years ago.

 Still from David Chase's 'Not Fade Away'

The Festival centrepiece is David Chase's 'Not Fade Away', it is the big screen debut for the seven-time Emmy-winning writer and director. Best known for bringing us 'The Sopranos', the series that turned TV on it's head and sparked the current gold rush of artistically masterful television series. This time he teams up with James Gandolfini and gifted newcomer John Magaro. The film charts the journey of a group on New Jersery kids trying to escape suburban mundanity by forming a rock and roll band. Negotiating the constantly shifting social mores of the decade as well as the pitfalls of adolesence it is 'Mad Men' seen from the other side of the social spectrum.

The New York FIlm Festival main slate is as follows, to view all trailers click on the film title:

Amour (Michael Haneke, Austria/France/Germany)

Araf—Somewhere In Between (Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Turkey/France/Germany)

Barbara (Christian Petzold, Germany)

Beyond the Hills/După dealuri (Cristian Mungiu, Romania)

Bwakaw (Jun Robles Lana, The Philippines)

Camille Rewinds/Camille Redouble (Noémie Lvovsky, France)

Caesar Must Die/Cesare deve morire (Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani, Italy)

Fill the Void/Lemale et ha'chalal (Rama Burshtein, Israel)

First Cousin Once Removed (Alan Berliner, USA)

Flight (Robert Zemeckis, USA)

Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, USA)

The Gatekeepers/Shomerei Ha’saf (Dror Moreh, Israel/France/Germany/Belgium)

Ginger and Rosa (Sally Potter, UK)

Here and There/Aquí y Allá (Antonio Méndez Esparza, Spain/US/Mexico)

Holy Motors (Léos Carax, France)

Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, USA/UK)

Kinshasa Kids (Marc-Henri Wajnberg, Belgium/France)

The Last Time I Saw Macao/A Última Vez Que Vi Macau (João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rui Guerra da Mata) 

Leviathan (Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel, USA)

Life of Pi (Ang Lee, USA)

Like Someone in Love (Abbas Kiarostami, Japan/Iran/France)

Lines of Wellington/Linhas de Wellington (Valeria Sarmiento, France/Portugal)

Memories Look at Me/Ji Yi Wang Zhe Wo (Song Fang, China)

Night Across the Street/La Noche de enfrente (Raul Ruiz, Chile/France)

No (Pablo Larrain, Chile/USA)

Not Fade Away (David Chase, USA)

Our Children/À perdre la raison (Joachim Lafosse, Belgium)

Passion (Brian de Palma, France/Germany)

Something in the Air/Après Mai (Olivier Assayas, France)

Tabu (Miguel Gomes, Portugal)

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet/Vous n'avez encore rien vu (Alain Resnais, France)

 

By Hugo Mc Caferty

Credits: Film Society Lincoln Center

Photo credits: copyright @ film's studio and title owners