Agnes Varda sadly passed away earlier this year at age 90, and this year’s New York Festival is not only dedicated to her but includes one of her films in the main slate. “Varda By Agnes” represents something few artists are lucky enough to have – the last word on one’s own career. Cobbled together from personal lectures, clips from her films, and some new material, “Varda By Agnes” summarizes the filmmaker’s sixty-plus years making art and reflects on her ideas and experiences in a playful, engaging manner.

Continue reading ‘Varda By Agnes’: A Charming Reflection On Life And Art [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” is one of the most emotionally wrenching movies of the year—or, frankly, any recent year. So it comes as something of a shock to hear that when Baumbach conceptualized what our own Rodrigo Perez dubbed a “full-bodied and red-blooded story of marital collapse,” he was thinking of his story in far rosier terms. “I was thinking about writing and making a love story,” he explained at Friday’s press conference following the film’s press and industry screening for the New York Film Festival, where it is the Centerpiece selection.

Continue reading Noah Baumbach And The ‘Marriage Story’ Cast On Collaboration, Singing Sondheim, And Making An Unlikely Love Story [NYFF] at The Playlist.

In his third feature, “Synonyms,” Israeli writer-director Nadav Lapid proves he has a fascination with people who take things too far, whether extremists, romantics, or some inextricable mesh of the two. His first film, “Policeman” follows anti-terrorist agents and the young radicals they clash with. His second, “The Kindergarten Teacher”—remade in English with Maggie Gyllenhaal in the titular role—traces the life of a poetry-obsessed elementary school teacher who finds deranged hope in an unlikely prodigy.

Continue reading ‘Synonyms’: Nadav Lapid Makes A Sensational Statement About Identity & Nationality With Furious & Chaotic Energy [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

Oliver Laxe’s new film “Fire Will Come” has a fitting and powerful title. It’s both an immutable truth in certain regions and a portent of things to come, depending on the speaker it could read as wisdom or a threat. Laxe’s film uses a dreamy minimalism to explore that most fundamental conflict of man versus nature, but also the tensions of a man struggling against his own nature.

Continue reading ‘Fire Will Come’: Oliver Laxe’s Latest Is A Mesmerizing Meditation On Man And Nature [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

As Spain’s Pedro Almodóvar continues making the festival circuit rounds for his new film “Dolor y Gloria” – “Pain & Glory” – he spent an evening at the New York Film Festival with Kent Jones, the festival’s director, to discuss some of the cinematic influences that make up the thematic infrastructure of his new Oscar contender.

Over the course of the roughly 50-minute conversation, which can be viewed in full below, Almodóvar and Jones touch on a handful of films that encompass not only various styles but also different countries and perspective—including Roberto Rossellini’s “Journey to Italy” and Joseph Mankiewicz’s “All About Eve.”

READ MORE: Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Pain and Glory’ Is A Beautiful Celebration Of Filmmaking & Love [Cannes Review]

Almodóvar’s career is peppered with works centered on female protagonists in which he explores their relationships—a characteristic that the writer-director suggested can be attributed to his homeland, where there are “many more great actresses than actors.”

The inspiration is rooted in an even more personal place for Almodóvar, however—his own home life.

Continue reading Pedro Almodóvar Connects Childhood Experiences With Career Inspirations In 50-Minute NYFF Conversation at The Playlist.

Bertrand Bonello’s most famous film, “House of Tolerance,” showed his affinity for collapsing the supposed distance between the past and present, proving to his audience we haven’t changed as much as we’d like to think. His last film, the controversial “Nocturama,” a fantasia of terrorism and capitalism intertwined, proved he was unafraid to explore hot button issues using both genre techniques and art film bravado.

Continue reading ‘Zombi Child’: Bertrand Bonello Stylishly Unearths The Colonialist Tensions Of The Zombie Mythos [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

Every year, at the New York Film Festival, the event’s director Kent Jones sits down with a filmmaker, for the On Cinema conversation, to discuss the important movies that influence them. And this year, Jones had legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese join him to feature four films that stand out as important works to the director.

Scorsese, of course, is attending NYFF this year to help debut his new film “The Irishman,” but you would be hard-pressed to find a mafia drama among the projects that the filmmaker wanted to discuss.

Continue reading Martin Scorsese Talks ‘Hereditary,’ Joanna Hogg’s ‘Archipelago’ & More In 40-Minute NYFF Talk at The Playlist.

If Manfred Kirchheimer’s latest documentary “Free Time” could summarize itself into a single statement, it would be that there is power in silence. Not a single word of dialogue is spoken in “Free Time,” and yet, this 60-minute exploration of New York City speaks louder than most films, documentary or otherwise, released in 2019 so far.

For those unfamiliar with the director and his work, Kirchheimer’s 60-year career fundamentally consists of nonfictional, documentarian love letters to the sprawling urban landscape of New York City; his prior works include “We Were So Beloved,” which captures the experiences of European immigrants who crossed the Atlantic in response to Nazi occupation, and the political-art-inspired “Art Is…The Permanent Revolution.”

Created from collections of black-and-white 16mm footage shot my Kirchheimer and Walter Hess from 1958 to 1960, “Free Time” is a plotless examination of urbanites living day-to-day in a bygone era of New York City.

Continue reading ‘Free Time’ Paints A Beautiful Portrait Of Youth, Decay, And Solitude In New York City [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

Perhaps no director better portrays the passage of time than Martin Scorsese, who has set films in five different centuries and usually tells stories that span decades, not days.  So when his latest film, “The Irishman”— another mobster drama, but this time with more spiritual depth— starts with a burst of nostalgic ’50s music, the audience is prepared to be transported to the past. Instead, the camera moves back to reveal the setting is the present day in a nursing home—and not a particularly nice one— where Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) sits alone, trapped in the past, with only memories and guilt to keep him company.

Continue reading ‘The Irishman’: Martin Scorsese Crafts A New Gangster Epic, With A Deeper Sense Of Soul & Morality [NYFF Review] at The Playlist.

It happened, people! Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited crime film “The Irishman” has finally been seen by real people at the New York Film Festival. And as you might expect, even though reviews won’t hit until later this evening, social media is abuzz with take after take from people who have witnessed the 209-minute epic.

Overall, it appears that there are a few people saying the film is a masterpiece (which is par for the course, when it comes to these Twitter hot takes), but by and large, most feel that the film is good, perhaps great, but not on par with the director’s own previous mafia films.

Continue reading ‘The Irishman’ First Reactions Are Here As Scorsese’s Latest Is Hailed As “Terrific” & “A Masterwork” at The Playlist.

As film fans, there aren’t very many times in the year that is as exciting as the fall film festival season. With Venice, TIFF, Telluride, Fantastic Fest, and others clogging our schedules, some of the year’s best films are getting center stage, drawing interest and acclaim from fans all around the world. Firmly in the center of the season is the New York Film Festival. And according to that event’s director, Kent Jones, there’s a reason why film festivals have become such events, and it’s partly because of Netflix and Amazon.

Continue reading NYFF Director Says The Only Way To Help Smaller Films Get Theatrical Releases Is To “Go To Cinemas More” at The Playlist.

If you’re anything like us, you’ve worked every waking weekend straight since Labor Day thanks to the Venice Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, Fantastic Fest and the Emmys. So it’s without any murderous feelings that we absolutely cannot wait for the upcoming New York Film Festival which, unlike most film festivals, runs over the course of three weekends, not one, this year, running from September 27-October 13.

Continue reading 2019 New York Film Festival Preview: The 12 Most Anticipated Films at The Playlist.

Even with the stacked lineup at this year’s New York Film Festival (I mean, who isn’t excited about “The Irishman?”), one of the most highly-anticipated screenings is “The Cotton Club Encore.” The restoration/re-edit of the 1984 Francis Ford Coppola film is one of the highlights of this year’s NYFF, but thanks to Lionsgate, even if you don’t attend the event, you’ll still get a chance to see what the director calls the “best version” of his period drama.

Continue reading Francis Ford Coppola’s Extended Cut Of ‘The Cotton Club’ To Get A Theatrical Release In October at The Playlist.

A world premiere screening at the Venice Film Festival is supposed to be an incredible experience for any filmmaker. However, in the case of acclaimed director Olivier Assayas, the recent debut of his film, “Wasp Network,” wasn’t exactly what he had planned. And according to a new interview with Deadline, the filmmaker is prepared to make the necessary changes to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

According to Assayas, he’s going to take “Wasp Network” back to the editing bay after initial reviews from Venice weren’t exactly what he anticipated.

Continue reading Filmmaker Olivier Assayas Is Re-Editing ‘Wasp Network’ After Unfavorable Venice Reviews at The Playlist.

This year’s New York Film Festival is packed with screenings of some of the year’s best films. But the event, which is brought to you by the Film at Lincoln Center, isn’t just known for its screenings. Instead, each year, NYFF brings some of the best discussions, Q&As, and masterclasses that you’ll find anywhere in the world. And in 2019, that’s no different.

Today, NYFF announced it’s lineup of short films, special screenings, and discussions for 2019.

Continue reading NYFF 2019: Film At Lincoln Center To Feature ‘Joker’ Screening/Q&A, Olivier Assayas Masterclass, Talks With Coppola, Scorsese & Almodóvar, Plus More at The Playlist.

When you bring up this year’s New York Film Festival, obviously the headline is the fact that Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” is opening the event. But when you move past that incredible news, you see that the 57th annual NYFF is set up to be one of the premier film fests of 2019, and that includes today’s announcement of the Spotlight on Documentary lineup.

Continue reading NYFF Spotlight On Documentary: New Films By Tim Robbins, Michael Apted, Nick Broomfield & More at The Playlist.

It’s been almost 20 years since actor Edward Norton stepped behind the camera for his directorial debut, “Keeping the Faith.” Since then, he’s gone on to continue his great acting roles (even popping up in a Marvel movie), but has yet to flex those directing muscles again. However, that’s going to change this fall with the upcoming film “Motherless Brooklyn.” And if you’re lucky enough to be attending this year’s New York Film Festival, Norton’s latest film has been selected as the prestigious event’s closing film.

Continue reading NYFF Selects Edward Norton’s ‘Motherless Brooklyn’ As The Festival’s Closing Night Film at The Playlist.

This year’s New York Film Festival has already done an incredible job of standing out among the wealth of fall events thanks to the announcement yesterday that Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” will have its world premiere on the festival’s opening night. And now, NYFF has announced its Centerpiece selection, and it’s another premiere that film fans are likely going to be excited about.

READ MORE: Noah Baumbach Cites Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Persona’ As Inspiration For ‘Marriage Story’ As More Images Are Released

Today, NYFF announced that Noah Baumbach’s highly-anticipated “Marriage Story” will be making its NY premiere at the prestigious event on October 4.

Continue reading Noah Baumbach’s ‘Marriage Story’ Selected As NYFF Centerpiece Film at The Playlist.