{"id":66504,"date":"2013-08-19T12:28:39","date_gmt":"2013-08-19T12:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/0de2709a84.nxcli.net\/0-kjasnb\/2013\/08\/19\/american-promise-among-main-selections-for-51st-new-york-film-festival\/"},"modified":"2018-12-18T09:05:46","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T09:05:46","slug":"american-promise-among-main-selections-for-51st-new-york-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/american-promise-among-main-selections-for-51st-new-york-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"American Promise among main selections for 51st New York Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

American Promise among main selections for 51st New York Film Festival<\/strong>Posted by Wilson Morales<\/p>\n

August 19, 2013<\/p>\n

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The Film Society of Lincoln Center<\/strong> announced today the 35 films that will comprise the main slate of official selections for the 51st New York Film Festival<\/strong> (September 27-October 13) including such notable directors as Catherine Breillat, J.C. Chandor, Joel & Ethan Coen, Richard Curtis, Claire Denis, Arnaud Desplechin, Ralph Fiennes, James Franco, James Gray, Jim Jarmusch, Claude Lanzmann, Alexander Payne, Hong Sang-soo, Frederick Wiseman<\/strong> and Jia Zhangke<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

NYFF\u2019s Director of Programming and Selection Committee Chair, Kent Jones said, \u201cCinema is a vast terrain with a complex ecology, encompassing a mindbending array of species and habitats \u2013 there are multiple approaches to the question \u2018What is a movie,\u2019 from the industrial to the hand-made, from the carefully written to the poetically assembled. I love the level of diversity in the main slate selections, which includes documentaries, biographies, comedies, adventures, epics, chamber pieces, elegies, explorations and affirmations. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Award winners from past festivals presented for the first time to New York audiences include; Abdellatif Kechiche\u2019s BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR, the winner of the 2013 Cannes Palme d\u2019Or (which in a first, was awarded to both of its lead actresses, Ad\u00e8le Exarchopoulos and L\u00e9a Seydoux, as well as the director); Joel and Ethan Coen\u2019s INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, which won the festival\u2019s Grand Prix Award; Jia Zhangke\u2019s A TOUCH OF SIN, winner for Best Screenplay; Rithy Panh\u2019s THE MISSING PICTURE, winner of the Certain Regard Prize and Hany Abu-Assad\u2019s OMAR, which won the Certain Regard Jury Prize; and Alexander Payne\u2019s NEBRASKA, which features Cannes Best Actor winner Bruce Dern. Additional award winners were Joe Brewster and Mich\u00e8le Stephenson\u2019s AMERICAN PROMISE, which won a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award at this year\u2019s Sundance Film Festival, and Sebasti\u00e1n Lelio\u2019s GLORIA, whose star Pauline Garcia took home the Berlin Film Festival\u2019s Silver Bear for Best Actress.<\/p>\n

American and British comedies are a significant presence in this year\u2019s lineup of of main slate official selections with Richard Curtis\u2019s ABOUT TIME, a romantic comedy about a family whose men have the ability to travel in time, starring Bill Nighy and Rachel McAdams; Declan Lowney\u2019s ALAN PARTRIDGE, which brings Steve Coogan\u2019s legendary television character to the big screen for the first time; Roger Michell\u2019s LE WEEK-END, featuring Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan as a couple visiting Paris with hopes of rekindling their relationship; and Alexander Payne\u2019s NEBRASKA, about a father and son (Bruce Dern and Will Forte) on a road trip to pick up a million dollar prize that may or may not await them; and the previously announced Centerpiece and Closing Night Gala selections, Ben Stiller\u2019s THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY and Spike Jonze\u2019s HER.<\/p>\n

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Documentary filmmaking legends Claude Lanzmann and Frederick Wiseman each make their third appearances in NYFF\u2019s main slate. Lanzmann returns with THE LAST OF THE UNJUST, a portrait of Benjamin Murmelstein, the last Jewish elder of Theresienstadt, once despised by many of its surviving inhabitants. Wiseman turns his camera toward the University of California, Berkeley, with his latest film, AT BERKELEY.<\/p>\n

Rose Kuo, the Executive Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said, \u201cThe Film Society’s commitment to presenting the significant films of the year each fall at the New York Film Festival continues with our latest edition. This year we welcome a record number of over a dozen returning veterans along with a number of new voices. It has been an interesting year for cinema with spirited discussions already underway about some of the films in our curated main slate selections. I’m sure that New York audiences will be excited, maybe sometimes even provoked, but hopefully also inspired by this year’s new work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Filmmakers returning to the NYFF who have had multiple films selected in the main slate in past editions include:<\/p>\n

Catherine Breillat (36 FILLETTE, NYFF 1988; FAT GIRL, NYFF 2000; THE LAST MISTRESS, NYFF 2007; and BLUEBEARD, NYFF 2009) with ABUSE IS WEAKNESS<\/p>\n

Ethan and Joel Coen (BLOOD SIMPLE, NYFF 1984, MILLER\u2019S CROSSING, NYFF 1990 and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, NYFF 2007) with INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS<\/p>\n

Claire Denis (BEAU TRAVAIL, NYFF 1999; FRIDAY NIGHT, NYFF 2002; and WHITE MATERIAL, NYFF 2009) with BASTARDS<\/p>\n

Arnaud Desplechin (LA SENTINELLE, NYFF 1992; MY SEX LIFE\u2026OR HOW I GOT INTO AN ARGUMENT, NYFF 1996; KINGS AND QUEENS, NYFF 2004; and A CHRISTMAS TALE, NYFF 2008) with JIMMY P: PSYCHOTHERAPY OF A PLAINS INDIAN<\/p>\n

Agnieszka Holland (ANGRY HARVEST, NYFF 1985; OLIVIER OLIVIER, NYFF 1992; and WASHINGTON SQUARE, NYFF 1997); with BURNING BUSH<\/p>\n

Jim Jarmusch (STRANGER THAN PARADISE, NYFF 1984; DOWN BY LAW, NYFF 1986; MYSTERY TRAIN, NYFF 1989; and NIGHT ON EARTH, NYFF 1991) with ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE<\/p>\n

Alexander Payne (ABOUT SCHMIDT, NYFF 2002; SIDEWAYS, NYFF 2004; and THE DESCENDANTS, NYFF 2011) with NEBRASKA<\/p>\n

Hong Sang-soo (TURNING GATE, NYFF 2002; WOMAN IS THE FUTURE OF MAN, NYFF 2004; TALE OF CINEMA, NYFF 2005; WOMAN ON THE BEACH, NYFF 2006; NIGHT AND DAY, NYFF 2008; and OKI\u2019S MOVIE, NYFF 2010) with NOBODY\u2019S DAUGHTER HAEWON<\/p>\n

Frederick Wiseman (NEAR DEATH, NYFF 1989, PUBLIC HOUSING, NYFF 1997, BOXING GYM, NYFF 2010 and CRAZY HORSE, NYFF 2011) with AT BERKELEY<\/p>\n

Jia Zhangke (PLATFORM, NYFF 2000; UNKNOWN PLEASURES, NYFF 2002; THE WORLD, NYFF 2004; USELESS, NYFF 2007; and 24 CITY, NYFF 2008) with A TOUCH OF SIN<\/p>\n

Rounding out the list of returning NYFF main slate alumni are; Hany Abu-Assad (PARADISE NOW, NYFF 2005) with OMAR; French filmmakers Philippe Garrel (THE INNER SCAR, NYFF 1972 and REGULAR LOVERS, NYFF 2005) with JEALOUSY; and Alain Guiraudie (THAT OLD DREAM THAT MOVES, NYFF 2002) with STRANGER BY THE LAKE; the directors of the Opening Night and Closing Night Gala selections Paul Greengrass (BLOODY SUNDAY, NYFF 2002) with CAPTAIN PHILLIPS; and Spike Jonze (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, NYFF 1999) with HER; and Cannes award winner Abdellatif Kechiche (BLACK VENUS, NYFF 2010) with BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR.<\/p>\n

Other returnees include Hayao Miyazaki (PRINCESS MONONOKE, NYFF 1997) with THE WIND RISES; Tsai Ming-liang (WHAT TIME IS IT THERE?, NYFF 2001 and GOOD BYE, DRAGON INN, NYFF 2003) with STRAY DOGS; documentarian Claude Lanzmann (ISRAEL, WHY, NYFF 1973 and SOBIBOR, OCTOBER 14, 1943, 4PM, NYFF 2001) with THE LAST OF THE UNJUST; Romanian filmmaker Corneliu Porumboiu (POLICE, ADJECTIVE, NYFF 2009) with WHEN EVENING FALLS ON BUCHAREST OR METABOLISM; and Roger Michell, who returns to the New York Film Festival just one year after screening his film HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (NYFF 2012) with LE WEEK-END.<\/p>\n

Additional gala and special events, documentary sections, spotlights on emerging filmmakers, and panels will be announced in subsequent days and weeks as well as NYFF\u2019s Views From the Avant-Garde and Convergence programs.<\/p>\n

The 51st New York Film Festival main-slate<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opening Night Gala Selection<\/em><\/strong>
\nCAPTAIN PHILLIPS<\/strong>
\nDirector: Paul Greengrass<\/p>\n

Centerpiece Gala Selection<\/em><\/strong>
\nTHE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY<\/strong>
\nDirector: Ben Stiller<\/p>\n

Closing Night Gala Selection<\/em><\/strong>
\nHER<\/strong>
\nDirector: Spike Jonze<\/p>\n

ABOUT TIME <\/strong>
\nDirector: Richard Curtis<\/p>\n

ABUSE OF WEAKNESS (Abus de faiblesse) <\/strong>
\nDirector: Catherine Breillat<\/p>\n

ALAN PARTRIDGE <\/strong>
\nDirector: Declan Lowney<\/p>\n

ALL IS LOST <\/strong>
\nDirector: J.C. Chandor<\/p>\n

AMERICAN PROMISE<\/strong>
\nDirectors: Joe Brewster and Mich\u00e8le Stephenson<\/p>\n

AT BERKELEY <\/strong>
\nDirector: Frederick Wiseman<\/p>\n

BASTARDS (Les Salauds)<\/strong>
\nDirector: Claire Denis<\/p>\n

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (La vie d\u2019Ad\u00e8le)<\/strong>
\nDirector: Abdellatif Kechiche<\/p>\n

BURNING BUSH (Ho<\/strong>\u0159ic\u00ed Ke<\/strong>\u0159)<\/strong>
\nDirector: Agnieszka Holland<\/p>\n

CHILD OF GOD <\/strong>
\nDirector: James Franco<\/p>\n

GLORIA <\/strong>
\nDirector: Sebasti\u00e1n Lelio<\/p>\n

THE IMMIGRANT <\/strong>
\nDirector: James Gray<\/p>\n

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS <\/strong>
\nDirectors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen<\/p>\n

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN <\/strong>
\nDirector: Ralph Fiennes<\/p>\n

JEALOUSY (La Jalousie) <\/strong>
\nDirector: Philippe Garrel<\/p>\n

JIMMY P: PSYCHOTHERAPY OF A PLAINS INDIAN <\/strong>
\nDirector: Arnaud Desplechin<\/p>\n

THE LAST OF THE UNJUST (Le Dernier des injustes) <\/strong>
\nDirector: Claude Lanzmann<\/p>\n

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON (Soshite Chichi ni Naru)<\/strong>
\nDirector: Hirokazu Kore-eda<\/p>\n

THE MISSING PICTURE (L\u2019image manquante)<\/strong>
\nDirector: Rithy Panh<\/p>\n

MY NAME IS HMMM\u2026 (Je m\u2019appelle Hmmm\u2026) <\/strong>
\nDirector: agn\u00e8s B<\/p>\n

NEBRASKA<\/strong>
\nDirector: Alexander Payne<\/p>\n

NOBODY\u2019S DAUGHTER HAEWON (Nugu-ui ttal-do anin Haewon) <\/strong>
\nDirector: Hong Sang-soo<\/p>\n

NORTH, THE END OF HISTORY (Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan)<\/strong>
\nDirector: Lav Diaz<\/p>\n

OMAR<\/strong>
\nDirector: Hany Abu-Assad<\/p>\n

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE <\/strong>
\nDirector: Jim Jarmusch<\/p>\n

THE SQUARE<\/strong>
\nDirector: Jehane Noujaim<\/p>\n

STRANGER BY THE LAKE (L\u2019Inconnu du lac) <\/strong>
\nDirector: Alain Guiraudie<\/p>\n

STRAY DOGS (Jiao You) <\/strong>
\nDirector: Tsai Ming-liang<\/p>\n

A TOUCH OF SIN (Tian Zhu Ding) <\/strong>
\nDirector: Jia Zhangke<\/p>\n

LE WEEK-END <\/strong>
\nDirector: Roger Michell<\/p>\n

WHEN EVENING FALLS ON BUCHAREST OR METABOLISM (C\u00e2nd se lasa seara peste Bucuresti sau metabolism)<\/strong>
\nDirector: Corneliu Porumboiu<\/p>\n

THE WIND RISES (Kaze Tachinu)<\/strong>
\nDirector: Hayao Miyazaki<\/p>\n

FilmLinc Daily Managing Editor Brian Brooks spoke with Kent Jones about the Main Slate official selections, the lead up to NYFF and looking ahead to his first NYFF as the festival\u2019s Director of Programming and Selection Committee Chair. That interview can be found at Filmlinc.com<\/p>\n

The 17-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring top films from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent. The selection committee, chaired by Jones, also includes: Dennis Lim, FSLC Director of Cinematheque Programming; Marian Masone, FSLC Associate Director of Programming; Gavin Smith, Editor-in-Chief, Film Comment<\/em>; and Amy Taubin, Contributing Editor, Film Comment<\/em> and Sight & Sound<\/em>.<\/p>\n

General Public tickets will be available on September 8th. Members of the Film Society of Lincoln Center have the opportunity to purchase single screening tickets in advance of the General Public. VIP Passes for the New York Film Festival are on sale now. For more information about becoming a Film Society Member visit Filmlinc.com\/support\/home. More ticket information for the New York Film Festival will be available on Filmlinc.com\/NYFF.<\/p>\n

51st<\/sup> NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL<\/span><\/strong>
\nFilms & Descriptions<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n

ABOUT TIME <\/strong>(2013) 123min
\nDirector: Richard Curtis
\nCountry: UK
\nRichard Curtis adds a touch of time-travel to this hilarious romantic comedy, a perfect vehicle for the comic talents of Bill Nighy, Rachel McAdams, Lindsay Duncan, and emerging star Domhnall Gleeson. A Universal Pictures release.<\/p>\n

ABUSE OF WEAKNESS (Abus de Faiblesse) <\/strong>(2013) 105min
\nDirector: Catherine Breillat
\nCountry: France
\nCatherine Breillat\u2019s haunting film about her 2004 stroke and subsequent self-destructive relationship with star swindler Christophe Rocancourt, starring Isabelle Huppert.<\/p>\n

ALAN PARTRIDGE <\/strong>(2013) 90min
\nDirector: Declan Lowney
\nCountry: UK\/France
\nIn the long-awaited big-screen debut of Steve Coogan\u2019s singular comic creation, the vain and obliviously tactless Alan Partridge must serve as an intermediary when North Norfolk Digital is seized at gunpoint by a down-sized DJ.<\/p>\n

ALL IS LOST <\/strong>(2013) 107min
\nDirector: J.C. Chandor
\nCountry: USA
\nRobert Redford as you\u2019ve never seen him before, gives a near-wordless all-action performance as a lone sailor trying to keep his yacht afloat after a collision with a discarded shipping container in the middle of the Indian Ocean. A Roadside Attractions release.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN PROMISE <\/strong>(2013) 135min
\nDirectors: Joe Brewster and Mich\u00e8le Stephenson
\nCountry: USA
\nTwo Brooklyn filmmakers follow their son Idris and his friend Suen from their enrollment in the Dalton School as children through their high school graduations in this devastating, years-in-the-making documentary that takes a hard look at race and class in America.<\/p>\n

AT BERKELEY <\/strong>(2013) 244min
\nDirector: Frederick Wiseman
\nCountry: USA
\nAnother masterfully constructed documentary from Frederick Wiseman, examining the University of California, Berkeley from multiple angles – the administrators, the students, the surrounding community – to arrive at a portrait that is as rich in detail as it is epic in scope.<\/p>\n

BASTARDS (Les Salauds) <\/strong>(2013) 100min
\nDirector: Claire Denis
\nCountry: France\/Germany
\nClaire Denis\u2019s jagged, daringly fragmented and deeply unsettling film inspired by recent French sex ring scandals is the rarest of cinematic narratives\u2014a contemporary film noir, perfect in substance as well as style.<\/p>\n

BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR (La Vie d\u2019Ad\u00e8le) <\/strong>(2013) 179min
\nDirector: Abdellatif Kechiche
\nCountry: France
\nThe sensation of this year\u2019s Cannes Film Festival is an intimate – and sexually explicit – epic of emotional transformation, featuring two astonishing performances from Ad\u00e8le Exarchopoulos and L\u00e9a Seydoux. A Sundance Selects release.
\nPlease be advised that this film has scenes of a sexually explicit nature. <\/strong><\/p>\n

BURNING BUSH (Ho<\/strong>\u0159ic\u00ed Ke<\/strong>\u0159)<\/strong> (2013) 234min
\nDirector: Agnieszka Holland
\nCountry: Czech Republic
\nA passionately brilliant Czech mini-series from Agnieska Holland about the events that followed student Jan Palach\u2019s public self-immolation in protest against the Soviet invasion after Prague Spring.<\/p>\n

CAPTAIN PHILLIPS <\/strong>(2013) 143min
\nDirector: Paul Greengrass
\nCountry: USA
\nPaul Greengrass has crafted an edge-of-your-seat thriller based on the true story of the seizure of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship in 2009 by four Somali pirates, with remarkable performances from Tom Hanks and four first-time actors, Barkhad Abdi, Faysal Ahmed, Barkhad Abdirahman and Mahet M. Ali. A Sony Pictures release.<\/p>\n

CHILD OF GOD <\/strong>(2013) 104min
\nDirector: James Franco
\nCountry: USA
\nJames Franco\u2019s uncompromising excursion into American Gothic, adapted from Cormac McCarthy\u2019s 1973 novel, about an unstable sociopath in early 60s rural Tennessee who descends into an animal-like state – not for the faint-hearted.<\/p>\n

GLORIA <\/strong>(2013) 110min
\nDirector: Sebasti\u00e1n Lelio
\nCountries: Chile\/Spain
\nA wise, funny, liberating movie from Chile, about a middle-aged woman who finds romance but whose new partner finds it painfully difficult to abandon his old habits.<\/p>\n

HER <\/strong>(2013)
\nDirector: Spike Jonze
\nCountry: USA
\nIn Spike Jonze\u2019s magical, melancholy comedy of the near future, lonely Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with his new all-purpose operating system (the voice of Scarlett Johansson), leading to romantic and existential complications. A Warner Bros. Pictures release.<\/p>\n

THE IMMIGRANT <\/strong>(2013) 120min
\nDirector: James Gray
\nCountry: USA
\nIn James Gray\u2019s richly detailed period tragedy, set in a dusty, sepia-toned 1920s Manhattan, a young Polish immigrant (Marion Cotillard) is caught in a dangerous battle of wills with a shady burlesque manager (Joaquin Phoenix). A Radius-TWC release.<\/p>\n

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS <\/strong>(2013) 105min
\nDirectors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
\nCountry: USA\/France
\nJoel and Ethan Coen\u2019s picaresque, panoramic and wryly funny story of a singer\/songwriter is set in the New York folk scene of the early 60s and features a terrific array of larger-than-life characters and a glorious score of folk standards. A CBS Films release.<\/p>\n

THE INVISIBLE WOMAN <\/strong>(2013) 111min
\nDirector: Ralph Fiennes
\nCountry: UK
\nRalph Fiennes directs and stars as Charles Dickens in this adaptation of Claire Tomalin\u2019s revelatory 1992 biography, which brought the upright Victorian author\u2019s secret 13-year affair with a young actress to light. A Sony Pictures Classics Release.<\/p>\n

JEALOUSY (La Jalousie) <\/strong>(2013) 77min
\nDirector: Philippe Garrel
\nCountry: France
\nAnother intimate, handcrafted work of poetic autobiographical cinema from French director Philippe Garrel, in which his son Louis and Anna Mouglalis star as actors and lovers trying to reconcile their professional and personal lives.<\/p>\n

JIMMY P: PSYCHOTHERAPY OF A PLAINS INDIAN <\/strong>(2013) 114min
\nDirector: Arnaud Desplechin
\nCountry: France
\nIn Arnaud Desplechin\u2019s intelligent and moving depiction of a successful \u201cTalking Cure,\u201d the encounters between patient (Benicio del Toro) and therapist (Mathieu Amalric) are electric with discovery.<\/p>\n

THE LAST OF THE UNJUST (Le Dernier des injustes) <\/strong>(2013) 218min
\nDirector: Claude Lanzmann
\nCountries: France\/Austria
\nThis moral and cinematic tour de force from the creator of SHOAH will cause you to reconsider your understanding of Adolph Eichmann and of Benjamin Murmelstein, the last Jewish elder of Theresienstadt and the film\u2019s central figure.<\/p>\n

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON (Soshite Chichi ni Naru) <\/strong>(2013) 120min
\nDirector: Hirokazu Kore-eda
\nCountry: Japan
\nHirokazu Kore-eda\u2019s sensitive drama takes a close look at two families\u2019 radically different approaches to the horribly painful realization that the sons they have raised as their own were switched at birth. A Sundance Selects release.<\/p>\n

THE MISSING PICTURE (L\u2019image manquante) <\/strong>(2013) 92min
\nDirector: Rithy Panh
\nCountry: Cambodia
\nFilmmaker Rithy Panh\u2019s brave new film revisits his memories of four years spent under the Khmer Rouge and the destruction of his family and his culture; without a single memento left behind, he creates his \u201cmissing images\u201d with narration and painstakingly executed dioramas. A Strand release.<\/p>\n

MY NAME IS HMMM\u2026 (Je m\u2019appelle Hmmm\u2026) <\/strong>(2013) 121min
\nDirector: agn\u00e8s B
\nCountry: France
\nIn this deeply personal, incandescent first feature from designer agn\u00e8s B, a young girl holding her family together and bearing the weight of sexual abuse runs away from home and enjoys a carefree idyll with a kindly Scottish trucker.<\/p>\n

NEBRASKA <\/strong>(2013) 115min
\nDirector: Alexander Payne
\nCountry: USA
\nThis masterful film from Alexander Payne, about a quiet old man (Bruce Dern) whose mild-mannered son (Will Forte) agrees to drive him from Montana to Nebraska to claim a non-existent prize, shades from the comic to multiple hues of melancholy and regret. A Paramount Pictures release.<\/p>\n

NOBODY\u2019S DAUGHTER HAEWON (Nugu-ui ttal-do anin Haewon) <\/strong>(2013) 90min
\nDirector: Hong Sang-soo
\nCountry: South Korea
\nA young student at loose ends after her mother moves to America tries to define herself one encounter and experience at a time, in reality and in dreams, in another deceptively simple chamber-piece from South Korean master Hong Sang-soo.<\/p>\n

NORTH, THE END OF HISTORY (Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan) <\/strong>(2013) 250min
\nDirector: Lav Diaz
\nCountry: Philippines
\nFilipino director Lav Diaz\u2019s twelfth feature – at four-plus hours, one of his shortest – is a careful rethinking of Dostoyevsky\u2019s Crime and Punishment<\/em>, with a tortured anti-hero who is a haunting embodiment of the dead ends of ideology.<\/p>\n

OMAR <\/strong>(2013) 96min
\nDirector: Hany Abu-Assad
\nCountry: Palestinian Territories
\nA tense, gripping, ticking clock thriller about betrayal, suspected and real, in the Occupied Territories, from Hany Abu-Assad (Paradise Now<\/em>).<\/p>\n

ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE <\/strong>(2013) 123min
\nDirector: Jim Jarmusch
\nCountry: USA
\nJim Jarmusch\u2019s wry, tender and moving take on the vampire genre features Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston as a centuries-old couple who watch time go by from separate continents as they reflect on the ever-changing world around them. A Sony Pictures Classics release.<\/p>\n

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY <\/strong>(2013)
\nDirector: Ben Stiller
\nCountry: USA
\nBen Stiller stars in and directs this sweet, globe-trotting (but New York-based) comic fable about an up-to-the-minute everyman, co-starring Kristen Wiig as the woman of his dreams, Sean Penn as a legendary photographer and Shirley MacLaine as Walter\u2019s mother. A Twentieth Century Fox release.<\/p>\n

THE SQUARE <\/strong>(2013) 104min
\nDirector: Jehane Noujaim
\nCountry: USA\/Egypt
\nJehane Noujaim\u2019s tense, vivid verit\u00e9 portrait of events as they unfolded in Tahrir Square through Arab Spring and beyond, in a newly revised, up-to-the-minute version.<\/p>\n

STRANGER BY THE LAKE (L\u2019Inconnu du lac) <\/strong>(2013) 97min
\nDirector: Alain Guiraudie
\nCountry: France
\nAlain Guiraudie\u2019s lethally precise, sexually explicit film, which unfolds entirely in the vicinity of a gay cruising ground, is both a no-holds-barred depiction of a hedonistic subculture and a perverse and unnerving tale of amour fou. A Strand release.
\nPlease be advised that this film has scenes of a sexually explicit nature. <\/strong><\/p>\n

STRAY DOGS (Jiao You) <\/strong>(2013) 138min
\nDirector: Tsai Ming-liang
\nCountry: Taiwan\/France
\nTsai Ming-liang\u2019s fable of a homeless family living the cruelest of existences on the ragged edges of the modern world is bracingly pure in its anger and its compassion, and as visually powerful as it is emotionally overwhelming.<\/p>\n

A TOUCH OF SIN (Tian Zhu Ding) <\/strong>(2013) 133min
\nDirector: Jia Zhangke
\nCountry: China
\nJia Zhangke\u2019s bloody, bitter new film builds a portrait of modern-day China in the midst of rapid and convulsive change through four overlapping stories of marginalized and oppressed citizens pushed to murderous rage. A Kino Lorber release.<\/p>\n

LE WEEK-END <\/strong>(2013) 93min
\nDirector: Roger Michell
\nCountry: UK
\nA magically buoyant, bittersweet comedy drama about a middle-aged and middle class English couple who go to Paris for a weekend holiday, starring two of Britain\u2019s national treasures, Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan. A Music Box Films release.<\/p>\n

WHEN EVENING FALLS ON BUCHAREST OR METABOLISM <\/strong>(2013) 89min
\nDirector: Corneliu Porumboiu
\nCountries: Romania\/France
\nA rigorously structured and fascinatingly oblique new film from Corneliu Porumboiu that examines the life of a film director during the moments on a shoot when the camera isn\u2019t rolling.<\/p>\n

THE WIND RISES (Kaze Tachinu) <\/strong>(2013) 126min
\nDirector: Hayao Miyazaki
\nCountry: Japan
\nThe great Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki\u2019s new film is based on the life of Jiro Hirokoshi, the man who designed the Zero fighter. An elliptical historical narrative, THE WIND RISES is also a visionary cinematic poem about the fragility of humanity.<\/p>\n

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