Happy Birthday NYFF!

In 1962 Lincoln Center President William Schuman had the bright idea to ask film critic Richard Roud to program a film festival to be held in Lincoln Center that would highlight the best of American and international films. And on September 10th, 1963 Roud opened the very first New York Film Festival with Luis Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel. That unique choice would start a trend for the festival to highlight films that appealed to the intellectual film set, focusing on new filmmakers and international and Avant-Garde fare. Ever since, the festival has been a high-water mark for cinema that highlights the work of top directors like Polanski, Tarantino, Altman, Demme, Jarmusch, the Coen Brothers and- oh hell. The list is too long. Just check it out here.

To honor NYFF's 53rd birthday, here are my Top 5 New York Film Festival films:

The Battle of Algiers (1966) 

In 1966 the first NYFF Selection Committee chose Gillo Pontecorvo's Italian neorealism war classic The Battle of Algiers as the opening film. The film takes place during the Algerian War of Independence in the mid-50's. Unlike conventional war movies, Pontecorvo shot Battle in a quasi-documentary style in black-and-white with non-professional actors. So on the one hand- it looks like it's real. On the other, it's not. It's the perfect sensibility for a story about a group of freedom fighters (or terrorists) fighting against a country's government (or French imperialist occupiers) where there are villains and heroes- justice and injustice on all sides. The film becomes the uncertain truth of the war it is depicting. Ennio Morricone supplies the score- which is always a plus. Battle would go on to earn three Oscar noms including Best Foreign Film.

Badlands (1973) 

Terrence Malick closed the 1973 NYFF with his feature film debut, Badlands. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek are a 1950's Bonnie and Clyde who hightail it out of their South Dakota home after Kit (Sheen) plugs Holly's (Spacek) father. It's the start of a crime spree that leaves several dead and Holly questioning her newfound soulmate.

Malick's first film is as clear an indicator of his future work as you're likely to see. His grasp of shooting the unfettered horizons of nature and man's communing with and fighting within it are clear visual and thematic motifs that he uses time and time again in his works. The cinematography of the prairie is breathtaking- although none of the three primary photographers on the film would work with Malick again. Sheen and Spacek are electric in their youth and their naturalness.

As with all Malick scripts, the focus is not on dialogue. What is used is spare and feels improvised creating a sense of a moment-to-moment existence for these two screwed-up kids. Malick was a student of Bonnie and Clyde (1967) director Arthur Penn- so some have drawn comparisons between the two films. For me, Malick's brutal and beautiful Badlands emerges as a unique cinematic image from B&C's shadow.

Chariots of Fire (1981) 

For most of 1981 you couldn't go anywhere without hearing the strains of Vangelis' Oscar-winning Theme to Chariots of Fire and picture guys running on a beach in slow motion. It was odd that a British movie about track would grab ahold of the American zeitgeist- but for that one year, it did.

Chariots tells the true story of two British athletes- Eric Liddell (Ian Charleston) a Scottish Christian and Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) an English Jew who are competing for gold in the 1924 Paris Olympics. It's 1924, so being Jewish meant harassment and outright antisemitism in the halls of Cambridge. And for Liddell, being a devout Christian meant he couldn't run a race on the Lord's Day.

So Chariots in a very British way pits two of the world's religion against each other in a race that ultimately becomes a team effort for the good of the country. The film wound-up raking in four Oscars, including Best Picture, but director Hugh Hudson stumbled in his following films and never regained his Oscar stride.

Chariots is the quintessential British movie. Not a lot happens. The tensions and turmoils burble under the surface until they can no longer be contained underneath a proper stiff upper lip. But that's what makes British cinema so interesting- looking for what lies beneath. I would have liked for the beach running scene to be shot sans shirts so I would be able to look beneath their tops- but maybe that's just me.

Bullets Over Broadway (1994) 

The argument over what is the funniest Woody Allen film is more violent than the opening of  Saving Private Ryan. But if I can dodge the shrapnel of Bananas (1971) and Annie Hall (1977), my vote lands squarely with Bullets Over Broadway.

This centerpiece of the 1994 NYFF is an all-star laughfest about playwright David Shayne (John Cusack playing Woody Allen- without the obvious character twitches) whose new play gets a Broadway run and all the selling-out that goes along with it. Shayne in his attempts to make his play more commercial discovers that the botchagaloop bodyguard (Chazz Palminteri) of moll/actress Olive (Jennifer Tilly at her finest) is an undiscovered genius writer whose ideas are even better than his. What's a neurotic New York writer to do?

Allen has always been good at including lively characters other than himself in his work- but Bullets really showcases other performers spectacularly. Oscar-winning Dianne Wiest is an absolute revelation as revered Broadway actress Helen Sinclair whose catchphrase, "Don't speak!" can still be heard whenever one wishes to silence someone. Palminteri received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the mobster with the heart of Eugene O'Neill as did Tilly for her ridiculously funny stage-struck floozy.

The rest of the cast is a who's-who of character actors hitting their marks brilliantly: Tracey Ullman, Jim Broadbent, Rob Reiner, Mary-Louise Parker, Jack Warden, and Annie Joe Edwards who practically steals her scenes as sassy maid Venus. Allen was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay proving that he is a comedy master who doesn't have to be in a movie to make it funny.

Bad Education (2004) 

NYFF loves Pedro Almodovar. His films have been chosen for the festival seven times. And why shouldn't they? Almodovar has become the defacto face of modern Spanish cinema with his unique character-driven mixture of comedy and drama.

Much like Almodovar's thriller The Skin I Live In (2011), Bad Education (which was the Festival's centerpiece film in 2004) relies on some pretty substantial plot twists, so I'll not go into the plot too extensively so as not to become an Almodovar spoiler. But needless to say, the film is an intense exploration of same-sex first-love, transgenders, the Catholic Church sex abuse, drug use, and how our art exposes secrets from the past.

Almodovar has always been interested in sexual expressions outside the norm and the secrets and masks that come with being an outsider. Bad Education takes these questions one step further by questioning how art and artists communicate truths. Is the script that Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal) gives to Enrique (Fele Martinez) a true story hidden behind a movie? What are the truths in Bad Education hidden behind an Almodovar movie?

Bernal is fantastic, with that dangerous sexiness that makes you question whether you should trust him or not. That being said, I wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating paella.




What NYFF films are your favorites?