NYFF 08. Index.

The New York Film Festival is one of the most thoroughly covered events of each movie year - at least online, and certainly on a per-film basis. For all the obvious reasons: It's in New York, a city thronged with writers working for media old and new, and some simply for themselves. Most importantly, the festival is a vital measure of the year so far, just before Hollywood rolls out its awards season contenders. Not a complete measure, of course - many would like to have seen, say, the new Claire Denis in the lineup - but here's what we've got:

• 24 City.
• Afterschool.
• Ashes of Time Redux.
• Bullet in the Head.
• Changeling. Podcast.
• Che.
• Chouga.
• A Christmas Tale.
• The Class.
• Four Nights with Anna.
• Gomorrah.
• Happy-Go-Lucky.
• The Headless Woman.
• Hunger.
• I'm Gonna Explode.
• Let It Rain.
• Lola Montès.
• Night and Day.
• The Northern Land.
• Serbis.
• Summer Hours.
• Tokyo Sonata.
• Tony Manero. Podcast.
• Tulpan. Interview.
• Waltz with Bashir.
• Wendy and Lucy. Podcast.
• The Windmill Movie.
• The Wrestler.

Some of these entries have been updated quite recently, even if they "fell off" the front page weeks ago.

Entries on In the Realm of Oshima: 1 and 2.

The Views from the Avant-Garde series got its own entry, of course, but so did Nathaniel Dorsky.

Vadim Rizov sent in a dispatch from the junkets.

Roundups of overviews and NYFF-in-general commentary: 9/23, 10/3 and 10/11.

Once again, many thanks to Aaron Hillis and Andrew Grant for conducting another fun series of podcasts - including the talk with NYFF selection committee member Scott Foundas and the conversation that immediately followed the Film Criticism in Crisis? panel.

I happened to run across just one review for this one: "The Last Command stands on the precipice of two auteurs," writes Cullen Gallagher at Not Coming to a Theater Near You. "On the one hand, it is distinctly the vision of director Josef von Sternberg, with his overly romantic sense of narrative expression, which privileges style above all else. At the same time, the film is undeniably under the influence of its star, Emil Jannings.... While his work in The Last Laugh and The Blue Angel (another collaboration with von Sternberg) is arguably better, his performance in The Last Command is still incredibly affecting eighty years later, and it is to his credit that he is able to tap into some universal strain that makes his character relatable and sympathetic under many disparate circumstances."

Another highlight this year, as in any year, is Jamie Stuart's series of reveries; all four 2008 entries are collected at Filmmaker: NYFF46.

Earlier: "NYFF 07. Index."

Posted by dwhudson at October 20, 2008 3:38 AM