“Hurt Locker” Wins with NY Critics (IndieWire)

“The Hurt Locker” wins again.

The New York Film Critics’ Circle held its annual vote today in Manhattan, lead this year by Armond White as the chairman of the organization for 2009. Earlier this year, the group added Karen Durbin (Elle Magazine), Dana Stevens (Slate.com) and Stephanie Zacharek (Salon.com) to their ranks, which includes a total of thirty-three members.

Last year, the New York Film Critics’ Circle honored “Milk” as its best picture and Mike Leigh as best director, for “Happy-Go-Lucky.” The group chose “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” as the best foreign language film and names “Man on Wire” the best documentary.

The 2009 New York Film Critics’ Circle Award Winners:

Best Film – “The Hurt Locker”

Best Director – Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker”

Best Screenplay – “In the Loop”

Best Actress – Meryl Streep for “Julie & Julia”

Best Actor – George Clooney for “Up In The Air” and “Fantastic Mr. Fox”

Best Supporting Actress – Mo’Nique for “Precious”

Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz for “Inglourious Basterds”

Best Cinematography – Christian Berger for “The White Ribbon”

Best Animated Film – “Fantastic Mr. Fox”

Best Non-fiction Film – “Of Time and the City”

Best Foreign Language Film – “Summer Hours”

Best First Feature – “Hunger,” director Steve McQueen

Special Award - To Andrew Sarris for his contribution to film criticism

Five Must-See Films From the New York Film Festival (Village Voice)

By J. Hoberman

The 47th New York Film Festival (September 25 through October 11) features some things old, some things new, and some new things by directors who are really, really old. Opening night's Wild Grass is by Alain Resnais—an alum of the very first NYFF—who, at 87, is not even this year's senior filmmaker.

There are movies you'd expect to find at Lincoln Center, such as the last Cannes Film Festival's critical favorite (Wild Grass), Palm d'Or laureate (Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon), and most notorious film (Lars von Trier's Antichrist). Also, the Sundance Audience and Grand Prize winner, directed by Lee Daniels and contractually known as Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire. And, perhaps, there are a few movies conspicuous by their absence, like the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man or Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are. Let the wild rumpus start . . .

It's all about the mix. I was in the kitchen, so I know. The other chefs on the NYFF selection committee were my colleagues Scott Foundas and Melissa Anderson, former Voice film editor Dennis Lim, and, of course, festival director Richard Peña. No lack of continuity: Returning to the fest are Marco Bellocchio (Vincere), Bong Joon-ho (Mother), Catherine Breillat (Bluebeard), Claire Denis (White Material), Bruno Dumont (Hadewijch), Harmony Korine (Trash Humpers), Todd Solondz (Life During Wartime), and, after 22 years, Malien director Souleymane Cissé (Min Ye . . . )—not to mention Resnais, 81-year-old class of '68er Jacques Rivette (Around a Small Mountain), 83-year-old '70s regular Andrzej Wajda (Sweet Rush), and the 100-plus but ageless Manoel de Oliveira (Eccentricities of a Blond-Haired Girl). Comrade Foundas offered to moderate a panel entitled "80 and Loving It." (For his take on all the old guys, see page 18.)

On the other hand, there are a dozen or more filmmakers who have never had movies in the NYFF, including the 25-year-old Philippino prodigy Raya Martin (Independencia), 32-year-old Maren Ade (Everyone Else), 34-year-old Corneliu Porumboiu (Police, Adjective), the notorious minimalizer Pedro Costa (Ne Change Rien), and Israeli Samuel Maoz, who brings his first film, Lebanon, which he made on the cusp of 50.

Lebanon, which won the Golden Lion a few weeks ago at Venice, was—along with Police, Adjective—the closest thing to a unanimous favorite for the amiably fractious committee. Yeah, right, I thought, when told it had been hyped as another Waltz With Bashir. Actually, Maoz's recollection of his wartime experience, set entirely inside a tank heading north on the first day of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, should be compared to No Exit, as directed by Sam Fuller. For this jaded committee member, the NYFF slate provided a number of other surprises (including the presence of Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story as the festival's first-ever pre–opening night opener). Here are five more unlikely-sounding items that proved to be unexpected pleasures. None, as of this writing, have distributors. Some are showing only once; all are movies I'm looking forward to seeing again.

Ghost Town A three-hour Chinese doc—filmed by a director so new that he isn't even listed on IMBD, over a period of months (years?) in a near-deserted village in the mountains of southwest China—arrives over the transom. Give Ghost Town 15 minutes, and you won't be able to shut it off—the assortment of religious evangelists, hardcore drunks, and abandoned children that Zhao Dayong finds living their lives provide a drama (and a look) as compelling as any in the festival. September 27

Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno Who cares about a lost movie by the half-forgotten "French Hitchcock"? But the title of Serge Bromberg's documentary, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno, has a double meaning. A rigid, audience-manipulating control freak, Clouzot attempted to go all nouveau vague in the early '60s with a hallucinatory psychological thriller. Inferno's protagonist is pathologically jealous of his hot, young wife (Romy Schneider), but the real head case was the director—unable to finish the movie and, as both survivors and surviving footage indicate, driven half-mad in the attempt. (See page 22.) October 4

To Die Like a Man Fado-singing, pooch-pampering trannie grows old: Sounds like a yawn, but João Pedro Rodrigues's To Die Like a Man is a deep and fabulously sad fable, as well as an example of lyrical, playful, unpredictable filmmaking from this Portuguese festival star. (It's this year's I'm Gonna Explode.) September 30, October 1

Kanikosen While we're talking kabuki: Kanikosen, by the Japanese provo-punk who calls himself Sabu. If a manic manga-style, two-dimensional adaptation of a once-famous Japanese-Communist agitprop novel sounds like your cup of tea, trust me: It is. September 27, 28

Trash Humpers The fest doesn't lack for provocations, although von Trier's Antichrist strains, Breillat's Bluebeard is over-subtle, and Solondz's Life During Wartime waxes too philosophical. Bruno Dumont's humorless Hadewijch deserves to be rated PFC (pretty fucking crazy), but the wackiest transgression is Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers. I've always considered Korine an untalented poseur, but, as the poet said, a fool persists in his folly until he becomes wise. October 1, 2

Programación completa del Festival de Nueva York

"Vincere", de Marco Bellocchio

OPENING NIGHT Wild Grass / Les herbes folles
Alain Resnais, France, 2009; 113m
The venerable Alan Resnais creates an exquisite human comedy of manners, mystery and romance with some of France’s – and our – favorite actors: Sabine Azéma, André Dussollier, Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Almaric. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

CENTERPIECE Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Lee Daniels, USA, 2009; 109m
Precious is sixteen and living a miserable life. But she uses all the emotional energy she possesses to turn her life around. Director Lee Daniel’s audacious tale features unforgettable performances by Mo’Nique, Mariah Carey and newcomer Gabourey Sidibe. A Lionsgate release.

CLOSING NIGHT Broken Embraces / Los abrazos rotos
Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 2009; 128m
Almodóvar’s newest masterwork is a candy-colored emotional roller that barrels from comedy to romance to melodrama to the darker haunts of film noir and stars his muse, Penélope Cruz, in a multilayered story of a man who loses his sight and the love of his life. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

36 Views of Saint-Loup Peak / 36 Vues Du Pic Saint Loup
Jacques Rivette, France, 2009, 84m
The legendary Jacques Rivette returns with an elegiac look at the final days of a small-time traveling circus.

Antichrist
Lars von Trier, Denmark, 2009, 109m
Surely to be one of the year’s most discussed films, Lars von Trier’s latest chronicles a couple’s efforts to find their love again after a tragic loss, only to unleash hidden monsters lurking in their souls. An IFC Films release.

The Art of the Steal
Don Argott, USA, 2009, 101m
Bound to be controversial, this intriguing account of the travails of the legendary Barnes collection of art masterworks and the foundation set up to protect it raises vital questions about public vs. private “ownership” of art.

Bluebeard / La Barbe Bleue
Catherine Breillat, France, 2009, 78m
Two sisters reading Charles Perrault’s 17th century tale of perhaps the first “serial killer” becomes a meditation on the enduring fascination with a character who has served as inspiration for countless novels, plays and films.

Crossroads of Youth / Cheongchun’s Sipjaro
An Jong-hwa, Korea, 1934, 73m
The oldest surviving Korean film, this recently-rediscovered masterwork will be presented with live musical accompaniment as well as a benshi (offscreen narrator).

Eccentricities of a Blonde
Manoel de Olivera, Portugal/France, 2009, 64m
One hundred years young, director Manoel de Oliveira returns with another gem: a wry, moving tale of a pure if frustrated love adapted from a novel by Eça de Queiroz.

Everyone Else / Alle Anderen
Maren Ade, Germany, 2009, 119m
The ups and downs, joys and jealousies, frustrations and fulfillments of a young couple on a summer holiday provides the premise for this brilliant meditation on modern coupling.

Ghost Town
Zhao Dayong, China, 2008, 180m
A revealing, one-of-a-kind look at China far away from the glittering urban skylines, this portrait of a contemporary rural community in China offers extraordinary insights into everything from the role of religion to gender relationships to the place of social deviants.

Hadewijch
Bruno Dumont, France, 2009, 105m
A young woman searches for an absolute experience of faith—and in the process grows increasingly distant from the world around her.

Independencia
Raya Martin, Philippines, 2009, 77m
Maverick director Raya Martin offers a kind of alternative history of the Philippines and its struggle for nationhood in this stylized tale of a mother and son hiding in the mountains after the US takeover of the islands.

Inferno / L’Enfer
Serge Bromberg, France, 2009, 100m
A film buff’s delight, Serge Bromberg film resurrects the surviving footage of Clouzot’s aborted, experimental film L’Enfer, revealing a slightly mad but beguiling project that will always remain one of cinema’s great “what ifs.”

Kanikosen
Sabu, Japan, 2009, 109m
Kaniskosen is a highly stylized, stirring, manga-flavored update of a classic Japanese political novel, with labor unrest aboard a crab canning ship evolving into a cry of a younger generation aching to break the bonds of conformity.

Lebanon
Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2009, 92m
Debut director Samuel Maoz takes us inside an Israeli tank and the emotions of its crew during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Life During Wartime
Todd Solondz, USA, 2009, 96m
Preparing for his bar-mitzvah, a young man must deal with his divorced mother’s prospective fiancé as well as rumors that his own father is not really dead.

Min Yé
Souleymane Cissé, Mali/France, 2009, 135m
A work of startling originality, Souleymane Cisse’s first film in over a decade insightfully and incisively chronicles the dissolution of an upper-middle class African marriage.

Mother/ Maedo
Bong Joon-ho, South Korea, 2009, 128m
Convinced that her son has been wrongly accused of murder, a widow throws herself body and soul into proving his innocence. Kim Hye-ja in the title role gives perhaps the performance of the year.

Ne Change Rien
Pedro Costa, France/Portugal, 2009, 103m
A shimmering valentine, Costa’s latest is less a portrait than a kind of visual homage, to the artistry of actor and singer Jeanne Balibar.

Police Adjective / Politist, adj.
Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania, 2009, 115m
Discovering a teenager with hashish, a young policeman hesitates about turning him in. But his supervisor has other ideas in this beautifully acted, provocative modern morality play. An IFC Films release.

Room and a Half / Poltory Komnaty Ili Sentimentalnoe Puteshtvie Na Rodinu
Andrey Khrzhanovsky, Russia, 2009, 131m
Former animator Andrey Khrzhanovsky combines scripted scenes, archival footage, several types of animation, and surrealist flights of fancy to create this stirring portrait of poet Josef Brodsky and the postwar Soviet cultural scene. A Seagull Films release.

Sweetgrass
Ilisa Barish, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, USA, 2009, 105m
This breathtaking chronicle follows an ever-surprising group of modern-day cowboys as they lead an enormous herd of sheep up and then down the slopes of the Beartooth Mountains in Montana on their way to market.

Sweet Rush / Tatarak
Andrzej Wajda, Poland/France, 2009, 85m
Celebrated master Andrzej Wajda returns with a bold, experimental work that juxtaposes a story about a terminally doctor’s wife rediscovering romance thanks with a heart-rending monologue written and performed by actress Krystyna Janda about the death of her husband.

To Die Like a Man / Morrer Como Um Homen
Joao Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal, 2009,138m
This touching, finely-etched portrait follows Tonia, a veteran drag performer confronting younger competition and her boyfriend’s demands that she undergo a sex change.

Vincere
Marco Bellocchio, Italy, 2009, 129m
Mussolini’s “secret” marriage to Ida Dalser, afterwards completely denied by Il Duce, along with the son born from the relationship, becomes the springboard for this visually ravishing meditation on the fascist manipulation of history. An IFC Films release.

White Material
Claire Denis, France, 2009, 100m
A handful of Europeans try to make sense of—and survive—the chaos happening all around them in an African country torn apart by civil war.

The White Ribbon / Das weisse band
Michael Haneke, Austria/France, 2009, 144m
The Palme d’Or winner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, this is a starkly beautiful meditation on the consequences of violence—physical, emotional, spiritual—in a northern German town on the eve of World War I. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

The Wizard of Oz
Victor Fleming, 1939, USA, 103m
The 70th Anniversary of the timeless classic, presented in a spectacular newly-restored edition makes the film a new experience even for those who practically have it memorized. A Warner Bros. release.

Repaso neoyorquino (Primera parte)

Por motivos casi siempre laborales, hace quince años que viajo a Nueva York. En los '90, claro, con las facilidades del "uno a uno", viajaba más seguido, y todo me resultaba más accesible. El doble golpe de 2001 (el 11 de septiembre, allí; el corralito y la devaluación, aquí) convirtieron a la visita neoyorquina en un evento bastante más casual y espaciado. También se sumó, de mi parte, una preferencia por viajar a festivales de cine (generalmente en Europa) y no tanto a entrevistas en los Estados Unidos.

No tengo exacta memoria de los viajes, pero habré ido unas siete u ocho veces entre 1993 y 2000, y sólo dos desde entonces. La última, si la memoria no me falla, en 2003. Generalmente, además, parando en hoteles de cierto lujo, de esos a los que jamás iría con dinero de mi propio bolsillo y ubicados en zonas (el Upper East Side, por ejemplo) que no son las que, digamos, mejor me representan.

Esta vez me tocó volver, cinco años después, y alojarme en Brooklyn. Toda una experiencia. Mi única visita previa a Brooklyn había sido durante uno de mis primeros viajes cuando decidí tomarme el metro y bajarme, al azar, en una parada. Sólo al salir a la calle me sentí en medio de la película "The Warriors" y decidí, tras caminar unas pocas y sórdidas cuadras, volverme inmediatamente a mi cómodo refugio de algún hotel en Park Avenue.

Ahora fue distinto. No sólo porque Brooklyn ha cambiado mucho en una década (igualmente, un par de decisiones equivocadas sin mapa en mano te puede dejar en alguna zona densa), sino porque me alojé directamente allí, tomándolo como base de operaciones. Es cierto que el barrio donde paré (Brooklyn Heights) es el más rico de toda la zona y las casas, que están a pocas cuadras del río que da a Manhattan, del Brooklyn Promenade y del Brooklyn Bridge, se valúan por millones de dólares.

Esos barrios de Brooklyn (Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Park Slope, el citado Brooklyn Heights, Red Hook y, un poco más al norte, Williamsburg, entre otros) tienen un aire al Palermo porteño. Olvídense de las comparaciones con SoHo, Hollywood o taradeces similares: si nuestro Palermo tiene aire a algo es a las calles Dean, Smith, State, Clinton, Henry y algunas avenidas (Atlantic y las numeradas en la zona de Park Slope) de la zona, territorio que bien supo describir, aunque en otros tiempos, el escritor Jonathan Lethem en "Motherless Brooklyn" o "The Fortress of Solitude", la novela de la que surgió el título (y ese extraño texto que trata de explicarlo) de este blog.

Y si uno prefiere, en Manhattan, centrarse en el downtown (los distintos Village: West, Greenwich, East, o en SoHo, Tribeca y el ahora increíblemente renovado Lower East Side), un corto viaje en el metro (el 4, el 5, entre otros) lo acomoda allí más rápidamente y con menos stress que si uno baja desde la zona del Central Park.

Ahora bien, ¿a qué viene toda esta introducción? En realidad, a pensar porqué la ciudad --pese a todo lo que ha cambiado y pese a su densidad turística y peatonal que por momentos se vuelve insoportable-- me sigue resultando fascinante. Veamos:

Brooklyn: como ya lo dije, todo un descubrimiento. Uno puede pensar en ir a Nueva York y apenas moverse de ahí. Como me dijo el dueño de la casa en la que estaba parando, "los que no teníamos suficiente dinero para comprar una casa en Manhattan, nos trajimos lo que nos gustaba de allá para acá". Esto es: casi todo lo que está "across the river" también está de este lado, con la excepción de los museos y de ciertos íconos turísticos. Bares, restaurantes, disquerías, librerías, galerías, negocios de todo tipo y color. Todo está en Brooklyn.

Conciertos: fui a cuatro shows en seis noches en la ciudad, tres de ellos en Brooklyn. Como ya conté antes, vi a Jeremy Jay en Park Slope, a Brian Wilson (foto) en Brighton Beach (una zona de Brooklyn a la que no caracterizaría precisamente como cool, muy cercana a Coney Island) y a Deerhoof en Prospect Park. Decidí no ir al Siren Festival (pese a que la propuesta incluía cosas como Stephen Malkmus, Broken Social Scene, Times New Viking, Beach House, The Dodos, Annuals y una decena más de bandas indies) porque la idea de estrujarme con cien mil personas en un día de más de 30° de calor me resultaba intragable. Y el domingo sí fui al Central Park a ver a Santogold y Diplo, pero debí escuchar el show desde lejos porque estaba llena la zona cercana al escenario. Pero cada elección implicaba dejar varias cosas de lado y eso es algo único de Nueva York. Para sintetizar una larga lista, digamos que esas mismas seis noches podía haber optado por (y muchos de estos shows eran gratuitos) Dizzee Rascal, Matmos, George Michael, Yazoo, Brendan Canning, David Banner, DJ Shadow, DJ Spooky, Chirs Garneau & Olafur Arnalds, Love As Laughter, The Mae Shi, Mary Weiss, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Datarock, Ed Harcourt, Ron Sexsmith, Jarvis Cocker y podría agregar diez más, sin entrar siquiera en el terreno del jazz, la música clásica, latina o de otros lares.

Cine independiente: Es cierto que es un mercado que se ha reducido en todas partes y que me tocó estar el fin de semana en el que no se hablaba de otra cosa que de "Batman", pero la ciudad --sin llegar a ser París-- sigue ofreciendo una enorme cantidad de títulos que uno podría ver, si bien con una preferencia por el "indie" americano por sobre el cine internacional que ya se está tornando indigesta. Nueva York tiene entre diez y quince estrenos por semana (sin contar festivales, muestras, ciclos, retrospectivas, etc.) y sólo repasando la cartelera de salas tales como el Angelika, el Sunshine, el IFC Center, el Anthology Film Archive, los Lincoln Plaza Cinemas y otros así, te topás con "Before I Forget", de Jacques Nolot; "Lou Reed's Berlin", de Julian Schnabel; "Mad Detective", de Johnnie To; la tailandesa "Wonderful Town"; la increíble "The Exiles"; "The Last Mistress", de Catherine Breillat; el documental sobre Hunter S. Thompson, otro sobre Roman Polanski, el de Werner Herzog sobre la Antártida, una versión restaurada de "The Human Condition", de Kobayashi; My Winnipeg", de Guy Maddin; "Savage Grace", de Tom Kalin; "The Visitor", "Trumbo", "Tell No One", mi adorada "La France", y podría seguir. Y eso que se trata del "verano", supuestamente la época más floja para este tipo de cine. Agradezco al BAFICI --y a algunos otros festivales-- haberme hecho evitar la tentación de meterme en el cine.

Strand Bookstore: Lo se, cualquiera que haya ido a Nueva York conocía esta librería de nuevos y usados cercana a Union Square. Yo no. En años anteriores, pasaba gran parte de mi tiempo "de compras" en disquerías y videoclubes (ahora apenas compro discos y casi ningún DVD), por lo que no me quedaba tiempo de recorrer librerías y siempre compraba en tiendas grandes tipo Borders o Barnes & Noble. Ahora, buscar libros (y precios, claro) se ha vuelto a convertir en una simpática tarea, pero este lugar acabó con casi todas las búsquedas, las hizo innecesarias. Entre 3 y 15 dólares podés comprar casi todo lo que se te antoje. Nuevas novelas, viejas, clásicos, no tan clásicos, ficción, no ficción, textos de cine, de música, de lo que venga, siempre a precios ridículos. Me fui de allí con una bolsa llena de libros y gasté apenas 50 dólares. El descubrimiento de Strand --como de muchos de los restaurantes buenos y no zarpados con los precios-- se lo debo a Alex & Eric, una pareja que pasó buena parte de su vida en Nueva York y que hoy vive en Buenos Aires. Sí, también la FlipCam con la que grabé lo que ven abajo, es propiedad de Eric The Filmmaker.

(continuará...)