Claus Mueller

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Established in 1963 by Amos Vogel and Richard Roud this year’s 53rd edition of the New York Film Festival turned out to be a signature cross cultural event. Held at the Lincoln center arts complex it presented a full range of features, shorts and documentaries and special screening events with many film makers and industry specialists present.  Continuing the festival’s long standing tradition no jury judged the productions or provided awards and most film makers were present to discuss their work. Drawing on a captive audience of more than 5000 members of the Film Society of Lincoln Center most public screenings in the four venues of gather festival, the Walter Reade, Alice Tully Hall, and the two screening facilities of the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center were booked out.  This year a larger number of journalists and industry representatives showed up for the press screenings. 

The main slate included 28 features with Miguel Gomes film ARABIAN NIGHTS taking up three slots. The slate had eight films from the USA, five from France, ten co-productions and three from Canada, South Korea and Romania. In the shorts programs part five productions were in the International and five in the new Genre Stories sections, followed by eight in the animation and ten in the New York sections.  In  Special Events  outstanding productions  ranged from a  portrait of   Brian De Palma, the anniversary screening of  the Coen Brothers O BROTHER  WHERE ART THOUGH to  Laszlo Nemes  extraordinary SON OF SAUL selected by the Film Comment magazine. In the fifth edition of Convergence 14 sessions were devoted to screenings, panels, and various interactive experiences, all open to the public at no charge. Cineastes had an appealing menu of Revivals, celebrating the 25^th anniversary of Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, including De Palma’s BLOW OUT, Kurosawa’s RAN,   the magnificently restored HEAVEN CAN WAIT by Ernst Lubitsch, King Hu’s A TOUC H OF ZEN, THE LONG VOYAGE HOME by John Ford, and the rarely screened THE MEMORY OF JUSTICE followed by an enlightening discussion with its director Marcel Ophuls. The growing Spotlight on Documentary part of the program had nine world and North American premieres in addition to 3 released earlier.  The selection included new work by well-known film makers like Laura Poitras, Michael Camerini & Shari Robertson and Frederick Wiseman. Themes ranged from biographical  oriented  productions to  US

immigration conflicts, community representation and investigative reporting.  The Retrospective featured the cinema of Nathaniel Dorsky and Jerome Hiler. In the Projections section the emphasis was placed with international productions on “what the moving image can do and be...drawing on innovative modes and techniques  ...” from experimental narratives to ethnographic studies. Arranged in eleven programs with 27 short and three feature length films and three programs with 9 shorts which were looped continuously free and open to the public on separate days Projections provided a comprehensive overview of cutting edge filmmaking. As in the past three festival editions HBO sponsored daily talks with film makers and industry experts which were free to the public, dialogues which HBO has been sponsoring throughout the year. At the festival the seminars and Q&A discussions included from this year main slate the path breaking directors  Hou Hsiao-hsien (THE ASSASSIN),  Jia Zhangke (MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART), Michael Moore (WHERE TO INVADE NEXT),  Laszlo Nemes (SON OF SAUL) and Todd Haynes (CAROL).  To foster creativity among new film makers and writers the Film Society continued projects started several years ago.  Athina Rachel Tsangari  whose film CHEVALIER  was  selected for the festival  serves as the Filmmaker in Residence this year,  30 promising young film makers participated in seminars with established artists in the two day Artist Academy, and  eight  emerging writers became part of the NYFF Critics Academy  covering the festival under the mentorship of established journalists and other experts.

Among the numerous films which impressed me most were

SON OF SAUL, Laszlo Nemes, Hungary, 2015.  The narrow focus of the film recreates the death factory of Auschwitz, its gas chambers and crematoria, through the experience of Saul, who is a member of the Sonderkommando. It depicts what he sees and his work in the Sonderkommando   with Kapos. He is driven by the quest to get a religious burial for a boy who survived the gas chamber.  In  relatively brief close ups and shallow focus shots the camera records the killing chambers through which Saul moves to find a rabbi. During his search the activities of   commando members forced to herd their fellow Jews into the gas chambers and burn them are presented as is transporting them to be shot when there was no more space for their cremation. Members of the Sonderkommando knew that they will be murdered too thus were the walking dead.  Saul is recruited to help in the preparation for a revolt in early October 1944.  The film is based on extensive research and confronts the viewer with an utterly realistic presentation if the hellish killing chambers, forceful imagery not to be found in any other feature dealing with this topic. In his attempt to secure a proper burial for the boy, Saul shows a moral fiber as do the rebellious member of the camp, a humanity lost to the walking dead forced to kill and the SS and German military running the death factory. Yet the Son of Saul succeeds in conveying the complex interaction between members of the Sonderkommando, Kapos and the SS.

Communication in the film is restricted to a bare minimal exchanges and the multi layered sound track contains only natural elements which are frequently exaggerated. There is no political or historical contextualization of Auschwitz, provided by most other productions on that theme.  The viewer is forced to be become part of the film, an immersion and visceral experience that was one of the principle objectives of the director Laszlo Nemes. The film succeeds with an extra ordinary performance of Geza Rohreig in the role of Saul Auslaender and an uncompromising focus on his mission in the death factory. Giving the boy a proper burial safeguards the element of humanity.

For this viewer Son of Saul created a primal cognitive experience rather than generating an emotional involvement, thus radically differs from other holocaust themed productions such as Schindler’s List. For Laszlo the viewer is not supposed to emerge “safe” from this film. Viewers are engulfed by the color and sound track of the production which in part replace traditional dramatic motions.   As Lazslo explains his low intensity approach shows the everyday life in the factory of death and the simplicity of its operation. There is a sharing of the experience of members of the Sonderkommando rather than imposing an external perspective of the holocaust.  Neither a confessional point of view, identification of the villains or a seduction of the audience prevail.  Being lost in the presentation is part of the viewers’ experience. Lazslo reminds me of Berthold Brecht’s attempt to create through the Verfremdungs Effect (alienation impact) a mode of presentation which prevents the audience from an emotional identification with a play’s or film’s story and character. Son of Saul certainly succeeded in achieving that goal and as his first film it is a stunning achievement for Laszlo Nemes.

CAROL, Todd Haynes, USA, 2015   Carol is a flawless persuasive masterpiece exploring an evolving lesbian relation between a well established upscale suburban married mother, Carol, played by Cate Blanchett, and  Ronney Mara as Therese, an aspiring photographer working as a sales girl in a department store. Carol is alienated from her husband and Therese lives a fairly isolated life without close friends. Set in the early fifties’ prevailing mind set opposing gay behavior which is faithfully rendered by the film, the nuanced rise of their involvement overcoming social and legal obstacles has a compelling appeal.  Both decide to travel together, a journey interrupted by a detective hired by Carol’s husband who has filed for divorce and custody of their daughter. Fearing the consequences Carol terminates their relation yet in a memorable sequence gives up her claim to their child. Both actresses play their roles in an impeccable subdued manner with Therese presenting throughout a formidable somehow detached translucent beauty. Separated from Carol she has become established professional but decides to resume the relation. The attraction is more powerful than the straight life she is leading.

MOUNTAIN MAY DEPART, Jia Zhangke,   China, France Japan, 2015   An outstanding commentary on the development of capitalism in China from 1999 on and  its impact is told through the story of Shen Tao and two friends, Liangzi and Shen who are competing for her. Lianzi is a blue collar mining worker and Shen a business man driven by greed. Strongly influenced by a realistic documentary approach the film maker presents three phases in the life of the protagonists changing for each episode the aspect ratio of the film, from narrow to wide frame. The narrative covers the courtship and the reluctant marriage to the entrepreneur,   Tao’s son Dollar visiting from Hong Kong his divorced mother after 15 years have passed and the final sequence in Australia where Dollar and his father live in a luxury environment. By now Tao supports the treatment of Liangzi who cannot pay the hospital bills, a man who had no future. In Australia Dollar barely speaks Chinese and is totally enstranged from his alcoholic and gun touting father.  In this epic feature we are confronted with a subtle yet obvious indictment of capitalist development in China.  Zhang identifies through his depiction of interposal elations trends that also hold for Western societies. A firm sense of identity is lost in our rapidly changing society where individuals become disconnected from disappearing communities or from families shaped by a consumer defined culture. Communication technologies have changed peoples’ interaction and self-expression by removing elements of authenticity.  From Zhangke’s perspective their sense of history, belonging and intimacy is fading.

THE WITNESS, James Solomon, USA, 2015  Reconstructing  what happened  in the Kitty Genovese case , the widely covered 1964 Queens rape and murder of a young woman, Solomon records the recent attempt of her brother Bill tracking down witnesses, reviewing police records and other evidence  to understand  and recover Kitty’s story.  The Genovese case attracted attention since the New York Times reported that 38 individuals witnessed the crime yet did not act to prevent it. They did not call the police for help withdrawing instead to their apartments. Their reaction reflected urban social disengagement. The documentary provides a compelling refutation of the NY Times story and shows that there were only a couple of people noting the murder who called the police and intervened.  The New York Times investigative report was readily embraced by the public since it fit the popular negative perception of the sixties period of insecurity, of the prevalence and fear of crime, of isolated uncaring individuals and the decline of communities. This context created plausibility for what happened to Kitty Genovese. From a journalistic perspective it generated a story which was too good not to embrace. When the New York Times revisited the story since its accuracy had  been questioned the paper had to admit that its principle points were wrong and that the story had not be vetted thoroughly.  Yet the original story now considered a legend had taken on a power of its own and the counter version did not gain much traction. Still today the original narrative is invoked in discussions of urban alienation and disconnection.  As to the genesis of the original New York Times story which had been strongly supported by the metro editor Blumenthal the rush to publish was probably influenced by the fear of not speaking up, a silence as it had prevailed at the Times during the Holocaust years.

WHERE TO INVADE NEXT, Michael Moore, USA, 2015 Focusing on services and benefits other nations offer which are missing in the United States Moore identifies in his frequently humorous documentation insights into opportunities enjoyed by citizens and the reasons why the United States has fallen so far behind. Here the living standard, satisfaction and expectations are lower and unresolved problems transform the USA into a land of unlimited problems. Thus Moore invades foreign countries to steal their ideas and solutions which could be applied to the problems the USA is facing. In interviews with officials and ordinary people he frequently encounters surprise and disbelief about archaic and regressive US conditions.  In Europe business men invoke the obvious, that the wellbeing of the laborers enhances their productivity as do shorter work weeks. Long legally mandated vacations and supplementary compensations for holidays serve that goal. The same holds for low cost national health care system open all individuals and available in most European countries. Further public education is considers as a right and not an entitlement, thus there are no fees for attending public schools and universities. Among true specific lessons to be learned are Germany coming to terms with its past while the US is reluctant about it. Healthy food that is served without the option of coca cola in a French school cafeteria is less expensive than US school food; Finland rose to the first rank in international school comparisons after abandoning competitive tests and ratings of their students. Obsession with tests is rather common in the United States, which now holds the 29^th rank. Portugal has embraced for the last 15 years a policy of decriminalizing drugs since addiction is considered a health issues. By now there are virtual no drug problems in that country.  Providing an effective equal role to women Iceland enjoyed considerable economics growth over the last years and successfully prosecuted male senior executives for causing the bankruptcy of Iceland’s major banks.  

As in past editions the New York Film Festival is successfully expanding offering a wide range of programs and special events satisfying the needs of a faithful audience.

Claus Mueller

filmexchange@gmail.com