Nightcap 9/13/15 NYFF plans are up in the air, Why I go to festival public screenings, and Randi's links

With less than two weeks to go until the start of the New York Film Festival things are as ready as they will ever be. I say that with a complete lack of certainty on my part. Oh yes I have press screenings scheduled and I have tickets and I have plans but things are just transpiring around me that have me in a tizzy. It’s just a lot of motion for what seems like not a lot of films/events.

Blame scheduling conflicts. We/I simply can’t be in two places at the same time. Additionally there has to be time to sleep and write. I seriously looked at two days of films and to hell with it I need a night or two off. The way things are scheduled I’m going to be running around as much as last year- I’m just seeing about 20 movies less.

The funny thing is that despite conflicts during the pre-festival press period I’m only missing three maybe four features I wanted to see plus the animated shorts and I suspect I’ll catch those down the road.

The problem with covering this year is that I’m pretty much it. Mondo has a couple of movies (and I’m really pissed that for the first time since the year before we met we’re not seeing a film at NYFF together), Hubert may drop in a review or two and I have some late in the festival stuff I may hand off to others, but mostly it’s me.

If you’re curious what’s going to happen to me as I go through NYFF and NY Comic Con and BAM Next Wave keep reading because this could get real messy.
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I get into discussions with people about why I buy tickets for film festivals, such as New York, when I can go to the press screenings. Most people think I’m daft.

Well there are three reasons why I do it.

With most festivals other than New York when you go to a press screening, you’re just seeing the movie. You are not interacting with the filmmakers and the cast. If you want to see them, say if I wanted to Alice Cooper last year at Tribeca, I had to buy a ticket.

The next reason is that sometimes I can’t make the press screening and if I want to see the film I have to go to the public screening. I am a movie fan first and foremost. My love of all movies is why I do Unseen- and as a fan there are somethings I really want to see so I go.

The last reason I go to public screenings, especially at the New York Film Festival, is things happen. I mean things happen at the screenings that I are the stuff of legend. For example at NYFF I’ve heard the audience plot to kill the director (BLACK VENUS), I’ve seen audience members go apoplectic at a director because he challenged their view of Israel (THE GATE KEEPERS), I’ve watched Abel Farerra and Willem DaFoe take on an audience member about how Passolini  really died (PASSOLINI), and I’ve seen Noah Baumbach tell an incredulous packed house that 95% of WHILE WE ARE YOUNG means nothing and exists only to get us to the end of the film. Things happen at public screenings that can’t be planned for and are completely unexpected.

You have to go to festival screening because only then do you realize how alive going to the movies can be.

Tickets for the New York Film Festival went on sale to the general public this morning- and if you’re smart you’ll try and scarf up some of the remaining one because who knows what will happen.
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And now we close with Links ala Randi with seasoning from others members of the Unseen staff:

How my negative review of Legend was spun into movie marketing gold (via Bully)
The British gangster film and why LEGEND won't be SCARFACE
Cecil Beaton through the decades
Melting snow means the dead are being revealed on mountain tops
Intermission time
this is a very David Renwick, misanthropic murder mystery about disfunctional comedy troupes (Via Reg)
Controversial Logos
Del Toro Tribute
230 MTV station IDs

More from John:
Scientists Go to Hollywood
Although the silver screen may not be known for its scientific accuracy, in recent years Hollywood does seem to have come calling, where science is concerned. A growing number of scientists seem to be taking time out of their day job to advise Hollywood directors and producers on the portrayal of science, and scientists, in some very well known films and TV series.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tj5qk