I posted the following to Twitter:
Why do I write reviews of smaller films? Why do I care less about the big Hollywood films? Because I am bothered when other people don't look at the films and because I occasionally get emails that say this: "You are the only one who wrote the review for us"
The email that excerpt was part of kind of gutted me. Actually any time I get an email like that- and I get a few a year- I am crushed because always it’s in regard to a film that if it was actually seen would lead to big things- but there isn’t anyone out there beating the drum and blowing the horns.
People need to see this films and get word out.
Because people the people who should be searching out the small and off the beaten path films, say critics and big festivals, I get angry. I get angry because the one who should be celebrating the whole world of cinema are only looking at a small part.
Which brings me to my next topic…..
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"The festival’s ambition is to reflect the state of cinema in a given year, which often means also reflecting the state of the world.” ..."The most notable thing about the films in the Main Slate—and in the other sections that we will announce in the coming weeks—is the degree to which they emphasize cinema’s relationship to reality.” ..."[These films] in the Main Slate are reminders that, in the hands of its most vital practitioners, film has the capacity to reckon with, intervene in, and reimagine the world.” - Dennis Lim, NYFF Artistic Director #NYFF62
The New York Film Festival is doing it again and programming the 19th and 20th films in 20 years (the 7th and 8th films in just the last 4 years) from director Hong Sangsoo for this year’s festival. For those keeping score the previous darling of the festival, Jean Luc Godard, has had 25 film in 62 festivals.
What is pissing me off about this is that there are so many people who are out there making great films but NYFF won’t play even one because they need another two slots for Sangsoo films. What is particularly galling is that Dennis Lim said he wants o highlight filmmakers re-imaging the world and yet he insists on playing every film he can from a man who has said himself that he is basically making films that are simply variations of the same story. Hong Sangsoo's world is only as big as a severely diminished navel.
I’ve never seen anything like it.
Once the titles were announced most people I know groaned- not so much at a Sangsoo film being included but rather this being the fourth year in a row with two films in the festival.
In all seriousness – no one- and I do mean no one is so good as to get two films in each of four consecutive festivals.
What is puzzling is that some of his recent films don’t feel like films but more like sketches. They are short pieces of a tale, not a whole thing. They feel like he was working on something and just filmed the workshop. (I’d say which one but I can’t tell his films apart any more)
While I can forgive the fact that the festival is focusing on name directors and films in order to butts in seats (Last year at a screening of Planet Janet Dennis Lim said that the only reason the film was at the festival was that director Annie Baker was a name- with her standing in the wings waiting to come out) I really can’t see playing everything he does – especially since he isn’t like say director Jee-woon Kim who for the longest time was trying not to revisit the same genre or Spielberg or Scorsese who vary up what they are doing, he is just remaking the same film over and over again
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Bitching aside the announced tiles for NYFF are pretty good and I’m shaking my head because I don’t know if I’m going to get to everything I want to.
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What of Unseen in the next few weeks?
I am technically on a semi-vacation. I’m only picking the things I want to cover. No offense to any PR people and filmmakers I’m fried. Where last year I wasn’t aware of what was going on, this year I am and so its working to prevent me just walking away.
While the Big Bad Film Fest and Fright Fest coverage winds down there will be coverage of some new releases.
There will be coverage of Venice, Toronto, NYFF, Fantastic Fest, Camden and a few others. I’m not sure how things will shake out because there are some wild card things involved.
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I have written a piece that is, nominally, on the mess with Neil Gaiman, but it really seeks to ponder if we should just flush all the art disgraced artist create instantly or wait to put some distance to it before we decide.
I’ve gotten some great feedback on it, and one question was raised about something in it that is making me want to revisit it before I post it.
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