FILM
The 2009 New York Film Festival
/ Benjamin Strong
09.24.09
When the lineup was announced in August for the 47th New York Film Festival—which opens today at Lincoln Center—some cinephiles expressed concern that the choices were a little too safe, conservative, and predictable.
“I’ve heard good things about this The Wizard of Oz film,” quipped TimeOut New York’s Joshua Rothkopf, who wasn’t exactly joking. This year’s program does in fact include a 70th anniversary restoration of Victor Fleming’s 1939 classic. (Dark Side of the Rainbow?, now that would have been an inspired choice.) Rothkopf and other naysayers of the 2009 schedule were reacting not just to the obviousness of Oz, but to a roll call of usual suspects (Michael Haneke, Catherine Breillat, Pedro Almodóvar) who have become overly familiar at NYFF and who aren’t exactly cutting edge. Still, the word your Fanzine correspondent would use to describe this year’s NYFF slate—and I mean this as a major compliment—is hardcore.
“I’ve heard good things about this The Wizard of Oz film,” quipped TimeOut New York’s Joshua Rothkopf, who wasn’t exactly joking. This year’s program does in fact include a 70th anniversary restoration of Victor Fleming’s 1939 classic. (Dark Side of the Rainbow?, now that would have been an inspired choice.) Rothkopf and other naysayers of the 2009 schedule were reacting not just to the obviousness of Oz, but to a roll call of usual suspects (Michael Haneke, Catherine Breillat, Pedro Almodóvar) who have become overly familiar at NYFF and who aren’t exactly cutting edge. Still, the word your Fanzine correspondent would use to describe this year’s NYFF slate—and I mean this as a major compliment—is hardcore.