The New York Film Festival turns 40 this year with more style and grace than its Toronto and Cannes counterparts. There’s no Ken Park or Irreversible on the agenda, but New Yorkers will get an early look at the Vatican’s latest whipping post, Peter Mullan’s The Magdalene Sisters. No Gerry, Spider, or Far from Heaven either, but three of this year’s four American entries are of equal repute: Paul Schrader’s Auto Focus, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love and Alexander Payne’s About Schmidt.
Bowling for Columbine also failed to make the cut though two other non-fiction entries look to overwhelm the predominantly French contingency. The Film Society of Lincoln Center heralds Jennifer Dworkin’s Love and Diane as the “Moby-Dick of drug addiction, welfare and a certain kind of agonizing experience in America” while André Heller and Othmar Schmiderer’s Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary will sift through memories of Hitler and his Reich by way of the Führer’s private secretary, Traudl Junge. Pedro Almodóvar’s Talk to Her will close the fest on a moving note.
Please check back on a daily basis as a synopsis and full review of each festival film will be added to Slant Magazine’s ongoing coverage. The 40th New York Film Festival will run from September 27 to October 13, 2002. For more information please check the festival’s main program. Ed Gonzalez
• About Schmidt (Alexander Payne)
• Auto Focus (Paul Schrader)
• Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary (André Heller and Othmar Schmiderer)
• Bloody Sunday (Paul Greengrass)
• Chihwaseon (Im Kwon-taek)
• Divine Intervention (Elia Suleiman)
• Friday Night (Claire Denis)
• Love and Diane (Jennifer Dworkin)
• The Magdalene Sisters (Peter Mullan)
• The Man Without a Past (Aki Kaurismäki)
• Monday Morning (Otar Iosseliani)
• My Mother’s Smile (Marco Bellocchio)
• Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson)
• Russian Ark (Aleksandr Sokurov)
• Safe Conduct (Bertrand Tavernier)
• The Son (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne)
• Springtime in a Small Town (Tian Zhuangzhuang)
• Talk to Her (Pedro Almodóvar)
• Ten (Abbas Kiarostami)
• To Be and to Have (Nicolas Philibert)
• Turning Gate (Hong Sang-soo)
• The Uncertainty Principle (Manoel de Oliveira)
• Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhang-ke)
• Waiting for Happiness (Abderrahmane Sissako)
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