PrintThe 2009 New York Film Festival knows what’s best for you. Featuring films crafted by our most intelligent and creative filmmakers, as well as—in this year’s case—some of today’s oldest, the annual event has unequivocally made a name for itself on the festival circuit. But whether the films shown at the festival are the movies people really want to see is a matter of heated debate.
Festival selection committee member and film critic Dennis Lim succinctly presents the festival’s intent: “For the New York Film Festival we’re making a statement. We’ve done the choosing for you and we’re saying that these are the films that we think are important this year in world cinema,” he says.
In addition to a strong slate that includes a strengthened nonfiction film section, impressive up-and-coming new talent, and the return of a few old masters of cinema, Lim points out that this year, NYFF also has “a few films that are going to be quite provocative and challenging.”
The festival’s five committee members, most of whom are critics, do what they do best when choosing the lineup—they dictate what is “good.” But in today’s consumer culture, where “bigger is better” has become the entertainment industry’s mantra, film festivals are becoming accustomed to showing hundreds of films in a matter of days to appeal to broader tastes. With this in mind, why should students pay attention to NYFF, which not only screens a paltry amount of films in comparison to other film festivals, but also shows movies that often challenge viewers rather than entertaining them?
Lim insists that a festival’s quality does not lie in numbers. “I think it’s very hard to compare the NYFF with Tribeca or Toronto or a festival that is on that scale, really, just in terms of the number of films,” he says. “The New York Film Festival has always been a highly curated festival. We are presenting no more than 30 features this year, and I think if you go to Tribeca or Toronto you have a couple of hundred films … They necessarily serve very different functions.”
“Curated” is an apt descriptor for NYFF, which aligns itself much more heavily with art than entertainment. The historic festival, which has been renowned for its selective and academic nature since its inception in 1963, has kept its positive reputation by bringing auteur cinema, classic film, and unique independent movies to New York’s eager cinema audience. This year’s lineup is no different, featuring hotly debated films like Lars von Trier’s incendiary “Antichrist” and “Precious,” 2009’s “little film that could.” The latter is taking festivals by storm and has already won awards at both the Sundance and Toronto film festivals.
Columbia students love having intellectual and entertaining pursuits available in the city, but on campus there’s been a surprisingly lackluster response to this year’s festival. To one student, it boils down to cold, hard cash. “I was considering not going because of the ticket price,” says Jin Chen, a Columbia College sophomore.
When asked about NYFF ’09, the students of one Columbia film history course simply stared blankly, or ignored the question entirely. They were asked for their views and if they were attending the festival, but not one student raised a hand to offer an opinion. Someone from the crowd did indicate why he wouldn’t be attending, though: as he said, “The tickets are expensive; I don’t have money for that!”
Spending $20 a ticket for regular screenings—or $40 for the red carpet opening, closing, and centerpiece showings—is a bit of a stretch for any student. Thankfully, the festival has been working to be more monetarily accessible. One hour before each screening, 50 tickets will be released to students for only $10. The average movie ticket at the AMC up the street costs over two dollars more. Additionally, a greater total number of tickets will be available: “You don’t have to make sure you get your tickets the first day they go on sale,” says Lim. “There will be more tickets available the day of the screening.”
More theoretical problems of accessibility have often come up while discussing NYFF. Another reason that Columbia students aren’t flocking to Lincoln Center for the festival could be because most are under the impression that the fest’s films are abstruse and dull, totally perplexing to those who don’t obsessively pore over movie history. Festivals like Tribeca publicize themselves as events held for the people—a claim that NYFF has never made, with good reason. Lim dismisses the topic of “accessbility” altogether by calling the term “kind of a loaded word.”
Igor Simic, a Columbia College junior and a film student who has not been deterred from attending the festival, commends NYFF’s innate intelligence and complexity in an e-mail. He actually prefers NYFF over other festivals: “Viewing a film at the NYFF is a chance to see and experience a different artistic view of the world,” says Simic. “The selected films deal with specific subjects that can be interesting and useful to anyone. I believe that auteur film serves the viewers—it does not deceive, but it penetrates issues, offering an emotional and intellectual experience. Take advantage of New York City and its festivals.”
Despite any preconceived notions of the NYFF’s lofty reputation, this year’s festival slate is truly a sight to behold. Lim claims that the festival’s organizers did not make a “conscious decision to pick difficult or easy films … I think for people who do follow world cinema, there are a lot of very familiar names in this lineup.” Those familiar names include Pedro Almodóvar (“Broken Embraces”), Lars von Trier (“Antichrist”), Michael Haneke (“The White Ribbon”), and many more. Alongside the features are an avant-garde mini festival, discussion panels with directors, a 70th anniversary showing of “The Wizard of Oz,” and a screening of the first known Korean film, 1934’s “Crossroads of Youth.”
Still, the festival is by no means distancing itself from its roots in auteur and classic cinema. Three of the most noted directors showing films at the festival this year are over eighty years old. New Wave veterans Alain Resnais (“Wild Grass”) and Jacques Rivette (“Around a Small Mountain”) are still going strong. Lim defends their work, explaining, “The Resnais is really a lot fresher and riskier than you would expect from a man in his 80s, while the Rivette film has this kind of serene bittersweet quality … They’re two very different kinds of late works.”
Lim also highlights the remarkable Manoel de Oliveira (“Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl”), who at 101 years old is still actively making films. As Lim proudly notes, “He’s almost as old as the medium itself.” In this sense, the New York Film Festival will never change; there will always be a place at NYFF for film lovers to pay their respects to those who were pioneers of the art form.
The 2009 New York Film Festival is sure to be an education for those who attend—and in the best way possible. The cinematic quality of every film on the schedule reflects NYFF’s mission to, as Lim puts it, make “a statement about what’s important, what people should be paying attention to.” Truly, because of its impressive slate, this year’s New York Film Festival is certain to succeed at doing what every great festival aspires to: creating a passionate discourse among its attendees. The films shown at NYFF are key to the history and future of film. Just as Columbia appreciates the classics and honors them with the Core Curriculum, the New York Film Festival is an institution that knows how to honor cinema.