“Mother” dances in New York

The 47th New York Film Festival (NYFF), held from September 25 to October 11, ended with director Pedro Almodovar's film “Broken Embraces”. This year’s festival, which showed 29 films from 17 countries, featured a special showing of silent film “Crossroads of Youth” by Korean filmmaker Kim Tae-yong which invited its narrator Cho Hee-bong, a small band and some singers to the event -- drawing much attention from the New Yorkers. Some of the comments from people who watched “Crossroads” included “The cinematography was very sophisticated for a film made in the 30s” and that “the narrator’s narration was very entertaining”. Due to everyone’s busy schedules, the “Crossroads” team only had a brief rehearsal on set before the day of showing but the response from the audience at NYFF was so positive that they had a second showing at Yale University.

In addition, the film “Mother”, which was selected for the finals, attracted a huge crowd which filled up the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center where the festival was held. During the Q&A session after the showing, the audience asked various and detailed questions such as the meaning of the dance shown at the beginning and end of the movie, the reason one mother asked an inmate in prison if he “has any parents” and how the music was chosen for the film. Director Bong Joon-ho introduced music director Lee Byung-woo as “a very famous guitarist in Korea who worked on my last film ‘The Host’”. He also confessed that “we get into monstrous fights when we work together but I think something creative comes out of that process.” Both films, “Crossroads” and “Mother”, drew positive reactions but the subtitle and interpretation for the movies left much disappointment.

This year’s NYFF opened with famous French director Alain Resnais' new film “Wild Grass”. The director Resnais himself, along with actors Andre Dussollier and Mathieu Amalric delighted fans by attending the fest. In addition, director Lee Daniels’ “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire”, which won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, was also shown to the audience. Set in one of the slums of New York's neighborhoods during the late 80s, “Precious” is about a sixteen-year-old girl finding confidence and standing on her own feet after being sexually molested by her parents. In particular, actress Mo'Nique’s portrayal of the girl’s cruel mother drew talk of an Academy Award nomination while the film also drew attention for Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz playing supporting roles in the film.

Other films shown at the festival included: director Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon”, which won the Palme d’Or at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival and was invited to the 14th Pusan International Film Festival; “Antichrist” by Lars von Trier, “Life During Wartime” by Todd Solondz, “Bluebeard” by Catherine Breillat, “Independencia” by Raya Martin, “White Material” by Claire Denis and “Everyone Else” by Maren Ade “Lebanon” by Samuel Maoz.

However, this year’s NYFF received criticism that not only were most of the films invited already shown and awarded at other international festivals, but they were also dark and cruel. This year's films in particular were accused of being selected by critics, not curators, of the festival. In the past, NYFF was a good opportunity for curious movie fans in New York to approach films that were not very accessible. But this year, it was disappointing that many of the movies seemed to demand “only positive reactions” because they had already been selected at other film festivals.

Reporter: Yang Ji-hyun (10Asia New York Correspondent)
Editor : Lynn Kim lynn2878@asiae.co.kr, Jang Kyung-Jin three@10asia.co.kr