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New York Film Festival · 2020

New York Film Festival 2020

Revivals

Programme

10 films · 5 reviews

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The Chess Game Of the Wind

A noble family’s matriarch passes away, kindling tensions new and old among her heirs.

(Country: Iran; Year: 1976; Director: Mohammad Reza Aslani; Writer: Mohammad Reza Aslani; Stars: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Shahram Golchin, Mohamad Ali Keshavarz, Fakhri Khorvash, Hamid Taati, Akbar Zanjanpour, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Shahram Golchin, Mohamad Ali Keshavarz, Fakhri Khorvash, Hamid Taati, Akbar Zanjanpour)

Damnation (Kárhozat)

Review preview for Damnation

The drab decay, no less moral than material, of both Karrer and the town that he haunts is so beautifully composed that no cinephile will begrudge Tarr the occasional longueur.

Anton Bitel · 4 out of 5
Study of a man and his obssession with a bar singer.

(Country: Hungary; Year: 1988; Director: Béla Tarr; Writer: Lászlo Krasznahorkai, Béla Tarr, from a story by Lászlo Krasznahorkai; Stars: Miklós B Széleky, Vali Kerekes, Hédy Temessy, György Cserhalmi, Gyula Pauer)

Full review

Flowers of Shanghai

Chamber drama that follows the intertwined fortunes and intrigues of four “flower girls” who work in the brothels of Shanghai in the 1880s.

(Country: Taiwan, Japan; Year: 1998; Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien; Writer: Eileen Chang, Chu T'ien-wen, Han Bangqing; Stars: Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, Michiko Hada, Michelle Reis, Carina Lau, Jack Kao, Rebecca Pan, Vicky Wei, Hsuan Fang, Annie Shizuka Inoh, Ming Hsu, Josephine A. Blankstein, Pauline Chan, Simon Chang, Tony Chang, Shui Chit Cheung)

The Hourglass Sanatorium (Sanatorium pod klepsydra)

Review preview for The Hourglass Sanatorium

In the Seventies, films like this had the status of arthouse. Now that CGI is sexier than life and you are only a multiplex away from Action City, they look like leftovers from an intellectual’s doodle.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 2 out of 5
A young man searches through delapidated dreamscapes for his dead/live father.

(Country: Poland; Year: 1973; Director: Wojciech Has; Writer: Wojciech Has, based on stories by Bruno Schulz; Stars: Jan Nowicki, Tadeusz Kondrat, Irena Orska, Halina Kowalska, Gustaw Holoubek, Mieczyslaw Voit, Bozena Adamek, Janina Sokolowska, Ludwik Benoit, Henryk Boukolowski, Seweryn Dalecki)

Full review

In The Mood For Love

Review preview for In The Mood For Love

The film is so subtle and slow and internalised that it crystalises into a thing of beauty.

Angus Wolfe Murray · 3 out of 5
The history of a love affair that never was.

(Country: France / Hong Kong; Year: 2000; Director: Wong Kar Wai; Writer: Wong Kar Wai; Stars: Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Rebecca Pan, Lai Chen, Siu Ping-lam)

Full review

Muhammad Ali, The Greatest

Review preview for Muhammad Ali, The Greatest

William Klein’s incomparable documentary is much more than a boxing film.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Portrait of the boxer.

(Country: France; Year: 1974; Director: William Klein)

Full review

Simone Barbes Or Virtue (Simone Barbès ou la vertu)

Drama based around an evening in the life of Simone and Martine, usherettes at a porno cinema.

(Country: France; Year: 1980; Director: Marie-Claude Treilhou; Writer: Michel Delahaye, Marie-Claude Treilhou; Stars: Ingrid Bourgoin, Martine Simonet, Michel Delahaye, Sonia Saviange, Max Amyl, Noël Simsolo, Myren Astree, Hélène Banvile, Nella Barbier, Pierre Belot, Pascal Bonitzer, Paulette Bouvet, Pierrot Chevalier, Philippe de Poix, Yvonne Décade)

Smooth Talk

Review preview for Smooth Talk

It is comforting to keep in mind that the devil cannot cross your threshold without an invitation.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
A free-spirited teenager has an encounter with a dangerous man.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 1985; Director: Joyce Chopra; Writer: Tom Cole, based on the story by Joyce Carol Oates; Stars: Treat Williams, Laura Dern, Mary Kay Place, Margaret Welsh, Sara Inglis, Levon Helm, Elizabeth Berridge, Geoff Hoyle, William Ragsdale, David Berridge, Cab Covay, Michael French, Joy Carlin, Mark McKay, Carl Mueller)

Full review See: Conversation with Laura Dern, Joyce Chopra and Joyce Carol Oates about Smooth Talk

Xiao Wu

A pickpocket tries to break with his criminal past.

(Country: China, Hong Kong; Year: 1998; Director: Jia Zhangke; Writer: Jia Zhangke; Stars: Wang Hongwei, Hao Hongjian, Baitao Zuo)

Zero For Conduct (Zéro de conduite)

Students at a boys' school rebel.

(Country: France; Year: 1933; Director: Jean Vigo; Writer: Jean Vigo; Stars: Jean Dasté, Robert le Flon, Du Verron, Delphin, Léon Larive, Madame Émile, Louis de Gonzague, Raphaël Diligent, Louis Lefebvre, Gilbert Pruchon, Constantin Goldstein-Kehler, Gérard de Bédarieux, Georges Belmer, Georges Berger, Pierre Blanchar)