The Close-up

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a programmers preview of the 27th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, the celebrated annual festival that exemplifies the variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking, co-presented with UniFrance and taking place now through March 13. Join programmers Florence Almozini, Maddie Whittle, and Adeline Monzier in a preview of this year's impressive lineup where they discuss their favorite films, hidden gems, and more. Get tickets, explore the full lineup, filmmaker Q&As, and free live talks at filmlinc.org/rdv22.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a programmers preview of the seventh edition of Neighboring Scenes, the annual wide-ranging showcase of contemporary Latin American cinema featuring established auteurs as well as fresh talent from the international festival scene. The preview is led by Cinema Tropical programmers Carlos A. Gutiérrez and Cecilia Barrionuevo. Featuring premieres and filmmaker Q&As, Neighboring Scenes takes place from February 24 - 28. Go to filmlinc.org/NS2022 for showtimes and tickets. Following the preview is a special conversation from our To Sir, With Love free screening about the legacy of Sidney Poitier and the figure of the Black movie star with scholars Racquel Gates and Michael Gillespie, moderated by filmmaker and critic Tayler Montague.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a programmer's preview of our Jonas Mekas Retrospective with FLC Jr. Programmer Dan Sullivan, followed by a Q&A from the 59th New York Film Festival with Flee director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, moderated by NYFF Director Eugene Hernandez. Few if any figures in the history of New York City film culture have left as large a mark as that of the Lithuanian filmmaker, critic, and poet Jonas Mekas. Rising to notoriety in the 1950s and ’60s as a champion of and mouthpiece for the New American Cinema, he founded and presided over such stalwart fixtures of the underground and avant-garde film scenes as Film Culture magazine, the Filmmakers’ Cinematheque, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, and Anthology Film Archives. But he was also one of the 20th century’s most vital film artists, a master cine-diarist and something like a present-tense historian who documented the particulars of emigrant life in New York City. Featuring 16mm screenings, our Jonas Mekas Retro

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a Q&A from our sneak preview of The Worst Person in the World with director Joachim Trier and actors Anders Danielsen Lie and Renate Reinsve, moderated by FLC’s Director of Programming Dennis Lim. As proven in such exacting stories of lives on the edge as Reprise and Oslo, August 31, Norwegian director Joachim Trier is singularly adept at giving an invigorating modern twist to classically constructed character portraits. Trier catapults the viewer into the world of his most spellbinding protagonist yet: Julie, played by Cannes Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve, who’s the magnetic center of nearly every scene. After dropping out of pre-med, Julie must find new professional and romantic avenues as she navigates her late-twenties, juggling emotionally heavy relationships with two very different men (Trier regular Anders Danielsen Lie and engaging newcomer Herbert Nordrum). Fluidly told in 12 discrete chapters, Trier’s film elegantly depicts the

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a talk from Camera Man: Dana Stevens on Buster Keaton, a recent FLC event celebrating the new book from author and Slate film critic Dana Stevens, moderated by writer Imogen Sara Smith and FLC Programming Assistant Maddie Whittle. The conversation ranged from the two authors’ love of Buster Keaton, the evolution of the filmmaker’s filmography, the perception of masculinity in Charles Reisner’s Steamboat Bill, Jr., and the legacy of Keaton in Hollywood and beyond. Dana Stevens’s new book Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century and Imogen Sara Smith’s Buster Keaton: The Persistence of Comedy are both available for purchase.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special talk from the 59th New York Film Festival with directors Maggie Gyllenhaal & Kira Kovalenko moderated by Maddie Whittle, NYFF Talks programmer, and translated by Sasha Korbut. Roiling currents of familial and feminist rebellion connect two extraordinary films in the NYFF59 lineup. In Spotlight selection The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s electrifying directorial debut, a reluctant mother is haunted by a crisis in her past, while in Main Slate highlight Unclenching the Fists, the searing sophomore feature from Russia’s Kira Kovalenko, a daughter strains against the domestic tyranny of her father. Featuring powerhouse performances and distinctive visual vocabularies, both films offer a layered yet urgent examination of the societal and patriarchal expectations that constrain their independent-minded protagonists. This special conversation brought the two directors together to discuss their respective forays into filmmaking, the pro

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a Q&A with Italian Studies director Adam Leon, moderated by David Fear, Senior Editor and critic at Rolling Stone. From award-winning filmmaker Adam Leon, Italian Studies is a lyrical film about dislocation, connection, and the elusive nature of identity. While visiting New York City from her native London, writer Alina Reynolds, played by Academy Award®-nominee Vanessa Kirby, inexplicably loses her memory and suddenly becomes unmoored and adrift on the streets of Manhattan with no sense of time or place — or even her own name. As Alina’s consciousness swings between imagined conversations, fragments of her own short stories and the bustling city around her, she finds an anchor in charismatic teenager Simon (Simon Brickner). Drawn to the lost woman, Simon soon introduces Alina to his free-spirited group of friends, and together they make their way through a disorienting cityscape full of life, beauty, and music. With an evocative score from Nic

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a Q&A from the 59th New York Film Festival with Belle director Mamoru Hosoda, moderated by NYFF Programmer Rachel Rosen, and translated by Mikey McNamara. In his densely beautiful, eye-popping animated spectacle, Academy Award–nominated director Mamoru Hosoda tells the exhilarating story of a shy teenager who becomes an online sensation as a princess of pop. Still grieving over a childhood tragedy, Suzu has a difficult time singing in public or talking to her crush at school, yet when she takes on the persona of her glittering, pink-haired avatar, Belle, in the parallel virtual universe known as the “U,” her insecurities magically disappear. As her star begins to rise, Belle/Suzu finds herself drawn to another “U” fan favorite—a scary but soulful monster whose “real” identity, like Belle’s, becomes a source of fascination for legions. Both a knowing riff on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale and a moving commentary on the duality of contempora

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special talk from the 59th New York Film Festival with Memoria director Apichatpong Weerasethakul. For over two decades, Apichatpong Weerasethakul has been celebrated as one of world cinema’s most original auteurs, with films that constantly refract and reinscribe the contours of narrative, reality, and temporality. His new feature—which comes six years after 2015’s Cemetery of Splendour (NYFF53)—reaffirms his peerless status even as it takes the Thai auteur into uncharted territory: Memoria is Apichatpong’s first film set outside of Thailand, in Colombia; his first English- and Spanish-language venture; and his first outing with a bona fide international star, Tilda Swinton. We were thrilled to welcome the filmmaker for a deep-dive conversation about his extraordinary oeuvre and the elliptical novelties and familiar mysteries of his latest masterwork. Moderated by novelist Katie Kitamura. NYFF Talks were presented by HBO.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring an incredibly special talk from the 59th New York Film Festival with Pedro Almodóvar, Penélope Cruz, and Milena Smit on Parallel Mothers, moderated by NYFF Director of Programming Dennis Lim. In this contemporary melodrama, two women, a generation apart, find themselves inextricably linked by their brief time together in a maternity ward. The circumstances that brought them to the Madrid hospital are quite different—one accidental, the other traumatic—and a secret, hiding the truth of the bond that connects these two, is a powerful story that tackles a deep trauma in Spanish history. Penélope Cruz’s Janis is a uniquely complex, flawed, but ultimately alluring lead character, who finds herself in a morally and emotionally treacherous situation. She’s viewed in contrast with Ana, radiantly portrayed by newcomer Milena Smit, a discovery who brings a palpable innocence, pain, and longing to this interwoven portrait of women and motherhood. These c

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special talk with The Rescue co-directors E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, moderated by Film at Lincoln Center Executive Director Lesli Klainberg. The Rescue chronicles the enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand. Academy Award-winning directors and producers E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin keep viewers on the edge of their seats as they use a wealth of never-before-seen material and exclusive interviews to piece together the high stakes mission, highlighting the efforts of the Royal Thai Navy SEALs and US Special Forces and details the expert cave divers' audacious venture to dive the boys to safety. The Rescue brings alive one of the most perilous and extraordinary rescues in modern times, shining a light on the high-risk world of cave diving, the astounding courage and compassion of the rescuers, and the

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special talk with filmmakers Jane Campion and Sofia Coppola from the 59th New York Film Festival. Following her Best Director win at this year’s Venice Film Festival, Jane Campion returned to NYFF with her first feature since 2009’s Bright Star: The Power of the Dog, the Centerpiece selection of NYFF59. Known for her incisive portraits of womanhood, Campion turns her lens to masculinity in this new film, which adapts Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name. The results are thrilling: The Power of the Dog is a mesmerizing, psychologically rich variation on the American western, and a compassionate examination of repressed sexuality and the fragility of patriarchy. We were thrilled to welcome the legendary New Zealand director for an extended conversation with filmmaker Sofia Coppola about this latest entry in Campion’s masterful, decades-spanning career. The Power of the Dog is now playing on Netflix. NYFF Talks were presented by HBO.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a Q&A with Louverture Films co-producers Danny Glover and Joslyn Barnes, moderated by FLC’s Director of Programming Dennis Lim. Following a screening of Abderrahmane Sissako’s Bamako, the opening night film of our week-long Danny Glover and Louverture Films series, the co-producers discussed the history of the production company, collaborating with directors, and how the landscape of international cinema has changed over the years. Danny Glover and Louverture Films features 14 films from around the world and celebrates the work of the actor, activist, and groundbreaking production company. Now playing through December 7. For tickets, showtimes, and the full lineup, go to filmlinc.org/glover.

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special talk from the 59th New York Film Festival with Drive My Car director, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, moderated by filmmaker Matías Piñeiro. Making his return to NYFF with not one but two Main Slate selections, Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi affirms his stature as a true rising star of world cinema, and one of the foremost chroniclers of the ebbs and flows of human relationships. With Drive My Car and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy—a pair of vividly realized and ceaselessly surprising emotional epics—Hamaguchi demonstrates his singular talent for tracing the intricate workings of the heart amid the perennial paradoxes of modern life. Inspired by a Haruki Murakami short story, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi spins an engrossing, expansive epic about love and betrayal, grief and acceptance, charting the unexpected, complex relationships that a theater actor-director forges with a trio of people out of professional, physical, or psychological necessity. Drive

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a remote live Q&A from the 59th New York Film Festival with Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn director Radu Jude, moderated by NYFF Director of Programming Dennis Lim. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn opens Friday, November 19. Get tickets: https://www.filmlinc.org/banging The targets are wide, the satire is broad, and every hit lands and stings in Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude’s angry, gleefully graceless Golden Bear winner from this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Evoking the unsanitized provocations of the great Dušan Makavejev in his prime, Jude crafts an invigorating, infuriating film in three movements that grows in both power and absurdity, centering around the trials of a teacher (Katia Pascariu) at a prestigious Bucharest school whose life and job are upended when her husband accidentally uploads their private sex tape to the internet for all to see. Jude has no compunction about shocking and skewering in his quest to toy with contemporary soc

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a Q&A from the 59th New York Film Festival with What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? director Alexandre Koberidze, moderated by NYFF Director of Programming Dennis Lim. Among contemporary cinema’s most exciting and distinctive new voices, Georgian director Alexandre Koberidze has created an intimate city symphony like no other with his latest film. Beginning as an off-kilter romance in which footballer Giorgi and pharmacist Lisa are brought together on the streets of Kutaisi by chance, only to have their dreams complicated when they become victims of an age-old curse, What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? continues to radically and pleasurably shape-shift. Ultimately it becomes a lovely portrait of an entire urban landscape and the preoccupations—and World Cup obsessions—of the people who live there. Koberidze has made an idiosyncratic epic out of passing glances that feels as free and fulsome as a fairy tale. What Do We See When We Look

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special Q&A from the 59th New York Film Festival with filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, the director of two NYFF59 selections, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Drive My Car. Hamaguchi sat down with Film Comment's Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish following the premiere of Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. In this altogether delightful triptych of stories, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi again proves he’s one of contemporary cinema’s most agile dramatists of modern love and obsession. Whether charting the surprise revelation of a blossoming love triangle, a young couple’s revenge plot against an older teacher gone awry, or a case of mistaken romantic identity, Hamaguchi details the sudden reversals, power shifts, and role-playing that define relationships new and old. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is both ironic and tender, a lively and intricately woven work of imagination that questions whether fate or our own vanities decide our destinies. Hamaguchi’s second 2021 re

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special  Q&A from the 59th New York Film Festival with filmmaker Joanna Hogg and NYFF Director of Programming Dennis Lim. Grieving and depleted from the tragic end of a relationship with a boyfriend who had suffered from drug addiction, young Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) summons the emotional and creative fortitude to forge ahead as a film student in 1980s London. Continuing the remarkable autobiographical saga she had begun in 2019’s The Souvenir, British director Joanna Hogg (a filmmaker of unceasing visual ingenuity and sociological specificity) fashions a gently meta-cinematic mirror image of part one, cutting to the quick in one surprising, enthralling idea after another. A film about finding one’s artistic inspiration and individuality that avoids every possible cliché, The Souvenir Part II is a bold conclusion to this story of unsentimental education, told with the filmmaker’s inimitable oblique poignancy, and featuring a mesmerizing su

This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re featuring a special talk from the 59th New York Film Festival between filmmakers Mia Hansen-Løve & Joachim Trier. With their respective NYFF59 Main Slate selections Bergman Island and The Worst Person in the World, Mia Hansen-Løve and Joachim Trier achieve new creative heights in their parallel trajectories as the preeminent European filmmakers of their generation. Both artists have spent the last 15 years interrogating, with great compassion, the moral and emotional crosscurrents that undergird human behavior, and their latest films refine these inquiries with an invigorating reflexive frankness. The two writer-directors came together for a conversation about their influences and inspirations; their distinctively personal and philosophical approaches to cinematic storytelling; and the endlessly generative themes of romantic ambivalence and evolving self-knowledge that animate their new films. Bergman Island is now playing in our theaters, for showti

Welcome to the Film at Lincoln Center podcast! On the final episode of our daily NYFF59 edition, NYFF Director Eugene Hernandez sits down with director Denis Villeneuve and composer Hans Zimmer to discuss Dune, a selection in the Spotlight section of this year’s festival. A mythic and emotionally charged hero’s journey, Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, who must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet’s exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence—a commodity capable of unlocking humanity’s greatest potential—only those who can conquer their fear will survive. Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Chang Chen, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem lead the all-star ensemble in v