The Films of the 33rd New York Film Festival

SHANGHAI TRIAD
THE WHITE BALLOON
DISCOVERING MAX LINDER
GEORGIA
DEAD PRESIDENTS
FLAMENCO
SIXTEEN OH SIXTY
THE NEON BIBLE
KICKING AND SCREAMING
LAMERICA
FLIRT
LAND AND FREEDOM
GOOD MEN, GOOD WOMEN
GUIMBA
STRANGE DAYS
THE CONVENT
FORTUNE SMILES
THE SON OF GASCOGNE
A CINEMA OF UNEASE and CITIZEN LANGLOIS
AVANT GARDE VISIONS
FROM THE JOURNALS OF JEAN SEBERG and JOY STREET
CYCLO
LA HAINE
THE CELLULOID CLOSET
THE FLOWER OF MY SECRET
THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE
THE ROSSELLINI WAR TRILOGY: OPEN CITY, PAISAN and GERMANY YEAR ZERO
CARRINGTON

THE WHITE BALLOON
The probable audience favorite at Cannes this year and the winner of the Camera d'Or was this delightful, suspenseful, and insightful-Iranian comedy, written by the great Abbas Kiarostami (Through the Olive Trees) and directed as a first fea '-iure by his former assistant Jafar Panahi. The plot, which unfolds in continuous real time -suitable for all ages and full of unexpected twists and developments -- follows the urban adventures of a seven-year-old girl who loses her money to purchase a goldfish just before the New Year's Day ceremonies. Exquisitely crafted -- a cinematic Persian miniature. 85 minutes. Iran, 1995. An October Films Release.
30A. Sat. September 30 at 12:30 pm 1C. Sun. October 1 at 7:15 pm

DISCOVERING MAX LINDER
To Chaplin he was "the Professor," and a key influence; to the rest of the world he was the inscrutable Max, top-hatted and debonair, (almost) always managing to wiggle his way out of even the most compromising situations. This tribute to the screen's first comic genius -- featuring recently rediscovered and restored films -- will be presented by his daughter, Maud Linder, and accompanied on keyboard by Jean-Marie Senia. A New York Film Festival Retrospective. 90 minutes. France, 1909-14.
30B. Sat. September 30 at 3:30 pm

GEORGIA
In what will surely become a legendary performance, Jennifer Jason Leigh throws herself headlong into the role of Sadie, a furiously dedicated yet marginally talented bar-band singer in America. A walking (or, more often, reeling) example of the drawbacks of perseverance, Sadie can't give up -- in part because her beloved sister Georgia (Mare Winningham) has had the effrontery to become a pop-music star. Directed by Ulu Grosbard from a script by Barbara Turner (Petulia), Georgia is a true rarity -- a star vehicle that's been written and cast so expertly that it feels like an ensemble production. 113 minutes. France/USA, 1995.
30C. Sat. September 30 at 6:00 pm 1D. Sun. October 1 at 9:45 pm

DEAD PRESIDENTS
The Hughes brothers, Albert and Allen, made their powerful debut with Menace // Society. Now they look back to a time just before they were born -- the Vietnam era -- in this taut and beautifully shot epic about an 1 8year-old from the Bronx (Larenz Tate) who enlists in the Marine Corps, experiences the horrors of 'Nam, and returns, without honor, to a neighborhood that has become its own war zone. The violence is in your face, Hughes style; what's new is the-depth of all the characters caught in a struggle for survival in a disintegrating world. Written by Michael Henry Brown, this is a rare movie from Hollywood, a tragedy without villains. 120 minutes. USA, 1995. A Hollywood Pictures Release.
30D. Sat. September 30 at 9:00 pm 1A. Sun. October 1 at 1:30 pm

FLAMENCO
Ably aided by the great cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, director Carlos Saura -- a master of dance and film -- creates a brilliant tapestry of color, sound and movement in this spectacular homage to the most famous of Spanish dances. Emphasizing the mixture of Gypsy, Arab, Jewish and Latin elements that is flamenco, both in song and dance, the film also serves as a celebration of a truly popular culture in an increasingly homogeneous world. 100 minutes. Spain, 1995.
1 B. Sun. October 1 at 4:30 pm

SIXTEEN OH SIXTY
In this astonishing debut feature, S5o Paulo director Vinicius Mainardi takes on the Brazilian class struggle with a vengeance -- sparing no one. No good deed goes unpunished when Vittorio, a wealthy and corrupt businessman, takes into his household a poor family left fatherless by murder gone awry. With high style and with a distinct nod to Luis Buiiuel, Mainardi has created a black comedy of manners amongst the oppressors and the oppressed. On one hand there is the savagery of Vittorio, on the other, as Gore Vidal defined it, is "the awful tyranny of the weak". 87 minutes. Brazil, 1995.
2A. Mon. October 2 at 6:00 pm 3B. Tues. October 3 at 9:00 pm

THE NEON BIBLE
A postcard-colored, CinemaScope dream of a movie, which effortlessly floats through the moods and memories of its central character, The Neon Bible calls up visions of a small Southern town in the 1 930's and '40s. A young boy feels there must be more to life; his gaudy, boozing, show-biz-loving Aunt Mae, the resplendent Gena Rowlands, becomes his symbol of that something more. Directed by Terence Davies with the same magical touch he brought to Distant Voices, Still Lives and based on the novel by John Kennedy Toole. 92 minutes. UK, 1995.
2B. Mon. October 2 at 9:00 pm 3A. Tues. October 3 at 6:00 pm

KICKING AND SCREAMING
Post-graduation angst is what drives this smart, romantic comedy by first time director Noah Baumbach. Four young men try to chart their futures with varying degrees of uneasiness while their formidable girlfriends move ahead with considerably more confidence. As they move in small concentric circles, Baumbach allows us to know his affable characters and to be amused by them, until finally we find kinship with them and with a generation still straining to find a new voice. 96 minutes. USA, 1995. A Trimark Pictures Release.
4A. Wed. October 4 at 6:00 pm 5B. Thurs. October 5 at 9:00 pm

LAMERICA
Gianni Amelio tells the story of two Italian con-artists who enter Albania to set up a fake company in order to glean government subsidies. One of the pair, Gino, is forced to cross this devastated country in pursuit of their Albanian connection, a feeble-minded prisoner taken out of a labor camp. Each day of Gino's odyssey sucks him into a downward spiral in which he loses his identity-and merges with thousands of refugees struggling to reach Italy, the land of promise. A deeply moving study of the chaos of a new Europe. 116 minutes. Italy, 1995. A New Yorker Films Release.
4B. Wed. October 4 at @.-OO pm 5A. Thurs. October 5 at 6:00 pm

FLIRT
Long Island's own Hal Hartley goes global with a story about love and indecision in New York, Berlin and Tokyo. Or is this three stories? In each city, it seems, there's a flirt who can't quite settle down; there are telephones and guns, people who are owed money and people who need a ride to the airport. And there's always someone ready to say, "Your problems are trivial." But those problems become more heartfelt as they travel the world, more open to the audience's sympathy -- just as Hartley's deadpan, chatty style has opened up in this, his most imaginative and accomplished work to date. 85 minutes. USA/Germany/Japan, 1995.
6A. Fri. October 6 at 6:00 pm 7E. Sat. October 7 at 11:30 pm

LAND AND FREEDOM
In a bold departure from his usual English working-class terrain, Ken Loach takes an epic look at the Spanish Civil War. Ian Hart plays an idealistic young Liverpool communist who joins the Republican forces to fight Fascism, only to discover that his Stalinist allies pose an equal threat to his ideals -- and his life. This is Loach's most ambitious, searingly emotional movie, but he hasn't forsaken his gift for intimate and thornily honest observation. 109 minutes. UK/Spain, 1995. A Gramercy Pictures Release.
6B. Fri. October 6 at 9:00 pm 7A. Sat. October 7 at 1 1:00 am

GOOD MEN, GOOD WOMEN
The masterful, self-sufficient conclusion of Hou Hsiao-hsien's epic trilogy about 20th century Taiwan (after A City of Sadness and The Puppetmaster) focuses on a young, contemporary film actress, haunted by her own past and preparing to star in a film about "The White Terror," Taiwan's anticommunist witch hunts of the early '50s. Alternating between color and black and white, memory and imagination, this visually exquisite and emotionally profound meditation on history sends off ripples in every direction. 108 minutes. Taiwan, 1995.
7B. Sat. October 7 at 2:00 pm

GUIMBA
An ancient and exotic African kingdom is the site of this giddy and gorgeous bedroom farce by Mali director Cheick Oumar Sissoko. The tyrant Guimba rules from his luxurious mud palace and is surprised when his dwarf son spurns his beautiful fiancde, Kani, preferring her hefty mother, Meya. Guimba's efforts to remove Meya's husband and move Kani into his own bedroom drives his subjects to rebellion. Part metaphoric parable celebrating a popular uprising against a fierce despot, and part romp, this dazzling spectacle could be a turning point in African cinema. 93 minutes. Mali/Burkina Faso/France, 1995.
7C. Sat. October 7 at 5:00 pm 8B. Sun. October 8 at 6:00 pm

STRANGE DAYS
Festival Centerpiece. Los Angeles, New Year's Eve, 1999. As the millennium approaches, hustler Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) feeds his clients the new drug of choice, called "the wire" -- hits of forbidden clips that plunge the user into the ultimate movie: someone else's experience. The city, fraught with racial tension, is filled with .'playback" junkies, hooked on surrogate sex, thrills and violence. Kathryn Bigelow's apocalyptic thriller, written by James Cameron and Jay Cocks, conjures up a demonic prophecy of our near future, luring the viewer into a self-reflexive hall of mirrors. Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, and Tom Sizemore are along on this wild ride. 145 minutes. USA, 1995. A 20th Century Fox Release.
7D. Sat. October 7 at 8:00 pm 8A. Sun. October 8 at 2:00 pm

THE CONVENT
John Malkovich and Catherine Deneuve star as an American professor and his wife researching the supposed Sephardic origins of William Shakespeare. The trail leads to the library of an ancient, isolated convent inhabited by the mysterious, black-garbed Baltar and the library's beautiful archivist; together, the four engage in a macabre danse that crosses the barriers between faith and disbelief, religion and science, good and evil. This haunting, complex new work by octogenarian Manoel de Oliveira (Valley of Abraham) is never less than ravishing. 90 minutes. Portugal/France, 1995.
8C. Sun. October 8 at 9:00 pm

FORTUNE SMILES
(LE FRANC and AUGUSTIM). Two comedies about remarkable, sudden reversals of fortune. In Djibril Diop Mambety's delightful, magical Le Franc, an out-of-work musician plans to retrieve his instrument from his exasperated landlady by winning the lottery. Full of the unpredictable humor and plot twists that have made Mambety one of Africa's most influential filmmakers. 46 minutes. Senegal/Switzerland, 1 994. A California Newsreel Release. In Augustin, a file clerk in charge of brain deaths for a small insurance company has his dreams of movie stardom rudely interrupted when he's actually asked to audition for a major part. Directed by Anne Fontaine. 61 minutes. France, 1 995. A Kino International Release.
9A. Mon. October 9 at 6:00 pm

THE SON OF GASCOGNE
The life of a Parisian tour guide (including his love life) suddenly moves into high gear when a conniving chauffeur passes him off as the son of a late, legendary New Wave filmmaker. He's introduced to many key figures of that era, all of them playing themselves in delightful cameos. A French movie with wisdom and heart as well as nostalgia, this touching romantic comedy introduces writer-director Pascal Aubier as a talent to reckon with. 104 minutes. France, 1995.
9B. Mon. October 9 at 9:00 pm 1OA. Tues. October 10 at, 6:00 pm

A CINEMA OF UNEASE and CITIZEN LANGLOIS
Two witty and agreeably flaky personal essays about film history, brimming with pungent clips and personalities. The first is an autobiographical account of the cinema of New Zealand by one of its key actors, Sam Neill. 53 minutes. New Zealand/UK, 1995. A Miramax Release. The second film is a portrait by Edgardo Cozarinsky of Henri Langlois, the passionate and unruly founder of the Cindmathbque Fran(;aise, for whom cinema was the ultimate nationality. 65 minutes. France, 1995.
10B. Tues. October 10 at 9:00 pm

AVANT GARDE VISIONS
This year's selection includes Matthias MCiller's Alpsee (1 4 minutes, Germany, 1994), in which found footage and staged scenes combine to create a surrealistic portrait of a boy, his mother and their too-perfect 1 960's house; Takashi lto's Zone (1 3 minutes, Japan, 1 995), an exquisitely crafted reflection on the boundaries separating light, matter and motion; and River Colors (60 minutes, Germany, 1994) Christoph Janetzko's sensuous tour past the houseboats on a river in Thailand. Shot and edited to give the feeling of a continuous take, River Colors unrolls like a cinematic equivalent of Monet's Water Lilies panorama -- but Water Lilies in which people's daily lives become part ofthelandscape.
11A. Wed. October 11 at 6:00 pm

FROM THE JOURNALS OF JEAN SEBERG and JOY STREET
From the Journals of Jean Seberg is a haunting, multifaceted fictional essay as well as a daring piece of speculative film criticism and social history built around a teasing void by American independent Mark Rappaport (Rock Hudson's Home Movies). Mary Beth Hurt stars as the enigmatic title actress of Bonjour Tristesse and Breathless, presiding over her own clips as she puzzles over the anomalies of her own life and career, not to mention those of Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. 97 minutes. USA, 1995. To be shown with Suzan Pitt's dazzling animated short Joy Street. 24 minutes. USA, 1995.
11B. Wed. October 11 at 9:00 pm

CYCLO
Tran Anh Hung's second film is a triumphant confirmation of the talent displayed in The Scent of the Green Papaya. Shot in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) it tells of a young, orphaned rickshaw driver whose vehicle is stolen. Forced to pay off his debt to his boss, he's drawn into a world of gangs and crime, while his sister goes to work as a prostitute. Ravishing, violent and overwhelmingly tactile, this disturbing portrait of post-war Vietnam is the work of a filmmaker whose sensuous images and fluid camera work rivals the young Bertolucci. 117 minutes. France/Vietnam, 1995.
12A. Thurs. October 12 at 6:00 pm 14C. Sat. October 14 at 5:00 pm

LA HAINE
Already recognized as a landmark in French cinema and honored at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival (where Mathieu Kassovitz won the award for best director) La Haine is the story of three young men from the housing projects outside Paris, one of whom has gotten his hands on a stray gun. He's determined to use it, too, sometime during a 24hour period when his friends' conflicts with the police are rising to a boil. Stylish, nervy and often rudely fun, this is one of this year's freshest and most urgent films. 95 minutes. France, 1 995. A Gramercy Pictures Release.
12B. Thurs. October 12 at 9:00 pm 14B. Sat. October 14 at 2:00 pm

THE CELLULOID CLOSET
Inspired by the late Vito Russo's groundbreaking study of Hollywood's portrayal of homosexuality in the movies, Oscar-winning documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (Common Threads) have created a smart, deliriously entertaining history of the lethal stereotypes, sly subtexts and subversive messages that have flickered across the screen from the silent era to the New Queer Cinema. Lily Tomlin narrates this liberating romp, filled with incisive interviews with the likes of Gore Vidal, Tony Curtis, Susan Sarandon, Armistead Maupin and John Schlesinger. 102 minutes. USA,1995.
13A. Fri. October 13 at 6:00 pm 14E. Sat. October 14 at 12:00 am (midnight)

THE FLOWER OF MY SECRET
Pedro Almodovar's marvelous story of lost love and solitude is told with a deeply felt compassion and humanity which resonates through his powerful characters. Leo (Marisa Paredes) writes romance novels but as a result of her collapsing marriage her writing has gone from pink to black. Told with Almodovar's customary wit and verve and replete with lush color upon color -- this film dazzles the eye while warming the heart. With a hilarious turn by Chus Lampreave and Rossy de Palma as Leo's constantly bickering mother and sister. 100 minutes. Spain, 1995.
13B. Fri. October 13 at 9:00 pm 14A. Sat. October 14 at 11:00 am

THE GATE OF HEAVENLY PEACE
In the spring of 1989, students and workers occupied Beijing's Tiananmen Square and the world watched China struggle with this wrenching upheaval in the name of democracy. Directors Carma Hinton and Richard Gordon, after years of meticulous research and interviews, reveal the complexity of the event which, tragically, led to a deepening of political repression. The filmmakers explore the power struggles amongst the protesters, the presence and importance of both intellectuals and rock stars in their midst, detailed accounts of shifting government policy -- all evidence which sheds new light on one of the most significant political events of our century. 180 mins. USA, 1995.
14D. Sat. October 14 at 8:00 pm

THE ROSSELLINI WAR TRILOGY: OPEN CITY, PAISAN and GERMANY YEAR ZERO
Unquestionably among the most influential films ever made, these three masterworks by Roberto Rossellini -- heralded for their use of non-actors, real locations and a fresh, freer approach to cinematic storytelling -- not only revolutionized filmmaking; they are also among the greatest artistic reflections on World War 11 and the European postwar experience. Our way of celebrating the birth of the "modern cinema." Italy. A Cinecitta International Restoration.
SEATING UNRESERVED. 15RA. Open City: Sun. October 15 at 2:00 pm in Walter Reade Theater 15RB. Paisan: Sun. October 15 at 5:00 pm in the Walter Reade Theater 15RC. Germany Year Zero: Sun. October 15 at 7:30 pm in the Walter Reade Theater

CARRINGTON
Painter Dora Carrington (Emma Thompson) caught the fancy of Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce) the first time he saw her. There was one snag: the homosexual writer thought she was a boy. So begins one of the most convoluted and unconventional love stories of the Bloomsbury era -- a passionate bond that would survive even the amorous complications of a menage a trois, quatre and cinq. With delicious wit, playwright turned director, Christopher Hampton ("Les Liaisons Dangereuses") plumbs the emotional depths of these literate bohemians improvising a brave new sexual world. As the brilliant, acerbic Strachey, Pryce walked off with the Best Actor prize in Cannes. 123 minutes. UK, 1995. A Gramercy Pictures Release.
15. Sun. October 15 at 8:30 pm in AFH