Film at Lincoln Center Podcast

The 61st edition of the New York Film Festival kicked off on Friday, September 29 with the North American premiere of May December, directed by Todd Haynes. From the sensational premise born from first-time screenwriter Samy Burch’s brilliant script, director Todd Haynes (Safe, Carol) has constructed an American tale of astonishing richness and depth, which touches the pressure and pleasure points of a culture obsessed equally with celebrity and trauma. Boasting a trio of bravura, mercurial performances by Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, and Charles Melton, May December is a film about human exploitation, the elusive nature of performance, and the slipperiness of truth that confirms Todd Haynes’s status as one of our consummate movie artists. A Netflix release. Opening Night of NYFF61 is presented by Campari. Listen to the press conference featuring Haynes, Burch, and producers Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler, Jessica Elbaum, and Sophie Mas as they discuss May December. Don’t forget to mark your calendars: May December opens at FLC on November 17 and on Netflix December 1. Tickets to the New York Film Festival are moving fast! Get up-to-date information on all available tickets on a daily basis by visiting filmlinc.org/tix.

This week we're excited to present a Programmers Preview of NYFF61 with NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim, Revivals Programmer Dan Sullivan, Currents & Shorts Programmer Tyler Wilson, and Talks programmers Devika Girish and Madeline Whittle. Opening with the North American premiere of Todd Haynes’s May December, this year’s festival will feature screenings across New York City’s five boroughs, free talks with your favorite filmmakers, stimulating panel discussions, trivia nights, and much more. Learn more at filmlinc.org/nyff

This week we’re excited to present a conversation with director Yui Kiyohara, whose new film, Remembering Every Night was a 2023 New Directors/New Films selection that is now playing at Film at Lincoln Center along with the filmmaker’s first feature, Our House. And, if you purchase a ticket to one Yui Kiyohara film, receive a ticket to the other free! A film that moves on the rhythms of a gentle breeze, Yui Kiyohara’s follow-up to her acclaimed Our House is an evocatively quotidian film that’s as mysterious and beautiful as everyday life itself. Kiyohara immerses viewers in the quiet pursuits of several women, including a wandering university student, a helpful neighborhood meter reader, and a middle-aged gentle soul seeking employment but finding herself agreeably lost instead. Their paths converge or just miss one another over the course of a single sunny afternoon, captured by Kiyohara with calming long takes and the occasional drifting camera that seems to have a perspective all its own. Remembering Every Night is a treasure of unconventional filmmaking that abounds with simple pleasures, reminding the viewer of the fragility of time, happiness, and love.

Film critic Darcy Paquet and series co-curators, Korean Film Archive's Young Jin Eric Choi and Subway Cinema's Goran Topalovic, discuss the scathing critique of postwar reconstruction in the South Korean classic film Aimless Bullet from 1961. They also explore the challenges faced by filmmakers and the newfound freedom of speech in 1960s Korean cinema. The speakers delve into the regulations imposed by the government in the 1960s and the diverse genres in Korean cinema during that period. They also highlight the historical significance of 'A Woman Judge' directed by Holan Wan.

This week we’re excited to present an archival conversation with The Human Surge director Eduardo Williams. Eduardo Williams’s latest film,The Human Surge 3, will make its U.S. Premiere as the Opening Night selection in the Currents section of the 61st New York Film Festival. A twenty-something in Argentina loses his warehouse job. Boys in Mozambique perform half-hearted sex acts in front of a webcam. A woman in the Philippines assembles electronics in a small factory. The Human Surge, a Projections selection of NYFF54, features Eduardo Williams’s inquisitive camera in constant motion in, as are his rootless characters, who wander aimlessly, make small talk, futz with their phones, and search for a working Internet connection. Unfolding within the unfree time between casual jobs, this wildly original rumination on labor and leisure in the global digital economy seems to take place in both the immediate present and the far horizon of the foreseeable future. This conversation was moderated by NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim.

This week we’re excited to present an archival conversation with Saint Laurent director Bertrand Bonello and cast members Gaspard Ulliel & Aymeline Valade. Bertrand Bonello’s latest film, The Beast, will make its U.S. Premiere at the 61st New York Film Festival in this year’s Main Slate. Saint Laurent, which had its North American premiere at the 52nd New York Film Festival in 2014, is a different kind of biopic, focusing on a particularly hedonistic time in the life of legendary fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. The film playfully warps and obscures the passage of time, which results in a delirious viewing experience. Anchored by an enigmatic performance by Gaspard Ulliel, the fashion icon becomes a myth, a brand, and an avatar of his era. This conversation was moderated by NYFF Artistic Director Dennis Lim.

This week we’re excited to present an archival conversation between journalist & author Min Jin Lee and Drive My Car director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, whose new film, Evil Does Not Exist, will make its U.S. premiere as a Main Slate selection of the 61st New York Film Festival. Inspired by a Haruki Murakami short story, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi spins an engrossing, rapturous epic about love and betrayal, grief and acceptance. With his characteristic emotional transparency, Hamaguchi charts the unexpected, complex relationships that theater actor-director Yûsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) forges with a trio of people out of professional, physical, or psychological necessity: his wife, Oto (Reika Kirishima), with whom he shares an erotic bond forged in fantasy and storytelling; the mysterious actor Takatsuki (Masaki Okada), whom he’s drawn to by a sense of revenge as much as fascination; and, perhaps most mysteriously, Misaki (Tôko Miura), a plaintive young woman hired by a theater company, against his wishes, to be his chauffeur while he stages Uncle Vanya. Hamaguchi specializes in revelations of the heart, and Drive My Car—a beautiful melding of two distinct authorial sensibilities—consistently steers clear of the familiar in its characters’ journeys towards self-examination. Winner of Best Screenplay at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

This week we’re excited to present a conversation with director Ira Sachs, whose new film, Passages, is currently playing in our theaters. A masterful work of psychosexual intensity, the newest film from Ira Sachs offers one of the director’s most cutting variations on desire and intimacy. Co-written by author and longtime collaborator Mauricio Zacharias, Passages follows Tomas (Franz Rogowski), a mercurial German filmmaker living in Paris whose commitment to his husband, Martin (Ben Whishaw), falls short when he pursues a dalliance with a young schoolteacher, Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos). Martin begins his own affair soon after, while Tomas swings between both relationships and unleashes a reckless succession of breakups and makeups. With fearless performances from Rogowski, Whishaw, and Exarchopoulos, Sachs crafts a cinematic rarity in which the white-hot pleasures and compulsions of a particularly dysfunctional amour fou are kept on par with ferocious honesty. This conversation was moderated by film critic, Esther Zuckerman.

This week we’re excited to present a conversation with director Sofia Coppola, whose new film, Priscilla, will make its North American premiere as the Centerpiece selection of the 61st New York Film Festival on October 6th. In this archival conversation with Coppola, the director discusses her 2013 film, The Bling Ring. Co-starring Emma Watson and Leslie Mann, The Bling Ring tells the story of a group of teenagers obsessed with fashion and celebrity that burglarize celebrities' homes in Los Angeles. Tracking their targets' whereabouts online, they break-in and steal their designer clothes and possessions. Reflecting on the naiveté of youth and the mistakes we all make when young, amplified by today's culture of celebrity and luxury brand obsession, we see through the members of the Bling Ring temptations that almost any teenager would feel. What starts out as teenage fun spins out of control and leaves us with a sobering view of our culture today. This conversation was moderated by former Director of the New York Film Festival, Kent Jones. This conversation was sponsored by HBO.

Director Todd Haynes discusses his mid-90s film Safe, exploring its portrayal of the AIDS epidemic and the unique depiction of suburban Los Angeles. They talk about the importance and complexity of the film, the challenges faced in financing and casting, and the stylistic inspiration and themes of the movie. They also discuss the setting of the film and the influences that led to its creation, including the prevailing New Age, self-help, self-blame doctrine of the 1980s. Additionally, they mention two films that were initially considered to be shown alongside Safe, highlighting their connection to suburban contemporary life.