Film at Lincoln Center Podcast

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 Retrospective takes place from February 17th to 23rd.  In the Academy Award-nominated Flee, Amin’s life has been defined by escape from a young age. Forced to leave his home country of Afghanistan with his mother and siblings after the U.S.-supported mujahideen toppled the government, Amin relocated to Russia as an adolescent, only to take part in a dangerous migration to Western Europe as a teenager to break away from the harsh conditions of post-Soviet living. Now that Amin is planning to marry a man he met in his new homeland, Denmark, he begins to look back over his life, opening up about his past, his trauma, the truth about his family, and his acceptance of his own sexuality. Using animation as both an aesthetic choice and an ethical necessity (to hide Amin’s true identity), Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary is an illuminating and heartrending true story about the importance of personal freedom in all its meanings. Flee, an NYFF59 selection is now streaming.

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 precarity of identity and the mutability of happiness in our runaway contemporary world. Now nominated for Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards, the NYFF59 selection is playing daily in our theaters. This Valentine’s Day, watch The Worst Person in the World with the best person in the world—buy one ticket, and get one 50% off. The discount will automatically be applied in the cart on filmlinc.org/worst.

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 process of realizing their vividly drawn yet enigmatic heroines, and the use of fiction to transcend an untenable status quo. NYFF Talks were presented by HBO.

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 Nicholas Britell, Italian Studies also stars Simon Brickner, Annika Wahlsten, Annabel Hoffman, Maya Hawke and Fred Hechinger. Italian Studies is now playing in theaters. This talk was first available to FLC patrons and members, who play such a vital role in all we do. If you're interested in supporting FLC by becoming a member and exploring member benefits, visit filmlinc.org/members.

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 contemporary living, Belle is a thrilling journey into the matrix and a deeply human coming-of-age story, packed with unforgettable images and dazzlingly styled characters. Belle is now playing in theaters.

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 charismatic stars inhabit characters who are singular among those drawn by Almodóvar in a career defined by striking portraits of women. Parallel Mothers opens in our theaters on December 24, with a sneak preview the night of December 23. For tickets and showtimes, go to filmlinc.org/parallel.

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 shared humanity of the international community that united to save the boys. This talk was first available to FLC patrons and members, who play such a vital role in all we do. If you're interested in supporting FLC by becoming a member and exploring member benefits, go to filmlinc.org/members.

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.