2005 NYFF Good Night, and Good Luck Regular Lovers The Death of Mr. Lazarescu Methadonia L'Enfant (The Child) Avenge But One of My Two Eyes Bubble The Squid and the Whale I Am Capote Something Like Happiness Sympathy for Lady Vengeance Manderlay Tale of Cinema Breakfast on Pluto Through the Forest The President's Last Bang Who's Camus Anyway? Three Times Paradise Now Tristram Shandy Gabrielle The Sun The Passenger Cache (Hidden) Special Events Ticket Information Press Office		The 43rd New York Film Festival September 23 - October 9,2005 Sponsored by Sponsored by HSBC Private Bank, a division of HSBC USA, N.A., The New York Times, and Audi
			The President’s Last Bang Bursting with the subversive glee of Dr. Strangelove or The Manchurian Candidate, Im Sangsoo’s scabrous black comedy turns a raucous eye on recent South Korean history:  the 1979 assassination of dictatorial president Gen. Park Chung-hee by the head of his secret service (wonderfully played by Baek Yun-shik). Im is a natural-born troublemaker who’s not shy about being irreverent toward this defining event in the creation of a democratic South Korea. He gives it a wild spin, conjuring a world populated by self-loathing functionaries, good-time girls (and their difficult mothers), cynical KCIA agents, and politicians who womanize as if every bang is their last. The film provoked enormous controversy in its home country—Park’s family even sued to keep archival footage out of the film. But in treating the assassination as a grandiose farce, Im captures a profound truth often left out of academic textbooks:  History isn’t neat.  104 min.  South Korea, 2005  A Kino International Release. * Director expected to attend. Shown with Machulenco (David Blanco, Spain, 2004, 15 min). An Argentine writer, facing execution under a military dictatorship, is granted one last wish. Click here to watch select short films from the 43rd New York Film Festival, available exclusively online at NYTimes.com