Film Comment Selects 2014

The 14th edition of Film Comment magazine’s essential and eclectic feast of cinephilia presents 22 discoveries and rediscoveries, 17 of them New York premieres, and nine without U.S. distribution, handpicked by the magazine’s editors after scouring the international festival circuit in 2013.

Lineup

The 14th edition of Film Comment magazine’s essential and eclectic feast of cinephilia presents 22 discoveries and rediscoveries, 17 of them New York premieres, and nine without U.S. distribution, handpicked by the magazine’s editors after scouring the international festival circuit in 2013.

Our Sunhi

Hong Sang-soo

DCP
Our Sunhi

2013|

South Korea|

88 minutes|

Korean with English Subtitles

A former film student awakens romantic longing in three men who cross her path in this acutely observed take on misread behavior, indecision, and awkward interchanges between the sexes from one of cinema’s undisputed masters of moral comedy.

Me and You

Bernardo Bertolucci

DCP
Me and You

2012|

Italy|

103 minutes|

Italian with English Subtitles

Free reception for ticket holders with food and wine courtesy of the Italian Wine Commission in the Furman Gallery starting at 7:00pm!

A teenager from a well-to-do-family tries to escape the outside world by shutting himself in his mother’s basement, but finds himself sharing the space with his heroin-addicted older half-sister in Bertolucci’s first Italian-language feature in 32 years.

Betrayal

David Jones

35mm
Betrayal

1983|

UK|

95 minutes

Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley, and Patricia Hodge star in this rarely screened adaptation of one of Harold Pinter’s greatest plays, a semi-autobiographical portrait of an adulterous affair.

Blood Glacier

Marvin Kren

HDCam
Blood Glacier

2013|

Austria|

98 minutes|

German with English Subtitles

Scientists researching climate change at a research base in the German Alps discover a mysterious substance leaking from a glacier containing micro-organisms that can infect multiple hosts, and soon do, in this over-the-top creature feature for the Global Warming age.

Cannibal

Manuel Martín Cuenca

DCP
Cannibal

2013|

Spain|

116 minutes|

Spanish with English Subtitles

The blunt title of this quietly disturbing, creepily atmospheric, and deeply perverse character study of a small-town tailor who forms a connection with his “masseuse” neighbor won’t prepare you for the slow and mesmerizingly deliberate experience in store for you.

Cherchez Hortense

Pascal Bonitzer

DCP
Cherchez Hortense

2012|

France|

100 minutes|

French with English subtitles

Jean-Pierre Bacri and Kristin Scott Thomas are together at last in this old-school relationship movie by frequent Rivette and Ruiz screenplay collaborator and ex–Cahiers du cinéma critic Pascal Bonitzer, an underrated filmmaker in his own right.

City of Pirates

Raúl Ruiz

35mm
City of Pirates

1983|

France / Portugal|

111 minutes|

French with English subtitles

Funny, frightening, and enigmatic, this rarely screened film by the late Raúl Ruiz is like a cross between Peter Pan and Friday the 13th as told through a wildly baroque visual style that suggests a collaboration between Georges Méliès and Sergio Leone.

Enemy

Denis Villeneuve

DCP
Enemy

2013|

Canada / Spain|

90 minutes

In his second collaboration with Villeneuve, Jake Gyllenhaal gives his best performance to date as both Adam, a reserved and humorless history professor, and Anthony, an animated and cocksure bit-part actor who catches the academic’s eye due to their alarming resemblance.

Fat Shaker

Mohammad Shirvani

DCP
Fat Shaker

2013|

Iran|

85 minutes

In this singular and cryptic film from a subversive new voice in Iranian cinema, an obese con man uses his attractive deaf-mute son to extort money from predatory women looking for a boy-toy—until one of his marks makes herself at home, with unexpected consequences.

Felony

Matthew Saville

DCP
Felony

2013|

Australia|

105 minutes

Moral dilemmas abound in this tense police drama starring Tom Wilkinson and Joel Edgerton, who also wrote the screenplay, another knockout from the Australian production collective behind Animal Kingdom.

Healthcare Mayhem: The Carey Treatment + The Hospital

1971 & 1972|

USA|

204 minutes

Suspicion abounds in this month’s Film Comment Double Feature of two early-1970s medical gems: The Carey Treatment, an elaborately plotted mystery thriller starring James Coburn, and The Hospital, a blackly comic drama by Network writer Paddy Chayevsky.

Flesh of My Flesh

Denis Dercourt

DCP
Flesh of My Flesh

2013|

France|

76 minutes|

French with English subtitles

Director Denis Dercourt in person for Q&A!

An unsettling and strikingly oblique psychological horror film that gives new meaning to the term “motherly love,” Flesh of My Flesh takes us into the schizoid reality of a woman whose young child has a rare medical condition that requires a highly unusual diet.

Ghosts

Christian Petzold

35mm
Ghosts

2005|

Germany|

85 minutes|

German with English subtitles

The spectral figures of Christian Petzold’s Ghosts are young nomads on the margins of Europe’s economy, two women drifting between foster homes and menial jobs who forge an ambiguous but tender alliance.

The Hypnotist

Lasse Hallström

DCP
The Hypnotist

2012|

Sweden|

122 minutes|

Swedish with English subtitles

Hallström returns to his native tongue for the first time in 25 years for this twisty, visually striking Nordic noir about a psychologist (the great Mikael Persbrandt) who’s lured back into hypnotism—a practice he’d sworn off—to help solve a horrific crime.

Intruders

Noh Young-seok

Intruders

2013|

South Korea|

99 minutes|

Korean with English subtitles

Director Noh Young-seok in person on February 20!

This twisty, blackly comic suspense thriller from South Korea follows a screenwriter who rents a winter cabin in a remote country backwater to concentrate on his latest project, but finds himself surrounded by a colorful and noisy cast of characters.

Metro Manila

Sean Ellis

DCP
Metro Manila

2013|

UK / Philippines|

115 minutes|

Tagalog with English subtitles

In this Sundance Audience Award winner, a family of poor rice-farmers travels from the desolate mountains to bustling Manila in the hopes of making some money, only to discover that the exploitation they faced at home is nothing compared to what greets them in the big city.

DCP
The Sacrament

2013|

USA|

95 minutes

Director Ti West in person for Q&A!

Indie horror specialist Ti West adopts a first-person found-footage approach, with his usual flair and assurance, for this story of a Jim Jones–type religious cult that will stick in your mind long after the credits roll.

Top of the Lake

Jane Campion

Top of the Lake

2013|

New Zealand|

342 minutes

Elisabeth Moss is a detective who investigates the disappearance of a 12-year-old girl in New Zealand in this thrilling, seven-episode television series, perhaps the toughest, wildest drama Campion has ever made.

We Are the Best!

Lukas Moodysson

DCP
We Are the Best!

2013|

Sweden|

102 minutes|

Swedish with English subtitles

Best-friends Klara and Bobo defy the stifling conformity of their adolescence by joining forces with a Christian classmate to form a punk-rock band in early-1980s Stockholm.

The Weight

Jeon Kyu-hwan

DCP
The Weight

2012|

South Korea|

107 minutes|

Korean with English subtitles

This exquisitely shot, one-of-a-kind tale centers on a sickly hunchbacked mortician who takes pride and pleasure in cleaning and dressing the dead and his burdensome younger stepbrother, who wants nothing more than to be a woman.

Wolfsburg

Christian Petzold

35mm
Wolfsburg

2003|

Germany|

90 minutes|

German with English Subtitles

A self-absorbed luxury car salesman flees the scene of an accident that injures a young boy. But when he meets the boy’s supermarket-worker mother (Nina Hoss), he becomes embroiled in a melodrama of lies, romantic obsession, and simmering class conflict.

The 14th edition of Film Comment magazine’s essential and eclectic feast of cinephilia presents 22 discoveries and rediscoveries, 17 of them New York premieres, and nine without U.S. distribution, handpicked by the magazine’s editors after scouring the international festival circuit in 2013. This year’s awesome, mind-melting lineup covers the entire cinematic spectrum from genre movies to art-house whatsits to long-unseen revivals and includes new films by Bernardo Bertolucci, Hong Sang-soo, Lukas Moodysson, and Lasse Hallström, a special marathon screening of Jane Campion’s TV miniseries Top of the Lake, and vital new talents from Iran, Korea, Spain, and Australia. Our vintage offerings include a 1970s healthcare mayhem double feature starring George C. Scott and James Coburn, a rarely screened 1983 Raúl Ruiz masterpiece, a two-film focus on early works by Barbara director Christian Petzold, plus Jeremy Irons and Ben Kingsley in the 1983 film version of Pinter’s Betrayal.

 

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