Opening March 23

Ismael’s Ghosts
Arnaud Desplechin, France, 2017, 132m
French with English subtitles
Phantoms swirl around Ismael (Mathieu Amalric), a filmmaker in the throes of writing a spy thriller based on the unlikely escapades of his brother, Ivan Dedalus (Louis Garrel). His only true source of stability, his relationship with Sylvia (Charlotte Gainsbourg), is upended, as is the life of his Jewish documentarian mentor and father-in-law (László Szabó), when Ismael’s wife Carlotta (Marion Cotillard), who disappeared twenty years earlier, returns, and, like one of Hitchcock’s fragile, delusional femmes fatales, expects that her husband and father are still in thrall to her. A brilliant shape-shifter—part farce, part melodrama—Ismael’s Ghosts is finally about the process of creating a work of art and all the madness that requires. An NYFF55 selection. A Magnolia Pictures release.
Director Arnaud Desplechin will appear in person for Q&A’s for the screenings of Ismael’s Ghosts on March 23rd at 6:30pmand the 24th and 25th at 3:45pm.

Opening April 13

Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami 
Sophie Fiennes, Ireland/UK, 2017, 115m  
An intimate documentary as stylish and unconventional as its subject, Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami alternates between the public and private spheres of the pop culture mega-icon of the title. Contrasting thrilling musical sequences with intimate personal footage, director Sophie Fiennes (The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema) follows Jones to her Jamaican hometown, into the studio with longtime collaborators Sly & Robbie, and on the various stages of her sexually charged, cutting-edge live shows—featuring live performances of “Slave to the Rhythm,” “Pull Up to the Bumper,” and “Love Is the Drug.” A Kino Lorber release.
Grace Jones will appear in person on April 14.

Zama
Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/Brazil/Spain, 2017, 115m
Spanish with English subtitles
The great Lucrecia Martel ventures into the realm of historical fiction and makes the genre entirely her own in this adaptation of Antonio di Benedetto’s 1956 classic of Argentinean literature. In the late 18th century, in a far-flung corner of what seems to be Paraguay, the title character, an officer of the Spanish crown (Daniel Giménez Cacho) born in the Americas, waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. Martel renders Zama’s world—his daily regimen of small humiliations and petty politicking—as both absurd and mysterious, and as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia, subject to a creeping disorientation. Precise yet dreamlike, and thick with atmosphere, Zama is a singular and intoxicating experience, a welcome return from one of contemporary cinema’s truly brilliant minds. An NYFF55 Main Slate selection. A Strand Releasing release.
To coincide with the release of Zama, FSLC will present a retrospective of Martel’s earlier works from April 10-12. Lucrecia Martel will appear in person on April 10th, 11th, and 13th.

Opening April 27

Let the Sunshine In/ Un beau soleil intérieur  
Claire Denis, 2017, 95m
French with English subtitles
Juliette Binoche is both incandescent and emotionally raw in Claire Denis’s extraordinary new film as Isabelle, a middle-aged Parisian artist in search of definitive love. The film moves elliptically, as though set to some mysterious biorhythm, from one romantic/emotional attachment to another: from the boorish married lover (Xavier Beauvois); to the subtly histrionic actor (Nicolas Duvauchelle), also married; to the dreamboat hairdresser (Paul Blain); to the gentle man (Alex Descas) not quite ready for commitment to . . . a mysterious fortune-teller. Appropriately enough, Let the Sunshine In (very loosely inspired by Roland Barthes’s A Lover’s Discourse) feels like it’s been lit from within; it was lit from without by Denis’s longtime cinematographer Agnès Godard. It is also very funny. An NYFF55 Main Slate selection. A Sundance Selects release.

Opening May 11

The Day After Exclusive run!
Hong Sang-soo, South Korea, 2017, 92m

Korean with English subtitles
Shot in moody black and white, The Day After opens with book publisher Bongwan (Kwon Hae-hyo) fending off his wife’s heated accusations of infidelity. At the office, it’s the first day for his new assistant, Areum (Kim Min-hee), whose predecessor was Bongwan’s lover. Mistaken identity, repetition compulsion, and déjà vu figure into the narrative as the film entangles its characters across multiple timelines through an intricate geometry of desire, suspicion, and betrayal. The end result is one of Hong’s most plaintive and philosophical works. An NYFF55 Main Slate selection. A Cinema Guild release.

Opening May 25

Summer 1993 / Estiu 1993
Carla Simón, Spaing, 2017, 97m
Catalan with English subtitles
In the summer of 1993, following the disappearance of her parents, six-year-old Frida (Laia Artigas) moves from Barcelona to the Catalan countryside with her aunt, uncle, and younger cousin Anna (Paula Robles). Although her new family embraces her, Frida struggles to adjust in an environment that seems mysterious and estranging. Winner of the Best First Feature Award at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, Simón’s autobiographical drama is a captivating, emotionally frank reflection on family relationships and childhood loneliness, anchored by moving performances by its two young stars. An Oscilloscope Laboratories release.