Eye For Film >> Festivals >> New York >> 2008 >> Main Slate
Showcase of films from around the world.
Let's Talk About The Rain and Tokyo Sonata
24 City (Er Si Si Cheng Ji, Er shi si cheng ji (24 city))
(Country: China, Hong Kong, Japan; Year: 2008; Director: Jia Zhang-Ke; Writer: Jia Zhang-Ke, Zhai Yongming; Stars: Jianbin Chen, Joan Chen, Liping Lu, Zhao Tao)
Blend of fiction and documentary looks at a Chinese munitions plant scheduled for conversion into luxury apartments.
Afterschool
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Antonio Campos; Writer: Antonio Campos; Stars: Ezra Miller, Addison Timlin, Jeremy Allen White, Emory Cohen, Michael Stuhlbarg, Rosemarie Dewitt, Lee Wilkof, Paul Sparks, Bill Raymond, Gary Wilmes Christopher Mccann)
A boy at an exclusive American private school becomes increasingly obsessed with watching video clips on his computer.
Ashes Of Time Redux
(Country: Hong Kong, China; Year: 2008; Director: Wong Kar Wai; Writer: Louis Cha, Wong Kar Wai; Stars: Leslie Cheung, Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Maggie Cheung, Jacky Cheung, Carina Lau, Brigitte Lin, Charlie Yeung, Bai Li, Collin Chou)
The director's rescored, re-cut and restored version of his 1994 tale of love and regret.
Bullet In The Head (Tiro En La Cabeza)
(Country: Spain; Year: 2008; Director: Jaime Rosales; Writer: Jaime Rosales; Stars: Mikel Tello, Ion Arretxe, Iñigo Royo, Diego Gutiérrez, Manza Gebara, Ana Vila, Nerea Cobreros, Monique Durin-Noury, Gilles Vaxelaire, Iván Moreno, José Ángel Lopetegui)
Avant-garde thriller invites audience to piece together the narrative.
Changeling
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Clint Eastwood; Writer: J Michael Straczynski; Stars: Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Michael Kelly, Colm Feore, Jason Butler Harner, Amy Ryan, Geoffrey Pierson, Denis O'Hare, Frank Wood, Peter Gerety), Official Site
True crime story about a mother whose problems are compounded when she is reunited with a boy police claim is her missing 10-year-old son.
Ashes Of Time Redux and Lola Montes
Che: Guerilla (Che: Part Two)
(Country: France/Spain; Year: 2008; Director: Steven Soderbergh; Writer: Peter Buchman, Benjamin A. van der Veen; Stars: Benicio Del Toro, Franka Potente, Santiago Cabrera, Demián Bichir, Kahlil Mendez, Rodrigo Santoro, Yamil Adorno, Jorge Alberti, Marisé Alvarez, Ricardo Alvarez, Fernando Arroyo), Official Site, Trailer
Second episode in Soderbergh's meditation on the Argentine-born revolutionary, focussing on his time in Bolivia.
Che: The Argentine (Che: Part One)
(Country: France, Spain, USA; Year: 2008; Director: Steven Soderbergh; Writer: Peter Buchman, based on writings by Ernesto 'Che' Guevara; Stars: Benicio Del Toro, Santiago Cabrera, Demián Bichir, Kahlil Mendez, Rodrigo Santoro, Yamil Adorno, Jorge Alberti, Marisé Alvarez, Ricardo Alvarez, Fernando Arroyo), Official Site, Trailer
First part of Soderbergh's epic, sees the revolutionary take on Batista.
The Class (Entre les murs)
(Country: France; Year: 2008; Director: Laurent Cantet; Writer: François Bégaudeau, Robin Campillo, Laurent Cantet; Stars: François Bégaudeau, Wei Huang, Esmeralda Ouertani, Franck Keita)
Quasi-documentary about a group of Parisian school kids.
Chouga (Shuga)
(Country: France, Kazakhstan; Year: 2007; Director: Darezhan Omirbayev; Stars: Aidos Sagatov, Alnur Turgambayeva)
Based on Anna Karenina, the story of a woman who leaves her callous husband for an equally dubious younger man.
A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël)
(Country: France; Year: 2008; Director: Arnaud Desplechin; Writer: Emmanuel Bourdieu, Arnaud Desplechin; Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Melvil Poupaud, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Emile Berling, Emmanuelle Devos)
Ensemble drama about a family brought together - and, possibility on course to be torn apart - by the illness of their matriarch.
Tulpan and The Class
Four Nights With Anna (Cztery noce z Anna)
(Country: Poland, France; Year: 2008; Director: Jerzy Skolimowski; Writer: Eva Piaskowska, Jerzy Skolimowski, Ewa Piaskowska; Stars: Artur Steranko, Kinga Preis, Jerzy Fedorowicz, Redbad Klijnstra, Jakub Snochowski)
A crematorium worker becomes obssessed with a beautiful nurse.
Gomorrah (Gomorra, Gommorah)
(Country: Italy; Year: 2008; Director: Matteo Garrone; Writer: Roberto Saviano, Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni Di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, Roberto Saviano; Stars: Salvatore Abruzzese, Simone Sacchettino, Salvatore Ruocco, Vincenzo Fabricino, Vincenzo Altamura, Italo Renda, Gianfelice Imparato, Maria Nazionale, Salvatore Striano, Carlo Del Sorbo, Vincenzo Bombolo), Trailer
Five interweaving stories paint a brutal portrait of organised crime in Naples.
Happy-Go-Lucky (Happy Go Lucky)
(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Mike Leigh; Writer: Mike Leigh; Stars: Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman, Kate O’Flynn, Samuel Roukin)
Poppy, a young primary school teacher living in Camden Town, starts taking driving lessons with an instructor who is her opposite in every respect.
The Headless Woman (La Mujer Sin Cabeza)
(Country: Argentina, Spain, France, Italy; Year: 2008; Director: Lucrecia Martel; Writer: Lucrecia Martel; Stars: María Onetto, Claudia Cantero, Inés Efron, César Bordón, Daniel Genoud, Guillermo Arengo, María Vaner, Alicia Muxo, Pía Uribelarrea)
A woman's life goes off the rails after a mysterious car accident.
Hunger
(Country: UK; Year: 2008; Director: Steve McQueen; Writer: Steve McQueen, Enda Walsh; Stars: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Liam McMahon, Brian Milligan), Official Site, Trailer
Examination of the events leading up to and during Bobby Sands' 1981 hunger strike. Winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes.
A Christmas Tale and Service
I'm Gonna Explode (Voy A Explotar, I'm Going To Explode)
(Country: Mexico; Year: 2008; Director: Gerardo Naranjo; Writer: Gerardo Naranjo; Stars: Maria Deschamps, Juan Pablo de Santiago, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Rebecca Jones, Martha Claudia Moreno), Official Site
A romance develops between two rebels without a cause.
Let's Talk About The Rain (Parlez-moi de la pluie, Let It Rain)
(Country: France; Year: 2008; Director: Agnès Jaoui; Writer: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Agnès Jaoui; Stars: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jamel Debbouze, Agnès Jaoui, Pascale Arbillot, Guillaume De Tonquedec, Frédéric Pierrot, Mimouna Hadji, Florence Loiret, Laurent Jarroir, Anne Werner, Jean-Claude Baudracco), Trailer
A self-centred politican has to deal with the politics of relationships when she returns to her home town.
Lola Montes (Lola Montez, The Fall of Lola Montes, The Sins of Lola Montes)
(Country: France/Germany; Year: 1955; Director: Max Ophuls; Writer: Annette Wademant, Max Ophuls, Jacques Natanson, Franz Geiger, Claude Heymann, Peter Ustinov, based on the novel La Vie Extraordinaire de Lola Montes by Cecil Saint-Laurent; Stars: Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Anton Walbrook, Henri Guisol, Lise Delamare, Paulette Dubost, Oskar Werner, Jean Galland, Will Quadflieg)
Colourful and genuinely revolutionary film, which shows off the considerable imagination and technical prowess of the director. Newly restored version is being show at NYFF 2008.
Night And Day (Bam gua nat)
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2008; Director: Hong Sang-soo; Writer: Hong Sang-soo; Stars: Sabine Crossen, Ju-bong Gi, Cyril Hutteau, Su-jeong Hwang, Yeong-ho Kim, Seon-gyun Lee, Eun-hye Park, Min-jung Seo)
A fortysomething married man goes on the lam to Paris.
The Northern Land (A Corte Do Norte)
(Country: Portugal; Year: 2008; Director: João Botelho; Writer: Agustina Bessa-Luís, João Botelho, José Álvaro Morais; Stars: Ana Moreira, Rogério Samora, Ricardo Aibéo, Marcello Urgeghe, Rita Blanco, Maya Booth, Margarida Vila-Nova, Virgílio Castelo, António Cerdeira, Miguel Monteiro, Joana de Verona)
A woman searches for information about her ancestor in a sequence of interlocking stories, spanning centuries.
Summer Hours and Changeling
Service (Serbis)
(Country: Philippines, France; Year: 2008; Director: Brillante Mendoza; Writer: Armando Lao, Boots Agbayani Pastor; Stars: Gina Pareño, Dan Alvaro, Mercedes Cabral, Julio Diaz, Bobby Jerome Go, Roxanne Jordan, Jacklyn Jose, Kristoffer King, Coco Martin)
Drama about a family's day-to-day struggle to survive in the Philippines.
Summer Hours (L'Heure d'été)
(Country: France; Year: 2008; Director: Olivier Assayas; Writer: Olivier Assayas; Stars: Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jérémie Renier, Edith Scob, Dominique Reymond, Valérie Bonneton, Isabelle Sadoyan, Kyle Eastwood, Alice de Lencquesaing, Emile Berling, Jean-Baptiste Malartre), Official Site, Trailer
Drama about a priceless art collection and a family's decision about how best to use it, for both memory and intrinsic worth.
Tokyo Sonata (Tôkyô Sonata)
(Country: Japan, Netherlands, Hong Kong; Year: 2008; Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa; Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Max Mannix, Sachiko Tanaka; Stars: Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyoko Koizumi, Kai Inowaki, Yu Koyanagi, Koji Yakusho)
A Tokyo salaryman loses his job and tries to conceal it from his already dysfunctional family.
Tony Manero
(Country: Chile, Brazil; Year: 2008; Director: Pablo Larraín; Writer: Pablo Larraín, Alfredo Castro, Mateo Iribarren; Stars: Alfredo Castro, Amparo Noguera, Héctor Morales, Paola Lattus, Elsa Poblete), Official Site
The story of a psychotic fiftysomething and his obssession with John Travolta's character in Saturday Night Fever.
Tulpan
(Country: Germany, Kazakhstan, Poland, Russia, Switzerland; Year: 2008; Director: Sergei Dvortsevoy; Writer: Sergei Dvortsevoy, Gennadi Ostrovsky; Stars: Askhat Kuchencherekov, Tolepbergen Baisakalov, Ondas Besikbasov, Samal Esljamova,), Official Site
A man dreams of becoming a shepherd in the Kazakhstan steppe, but is there room for such dreams in the modern world?
The Headless Woman and Che: The Argentine
Wendy And Lucy
(Country: USA; Year: 2008; Director: Kelly Reichardt; Writer: Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt; Stars: Michelle Williams, Will Patton, Will Oldham, John Robinson, Wally Dalton, Larry Fessenden, Brenna Beardsley, Ayanna Berkshire, M. Blash, John Breen, Michael Brophy), Official Site, Trailer
Drama about a young woman's attempts to find her lost dog.
The Windmill Movie
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Alexander Olch; Writer: Alexander Olch; Stars: Richard P Rogers)
A "moving and provocative work that straddles the lines between documentary and fiction, life and art" about the life of Richard P "Dick" Rogers.
Waltz With Bashir
(Country: Israel, Germany, France; Year: 2008; Director: Ari Folman; Writer: Ari Folman; Stars: Voices of: Ron Ben-Yishai, Ronny Dayag, Ari Folman, Dror Harazi, Yehezkel Lazarov, Mickey Leon, Ori Sivan, Zahava Solomon), Official Site, Trailer
Animated documentary exploring the psychological aftermath of the First Lebanon War.
The Wrestler
(Country: US; Year: 2008; Director: Darren Aronofsky; Writer: Robert D Siegel; Stars: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Rachel Evan Wood, Vale Anoai, Angelina Aucello, Todd Barry, Olivia Baseman, Gregg Bello, Alyssa Bresnahan, Vernon Campbell, E.J. Carroll, Felice Choi, Rebecca Darke, John D'Leo), Official Site
An ageing wrestler tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter, but can he get the ring out of his soul? Plus read what Aronofsky, Rourke and Tomei said about the film.
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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