The festivals keep rolling on...........
The festivals keep rolling on. On Sunday evening New York kicked off its Film Festival with the North American premiere of Roman Polanski’s Carnage. The film continues to be well received, with commentators seeming to love using the word “carnage” in their headlines, before they go on to compare Polanski to Woody Allen or Mike Nicholls’ 1966 film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
With 13 days of the festival remaining it has yet to really hit its stride, but it seems the buzz is around films we’ve already heard a lot about this year. Lars Von Triers’ Melancholia, staring Kirsten Dunst and which screened earlier in the year at Cannes, has impressed, as has David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, and there’s plenty of anticipation for Steve McQueen’s Shame, Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In, Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre, and Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation.
There are 27 feature films on the festival’s main slate, which is quite standard, but as the Lincoln Centre which is the home of the festival has undergone extensive renovations, they’ve been able to extend other sections of the festival. There are gala screenings, panel discussions, concert films (just like we have here at the NZIFF), and fans of Japan’s oldest film studio, Nikkatsu Studios, can enjoy a 37 film retrospective. What caught my eye though was the 10th anniversary screening and cast and crew reunion of Wes Anderson’s very New York movie The Royal Tenenbaums.
The Royal Tenenbaums (which originally screened at the 2001 NYFF) and Rushmore come in first equal on my list of favourite Wes Anderson films. I normally shudder at the thought of a “reunion” but I can’t help thinking this would be one worth attending. I also like that it’s a celebration of a contemporary classic, rather than a studious retrospective.
All of which got me thinking. If we were to celebrate the 10th anniversary of a seminal New Zealand release (not counting TLOTR series) at next year’s NZIFF, what would it be?
My first choice would be Niki Caro’s hugely successful Whale Rider. It doesn’t feel like 10 years since this both distinctly New Zealand and universally appealing film charmed audiences around the world (winning the audience choice awards at Sundance and Toronto), won awards and an Oscar nomination for Castle-Hughes, turned Niki Caro into an internationally renown director, and made money!
Wouldn’t it be interesting to hear how this film impacted on the lives of those involved, and to celebrate its success; just for the hell of it.
Small hitch though; Whale Rider never played at the NZIFF. Second choice anyone?