With a Week to Go, The Festival Hits Its Stride

Movies

By S. JAMES SNYDER
October 9, 2007

After a second weekend of crowded, high-profile screenings at the 45th New York Film Festival — from the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men" to Noah Baumbach's "Margot at the Wedding" — the event's last days still pack a few punches for the eager movie buff.

Buoyed by highly anticipated screenings of works from the likes of Gus Van Sant, John Landis, and Brian De Palma, the coming week also offers some notable surprises, such as Sidney Lumet's latest, "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and a potpourri of international titles that have thus far eluded the radar. So put off sleep and human interaction for another week. Here are the notable picks from the festival's final few days:

1. ‘The Battle of Love'

The last of the festival's special sidebars, dubbed "Chinese Modern: A Tribute to Cathay Studio," begins tomorrow with the first of seven titles — all originally released in the 1950s and '60s by the supremely influential Hong Kong production house. "Battle of Love," the 1957 Yue Feng film (penned by Chinese novelist Eileen Chang, also known as Zhang Ailing), is about a young woman (played by Lin Dai) who tries to juggle three men, flattered by her suitors as she keeps each at an arm's length. The "Chinese Modern" programmers point to several of the sumptuous, elaborate sets in "Love" as some of the earliest hallmarks of the Cathay style.

"The Battle of Love" screens Wednesday at 5 p.m.; additional "Chinese Modern" titles screen through October 16.

2. ‘I Just Didn't Do It'

It's nearly impossible to conceive that Masayuki Suo, the director of the lush and lovely "Shall We Dance," is the same man behind the dark, moody, existential "I Just Didn't Do It" — a fascinating international entry for the festival that seems to have been lost in the shuffle by the city's press.

The film tells the story of a young man who is accused of groping a woman on the Tokyo subway, and whose protest of the charges propels him deeper into the Japanese legal system — a prosecutor, outraged by his denials, decides to press charges rather than just lodge a fine — where a presumption of guilt seems to be the standard procedure. At once a character study of a man struggling against impossible odds and a meditation on a judiciary that seems to pit itself against the common citizen, "I Just Didn't Do It" is informative and incendiary.

"I Just Didn't Do It" screens Tuesday at 6 p.m., and Wednesday at 8:45 p.m.

3. ‘Redacted'

Brian De Palma's much-discussed media montage finally hits New York screens. A fictional re-enactment of the days surrounding the supposed rape and murder of a woman and her family by American troops in Mahmoudiya, the film's events are relentlessly filtered through an array of media outlets (documentary filmmakers, closed circuit security cameras, Web sites, etc.), the back-and-forth serving as a commentary on the way truth is captured, strained, and distilled.

"Redacted" has already polarized New York critics; now audiences will have their chance to weigh in on Mr. De Palma's most talked-about movie in years.

"Redacted" screens Wednesday at 6 p.m. and Thursday at 9 p.m.

4. Director's Dialogue: Wes Anderson

A lot has happened between mid-September and this week — since Wes Anderson first met with the press prior to the festival's launch and Wednesday evening, when he is scheduled to appear in front of a general audience. With early critics shrugging their shoulders over Mr. Anderson's "The Darjeeling Limited," the festival's opening-night selection, it's been fascinating to watch a surge of supporters rise to the film's defense, just as it has played to sold-out audiences outside the festival across the city.

Word of mouth has shifted from sneering critics to intrigued and moved moviegoers, all of which makes this dialogue, hosted by a selection committee member, Kent Jones, a not-to-be-missed discussion of an unlikely page-to-screen journey.

Wednesday at 7 p.m.

5. ‘A Girl cut in two'

The great French director Claude Chabrol takes off the gloves and delivers a slap across the face of "sophisticated" society with this scathing satire that uses the sensational shooting of architect Stanford White in 1906 as a springboard. Gabrielle Aurore Deneige (Ludivine Sagnier) is a TV weather girl whose romantic interests are divided between a discontented novelist and an unstable heir to a pharmaceutical fortune. But the buildup of a shocking crime of passion is not the real story here — it's the ways in which Deneige is used and broken by these two men, the psychological destruction of an outsider by a bourgeoisie gone berserk.

"A Girl Cut in Two" screens Friday at 9 p.m. and Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

6 . ‘Mr. Warmth: the Don Rickles Project'

Weeks before the festival's press screenings even began, the buzz from festival staff members concerned "Mr. Warmth," John Landis's tribute to the 81-year-old comedian Don Rickles and a documentary that lines up the stars to remember the icon, celebrate the era, and crack some nasty jokes. Showing twice on Saturday, "Mr. Warmth" also stands as the festival's final midnight selection, clearly a strategy to send ‘em away laughing.

"Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project" screens Saturday at 9:30 p.m. and again at midnight.

ssnyder@nysun.com