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NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film at Lincoln Center

NYFF Revivals begins with films by Robert Bresson, Marguerite Duras, Clive Barker, and more.

Film Forum

As The Devil, Probably continues in a new restoration, Lancelot du lac starts; Stand By Me screens on Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

A career-spanning Johnnie To retrospective continues.

Anthology Film Archives

A Robert Beavers retrospective begins.

Roxy Cinema

Gloria plays Friday and Saturday, while prints of Opening Night and Minnie and Moskowitz also screen; Deep Red shows Friday; experimental shorts and City Dudes play on Saturday; Frederick Wiseman’s High School II screens on 16mm this Sunday, while Puzzle of a Downfall Child plays on 35mm.

Bam

Chantal Akerman’s Toute une nuit continues playing in a 4K restoration; The Long Walk Home screens on Friday.

Museum of the Moving Image

A retrospective of first-person documentaries continues; X: The...

When Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, and Hideo Oguni were writing the screenplay for their 1954 epic "Seven Samurai," they couldn't have predicted its lasting influence on cinema. Not only did Kurosawa's masterful direction alter and revolutionize the way action sequences would be shot, but the premise became a reliable and lasting template that multiple other filmmakers would employ in the ensuing decades. For those unlucky enough to have never seen "Seven Samurai," the setup is simple: a remote farming village is regularly looted by passing bandits, leaving them destitute. Unable to withstand another attack, the villagers gather up their modest means and hire seven rogue samurai to protect them. The samurai know that the job won't pay, but each one has their own reasons for joining the cause. Using their cunning and limited means, the samurai repel the bandit attack.

Most recently, the "Seven Samurai" premise was transposed onto Zack Snyder's "Rebel Moon.

Coming this December: a collection of wide-eyed fantasies for the whole family and a classic fable reinvented through boundary-pushing stop-motion animation. Plus: a blackhearted noir set in Manhattan at Christmastime—now on Blu-ray. The Criterion Collection December 2023 New Releases The Red Balloon Everyday life becomes an adventure in the wide-eyed fables and fantasies of Albert Lamorisse. Balancing imaginative whimsy with documentary-like authenticity, his beloved short films Bim, the Little Donkey; White Mane; and the Academy Award–winning The Red Balloonfind unforgettable emotional, spiritual, and moral resonance in the realms of children and animals, while his captivating but now rarely seen features Stowaway in the Sky and Circus Angel exult ... Read more...

With it being seven years since his last live-action film, 2014’s The Grand Budapast Hotel, Wes Anderson is hard at work. Following a Cannes premiere, The French Dispatch finally arrives in limited theaters on October 22 followed by a wide release the following week, and he’s already shooting his next film (recently revealed to have the title Asteroid City) outside of Madrid with Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Rupert Friend, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Hope Davis, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Tony Revolori, and Matt Dillon.

As is the case with all of his work, Wes Anderson synthesizes cinema history in his own specific language and for The French Dispatch he has provided a list of influences. As revealed in a promotional book sent to The Flim Stage and styled after the film’s magazine, 32 films are listed that “provided inspiration to the filmmakers,...

From Don’t Breathe 2, actor Brendan Sexton III discusses some of his favorite films with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante as viewed through that wondrous video home system format known as… VHS.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Dark (2015)

Gremlins (1984)

Infested (2002)

Don’t Breathe (2016)

Don’t Breathe 2 (2021)

Unforgiven (1992)

The Beguiled (1971)

The Beguiled (2017)

Welcome To The Dollhouse (1995)

Pecker (1998)

Hairspray (1988)

Pink Flamingos (1972)

Forrest Gump (1994)

Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

Session 9 (2001)

Black Hawk Down (2001)

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

The Last Boy Scout (1991)

Cheech & Chong’s Up In Smoke (1978)

Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie (1980)

Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

48 Hrs. (1982)

Dumbo (1941)

Eddie Murphy Raw (1987)

Mickey And The Beanstalk (1947)

Grindhouse (2007)

Planet Terror (2007)

Death Proof (2007)

The Howling (1981)

Enter The Dragon (1973)

Game Of Death (1978)

Take A Hard Ride (1975)

Three The Hard Way (1974)

Death Promise (1977)

Piranha (1978)

Hollywood Boulevard (1976)

Yojimbo (1961)

Seven Samurai (1954)

Goodfellas (1990)

Hell In The Pacific (1968)

Grand Prix (1966)

The Red Balloon (1956)

Stowaway In The Sky (1960)

La Haine...

Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien is arguably one of the greatest filmmakers in the world (he was voted “Director of the Decade” for the 1990s in a poll of American and international critics by The Village Voice and Film Comment). But his output of late has been so incredibly slow and sparse; it’s arguably put a damper on his global acclaim outside the world of cinephiles. While he received arguably his highest mark of international acclaim when he won the Best Director prize in Cannes for “The Assassin” in 2015, the film before that “Flight of the Red Balloon” (2007) was eight years prior.

Continue reading ‘Flowers of Shanghai’: Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Masterpiece Gets A 4K Restoration Trailer at The Playlist.

What few conversations there are in Song Fang’s chronically meditative “The Calming” tend to revolve around someone who never appears onscreen: Our heroine’s recent ex-boyfriend, a man with whom she may have at one point expected to spend the rest of her life. Or so we sense by the way that Lin winces at the news that a friend is getting married, observes her aging parents with an awe that seems rooted in absence, and spends long stretches of the movie — perhaps even the majority of its runtime — framed against the windows of various buses, trains, and hotel rooms as if she’s watching a world to which she once belonged.

Sensing is all that Song asks or allows us to do, as concrete details are hard to come by in her ultra-elliptical breakup movie about a woman emerging from the protective (if inhibiting) cocoon of her own heartache.

The 2020 movie calendar has been dramatically altered over the last couple weeks, but one film still on the schedule is Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” opening in July from Searchlight Pictures. Anderson’s latest is his return to live-action filmmaking after the stop-motion “Isle of Dogs” and features a star-studded cast that includes Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, and Bill Murray. The film is set at an American newspaper outpost in 20th century France and brings to life three stories the editorial team is selecting to republish in tribute to their late editor-in-chief.

Similar to “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The French Dispatch” takes place across different timelines and uses different aspect ratios to keep the different stories organized. Anderson even uses black-and-white photography this go-round to differentiate between stories. Anderson reunited with his Oscar-winning “Grand Budapest” production designer Adam Stockhausen for his new film,...

“Parasite” became the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars to go with three other victories for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film. but that’s not the only history it made on Sunday. Here are all the barriers the South Korean hit has broken.

1. First foreign language film to win Best Picture

“Roma” came close, but “Parasite” crossed the line. “Parasite” was only the 12th film not in the English language to be nominated for Best Picture and the first from South Korea. Bong Joon Ho and Kwak Sin Ae are the first Asian producers to win Best Picture.

2. First South Korean film to win Best International Feature Film

Hard to believe, but no South Korean film had ever been nominated for Best International Feature Film, fka Best Foreign Language Film, until “Parasite.” And now the country is 1/1 in a category that historically favors European films.

“Parasite” had a big weekend, winning Best Original Screenplay at the Writers Guild of America Awards on Saturday and the BAFTAs on Sunday for Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won, setting it up nicely to claim the corresponding Oscar next weekend. Should that happen, the South Korean hit would be the sixth foreign language film to do so.

The first five are:

1. Switzerland’s “Marie-Louise” (1945), written by Richard Schweizer

2. France’s “The Red Ballon” (1956), written by Albert Lamorisse

3. Italy’s “Divorce Italian Style” (1962), written by Ennio de Concini, Alfredo Giannetti and Pietro Germi

4. France’s “A Man and a Woman” (1966), written by Claude Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven

5. Spain’s “Talk to Her” (2002), written by Pedro Almodovar

Of these, “A Man and a Woman” is the only one to also take home Best International Feature Film, formerly known as Best Foreign Language Film, which “Parasite” is basically a lock to win.

IFC Films is getting into the streaming game, launching its own subscription-based, video on demand streaming service on Thursday.

Called IFC Films Unlimited, the catalog of movies will draw on titles from the IFC Films, IFC Midnight and Sundance Select labels, including so far “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” “The Trip,” “45 Years,” “The Babadook” and more as part of an initial offering of several hundred movies.

The service launches today and will be available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video channels for $5.99 per month. The service hopes to eventually be available on additional platforms.

Also Read: 'The Sound of Silence' With Peter Sarsgaard and Rashida Jones Acquired By IFC Films

The launch was made to coincide with the Cannes Film Festival, taking place now. IFC has distributed five winners of the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, and three of those movies, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” “Dheepan...

It's been a while since Hsiao-hsien Hou made anything substantial. Safe a quick short film (as part of the 10+10 anthology project) little has been heard from him ever since he released Le Voyage Du Ballon Rouge. At one point rumors whispered he was going to direct a martial arts epic starring Tadanobu Asano, but that's about it. So it's a relief the man left us with a magnificent oeuvre to cover the distance between now and what will hopefully become his future set of films, because his work is definitely one of a kind.Zui Hao De Shi Guang (or Three Times as it's known in the West) is a good starting point if you're interested in Hou's work. It's an anthology project, covering three...

Looking back at 2011 on what films moved and impressed us it becomes more and more clear—to me at least—that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, our end of year poll, now an annual tradition, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2011—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2011 to create a unique double feature. Many contributors chose their favorites of 2011, some picked out-of-the-way gems, others made some pretty strange connections—and some frankly just want to create a kerfuffle. All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2011 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative...

Two documentaries, including a look at the 20-year history of innovative rap group Public Enemy, will make their world premiere at this year's AFI Fest, set for Nov. 1-11 in Los Angeles.

Public Enemy: Welcome to the Terrordome, directed by Robert Patton-Spruill, gives a rare insight into the group and features interviews with musicians Henry Rollins and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello. Meanwhile, director Andrea Kreuzhage's documentary 1000 Journals focuses on the social/art project initiated by San Francisco-based artist "Someguy".

Two foreign films will make their U.S. debut at the festival: the Canadian drama The Tracey Fragments, directed by Bruce McDonald, and With Your Permission, an entry from Denmark directed by Paprika Steen.

Another 11 films playing at the Toronto International Film Festival also will screen, including 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days directed by Cristian Mungiu; Eran Kolirin's The Band's Visit; Stefan Ruzowitzky's The Counterfeiter; Gael Garcia Bernal's Deficit; Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Hao Hsiao-hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon; Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen's Jellyfish; Jason Reitman's Juno; Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Persepolis; Tamara Jenkins' The Savages; and Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine.

Passes are on sale through the festival's Web site at AFI.com, or by phone, (866) AFI-FEST.

• The final tally and full list of films presented at this year's Tiff have been announced today and hardcore cinephiles will have many options available to them out of the 261 film selected. With a massive slate comes massive headache. What to choose? Where to begin? I’ll be examining the selections – and hopeful offer you readers some cool coverage on films that won't be popping into theaters weeks and/or months from now. Our provisional coverage begins with preview pages listed below - simply click on the links for more info (we'll be updating the list daily) - and hopefully will have every angle covered. Galas: "Across the Universe," Julie Taymor, U.S."The Days of Darkness (L'Âge des ténèbres)," Denys Arcand, Canada"Blood Brothers," Alexi Tan, Taiwan/China/Hong Kong"Caramel," Nadine Labaki, Lebanon/France"Cassandra's Dream," Woody Allen, Britain"Cleaner," Renny Harlin, U.S."Closing the Ring,

...

Related story: U.S. fare speaks to Toronto in fest lineup

Related story: Christie's digital gets screen billing

NEW YORK -- IFC Films has nabbed three features that have North American premieres at next month's Toronto International Film Festival: Harmony Korine's pop-culture fantasia "Mister Lonely", starring Diego Luna and Samantha Morton; Jacques Rivette's French period romance "The Duchess of Langeais", starring Guillaume Depardieu; and, in partnership with Netflix's Red Envelope Entertainment, Christophe Honore's French musical drama "Love Songs".

The art house trio rounds out an impressive seven IFC features on the Toronto slate, including Gus Van Sant's teen drama "Paranoid Park", Cristian Mungiu's Romanian abortion drama "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", Hou Hsiao-hsien's fantasy "The Flight of the Red Balloon" and Catherine Breillat's erotic period romance "The Last Mistress".

"Mister Lonely" marks the return of enfant terrible director Korine ("Gummo", "Julien Donkey Boy"). With brother Avi, he wrote the story of a Parisian Michael Jackson impersonator (Luna), guided by a faux Marilyn Monroe (Morton) to an impersonator commune in the Scottish Highlands, where Abe Lincoln, The Three Stooges, the queen, the pope, Madonna and other impostors stage a gala performance.

NEW YORK -- Sony Pictures Classics' animated coming-of-age film Persepolis will close the 45th annual New York Film Festival, which announced Wednesday an eclectic lineup featuring new works from Sidney Lumet, Gus Van Sant and, in his NYFF debut, Brian De Palma.

"There really was an unusually high number of high-quality American films," said Film Society of Lincoln Center program director Richard Pena, who celebrates his 20th year heading the NYFF selection committee. "I've often wondered why directors didn't make a more creative use of genre, and this year they have. It's also been an incredibly strong year for directors who've delivered the best films they've done in a while."

Pena singled out Lumet's ThinkFilm thriller Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and De Palma's Redacted, an Iraq War drama from Magnolia Pictures. He said the latter film "will really be a bombshell. People will be upset and offended by (its depiction of) how some U.S. soldiers are treated and what some U.S. soldiers have done."

The committee chose Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Persepolis -- a French adaptation of Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novels about growing up in Iran -- because the Festival de Cannes winner is "a truly expressive work of art," Pena said. "You feel the writer is baring her soul."

IFC Films has four projects in the lineup, all from its VOD/theatrical simultaneous releasing program IFC First Take. They include two more Cannes winners -- Van Sant's adaptation of Blake Nelson's novel, Paranoid Park, about a skateboarding teen involved in a murder, and Cristian Mungiu's Romanian abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Two of its other entries also screened at Cannes: Hou Hsiao-hsien's French family drama The Flight of the Red Balloon and Catherine Breillat's adaptation of Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly's The Last Mistress.

Film geeks will relish the North American premiere of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner: The Definitive Cut, a 25th anniversary edition of the sci-fi classic with some further tweaks made to the 1992 director's cut.

SHANGHAI -- A screening of Flight of the Red Balloon brought the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival to a gentle landing following the closing Jin Jue awards ceremony at Shanghai's Grand Theater with some of the film's Asian stars making a show of support for their film. The film, written and directed by Hsiao-hsien Hou, has been characterized as an homage to the 1956 Albert Lamorisse classic The Red Balloon. As a sign that the SIFF, held in China's most cosmopolitan city, is trying to meet its aspiration to become a truly world-class festival, the closing ceremony was a well organized and well attended event. There was a host of big name Asian stars including Jackie Chan (Forbidden Kingdom), Gong Li (Curse of the Golden Flower), Aaron Kwok (After This Our Exile) and director Hou.

The top award went to the German film According to the Plan by Franziska Meletzky; the jury Grand Prix was taken by the Swedish film The New Man by Klaus Haro; and Tian Zhuangzhuang garnered best director for China's The Go Master.

Production designer Phillip Vasels said it was a well executed event, especially compared to the previous night's Asian New Talent Award ceremony where he was one of the intrepid guests to brave the monsoon that struck just before the ceremony, flooding streets and making travel difficult.