| New Directors/New Films 2008 |
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| Written by Kevin Filipski | |
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New Directors/New Films March 26–April 6, 2008 Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53rd Street moma.org Walter Reade Theater 165 West 65th Street filmlinc.com  WATER LILIES Bringing together two dozen films from around the world, from the U.S. to the Philippines and from Japan to Mexico, this 37th edition of ND/NF doesn’t have an overriding theme. Still, at least in the handful of films I’ve seen, several female directors concern themselves with teenagers’ budding sexuality or sense of responsibility on the cusp of adulthood, each manifesting itself in intriguing ways. It’s too bad that Frozen River -- Courtney Hunt’s Sundance Festival prize winner and ND/NF’s opening night film, March 26 at MOMA and the following night at the Walter Reade Theater --doesn’t concentrate on the two sons of the main character, single mother Ray Eddy. The family is barely getting by, living in a trailer in a small upstate town. Against her better judgment, Ray begins smuggling illegal aliens from Canada with Lila, a Mohawk woman who assures her that the reservation doesn’t recognize the border between New York State and Quebec. Melissa Leo and Misty Upham are authentically world-weary as these desperate women, who’ll do anything to survive, but Hunt’s film dawdles tediously; even the stunning dramatic turnabout of the finale can’t save it. Ray Eddy’s teenage son T.J., convincingly played by Charlie MacDermott, becomes Frozen River’s most interesting character by default. Sony Pictures Classics is releasing Frozen River on August 1. Thoughtful explorations of family dynamics, especially as seen through the eyes of teenagers, are also found in two much better films. Lucía Puenzo’s XXY (April 4, Walter Reade; April 6, MOMA) is the story of Alex, a teenager born a hermaphrodite but raised as a girl. Now that Alex is old enough, her parents must decide which sexual organs will be removed by surgery. Alex’s own confusion about her budding sexuality adds further layers of depth to a film that’s never the least bit exploitative. The tremendous poise of Ines Efron as Alex cements XXY as a potent study of teen sexuality from a decidedly different angle. Even more persuasive in its depiction of teens is Céline Sciamma’s Water Lilies (March 28, Walter Reade; March 30, MOMA). The film follows Marie, a shrinking violet who hangs out with chubby classmate Anne, mostly because Anne worships her. Marie is herself obsessed with the girls on the school’s synchronized swim team, notably Floriane, a blonde beauty who soon becomes her closest friend. There’s nary a false note in Sciamma’s unsentimental, honest portrait of these girls. A trio of unknown actresses -- Pauline Acquart as Marie, Louise Blanchere as Anne, and the stunning Adele Haenel as Floriane -- makes Sciamma’s psychological study insightful and, finally, disturbing. (See photo.) Koch Lorber is releasing Water Lilies on April 4. Another female director, Lebanon’s Danielle Arbid, bravely and unblinkingly depicts sexuality in the Arab world in A Lost Man (April 5, WRT; April 6, MOMA). French photographer Thomas pals around with Faoud, an Arab, through the Middle East. Their sexual encounters, rendered fairly explicitly, attack head-on the hypocritical taboos that still dog the Arab world. Through her “lost” protagonists -- Thomas has no home, and Faoud has amnesia -- Arbid raises pertinent questions about morality and memory. Serge Bozon’s strange World War I drama La France (April 4, WRT; April 5, MOMA) concerns a young wife, Camille, who cuts her hair to pass as a teenage boy after her husband, currently fighting at the front, writes that he's leaving her. Bozon’s eye for arresting images ensures that this film never palls, even though its gender-bending plot is quickly stretched thin. The often surreal tone is reinforced whenever the soldiers of the regiment that Camille joins break into song. In the leads, Sylvie Pascal (Camille) and Pascal Greggory (the lieutenant) do wonders with Bozon’s tantalizing if somewhat superficial material. Film critic Godfrey Cheshire’s first film, Moving Midway (March 29, WRT; March 30, MOMA), begins by recording the actual moving of his family’s North Carolina plantation to land yet to be ruined by urban sprawl. Such a decision is difficult enough; but soon, Cheshire and his relatives discover that there is an African-American branch of their extended family, and skeletons threaten to leap out of closets. With a welcome light touch, Cheshire investigates the state of race in America through the symbolism of the Southern plantation. |
