The Grenchus Foundation @ New York Film Festival with Film Buffs and Critics
The Grenchus Foundation @ New York Film Festival
Thank you to our New York Film Festival Members for inviting The Grenchus Foundation to attend New York Film Festival This Weekend.
We had an amazing time this weekend as the New York Film Festival! While some of our group below attended 20 movies, someone else attended all of them, and I attended Three. Thank you to our New York Film Festival Members for this fun experience. We had many lively conversations, debates and discussions about each of the films, while also catching up on life, as this was the first some of us have seen each other since before the pandemic. We are happy to say the New York Film Festival has fully-reopened from the pandemic!!! YAY!!!
The three movies I attended as well as my reviews are below:
Film 1.
THE LONG FAREWELL
Completed in 1971 but not released until perestroika in 1987, Kira Muratova’s fourth feature is a majestic psychodrama centering on the relationship between a mother and a son and rendered with a borderline avant-garde sense of aesthetic freedom and formal experimentation. Divorced Evgenia (Zinaida Sharko) has devoted her life to raising her son, Sasha (Oleg Vladimirsky), but their bond is tested when he becomes a teenager and visits his father in far-off Novosibirsk, planting seeds for the young man’s desire to move out from beneath his overbearing mother’s thumb. Muratova transfigures the resulting blow-ups and reconciliations as a kinetic and atmospheric symphony suffused with resentment and love, sensitivity and obliviousness, freedom and duty. A Janus Films release. Restored in 4K by STUDIOCANAL in collaboration with The Criterion Collection at L’Immagine Ritrovata/Éclair Classics.
(summary NYFF2022)
My Review:
I found the film to speak to the dynamics in Russia. Whether one has the freedom of expression and thought, or whether they are to go along with what is told of them to do. It shows some of the struggles of single motherhood yet, also speaks to how women were able hold prestigious positions, yet were sometimes treated with disregard. It shows dynamics of a single mother and child dynamics in a relationship. Both in the movie at different times felt trapped because of the situations in their life, which ultimately unites them. It was an insightful movie into the dynamics of a relationship between mother and child, without the presence of the father. It is reminiscent of the situation we see currently in Ukraine and Russia as men are going to war or fleeing, or families have had to flee and have been torn apart by the current war. The film portrays the hope present in situations, despite circumstances, because of the people that surround us, uplift us, and support us. The film also touches on the idea of secrecy, things known yet left unsaid, especially within society - as the relationship between the mother and son is a reflection of the aspects of society at that time. It flirts with the idea of love, yet repression of one’s own goals or dreams because of society or culture, as well as how one can find freedom in what they love. I highly recommend seeing this film.
Film 2.
CORSAGE:
Austria’s Oscar Entry
In a perceptive, nuanced performance, Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread) quietly dominates the screen as Empress Elizabeth of Austria, who begins to see her life of royal privilege as a prison as she reaches her fortieth birthday. Marie Kreutzer boldly imagines Elizabeth’s cloistered, late-19th-century world within the Austro-Hungarian Empire with both austere realism and fanciful anachronism, while staying true and intensely close to the woman’s private melancholy and political struggle amidst a crumbling, combative marriage and escalating scrutiny. Star and director have together created a remarkable vision of a strong-willed political figure whose emergence from a veiled, corseted existence stands for a Europe on the cusp of major, irrevocable transformation. An NYFF60 Main Slate selection. An IFC Films release.
(summary NYFF2022)
My Review:
This was one of our favorite films. While uncovering some of the areas and issues of the time, the struggles of women during that time frame, were highly representative. The leading lady gave a steller performance, while also honing in on the idea of being a caged bird vs. freedom, as well as what it means to stay truly and authentically yourself. With judgements from all around, the leading character stays true to the essence of who she is, rather than what others - individuals, society or culture - dictate for her to be. Yet we see her grapple with the times and the pressures placed on her because of her role in society at that time. She plays with the idea of what it means to truly be free. An excellent film! Superbly Created!
Corsage opens in theaters in the U.S. on December 23, 2022.
Film 3:
ETERNAL DAUGHTER:
Joanna Hogg and Tilda Swinton
One gloomy night, a middle-aged filmmaker and her elderly mother arrive at a fog-enshrouded hotel in the English countryside. An ominously brusque clerk, an apparent lack of other guests, and disturbing sounds from the room above theirs bode a less-than-welcome arrival. Yet all is not what it seems on this increasingly emotional trip into the past for these two women, one of whom has definitely been here before. Joanna Hogg (The Souvenir), among today’s foremost filmmakers, uses this Victorian gothic scenario for an entirely surprising, impeccably crafted, and, finally, overwhelming excavation of a parent-child relationship and the impulse toward artistic creation. And Tilda Swinton, in a performance of rich, endless surprise, turns in one of the most remarkable acting feats in her astonishing career. An A24 release.
(Summary NYFF2022)
My Review:
Eternal Daughter was reminiscent, to us, of Queen Elizabeth II, although they may have not been the intention of the film. It reminded us of this because of Queen Elizabeth II’s recent death, and possible reflections of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Anne’s lives and paths throughout Queen Elizabeth’s reign Additional, specific landscape scenes seemed reminiscent of the paths to Buckingham Palace, Balmoral, and Windsor Castle. As we see the main character drive away at the end of the film, I could not help but think of the many views we saw of the drive to and from Windsor Castle. The film itself shows the close interlinked relationship between mother and child, and the loss of someone close to you. Yet the two main female characters are a reflection of each other; a seeing of the other in oneself, or in ones past or future. It was interesting to me, to see the dynamics between the mother and daughter characters. It made me think of Queen Elizabeth II and her relationship with her mother, as well as Queen Elizabeth II’s relationship with Princess Anne and Princess Anne’s relationship with Queen Elizabeth II. Harkening back to moments earlier this year where members of the Royal Family were at Balmoral when Queen Elizabeth II passed, for me, it reflected the intimacy between mother and daughter as one approaches the end of life, but also savors the tender moments spent with someone they love dearly and the memories that are created with them. This had a very strong female lead. It was mind-bending in it’s own way. Well-crafted with twists and turns, yet very well grounded in family dynamics, relationships and the closeness of the human spirit to another, as well as a new understanding of oneself. Also an excellent film to see.
#4: TILL
Chinonye Chukwu’s searing modern-day death-row drama Clemency was one of the most accomplished breakthroughs in recent American cinema. The director has now traveled back to the 1950s to tell the story of Mamie Till-Mobley, the Chicago woman whose son, Emmett Till, was lynched while visiting cousins in Mississippi and whose body became an indelible image of the horrors of American racism. Employing a direct, unflinching, yet sensitive gaze, Chukwu has created the definitive drama of this woman’s grief and resilience, and in an astonishing performance, Danielle Deadwyler captures both a mother’s indescribable heartbreak and her inspiring ascension to the role of civil rights activist. Till is a momentous reminder of an ever-present tragedy, featuring painstaking production design, subtly expressive camera framing and composition, and a note-perfect supporting cast, including Sean Patrick Thomas, Jalyn Hall, Tosin Cole, John Douglas Thompson, Frankie Faison, and Whoopi Goldberg. A United Artists release.
REVIEW