NY Film Festival kicks off with Walk

The world premiere of Robert Zemeckis' The Walk, a dramatic retelling of a 1974 attempt to cross a tightrope between The World Trade Center's twin towers by French high-wire artist Philippe Petit (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), was to be the high-profile opening night attraction of the 53rd New York Film Festival today.

It's opening the festival, all right, but on Saturday. The opening date got moved because Pope Francis decided to come to town. The pope's motorcade will commence travel at 5 p.m. through Central Park to greet his myriad fans before heading to Mass at 6 p.m. at Madison Square Garden. And since the festival is held by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, located a few blocks west of Central Park along 65th Street, the pope's presence was sure to cause unbelievable traffic and crowd-control problems.

The festival's programmers, ever fast on their feet, are offering free programming of the Technicolor film-noir classic Leave Her to Heaven (1945) with Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde and Jeanne Crain, and 1979's Bob Fosse-directed All That Jazz today. On Sunday, there will be a sneak preview of The Martian with Matt Damon in 3-D in advance of its theatrical opening on Oct. 2.

The remainder of the festival, which continues through Oct. 11, features world cinema from renowned filmmakers as well as new talent. The so-called Centerpiece of the festival, screening Oct. 3, is Steve Jobs, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by Danny Boyle. It stars Michael Fassbender as the controversial co-founder of Apple, with a supporting cast that includes Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen and Jeff Daniels.

Closing the festival on Oct. 11 is Don Cheadle's directorial debut Miles Ahead, in which the actor, who co-wrote the script, stars as celebrated jazz musician Miles Davis.

In between will be 26 films in the Main Slate official selection. There's much to enjoy, according to festival director and selection committee chairman Kent Jones: "I could talk about the geographical range of the films in the selection, the mix of artistic sensibilities from Hsiao-hsien Hou and Steven Spielberg to Chantal Akerman, the astonishments of Miguel Gomes's three-part Arabian Nights or Kiyoshi Kurosawa's heartbreaking Journey to the Shore or Michael Almereyda's surprising Experimenter, but the only thing that really matters is how uniformly beautiful and vital each of these movies is. If I were 17 again and I looked at this lineup from far away, I'd be figuring out where I was going to stay in New York for two weeks this autumn."

Along with The Walk and Miles Ahead, the Main Slate offers two more world premieres: Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance in a Cold War story of the 1962 exchange of a U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for a Soviet agent, and Laura Israel's Don't Blink: Robert Frank, a documentary portrait of the photographer and filmmaker.

Award winners from Cannes will be presented to New York audiences for the first time, among them Todd Haynes' Carol, starring Rooney Mara, and Stephane Brize's The Measure of a Man, starring Vincent Lindon.

Wait, there's more: Michael Moore's documentary Where to Invade Next and some bright spots of comedy such as Rebecca Miller's Maggie's Plan starring Greta Gerwig and Ethan Hawke, Mia Madre from Nanni Moretti starring John Turturro, and Michel Gondry's Microbe & Gasoline, which follows two adolescent misfits who build a house on wheels and travel across France.

Founded in 1969, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, along with having the sense not to compete with the pope, works to recognize established and emerging filmmakers to support important new work, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility, and understanding of the moving image.

For more information, visit filmlinc.org/nyff2015.

MovieStyle on 09/25/2015

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