Festival of New Cinema: the old and the new

The 45th edition of the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (Festival of New Cinema, FNC) will take place between October 5 and 16 presenting a diverse sample of movie-making around the world, with particular emphasis on European and North American production I should add. A total of 340 films from 62 countries and 34 events will be held during the 10-day festival which in recent years has grown quantitatively as well as regarding its international scope.

The lineup for this year’s edition was announced this past Tuesday: the FNC will open with the screening of Kim Nguyen’s “Two Lovers and a Bear” a Canadian movie set in the coldness and the whiteness of the Arctic. There, “Roman and Lucy, two haunted young people, fall in love and decide to flee their demons together.” Another Canadian film set in the Arctic, “Maliglutit” a thriller directed by Zacharias Kunuk will close the event on October 16.

Among the films to be shown Jim Jarmusch’s portrait of Iggy Pop and the Stooges in “Gimme Danger” seems to be particularly interesting. “As a longtime friend of Jim Jarmusch (who appeared in Dean Man and Coffee and Cigarettes), Iggy Pop agreed to sit for the director in an extended interview about The Stooges, named right off the bat as the best band of all time and symbolized to this day by its charismatic frontman. Archival clips and concert footage are interspersed with the Iguana’s modern-day recollections, the camera closely framing his face, befitting the mythic figure he has become.”(Oct. 10, Quartier Latin, 9:15 p.m.).

Those who may like a different approach to the process of creating a novel, Wim Wender’s “Les beaux jours d’Aranjuez” (French with English subtitles) might be appealing. I had the chance to see it at the Toronto Festival, and it might produce two opposite reactions: either you’re bored by the dialogues in front on an almost motionless camera (the film was shot in 3D) or you’re fascinated by the process by which the characters are actually brought to life in the imagination of the writer who witnesses the couple’s exchanges in a bucolic setting outside Paris. (Oct 8, Cinema du Parc 5 p.m., and Oct 16, Cinema du Parc, 8 p.m.).

Those interested in cinema from other parts of the world should see “Neruda” by Pablo Larrain—recently acclaimed at the TIFF for his film “Jackie”. The film portrays an episode in the life of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, when in the late 1940s he had to escape police persecution orchestrated by a president who had declared war on the Communist Party of which Neruda was a prominent member. Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal plays the police chief who becomes obsessed with arresting the poet. (Oct. 10, Quartier Latin, 6:30 p.m.)

“Diamond Island” a film from Cambodia, directed by Davy Chou is “set in a half-finished luxury development near Phnom Penh, Diamond Island is a bittersweet, pulsing, street-level look at young Cambodians.” (Oct. 6, Quartier Latin, 9 p.m)

The FNC will also present a selection of old historical films, including “Ballet mecanique” a tribute to the 100 years of Dadaism. “We’ll be paying a fitting tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Dada movement with an epic hackathon to develop a digital Dada manifesto, followed by a highly festive cabaret to which everyone is invited. We’re also putting together a retrospective of Belgian filmmaker

Felix Van Groeningen that will feature a master class and screening with commentary of his latest film Belgica” said Nicolas Girard Deltruc, director of the FNC.

For detailed information about the film schedule and descriptions, prices, and venues, go to www.nouveaucinema.ca/en

By Sergio Martinez – totimes.ca