NZIFF announces special programme of films to mark 50th anniversary in Auckland

NZIFF announces special programme of films to mark 50th anniversary in Auckland

NZIFF announces special programme of films to mark 50th anniversary in Auckland Twelve retrospective films have been announced to screen at the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) in 2018 to mark the 50th anniversary of the festival in Auckland.

1982 film Liquid Sky is one of 12 restrospective films to mark NZIFF’s 50th anniversary in Auckland

NZIFF Director Bill Gosden has curated the programme of films from half a century of NZIFF screenings including the film which opened the first-ever 1969 Auckland International Film Festival, Hunger. Other highlights of the retrospective programming include Cannes Film Festival 1976 Grand Prix award-winning film Cria Cuervos, landmark lesbian love story Desert Hearts, spectacular Swedish documentary The Atlantic, Soviet era romantic comedy Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears and a new 4K restoration of 1987 German/French film Wings of Desire. “In looking over the films of the past five decades I wanted to bring together a selection which represented a broad spectrum and celebrated some of the many highlights we have seen over the years,” says Gosden. As well as the retrospective film programme, festival fans can relive the history at an exhibition of past festival posters and clippings on display at ASB Waterfront Theatre during the 2018 NZIFF. Additional films for the 50th anniversary programme will be announced. The confirmed films marking the 50th anniversary are: Chulas Fronteras/Del mero Corazon USA, 1976 Director/Photography/Editor: Les Blank Screened at Auckland International Film Festival 1980 A beautiful, timely restoration of Chulas Fronteras (meaning ‘Beautiful Borders’), folklorist/cine-poet Les Blank’s classic ode to Norteña music and the migrant culture that exists along the Texas–Mexican border. Shot in the late 1970s – and restored now by his son Harrod – Chulas Fronteras and its companion piece Del mero corazón celebrate pioneering figures like Narciso Martínez and Lydia Mendoza as well as then-current performers like Flaco Jiménez and Los Pingüinos del Norte. “It calls for dancing in the street with a bottle of Pearl Beer in one hand and a chili relleno in the other.” — Michael Goodwin, Village Voice https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/chulas-fronteras/ Cold Water France, 1994 Screened at Auckland International Film Festival 1995 Director/Screenplay: Olivier Assayas This early triumph from French director Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria, Personal Shopper) centres on two doomed teenage lovers swept away by the nervous musical energy of 1970s countercultural Paris. This deeply personal tribute to rock and roll, teen love, and the impermanence of youth, and including one of the greatest party sequences ever put to film, this semi-autobiographical portrait of youth in revolt drew from Assayas’ own experiences and features an iconic soundtrack that includes Nico, Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin. “Cold Water has the kind of emotional purity that puts it in a class by itself. Its blue fog envelops you.” — David Edelstein, Vulture https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/cold-water/ Cosy Dens Czech Republic, 1999 Screened at Auckland International Film Festival 2000 Director: Jan Hrebejk A vivid comic valentine to the Prague Spring, a short-lived era when mop-topped teenage boys nourished hopes of ditching their standard issue army wear and stepping out in Beatle boots. Two families co-exist in a small Prague apartment block in 1967 each with a fulminating patriarch at the head of each household; one a devoted party man, the other a former resistance hero clamouring for the end of Bolshevik idiocy. Supercool Jindřiška and hopelessly smitten Michal, the teenage children of these battling neighbours, have grown up like siblings, blithely certain that their parents are living in the past. https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/cosy-dens/ Cria Cuervos Spain, 1976 Screened at Auckland International Film Festival 1978 Director/Screenplay: Carlos Saura One of the great films of the first decade of NZIFF, winner of the Grand Prix award at Cannes Film Festival 1976, and one of the great film portraits of childhood. Ana Torrent, surely one of the screen’s most compelling child actors, and Geraldine Chaplin as her mother are unforgettable in Carlos Saura’s unique and haunting evocation of an eight-year-old girl’s fears and fantasies. “The film is a masterpiece of form and technique, and Chaplin and Torrent are both outstanding.” — Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/cria-cuervos/ Desert Hearts USA, 1985 Screened at Auckland International Film Festival 1986 Director: Donna Dietch The landmark lesbian love story returns to the giant screen as vibrant, beautiful and celebratory as ever. Exuberant and sexy, Desert Hearts belts along on fresh air, country music and sassy dialogue so that you can almost feel that warm wind in your hair. “Steeped in moody, classic country and western music, it conveys romantic longing and confusion with bittersweet intensity.” — Camille Paglia, Sight & Sound https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/desert-hearts/ Hunger Denmark, 1966 Screened at Adelaide/Auckland International Film Festival 1969 Director: Henning Carlsen This exacting, bleakly funny portrait of a starving artist opened the first Auckland International Film Festival in 1969. A Scandinavian classic, this is an intense, superbly acted portrait of a self-dramatising young writer and the late 19th-Century society he rejects. “This unforgettable film version of Knut Hamsun’s great novel won the Best Actor award at Cannes. It is one of the great film performances of all time.” — Albert Johnson, Pacific Film Archive https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/hunger/ Liquid Sky USA, 1982 Screened at Auckland International Film Festival 1984 Director: Slava Tsukerman Invisible aliens descend on Manhattan’s post-punk club scene for the heroin and then stay for the sex when a lesbian fashion model discovers she can feed them by bringing her unwelcome suitors to climax. As out-there in 2018 as it was when it filled the St James for two successive Festival midnight screenings in 1984, this awesomely jaded carnival of sexuality as artform and weapon looks sharper than ever in a brand new 4K restoration. https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/liquid-sky/ Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears USSR, 1980 Screened at Auckland International Film Festival 1982 Director: Vladimir Menshov Considered charmingly old-fashioned when it arrived in the West in 1980 and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, this epic romantic comedy from the Soviet era stands as a classic now – a loving chronicle of the lives of three feisty provincial girls who emigrate to Moscow in 1958, tracing their romantic and professional lives through 20 years of friendship. “Lively acting, vivacious editing and a deft ironic treatment of a classically naïve storyline make this Academy Award winner a sunburst in the rain.” — Kathleen Hulser, Film Journal https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/moscow-does-not-believe-in-tears/ Orlando UK/Russia/France/Italy/Netherlands, 1992 Screened at Auckland International Film Festival 1993 Director: Sally Potter Tilda Swinton strides through four centuries of history, switching genders as she goes, in Sally Potter’s gorgeous, playful subversion of British Heritage cinema. With Billy Zane, and Quentin Crisp as Elizabeth I. “Tilda Swinton’s performance as Orlando in this adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel is luminous and thrilling, an omnisexual romp through 400 years of history.” — Kate Muir, The Sunday Times https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/orlando/ The Atlantic Atlantean, Sweden, 1994 Screened at Auckland International Film Festival 1995 Directors: Jan Röed, Kristian Petri, Magnus Enquist All the CGI in the world pales beside the unearthly spectacle of the world itself as discovered by cinematographer Jan Röed in this magnificent, haunting film, shown at the Festival in 1995 and never seen here since. This spectacular documentary, shot on and around Atlantic Islands from Iceland to South Georgia, is reprised in a rare 35mm print.  “A must-see… One of the most hauntingly beautiful Swedish documentaries ever made.” — Gunnar Rehlin, Variety https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/the-atlantic/ The Swimming Pool France/Italy, 1969 Screened at Auckland International Film Festival 1970 Director: Jacques Deray Divine decadence in the south of France, this silkily sexy psychological thriller stars Romy Schneider, Alain Delon and Jane Birkin, France’s hottest young stars of the 1960s, and shimmers with cool jazz and mid-summer menace. “Set in a to-die-for villa in the verdant hills overlooking Saint-Tropez, this icily elegant pas de quatre involves four of the most outrageously photogenic actors to ever appear on screen.” — David Melville, Senses of Cinema https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/the-swimming-pool/ Wings of Desire West Germany/France, 1987 Screened at Auckland International Film Festival 1988 Director: Wim Wenders Two angels watch over a divided Berlin in Wim Wenders’ visually astonishing city symphony from 1987 – restored 30 years later, under his direction, to look and sound better than ever in this glorious 4K presentation. The surround-soundscape is as gloriously untethered as the film’s floating camera, a symphony of voices, music and urban ambience cradling the spoken poetry of Peter Handke’s script. Lyrically articulating a profusion of existential doubts and fleeting sensory delights, it’s one of the great Rorschach test movies, many things to many people – and incidentally a must for Nick Cave completists. “It’s full of astonishingly hypnotic images… and manages effortlessly to turn Wenders’ and Peter Handke’s poetic, literary script into pure cinematic expression.” — Geoff Andrew, Time Out https://www.nziff.co.nz/2018/auckland/wings-of-desire/ The 50th retrospective films will be scheduled throughout the Auckland NZIFF programme and will screen at various NZIFF cinemas. NZIFF is run by a charitable trust and encourages lively interactions between films, filmmakers and New Zealand audiences in 13 towns and cities around the country. The full NZIFF programme will be available from Tuesday 26 June for Auckland and starts in Auckland on 19 July 2018.