Today is a big day of press screenings. First up is Jafar Panahi’s This Is Not a Film, and words can’t even express how excited I am to see it. Apparently the footage was shot on an iPhone, and smuggled into France in a cake. Anyone who has read me for any time whatsoever should know what this filmmaker means to me.
Directly following that is a screening for A Dangerous Method, the latest from David Cronenberg. It stars Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud and Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung and the topic is sexual hysteria, and I am chomping at the bit to see the damn thing.
And after that is a giant event, the third installment of the Paradise Lost documentary series, having to do with the trials and tribulations of the West Memphis Three. This documentary has been edited again to reflect the fact that the West Memphis Three were just released from prison this summer. Justice has been served. I am so excited to see it. I have been a fan of those documentaries since the very first installment. A horrible story, upsetting in the extreme, and it should be a major jostling press event. I’m excited.
Then, directly following the press screenings and press conferences, I am off to have drinks with a group of good friends, people I haven’t seen in a couple of months.
More NYFF reviews to follow. My review of the Martin Scorsese HBO documentary about George Harrison should go up sometime today. It premieres in two parts on HBO starting tomorrow night.
