The great Alain Resnais at the New York Film Festival press conference for his latest film, the mind-blowing Wild Grass. Alternating between French and English, the maestro held forth on the future of cinema (it involves Arnaud Desplechin), his favorite television shows (The Sopranos…The Shield?!?…X FIles (of course)..DID he say The Wire?) and whether or not he’s an auteur. He says not so much, we say hell yeah he is.
Grass supporting player Mathieu Amalric was also in attendance, and all the shots I got of him were pretty shitty, but I’m putting up this one anyway, because the actor had this gaze of adoring concentration fixed on his director throughout, and I thought that was adorable.
Ooh, what’d he have to say about Desplechin?
Basically just what I said. A questioner asked him about whether cinema had a future, and he replied that as long as humanity existed there would be cinema, and if you want to talk about a director re-inventing the form, look no farther than Desplechin. This made Amalric grin even wider, natch.
I was there. Took my camera too. The movie was so excruciating to sit through, so whimsical, such a complete example of style over substance, that I left five minutes into the press conference without taking any photos. God bless.
Darn, Chevalier…you and I don’t see eye-to-eye on quite a few things…and this film would seem to be one of them! I guess we will mix it up on a future post. I happen to think this is an exhilarating movie in both style and substance…
For what it’s worth, I saw Jonathan Demme give it a standing ovation…
I just want that overcoat!
I like your photo of Amalric. Just because it’s not a “good” photo based on conventional aesthetics doesn’t mean it’s not a good photo. Maybe re-reading Sontag’s “On Photography” again might help.
Thanks, Mr. N. And I dig where you’re coming from w/r/t Sontag. I’m just constitutionally hard on myself, is all.
Please keep the reports coming from the NYFF interviews– am surprised how much that photo, of Resnais seated on the restored Alice Tully stage, moves me. I sat through some windy post-film addenda, but will always remember Martel, Bellocchio, and Mullan as electric.
When/Where was this press conference? I was at the 6:00pm screening. Was it after the 8:00pm screening?
Sorry, Peter, it was Friday afternoon, after the 1 p.m. press screening…
The guy who made Last Day At Marienbad loves The Shield. This makes me so fucking happy. Wow.
Ha…apparently it made me so happy that I changed the title of Last Year At Marienbad to something that makes no sense. Happiness will do that, I guess.
I’d like to see a film called BAD DAY AT MARIENBAD. (Maybe I have)
Love the Pound reference there! Resnais is rocking a bouffant that even Ezra would’ve been proud of…