This year, in the documentary section of the programme, the festival is showing two fashion related titles; Bill Cunningham New York and Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. FashioNZ is particularly looking forward to this insight into the acid-tongued fashion critic, and original red carpet queen, Joan Rivers. Feature films that might also interest the fashion minded include the exquisite I Am Love and the Italian classic Senso.
Bill Cunningham New York
USA 2010, 84 mins
Director: Richard Press
Festivals: New Directors/New Films, San Francisco 2010
Photographer Bill Cunningham, well into his ninth decade, has two weekly columns in the Style section of the New York Times: On the Street, where he identifies fashion trends as he spots them emerging on the street; and Evening Hours, his coverage of high society charity benefits. This documentary introduces us to a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own lovely, graceful generosity.
‘Fashion is his muse, not the manufactured glamour and celebrity fetishism that often pollutes it.’ – Manohla Dargis, NY Times.
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
USA 2010, 85 mins
Directors: Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg
Festivals: Sundance, San Francisco, Tribeca 2010
Flamboyant exhibitionism and stoic masochism have rarely been more visibly wired together in a performer’s dynamo than in this funny, complex portrait, onstage and off, of comedian Joan Rivers.
‘Pioneer comedian. Plastic-surgery freak. Red-carpet maven. Foul-mouthed shock artist. No matter how you think of her, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work is likely to expand your idea of who, exactly, Joan Rivers is.’ – Rachel Rosen, San Francisco International Film Festival.
I Am Love Io sono l’amore
Italy 2009, 119m
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Festivals: Venice, Toronto 2009
Tilda Swinton in a hyper-stylish drama about a wealthy Milanese clan. ‘An exquisite, all-enveloping feast of sensual pleasures. It’s almost certainly the most elegant piece of cinema you’ll see this year.’ – The Times
‘I Am Love bewitches its viewers as thoroughly as any of its central characters seduce each other.’ – B. Ruby Rich, San Francisco International Film Festival
In Italian, Russian and English, with English subtitles.
Senso
Italy 1954, 123m
Director: Luchino Visconti
Festivals: Cannes (Cannes Classics) 2009; San Francisco 2010
Luchino Visconti’s 1954 film about the affair between an Italian countess (Alida Valli) with partisan sympathies and an Austrian officer from the occupying army (Farley Granger), set during Garibaldi’s war of independence in the 1860s, is one of the most extraordinary historical films ever made. Rarely have the dramas of history and romantic passion been so skilfully and compellingly intertwined.
‘A lush melodramatic portrayal of seduction and betrayal, decadence and deceit.’ – Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
In Italian and German, with English subtitles.
Screening information for Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin sessions are currently available in our programme brochures and on our website (www.nzff.co.nz). The Christchurch schedule will be available online from Monday 5 July. Further screenings in other cities will be announced as the programme is launched in each region.
New Zealand International Film Festival 2010
Auckland, July 8 – 25
Wellington, July 16 – August 1
Dunedin, July 23 – August 8
Christchurch, July 29 – August 15
Palmerston North, August 5 – 22
Hamilton, August 12 – 29
Napier, August 18 – September 5
Tauranga, August 26 – September 8
New Plymouth, September 2 – 15
Nelson, September 9 – 23
Greymouth, October 4 – 10
Masterton, October 13 – 27
Gisborne, October 28 – November 10 Whangarei, November 4 – 17 Kerikeri, November 11 – 24
For more information and extra updates, check out the website at www.nzff.co.nz.