The Circuit

by Laura Kern / Film Comment
The 45th edition of the New York Film Festival, which kicked off this Friday, is getting much attention for featuring works by an unusually large number of American filmmakers - many of them New York-based. But Wes Anderson's fest opener, the charming Darjeeling Limited, is set in India, and Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is purely French. Diving Bell traces the life of French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who becomes paralyzed after a stroke at age 43 and ends up dictating his memoir by blinking his left eye, the only body part left fully operational. Heartbreaking, inspiring yet never overly sentimental, it may be the movie of the year: Schnabel deservedly won Best Director at Cannes this year, and Mathieu Amalric, as Bauby is absolutely riveting.

Almost as striking as Diving Bell are two lesser-known entries, currently without U.S. distribution.

Mexico's Carlos Reygadas is a filmmaker who provokes strong reactions from audiences-negative and positive in equal parts. His stunningly beautiful new film Silent Light should find him many converts to the support camp. Set in northern Mexico and spoken in an unfamiliar language-a German dialect never before heard on film-the film follows a Mennonite family man with a devoted wife and six children whose two-year affair with another woman slowly tears him apart and puts his entire existence into question. Though bursting with influences - especially David Lynch and Carl Theodor Dreyer - Silent Light feels entirely fresh, and despite a measured pace, mesmerizes with a dread that looms over every exquisitely framed shot.

A similarly titled film, Secret Sunshine, by Korean director Lee Chang-dong, also provides a rich, singular experience. It's five (or possibly more) movies rolled into one-mother-son melodrama, thriller, faith inquisition, woman-on-the-verge tragedy, and road-to-recovery drama. In each, actress Jeon Do-yeon, displays a wholly different facet of her character, Sin-ae, a woman who moves with her young son from Seoul to her late husband's home town to start over, just to face more hardship. Jeon won the Best Actess award at Cannes this year, and she gets fine support from the wonderful Song Kang-ho as her tireless suitor, a sort of guardian angel, and provider of comic relief, which is welcome in the film-and in a festival that is generally known for being heavy on somber, challenging (and mostly rewarding) works.

Laura Kern is Managing Editor at Film Comment.

Silent Light trailer:


Secret Sunshine trailer: