NZIFF 2015 Christchurch 7 Aug–24 Aug 2015

Films — by Collection

Staff Picks: Lisa Bomash

Choosing is the hardest, when there are two options I wish I could have both. When there are more, I am Jack’s hesitation.

So, here is a list of everything:  rhythms and magic of New Orleans past and present; intellectuals; kaleidoscopes of poetry and colours; sadness of an era fading in history; small sounds and textures of the world; tales from the West and East; curiosities of cinematography; vampires; dreams and realities that are not contradictory, old stories told anew in a language that I can’t speak. 

The 50 Year Argument

Martin Scorsese, David Tedeschi

Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi’s doco celebrates 50 years of cultural and political debate in the pages of The New York Review of Books with octogenarian editor Robert Silvers, its tireless champion of intellectual freedom.

The Postman’s White Nights

Belye nochi pochtalona Alekseya Tryapitsyna

Andrei Konchalovsky

Russian director Konchalovsky follows a rural postman on rounds that cover tiny lakeside villages in the Arkhangelsk region of northern Russia in this affectionate, unvarnished, ravishingly shot portrait of a vanishing culture.

Song of the Sea

Tomm Moore

An enthralling reinterpretation of Irish folktales… Sophisticated enough to appeal to adults and packed with enough humour and adventure to work for youngsters, Song of the Sea is a real animated gem.

Victoria

Sebastian Schipper

An after-midnight flirtation on the streets of Berlin gets thrillingly side-tracked by another chase entirely. Filmed in a single real-time take, it’s an edit-free pièce de résistance of acting, directing and mobile camerawork.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

Ana Lily Amirpour

Our chador-wearing heroine walks the night-time streets of Bad City sinking her teeth into those who deserve to die. Outrageously languid, this new-school vampire movie is a triumphant first feature for Ana Lily Amirpour.

Inherent Vice

Paul Thomas Anderson

“Paul Thomas Anderson has taken Thomas Pynchon’s novel about the death of the hippie counterculture and turned it, reasonably faithfully, into a surreally funny, anxious and beautiful film noir.” — The Telegraph