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| Patricia Arquette’s Gonzo Girl starring Willem Dafoe, Camila Morrone, Leila George, Ray Nicholson, and Arquette will have a Tribeca Festival Member Exclusive Event screening. |
In the second instalment of my annual conversation with Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer we discuss some more of the highlights in the 24th edition of the Tribeca Festival. In Spotlight Documentary: Jeffrey McHale’s It's Dorothy! (Ashanti, John Waters, Rufus Wainwright, Fairuza Balk, Danielle Hope, Shanice Shantay, Lena Waithe, Margaret Cho); Ole Juncker’s Take The Money And Run, and My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay (on Jayne Mansfield). Spotlight Narrative: Stephanie Laing’s Tow (Rose Byrne, Octavia Spencer, Dominic Sessa, Ariana DeBose, Demi Lovato, Simon Rex) and Sophie Brooks’s Oh, Hi! (Molly Gordon, Logan Lerman, Geraldine Viswanathan, John Reynolds, Polly Draper, David Cross).
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| Frédéric Boyer with Anne-Katrin Titze on the German film What Marielle Knows: “Extraordinary this is. I think it's the revelation of the Berlinale in terms of German cinema.” |
In Viewpoints: Frédéric Hambalek’s What Marielle Knows (Julia Jentsch, Felix Kramer, Laeni Geiseler, Sissy Höfferer, Moritz Treuenfels); Lucia Garibaldi’s A Bright Future (Martina Paseggi, Soledad Pelayo, Sofia Gala, Alfonso Tort), and Alex Ross Perry’s Videoheaven. International Narrative Competition: Paul Andrew Williams’ Dragonfly (Andrea Riseborough, Brenda Blethyn, Jason Watkins); Nayra Ilic García’s Cuerpo Celeste (Helen Mrugalski, Daniela Ramírez); Jong-hyun Yang’s People and Meat, and Bo-sol Kim’s The Square.
In US Narrative Competition: Paula González-Nasser’s The Scout (Mimi Davila, Rutanya Alda, Max Rosen, Ikechukwu Ufomadu). Documentary Competition: Toby Perl Freilich’s Maintenance Artist (on Mierle Laderman Ukeles); Kasper Bisgaard and Mikael Lypinski’s The End Of Quiet, and Robert Petit’s Underland narrated by Sandra Hüller and produced by Darren Aronofsky.
There will be a Member Exclusive Event screening of Patricia Arquette’s Gonzo Girl (Willem Dafoe, Camila Morrone, Patricia Arquette, Ray Nicholson, Leila George) and in Escape from Tribeca Lauris Abele and Raitis Abele’s Dog Of God (Jurgis Spulenieks, Kristians Karelins, Einars Repse, Agate Krista).
In the second installment of my annual conversation with Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer we discuss some more of the highlights in the 24th edition of the Tribeca Festival.
From New York City, Frédéric Boyer joined me on Zoom for an in-depth conversation on this year’s Tribeca Festival.
AKT: What else did I see in your program? It's Dorothy! A documentary on L Frank Baum’s Dorothy!
FB: Yeah, it's fantastic. Yes, yes, I wanted to mention this one. It's just about the team of Dorothy, but it's also approaching the psychoanalysis, you know, the subtext of Dorothy? So of course, it's very interesting for everybody. Super accessible.
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| Frédéric Hambalek’s What Marielle Knows |
AKT: She is 125 this year!
FB: Yes, I think it's exciting. So this one is exciting. There is one American film you should have a look at, because I think the quality is a little bit better. It's called Tow. The film was almost in Cannes. And I think it's a really good film by a female filmmaker. You should have a look at this one for the Americans.
AKT: My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay, on Jayne Mansfield, by her daughter, is another one I noticed.
FB: Yes, it's fine, it’s a little bit archival. Of course it's always great to see. I'm not sure if there is more, but I think it's great. We have this type of film, so it's always good to watch it. You will enjoy it. I'm sure you will enjoy it.
AKT: What about Patricia Arquette’s Gonzo Girl?
FB: I didn't see this one, so maybe it could be something. So maybe something could be good. Yeah.
AKT: I noticed another film because of the topic, which I thought was interesting and original. Maintenance Artist, about the first artist in residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation.
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| Robert Petit’s Underland, narrated by Sandra Hüller and produced by Darren Aronofsky |
FB: That's a good pitch.
AKT: Garbage, I mean art and garbage.
FB: Yeah, I didn't see this one, you know. There's so many films. I didn't see all of them. I'm trying to watch the maximum.
AKT: What about Vito Schnabel in The Trainer?
FB: I didn't see it. We don't have a link. There is one other film. It's too long, but it's too good. It's three hours and you cannot not have a look at the film because it's so unique. It premièred at Rotterdam in competition. It's called Videoheaven.
AKT: Yes, Alex Ross Perry.
FB: Yeah. He did recently a film about the group Pavement. This film is only about the Blockbuster Video. It's a compilation of all the films which were made in the Blockbuster Video. So it starts with [Michael Almereyda’s] Hamlet with Ethan Hawke. He's in a video store, and you have the voice of Alex Ross Perry, no Ethan Hawke. And it's a collage of how important the video stores and the Blockbuster were. I think it's super well done. It's super artistic. I like it. It's too long. But you can stay one hour and it's fine.
AKT: I was curious about it, because I remember how much it changed. I was a child then and suddenly you could re-watch movies and they weren't just on television once, or you had to catch them in the cinema.
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| Jeffrey McHale’s It's Dorothy! |
FB: Yes, they're talking about the culture of the VHS and things before the CDs, before the DVDs. I think it's great. There is one film in the International which you should have a look at. And I want to discuss with you the ending of the film. The problem of the film is the ending, the film is called Dragonfly. And the director is from the UK. Paul Andrew Williams. He did four films. One film was pretty well-known, called London to Brighton. His films are very violent revenge film noir arthouse films.
This film is totally different, with Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn. So this film reminded me of the photographer Martin Parr, a British photographer now 90 years old. By the way, we had a documentary about him, but the film is not as good. He's one of the most interesting photographers and what he's doing is photographing the banality, everything which is banal. So for me, it's a huge reference to Martin Parr. It doesn't look like any Ken Loach or Andrea Arnold.
There is something extremely strong in it. But he chose to have the most depressing ending. We were discussing, who's going to do the Q & A? I would love to do it because I love the film, because nobody wanted to do it. Because, of course, at the end you are waiting for something. But the problem is, and it's the reason why it's impossible after this end, to have a commercial future. It's the reason why Cannes didn't select the film. He decided to have an ending which is very personal. But for the sales agent you don't have another ending, because it's not a sweet one.
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| My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay on Jayne Mansfield |
AKT: In which way is the ending so disturbing? Does it include animals?
FB: No, no, no, otherwise for me it's impossible. No, no, no, there is nothing like that. The ending is very pessimistic, and the ending could have been a little bit optimistic, but they chose to show the dark side, but it's just the five last minutes, but all the film is super good, and the acting is good, and it's super well done. So this one you should have a look at absolutely.
AKT: Okay, what else do I have on my list? I have What Marielle Knows.
FB: Extraordinary this is. I think it's the revelation of the Berlinale in terms of German cinema. That's very good.
AKT: How about Dog Of God? 17th century, women accused of witchcraft a werewolf, something, like that?
FB: No, okay. This is a film which plays at Midnight. It's so dark it's really for gothic heavy metal. It's super dark. We have one animation in competition that’s going to be in Annecy [Animation Festival] which is something to have a look at. It's called The Square. It's from South Korea. But the thing which is interesting in this is it’s a pure South Korean animation, but it's a melodrama, it's a love story between diplomats, it's not a spy or action movie. There is something which I really love, and I know nothing about animation. But I think it's really interesting.
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| Alex Ross Perry’s Videoheaven |
AKT: What about The Scout?
FB: Great. I like it. It was in the US works in progress, in Wroclaw. They have something every year called US In Progress. I met them in Poland last November, October. It's about the job to visit houses and meet the new owners and I think it's super cool, shot in Brooklyn, also, I think, in Queens, so I think it's one of the cool ones in the competition. This one is really good.
There's a film which I think is quite interesting but the title is really not good. It's called People and Meat. I don't know why. Because the film is good, and it's two couples, and they are 70, 75 years old and they decide to go eating out and to not pay, so they are running away. But it's a little bit like a Mario Monicelli comedy from the Seventies. It's really Italian vibes, a little bit nasty people. It's very funny.
AKT: Terrible title, really.
FB: Agreed. You cannot sell it. You cannot recommend the film, and we tried to tell them. And they said, oh, we love the title, we keep the title!
AKT: What about Oh, Hi!? Sophie Brooks. Sony has it.
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| Toby Perl Freilich’s Maintenance Artist on Mierle Laderman Ukeles |
FB: Yes, but I didn't see it at Sony. I was in France, so I heard it's very good. It's a Sony Picture Classic. Maybe you should have a look.
AKT: Underland I have on my list, about caves and narration by Sandra Hüller.
FB: This is really extraordinary. You know, I'm programming the Reykjavik Film Festival. We will play the film, of course, because they have a lot of caves, and it's one of the best docs. But what's happened here is totally unknown. And how to make a film because it's dark. So there's a question of light. You don't have the sense of what is up or down, the humidity. It's extremely well done. They were working a lot, and this is really a good one.
There is a fun one from the Danish school. It's in competition. It's about an eccentric painter who is broke. Take The Money And Run. As I remember the story, the guy is selling a painting, but when he's delivering the painting there's only the frame, and he took his own painting. It's the reason why it's expensive, because there's nothing, and he's broke. I saw the film in November. He finds this crazy idea how to make money with nothing. So I think it's quite interesting.
But we have also the other film from Denmark, which is a world première. It's called The End Of Quiet. It's a Danish documentary of a community of people they are in a place of all the sound systems so they have to stay quiet. They cannot use the telephone, they have a school, they have everything. It’s a Danish film, they cannot use electricity it takes place in Minnesota, I don’t know where exactly. The two film show the real good shape of the Danish School of Documentary. I think the Danes are very good. They have training. The two films are two styles of the Danish docs. Both are really nice, the two are, I think, quite interesting.
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| Tribeca Festival June 4-15 2025 |
AKT: A Bright Future from Uruguay?
FB: Yes, it's not bad. A Bright Future is interesting to watch. We hesitated to have it in competition. We preferred another film from Latin America called Cuerpo Celeste from Chile. It's a first time filmmaker, I think, it is interesting. And she's super young. Little Trouble Girls was in Berlin, from Slovenia. It's absolutely delicious. She has a future, I think.
Read more on what Frédéric Boyer had to say on some of the highlights of this year’s Tribeca Festival.
The 24th edition of the Tribeca Festival runs from Wednesday, June 4 through Sunday, June 15.
