Surveying a Week of Stories

Like the opening bell at a Triple Crown race, Laurent Cantet’s “The Class” launched the New York Film Festival into a sprint on Friday evening, making way for two gala opening-night events and a weekend of packed screenings uptown. Now the festival enters its first full week as a showcase for groundbreaking international fare.From a programming standpoint, much of the attention has fallen on the festival’s weekend programs: the opening-night and closing-night programs, as well as this weekend’s centerpiece selection, Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling.” But some of the rarest gems are to be found on the festival’s weeknights, when tickets are more accessible and audiences of a more curious disposition are eager to give less fancied titles their consideration.For those lucky enough to score tickets to “Changeling,” congratulations. But for those still surveying the catalog, curious about which titles to check out while their friends stand in long lines, here are a few weekday gems:MONDAY“Tony Manero,” 9:15 p.m.A dark and deranged case study of a society that’s gone off the rails, Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain’s “Tony Manero” presents us with the spectacularly bizarre character of 52-year-old Raul, who clings to the fictional world of Hollywood blockbusters in an effort to forget the cruelty of his daily life, as well as his second life as a serial killer. Raul’s only source of happiness is John Travolta’s hit disco film “Saturday Night Fever.” Obsessed with every one of Mr. Travolta’s moves, Raul becomes fixated on re-creating the film in a grungy cantina. As Augusto Pinochet’s police state starts to fall down around him, Raul regresses further, escaping the dreariness in favor of Hollywood glitz instead.(Also showing Tuesday at 6 p.m.)TUESDAY“The Northern Land,” 9:15 p.m.Ana Moreira transcends time and space in “The Northern Land,” playing various women from different eras in a story set on the island of Madeira. Ms. Moreira begins the story in the present as a young woman in search of information concerning a distant ancestor. But “The Northern Land” does one better than merely follow that genealogical search. Portuguese director João Botelho is interested in reviving history and in drawing parallels between life today and what our ancestors experienced. Flipping back through the calendar, “The Northern Land” (based on the novel by Agustina Bessa Luis) captures the similarities and differences between like-minded women living in notably different times, hinting at the ways in which our history informs the present.WEDNESDAY“Summer Hours,” 6 p.m.What do we owe the dead? How do we integrate the agony of mourning into the ebb and flow of our everyday lives? These are the issues probed with brute honesty in Olivier Assayas’s “Summer Hours.” When the children of a recently deceased woman return home to console one another, they must also decide what is to be done with the country house that she occupied for decades. For some, the house still bears their mother’s enduring spirit. For others, it is now a place like any other, drained of its soul. This emotionally unstable middle ground clearly fascinates Mr. Assayas.(Also showing Thursday at 9 p.m.)THURSDAY“Waltz With Bashir,” 6 p.m.At once an animated journey through the dark recesses of memory and a re-creation of war-torn Lebanon circa 1982, Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir” is among the most creative films you’ll see at this year’s New York Film Festival. It begins with a dream — an animated sequence as described by a friend of the director who, decades after the fact, has begun to recall the dark days of his wartime experience. Soon, Mr. Folman is expressing dismay that he cannot remember anything about his own war service. Using subsequent interviews with a half-dozen friends and colleagues, “Waltz With Bashir” re-enacts the director’s attempts to revive those blocked memories.As the fog clears from his mind, Mr. Folman gradually recalls the destruction in Beirut that he bore witness to and even participated in. As the animation dissolves into archival footage of the carnage, the jagged edges of memory merge with the sharp focus of reality.(Also showing Wednesday at 9:15 p.m.)ssnyder@nysun.comThe 46th New York Film Festival continues through October 12. For more information, visit filmlinc.com.

Surveying a Week of Stories

Surveying a Week of Stories

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