American Films Dominate N.Y. Film Festival

The New York Film Festival, long known for its international taste in films, will celebrate its 25th anniversary next month with a program that is decidedly American in flavor. Scheduled to be seen here at this year’s non-competitive festival are eight new films from this country--more than from any other nation--as well as John Frankenheimer’s 1962 film “The Manchurian Candidate,” which has not been seen publicly in more than a decade.

Officials of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, sponsor of the annual film festival, announced this week that the festival will open Sept. 25 with “Dark Eyes,” an Italian-made film by Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov and starring Marcello Mastroianni. The two-week-long Lincoln Center festival is due to close Oct. 11 with “House of Games,” the first film to be directed by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter David Mamet. Described as a “psychological thriller,” the film stars Mamet’s wife, actress Lindsay Crouse.

“I don’t know why there are more American films this year--there is never any conscious effort made in selecting the films--but they’re all good,” said Richard Roud, director of the festival since its inception and chairman of the selection committee. This year’s line-up includes 26 feature-length films as well as short-subject films. “I can only suggest that the directors of two of the American films are not American,” said Roud.

Roud stated that the major Hollywood film studios traditionally do not make their films available to the New York Film Festival, due to long locked-in marketing plans that pre-date the festival selection process. Industry observers also commonly acknowledge that the studios tend to be skittish about what they perceive to be the festival’s “art-house” tinge, apparently fearful of limiting the commercial potential of films that have been presented in such a setting. Nevertheless, during the past 25 years, the festival has introduced several American films of wide-ranging appeal, including Terrance Malick’s “Badlands” and Lawrence Kasden’s “The Big Chill.”

For the most part, however, the festival schedule has been dominated by European films, with the American films generally selected--no more than seven per year in the past--from among independently made dramatic features and documentaries.

In addition to Mamet’s film, which is due to be released by Orion Pictures in October, one other major studio film is set to have its American premiere here: Taylor Hackford’s feature-length documentary about Chuck Berry, “Hail, Hail Rock and Roll,” due to be released by Universal in October.

Other American-made films set for the festival include: “Barfly,” by French director Barbet Schroeder; and “Anna,” by Polish-emigre and first-time director Yurek Bogayevich. Also, “Young at Heart,” a short-subject dramatic film by Sue Marx and Pamela Conn; and two documentaries that Roud predicted would be provocative, Carole Langer’s “Radium City” and Deborah Shaffer’s “Fire From the Mountain,” a film about Nicaragua. The festival also will premiere “Horowitz Plays Mozart,” which marks Albert Maysles’ first film since the death last year of his brother and long-time film-making partner, David.

The rare showing of “The Manchurian Candidate” on Sept. 27 and Oct. 7 is expected to be a highlight of the festival. Based on Richard Condon’s suspense novel about a plot to assassinate a liberal politician, the film was reportedly last shown theatrically by United Artists in 1972.

Another festival highlight among this year’s European films is expected to be Roberto Rossellini’s “The Human Voice,” a 1948 film based on a Jean Cocteau play and starring the late Anna Magnani, which has never before been seen in this country.