Clint Eastwood movie to close NY film festival
NEW YORK, Aug 16 (Reuters Life!) - A new film directed by Clint Eastwood starring Matt Damon and intertwining lives of people connected to experiences of death or afterlife will close September's New York Film Festival, organizers said on Monday.
Eastwood's film, "Hereafter," which also stars Belgian actress Cecile de France and is written by Peter Morgan, who wrote the screenplays for "The Queen" and "Frost/Nixon," is part of a lineup of 28 feature films announced for the 17-day festival that begins Sept. 24.
The 80-year-old Eastwood leads several aging directors whose films were also selected, including French veteran Jean-Luc Godard, 79, whose "Film Socialisme" will show, as well as 67-year-old Mike Leigh's "Another Year," which looks at four seasons in the lives of a longtime married couple.
Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, 101, returns to the festival with "The Strange Case of Angelica," along with director Raul Ruiz "Mysteries of Lisbon."
The festival previously announced U.S. director David Fincher's "The Social Network," about the rise and fall of the founders of Facebook, will open the festival and Shakespearean romance "The Tempest," starring Helen Mirren, will serve as the centerpiece film.
The New York Film Festival, which traditionally emphasizes the art of cinema over Hollywood-style, star-filled premieres and shows fewer movies than other festivals, features films from more than a dozen different countries.
Foreign films include five-and-a-half-hour epic "Carlos," by Olivier Assayas that is an account of notorious Venezuelan-born revolutionary Carlos the Jackal and Thai film "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives" that won the top prize earlier this year at Cannes.
Besides Fincher, other American filmmakers include the premiere of Michael Epstein's documentary "Lennon NYC" that uses rarely seen footage and interviews with many people who were close to the music legend. (Reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
REUTERS
