In what feels like no time at all are we again looking towards the New York Film Festival, which launches on September 30 with some major buzz, drone, hiss, but hopefully not a wheeze: Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, a collection of proper nouns I still struggle grasping, will serve as opening-night selection.
The festival, which debuted a new still featuring Adam Driver, wastes no time with praise. Artistic Director Dennis Lim calls it “an unequivocal triumph: a wildly entertaining and morbidly funny meditation on the way we live now that is also the director’s most ambitious and expansive film” that turns Don DeLillo’s masterpiece “into a movie that speaks profoundly to our moment.”
See below for Baumbach’s statement, and check back in coming days and weeks for updates on Centerpiece, Closing Night, and a complete slate that, per standard, will surely encapsulate the best of this year’s festival offerings.
“In 1985 my father and I drove from Brooklyn to see Kurosawa’s ‘Ran’ open the 23rd NYFF, the same year that he brought home the hardback of Don DeLillo’s ‘White Noise. Opening the 60th NYFF with ‘White Noise’ is truly special for me. This festival was part of my film education and has been a home for me and many of my movies over the years.”