Alfred Hitchcock, the late “Master of Suspense,” and Jiří Menzel, the late Czech director who won the foreign-language film Oscar for 1966’s Closely Watched Trains, will get some screen love during the 15th edition of the Beijing International Film Festival.
The “Homage-Restoration” section of the fest will feature, among others, Hitchcock’s classic spy thriller North by Northwest, starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and James Mason, and late Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s Meetings With Anna, starring Aurore Clément and Jean-Pierre Cassel, in new 4K restorations.
Anna is about an emotionally unavailable filmmaker who is traveling through Western Europe to promote her new film, meeting with strangers, friends, former lovers, and family members. North by Northwest is known as a tale of mistaken identity, featuring a man pursued by agents of a mysterious organization.
The Beijing festival organizers also unveiled that this year’s “Homage” section will put a spotlight on “film creations from the ‘Global South,’ screening rare classics, such as the Iranian film The Sealed Soil and the African cinematic masterpiece Sambizanga.” Soil, directed by Marva Nabili, tells the story of a young woman who rebels against the restrictions imposed on her when she reaches marrying age by rejecting all suitors. Sarah Maldoror’s Sambizanga, set in 1961 at the onset of the Angolan War of Independence, follows the struggles of members of an anti-colonial movement.
In addition, the Beijing film festival has also set “a special thematic program, ‘In Memory of Andrei Tarkovsky,’ to honor the cinematic master.” The late Tarkovsky, a Soviet director and screenwriter of Russian origin, explored spiritual and metaphysical themes in his movies, which typically feature long takes and slow pacing.
Beijing fest organizers previously also unveiled that late New Hollywood legend Robert Altman (Gosford Park, M*A*S*H), late master of violence Sam Peckinpah, and Dogme 95, the Danish avant-garde movement led by directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round), will get the spotlight treatment at the fest.
The 15th edition of the Beijing festival takes place in the Chinese capital April 18-26.
Chinese actor-director Jiang Wen (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Let the Bullets Fly) will serve as the head of the main competition jury at the festival, which will hand out its Tiantan Award. The other jurors are Chinese American director and actor Joan Chen (The Last Emperor), British director David Yates (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Chinese actor Ni Ni, Finnish director Teemu Nikki, Swiss director and actor Vincent Perez, and art director Tim Yip from Hong Kong.
