The 51st New York Film Festival Movie Still – The Immigrant

The 51st New York Film Festival (NYFF) has opened with 17 days of exciting world premieres, award winners from Cannes, Berlin, and Venice, retrospective screenings, spotlights on emerging filmmakers, panels, galas and much more! Join us here MoviefiedNYC, as we bring you our daily selection of the one film playing today that we think you shouldn’t miss. Happy NYFF!

Photo: Courtesy of The 51st New York City Film Festival

USA | 120 minutes

Director James Gray and Joaquin Phoenix in person for Q&A on October 6!

Young Polish immigrant Ewa (Marion Cotillard, in a thrilling performance), after being separated from her sister at Ellis Island, finds herself caught in a dangerous battle of wills with a shady burlesque manager (Joaquin Phoenix) in James Gray’s richly detailed period tragedy. Working with the great cinematographer Darius Khondji (Se7en, Amour), Gray imagines 1920s Manhattan as a dusty, sepia-toned dreamworld, sometimes faintly luminous but often dejectedly burnt-out. The same could be said of the film’s heroes: after a charismatic magician (Jeremy Renner) starts to compete for Ewa’s affections, The Immigrant builds steadily to its devastating climax. A lovingly wrought portrait of Prohibition-era New York, the film is also a morally ambiguous, open-ended reflection on family loyalty, urban disillusionment, and the unpredictable twists and turns of human motivation. The Immigrant, based on the stories and experiences told to the director by his grandparents, is perhaps one of the last of its kind—a personal epic. A Radius-TWC release.

Don’t miss our HBO On Cinema with James Gray on October 12!

Series: NYFF51: Official Selection
Venue: Francesca Beale Theater, Alice Tully Hall

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