New York Film Festival 2022: A COUPLE, SHOWING UP

From my viewpoint, one of the great things about the New York Film Festival is that there are certain filmmakers whose latest works are pretty much guaranteed to be part of the Main Slate. Yes, festivals like this one also provide a platform for audiences to see films by new and exciting talents that we may have never heard of before and that is incredibly important. But it’s also a pleasant thought to know that if, say, Frederick Wiseman and Kelly Reichardt have new movies coming out, the odds are good that those movies will be at NYFF.

Anyway, this year, I was excited to see A Couple and Showing Up, the latest films from…Frederick Wiseman and Kelly Reichardt, respectively. Read on for more!

A Couple

One could understand if Frederick Wiseman—the legendary 92-year-old filmmaker behind documentaries ranging from Titicut Follies (1967) to City Hall (2020)—felt like slowing it down or taking it easy in his old age. He’s earned the right, after all. But fortunately for us, Wiseman is still out there making movies, the latest of which is his first narrative feature in twenty years.

An intriguing experiment in cinematic storytelling, A Couple is a 64-minute film comprised entirely of monologues adapted by Wiseman and his collaborator and star, the French actress Nathalie Boutefeu, from Sophia Tolstaya’s letters and diaries. Shot on location on an island off the coast of Brittany, it follows Boutefeu’s Sophia as she wanders through the glorious natural landscape, her often angry and embittered words standing in sharp contrast with the beauty that surrounds her.

Sophia describes how she and Tolstoy read each other’s diaries, and how it was him offering his diary to his much-younger bride on their wedding night that informed her he already had a child with another woman. She details her passionate love for Tolstoy as well as her deep fears of his moods, particularly the rage and jealousy that can seemingly flare up out of nowhere. She claims that he isn’t interested in her life, or that of their eight surviving children (she gave birth to 13), and argues that ordinary, domestic life is worthy of celebration and acknowledgment. It’s not that Sophia dislikes her days of caring for their children and copying Tolstoy’s manuscripts, she says, it’s that she wishes he could see that it isn’t easy, and give her the support and sympathy that she needs in order to thrive.

All of this is conveyed by Boutefeu with equal parts desperation and defiance as she walks through the flowers and trees, speaking—in some cases practically begging—to a Tolstoy who isn’t there, and who probably wouldn’t even be listening if he were. But we are, and listening to Boutefeu, one is overwhelmed by the complex array of emotions that her words elicit. One is reminded that Sophia was not the only great woman hidden behind a great man, helping him create masterpieces while receiving little thanks for her own role in the process. In certain scenes, Boutefeu is indoors in a small, dark room, writing her words by candlelight, and one is struck by the realization that this was probably the only time Sophia ever had to herself to write—alone in the dead of night when everyone else was gone or asleep. It didn’t stop her from essentially recording her entire life, the good and the bad, but it may have for a woman with less fire and drive.

In between monologues, Wiseman cuts away from Boutefeu to focus on the beauty of the world around her—a bird landing on a gnarled tree branch, a flower’s petals gently waving in the breeze, waves crashing on the rocky coast—as shot by Wiseman’s longtime cinematographer, John Davey. These moments provide necessary respites for the audience, giving us time to mull over Sophia’s words before the camera returns to her. It’s a deceptively simple story structure, rendered complex by the complicated nature of the story it tells: that of a marriage, and a long one at that. And while one could imagine this style growing repetitive over the course of a longer film, at just over an hour in length, A Couple manages to not overstay its welcome. It’s an interesting piece of late work from Wiseman, and one hopes it is not the last.

Showing Up

The latest film from director Kelly Reichardt also deals with the trials and tribulations inherent in creative work, albeit in a very different time and place than that of A Couple. Shot on location at the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts in Portland, Showing Up tells the story of a sculptor, Lizzie (frequent Reichardt muse Michelle Williams), and everything that is thrown in her path in the lead-up to her first-ever solo show: from having no hot water in her apartment to having to take care of an injured pigeon that her cat mauled to fearing that her troubled brother, Sean (First Cow alum John Magaro), is on the verge of a dangerous mental breakdown.

With all of this being thrown at Lizzie in her daily life—not to mention her desk job at the college where her mother is the dean—it’s hard for her to find the time and energy to devote to her art. Meanwhile, her friend and colleague, Jo (Hong Chau), seems footloose and fancy-free as she prepares for not one, but two big shows highlighting her work. (She also happens to be Lizzie’s landlord, and is seemingly not concerned about her friend’s lack of hot water.) Lizzie is clearly competitive with Jo, and jealous of her success; however, when she stops to observe Jo’s show before the gallery opens to the public, one can see in her face not just envy, but awe and pride—essentially, the entire gamut of feelings one associates with female friendships.

With Showing Up, Reichardt and her longtime co-writer Jonathan Raymond once again show that the lightest and most natural touch can still help tell a powerful story. While the art world is easy to parody, the film doesn’t laugh at its main characters; it laughs with them, and warmly. While Williams’ Lizzie is a bundle of anxieties wrapped in a cardigan, Chau’s Jo is incredibly funny and free-spirited, shuffling around in baggy overalls and making tire swings while Lizzie stresses about anything and everything. The contrast between these two women, and the natural comedy that results from their mismatched friendship, is a large part of what makes Showing Up such an entertaining film. Credit must also be given to Magaro and the rest of the actors who round out Lizzie’s fractured family—Maryann Plunkett as her mother, Jean, and Judd Hirsch as her father, Bill. When the four of them are all finally in the same room at Lizzie’s gallery show, chaos naturally ensues.

Lizzie’s sculptures are small figures of women in various poses, painted in colorful glazes in a style that echoes Fauvism; cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt lingers over their faces, shooting them in close-up, treating them with the respect they deserve as an important part of the film’s ensemble of characters. Watching Lizzie sit in her garage studio and stare at her pieces, periodically touching, bending, or removing various body parts until she feels satisfied, is a pretty authentic portrayal of the creative process; it looks mundane and slow-going, but when you’re finally satisfied with the work, it’s exhilarating. Between this and the fly-on-the-wall footage of the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, where students are experimenting with everything from movement to macrame, Reichardt shines a light on the less-than-glamorous side of the art world and reminds us that it is full of grit, hard work, and people like Lizzie—artists who must fit their work in around their regular lives, and for whom fame and fortune and little more than a distant dream, barely visible.

What do you think? Have you been able to catch any of the films at this year’s New York Film Festival? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

A Couple and Showing Up are both screening as part of the Main Slate at the 2022 New York Film Festival. A Couple opens at Film Forum in New York on November 11, 2022.