Lars von Trier Meets Wizard of Oz in 2009 New York Film Festival Lineup

The line-up for the 47th New York Film Festival was announced this afternoon, offering its usual blend of Cannes alumni, international auteur heavyweights, momentous upstarts, repertory curios and a couple of the usual X-factor head-scratchers. As with past years, some of those criteria can overlap -- such as with Wild Grass, Precious, and Broken Embraces, this year's opening-night, centerpiece and closing-night films respectively (joining Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or-winning The White Ribbon -- and some stand wholly alone. Among the latter noteworthy: A 70th-anniversary studio restoration of The Wizard of Oz, as well as the oldest-known Korean film (1934's Crossroads of Youth), and the U.S. premieres of new provocations by Lars von Trier (Antichrist) and Todd Solondz (Life After Wartime).

This year's festival runs Sept. 25 - Oct. 11, finally returning to its refurbished home at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. The full program follows the jump.

OPENING NIGHT

Wild Grass / Les herbes folles

Alain Resnais, France, 2009; 113m

The venerable Alan Resnais creates an exquisite human comedy of manners, mystery and romance with some of France's - and our - favorite actors: Sabine Azéma, André Dussollier, Emmanuelle Devos and Mathieu Almaric. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

CENTERPIECE

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Lee Daniels, USA, 2009; 109m

Precious is sixteen and living a miserable life. But she uses all the emotional energy she possesses to turn her life around. Director Lee Daniel's audacious tale features unforgettable performances by Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey and newcomer Gabourey Sidibe. A Lionsgate release.

CLOSING NIGHT

Broken Embraces / Los abrazos rotos

Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 2009; 128m

Almodóvar's newest masterwork is a candy-colored emotional roller that barrels from comedy to romance to melodrama to the darker haunts of film noir and stars his muse, Penélope Cruz, in a multilayered story of a man who loses his sight and the love of his life. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

36 Views of Saint-Loup Peak / 36 Vues Du Pic Saint Loup

Jacques Rivette, France, 2009, 84m

The legendary Jacques Rivette returns with an elegiac look at the final days of a small-time traveling circus.

Antichrist

Lars von Trier, Denmark, 2009, 109m

Surely to be one of the year's most discussed films, Lars von Trier's latest chronicles a couple's efforts to find their love again after a tragic loss, only to unleash hidden monsters lurking in their souls. An IFC Films release.

The Art of the Steal

Don Argott, USA, 2009, 101m

Bound to be controversial, this intriguing account of the travails of the legendary Barnes collection of art masterworks and the foundation set up to protect it raises vital questions about public vs. private "ownership" of art.

Bluebeard / La Barbe Bleue

Catherine Breillat, France, 2009, 78m

Two sisters reading Charles Perrault's 17th century tale of perhaps the first "serial killer" becomes a meditation on the enduring fascination with a character who has served as inspiration for countless novels, plays and films.

Crossroads of Youth / Cheongchun's Sipjaro

An Jong-hwa, Korea, 1934, 73m

The oldest surviving Korean film, this recently-rediscovered masterwork will be presented with live musical accompaniment as well as a benshi (offscreen narrator).

Eccentricities of a Blonde

Manoel de Olivera, Portugal/France, 2009, 64m

One hundred years young, director Manoel de Oliveira returns with another gem: a wry, moving tale of a pure if frustrated love adapted from a novel by Eça de Queiroz.

Everyone Else / Alle Anderen

Maren Ade, Germany, 2009, 119m

The ups and downs, joys and jealousies, frustrations and fulfillments of a young couple on a summer holiday provides the premise for this brilliant meditation on modern coupling.

Ghost Town

Zhao Dayong, China, 2008, 180m

A revealing, one-of-a-kind look at China far away from the glittering urban skylines, this portrait of a contemporary rural community in China offers extraordinary insights into everything from the role of religion to gender relationships to the place of social deviants.

Hadewijch

Bruno Dumont, France, 2009, 105m

A young woman searches for an absolute experience of faith--and in the process grows increasingly distant from the world around her.

Independencia

Raya Martin, Philippines, 2009, 77m

Maverick director Raya Martin offers a kind of alternative history of the Philippines and its struggle for nationhood in this stylized tale of a mother and son hiding in the mountains after the US takeover of the islands.

Inferno / L'Enfer

Serge Bromberg, France, 2009, 100m

A film buff's delight, Serge Bromberg film resurrects the surviving footage of Clouzot's aborted, experimental film L'Enfer, revealing a slightly mad but beguiling project that will always remain one of cinema's great "what ifs."

Kanikosen

Sabu, Japan, 2009, 109m

Kaniskosen is a highly stylized, stirring, manga-flavored update of a classic Japanese political novel, with labor unrest aboard a crab canning ship evolving into a cry of a younger generation aching to break the bonds of conformity.

Lebanon

Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2009, 92m

Debut director Samuel Maoz takes us inside an Israeli tank and the emotions of its crew during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Life During Wartime

Todd Solondz, USA, 2009, 96m

Preparing for his bar-mitzvah, a young man must deal with his divorced mother's prospective fiancé as well as rumors that his own father is not really dead.

Min Yé

Souleymane Cissé, Mali/France, 2009, 135m

A work of startling originality, Souleymane Cisse's first film in over a decade insightfully and incisively chronicles the dissolution of an upper-middle class African marriage.

Mother/ Maedo

Bong Joon-ho, South Korea, 2009, 128m

Convinced that her son has been wrongly accused of murder, a widow throws herself body and soul into proving his innocence. Kim Hye-ja in the title role gives perhaps the performance of the year.

Ne Change Rien

Pedro Costa, France/Portugal, 2009, 103m

A shimmering valentine, Costa's latest is less a portrait than a kind of visual homage, to the artistry of actor and singer Jeanne Balibar.

Police Adjective / Politist, adj.

Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania, 2009, 115m

Discovering a teenager with hashish, a young policeman hesitates about turning him in. But his supervisor has other ideas in this beautifully acted, provocative modern morality play. An IFC Films release.

Room and a Half / Poltory Komnaty Ili Sentimentalnoe Puteshtvie Na Rodinu

Andrey Khrzhanovsky, Russia, 2009, 131m

Former animator Andrey Khrzhanovsky combines scripted scenes, archival footage, several types of animation, and surrealist flights of fancy to create this stirring portrait of poet Josef Brodsky and the postwar Soviet cultural scene. A Seagull Films release.

Sweetgrass

Ilisa Barish, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, USA, 2009, 105m

This breathtaking chronicle follows an ever-surprising group of modern-day cowboys as they lead an enormous herd of sheep up and then down the slopes of the Beartooth Mountains in Montana on their way to market.

Sweet Rush / Tatarak

Andrzej Wajda, Poland/France, 2009, 85m

Celebrated master Andrzej Wajda returns with a bold, experimental work that juxtaposes a story about a terminally doctor's wife rediscovering romance thanks with a heart-rending monologue written and performed by actress Krystyna Janda about the death of her husband.

To Die Like a Man / Morrer Como Um Homen

Joao Pedro Rodrigues, Portugal, 2009,138m

This touching, finely-etched portrait follows Tonia, a veteran drag performer confronting younger competition and her boyfriend's demands that she undergo a sex change.

Vincere

Marco Bellocchio, Italy, 2009, 129m

Mussolini's "secret" marriage to Ida Dalser, afterwards completely denied by Il Duce, along with the son born from the relationship, becomes the springboard for this visually ravishing meditation on the fascist manipulation of history. An IFC Films release.

White Material

Claire Denis, France, 2009, 100m

A handful of Europeans try to make sense of--and survive--the chaos happening all around them in an African country torn apart by civil war.

The White Ribbon / Das weisse band

Michael Haneke, Austria/France, 2009, 144m

The Palme d'Or winner at this year's Cannes Film Festival, this is a starkly beautiful meditation on the consequences of violence--physical, emotional, spiritual--in a northern German town on the eve of World War I. A Sony Pictures Classics release.

The Wizard of Oz

Victor Fleming, 1939, USA, 103m

The 70th Anniversary of the timeless classic, presented in a spectacular newly-restored edition makes the film a new experience even for those who practically have it memorized. A Warner Bros. release.

· 47th New York Film Festival [Film Society of Lincoln Center]