At the New York Film Festival, Delicate Movies and Ones That Go Vroom

Stefan Gota and Liyo Gong in “Here,” Bas Devos’s unexpected tale of two strangers.Credit...Anticipate Pictures

There may still be a strike by Bradley Cooper (solidarity! ), but it won't halt the New York Film Festival. There was never any doubt that this institutional powerhouse would endure M.I.A. stars like Cooper and Natalie Portman because over 61 transporting, electrifying, and occasionally odd and turbulent years, it has weathered financial difficulties, regime changes, and bad opening-night picks. As the festival's endurance and renown demonstrate, movies are much more than jam-packed red carpets and picture opportunities.

The festival kicks off on Friday with Todd Haynes' "May December," a Cannes highlight that examines what transpires when an actress (Portman) meets the subject of the biography she will soon star in (Julianne Moore). The New York Film Festival always selects the best films from previous years.

Other festival must-sees include "Here," a lovely, gracefully paced story of two strangers who first come into contact on a gloomy day in Brussels: a construction worker and a botanist who studies moss. Other than life, work, and perhaps love, not much occurs. Devos watches his characters as they come into contact with one another in the lush forests, first separately and then jointly, with an eye for beauty and minimal talk. Starting with the opening shot of a big skyscraper framed by lush foliage, every moment in this lovely, surprising film implies something.

The newest work by Brazilian writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho ("Bacurau"), "Pictures of Ghosts," is a very intimate and masterfully crafted meditation on, well, everything, but mostly movies or rather, his life in and with movies. The book, which is split into three movable chapters and is situated at the nexus of documentary and fiction, concentrates on the apartment, the city (Recife), and the movie theaters that Mendonça Filho occupied and that, in turn, supported and inspired him. It does so with a mixture of nostalgia and humor. "Pictures of Ghosts" has an elegiac tone because most of the once-bustling theaters and his old haunts are now abandoned, but the film's energy is remarkable.

One of the more intriguing aspects of "Maestro" is the way it reinvents the clichéd Great Man story by focusing on Bernstein's marriage to Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan, who gets the lead role), even though he continued to have affairs. There is little doubt that Bernstein remains the main draw. However, Felicia's character is more fully realized than the stereotypical movie wife since the narrative repeatedly returns to her as Lenny soars into American public life (from Carnegie Hall to "West Side Story," baby!). Although it's a commendable feminist intervention, Felicia's suffering is felt more keenly than Lenny's brilliance, in part because to Cooper's performance's pantomime quality (prosthetic nose and all).

The Great Man template has also been revised by Michael Mann for "Ferrari," an intensively focused examination of the.

Enzo Ferrari is portrayed by Adam Driver in Michael Mann's psychological study of the automaker.Credit...Hoagland, Eros

The absence of Martin Scorsese's most recent film—for which he served as a producer on "Maestro"—from the festival is one of its most perplexing aspects. The film in question is "Killers of the Flower Moon," which had its premiere in May at Cannes and will be on general release on October 20. The New York Film Festival's creative director, Dennis Lim, told me that his organization adored the movie and invited it right away after seeing it in Cannes. However, Apple, which is releasing the film, revealed its decision to withdraw from the festival a few days before the festival's August announcement of its main slate. As Lim pointed out, "Flower Moon" wasn't included in any of the other significant fall festivals, which aid in promoting movies.

Welcome to the world of Raghav Chadha and Parineeti Chopra's nuptials. On September 24 in Udaipur, the pair exchanged vows in front of friends and relatives. Parineeti Chopra uploaded a behind-the-scenes video of their wedding festivities a few days after they were wed. The groom's sehrabandi, sindoor daan, saat phere, and jaimala exchange are all captured in the video. An introduction to the wedding site is included in the video. We watch Parineeti calling Raghav by name from above before hiding behind someone as soon as the groom enters with his baraat. He's merely staring up, she may be heard saying. Keep still; don't move. You can see and hear Parineeti's joy in the video as she nearly screams.