After a laid-back first week and a weekend that saw Mel Gibson steal some of its thunder with his surprise screening of Apocalypto at Austin's Fantastic Fest, the New York Film Festival is gearing up for a serious week of cinema. I caught three of today's four screenings:

From Spain, Marc Recha's August Days is one of those quiet, unassuming movies you're likely to see at festivals and nowhere else. The film concerns two brothers, one of them Recha himself, who take a road trip into the Catalanian hinterlands, where they find traces of the Spanish Civil War, walk in dried-out riverbeds, and meet a number of peculiar characters, including a larcenous flamenco dancer, unhelpful Germans, and a legendary catfish. The suspended textures and hypnotic sounds of the summer countryside are every bit as important as the sparse narrative, and August Days is at once entrancing and maddening, especially if you haven't had lunch yet.

Presented in a restored print and hailed as a rediscovered masterpiece of black comedy, Alberto Lattuada's 1962 Mafiosio tells the story of a Sicilian who returns to his village after having made good up north. Played by Alberto Sordi (The White Sheik, I Vitelloni), the poor man and his Milanese wife and children have to face many fish-out-of-water jokes involving Sicilian food, marital beds in the center of the living room, and hairy sisters, before his past catches up with him in the shape of the local Don. Despite the film's winning tone and a fine comic performance by Sordi, I'll confess to being underwhelmed by both the humor and the plot, which plays out just as expected.

The day was redeemed by Manoel de Oliveira's playful homage to Luis Buñuel, Belle Toujours. Inspired by Buñuel's Belle de Jour, de Oliveira's film revisits the characters, 38 years later. Michel Piccoli reprises the role of Monsieur Husson, and Bulle Ogier plays Catherine Deneuve's Séverine. Once again, secret desires, sadism, and a mysterious box feature prominently, and de Oliveira succeeds in giving Buñuel's themes a brand-new spin without sacrificing any of the original's mystery. Piccoli's bemused laughter forms a haunting refrain.

Public screenings for the 44th New York Film Festival begin on Friday; tickets are available from the Film Society at Lincoln Center. Watch this space for reviews of Todd Field's Little Children, Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, and much more. Earlier: Marie Antoinette. [posted by Jürgen]