"Movies You Can't See"

"Films That Got Away," co-presented by the American Cinematheque and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, is a series playing out through the weekend in Los Angeles. In the Los Angeles Times, Kevin Thomas writes at least a few good words on about half the nine films screening and a solid paragraph or so on the other half.

In the LA Weekly, though, it's a very different story. Scott Foundas's piece on the series is the centerpiece of a four-article package: "Movies You Can't See." What's more, announces Foundas, "this report is intended as but the first in a recurring series that will allow our critics to weigh in on movies that merit your attention, even if you may have no immediate way of seeing them - movies, to put it glibly, that aren't coming soon to a theater or video store near you."

This opener, then, can be seen as a sort of report on the state of cinephilia and its discontents, laying out the economic realities that, at this point in time, are keeping worthy fare (and of course, unworthy fare as well) out of our line of sight. Do read it, definitely, but keep in mind, too, that changes are afoot. Let's hope they're for the better; that is, if it may be modestly mentioned, a large part of what GreenCine is about. As for this specific series, "the lineup is remarkable."

Also in the package:

• Ella Taylor revisits the frustrating case of Carroll Ballard's Duma, championed by Foundas in Variety and Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times as well as other critics, yet so far not exactly embraced by audiences: "Depending on whom you talk to, Duma is another casualty either of risk-averse corporate movie marketing or of a crass new generation of young audiences fed and watered on special-effects pizzazz, for whom live wild animals are sissy stuff, and with whom an aging body of film critics is increasingly out of touch."

• David Thomson has a story to tell about the way movies work.

• In a sidebar, Foundas presents an annotated list of ways Los Angelenos can catch otherwise obscure movies.

Elsewhere in the issue, a two-piece set on a movie you can see, The Constant Gardener. For Taylor, it's "a smart, beautiful piece of storytelling, attentive to Le Carré's broad intent, while boldly taking a knife to his more egregious longueurs." Larry Gross not only talks to director Fernando Meirelles but also offers up quite an introduction, one that aims to establish the Brazilian director as one of the greats of our time.

Posted by dwhudson at August 25, 2005 12:26 PM