Fests, 9/28.

You'll definitely want to start with the New York Film Festival video diary (or is it an essay?) by Jamie Stuart at Mutiny City News. If you think twice, you'll realize how Stuart got such beautifully static shots under what must have been hectic conditions, but still. Then there's the wry narration, the just-right implementation of simple effects and the overall pitch-perfect tone. Bravo.

An all but random sampling of the NYFF reviews out there:

• Filmbrain: "The Death of Mr Lazarescu is one of those fascinating hybrids - funny at one moment, horrifying at the next - and one of those films that you walk out of feeling positively drained. Let's just hope the right wing doesn't use the film as an argument against socialized medicine." Also: "Even with its flaws, Les Amants Réguliers is still essential viewing for any lover of cinema."

• A New York Times roundup.

• Cinematical's first week at the fest.

• The IFC's Alison Willmore is still going strong.

• More from Aaron Hillis at Premiere.

• J Hoberman in the Village Voice on Through the Forest: "[Jean-Paul] Civeyrac's moody sixth feature combines genre movie thematics (and B movie frugality) with a bravura narrative structuralism—it's a deadpan romantic Ghost story unfolding, beyond time and space, over a series of 10 one-shot scenes."

Ray Pride has an update on the changes being rapidly implemented in Thessaloniki before the festival's run from November 18 through 27.

San Francisco Bay Guardian editor Tim Redmond on San Francisco's Broken Promise, screening tomorrow at the San Francisco World Film Festival (through October 2): "The film provides a wonderful public service: It gives a solid primer on the immensely complicated story of a scandal involving hundreds of millions of dollars - and does it in a way that's entertaining, understandable, and wrapped up in a 30-minute package."

For the Gothamist, Aaron Dobbs and Lily Oei interview Terence Gray, founder of the New York Television Festival, opening tonight and running through October 3.

Brian Brooks has the lineup for the Chicago International Film Festival (October 6 through 20) at indieWIRE.

Movie City News has the list of honorees at the Hollywood Film Festival (October 18 through 24).

The AV Club's Noel Murray and Scott Tobias discuss the highs and lows of Toronto.

David Walsh's second Toronto roundup at WSWS focuses on the French offerings and interviews October 17, 1961 director Alain Tasma.

Jonny Leahan at iW on two docs at Toronto: "Thomas Allen Harris's Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela: A Son's Tribute to Unsung Heroes looks at a stepfather who tried to balance being a leading member of the African National Congress with his paternal duties, while Doug Block's 51 Birch Street explores a father's complicated relationship with his wife, his children, and a woman from his past."

Darren Hughes has begun "work on longer responses to some of the films I saw at TIFF": "Un Couple parfait is a kind of collision between the visions of Ingmar Bergman and Hou Hsiao-hsien: brutally incisive but always fascinated and tender."

Posted by dwhudson at September 28, 2005 1:41 PM