Fests, 10/9.

Jonathan Rosenbaum introduces the Chicago Reader's hunky preview of just the first week of the Chicago International Film Festival (through October 20):

The studios' lack of interest in this event may be a blessing, because we're not being bullied by celebrity journalism and advertising for a few favored films and can make our own choices.

I have to applaud the festival's faithfulness in sticking with certain filmmakers year after year, even when nobody else likes them (Claude Lelouch, Lina Wertmüller) or when they run off the rails (Tsai Ming-liang, with this year's The Wayward Cloud). I'm not sure if this is a critical position - the New York film festival does the same thing with Lars von Trier - but it's a likable one.

Ray Pride has an excellent piece on the "smaller" films screening in Chicago, and by "smaller," he doesn't mean "short": "Both Kissing on the Mouth and Learning to Swallow suggest that if everyone with the energy can make a film, films will be made about people you know, and about people who are like the people you know."

Joe Swanberg will be covering the fest for Cinematical, Canfield for Twitch.

The New York Film Festival wraps tonight, and once again, I've overlooked a hefty source of coverage. Aaron Dobbs, whom you may have seen at such fine blogs as Out of Focus, has been a veritable fount of smart wordage at the Gothamist throughout the fest.

A few more all but randomly selected souvenirs:

• There are flashes of color and Park Chan-wook in the fourth part of Jamie Stuart's... meditation, maybe? On NYFF for Mutiny City News.

• Acquarello has been reviewing individual titles of the Views from the Avant-Garde series at his own site, Strictly Film School; now, for the Cinemarati, he presents something of an overview.

• At the Reverseblog, eshman listens in as Patrice Chereau and Michael Haneke express "diametrically opposed" views on film. Related: Daniel Kasman on Gabrielle: "Do we really need another film about the layers of self-deception amongst the late-19th, early-20th century bourgeois existing in their social codes and rules?"

• The Reeler listens in on the NYFF press conference for Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story. As for the film itself, Filmbrain calls it "a masterpiece of self-reflexivity that is easily one of the most intelligent comedies of the year" and the IFC's Alison Willmore finds it "deliriously fun."

• Keith Uhlich at Slant on that "endearing mess of a movie," Neil Jordan's Breakfast on Pluto.

• Martha Fischer at Cinematical: "Despite its historical content and fairly complex plot, watching The Sun is a visceral experience as much as it is an intellectual one."

• Beth Gilligan at Not Coming to a Theater Near You: "Although [I Am is not without its touching moments, particularly in depicting the budding friendship between Mongrel and Kuleczka, the bulk of it feels like a second-rate retread of My Life as a Dog."

• Aaron Hillis wraps the fest with a personal top five.

• Another New York Times roundup.

Brian's been filing reports at Cinema Strikes Back from Austin's Fantastic Fest. Jette Kernion has more at Cinematical and, of course, Ain't It Cool News is all over the fest. Also, a few first impressions of Werner Herzog's The Wild Blue Yonder from Wiley Wiggins.

A different Brian surveys the offerings at the Mill Valley Film Festival and at the Balboa.

The "Arts & Living" section of the Korean Times is currently featuring quite a few stories on the Pusan International Film Festival. HanCinema's found a nifty one by Kim Ki-tae listing ten reasons PIFF rocks, basically.

Posted by dwhudson at October 9, 2005 8:50 AM