Undercurrent. 1.

FIPRESCI, the international federation of film critics, has posted the first issue of its new bimonthly publication, Undercurrent, edited by Chris Fujuiwara, who offers here a close reading and analysis of Tsai Ming-liang's The Wayward Cloud, with contributing editors Adrian Martin, who riffs here on Cameron Crowe, and Belinda van de Graaf. Speaking of contributing, you can, too; see the column on the left for the call.

The ingredients, overall, aren't surprising - reviews, a festival report, an interview and so on - but the names are impressive and immediately recognizable. Adrian Martin introduces a special section on favorite short films with brief plaudits by Jonathan Rosenbaum, Derek Malcolm, Gabe Klinger, Andy Rector and himself.

The other largish item here is a roundtable discussion, "How Film Critics Work," chaired by Roslyn Petelin and including Martin, Julie Rigg, Klaus Eder and Richard Kuipers.

Miguel Marías previews an as yet technically nonexistent new work by José Luis Guerín, who "he has found again the true essence of cinema, its forgotten, invisible, taken-for-granted secret: that there are in fact no real images of movement, but only stills, a succession of photographs whose succession creates the illusion of movement."

"Les Amants réguliers may be the best film I've seen this year, writes Gabe Klinger, who also interviews sound designer Leslie Shatz who's been tuning into online radio and the Prelinger archives a lot lately: "That's gold."

Josep Torrell remembers film critic Barthélemy Amengual, 1919 - 2005.

Posted by dwhudson at April 10, 2006 7:14 AM