Other fests and events, 9/14.

"Hollywood is all over Lever House! On Sept 12, artist Sarah Morris's Robert Towne installation, inspired by the famous screenwriter of mysterious, shadowy Chinatown and the dank, sequiny Shampoo, opened at the glassy modernist skyscraper on 53rd and Park."

For the New York Observer, Toni Schlesinger talks with Morris about, among other things, a chat with Warren Beatty in the restaurant.

Graham Fuller on the Josef von Sternberg retrospective at the Museum of the Moving Image through October 8: "Cinema's Great Artificer built a world in seven Marlene Dietrich movies that reflected the bitter knowledge that love pined for is more exquisite than love requited - and that the torch of eroticism always outlasts the cigarette glow of romance." Also in the Voice, Elliott Stein previews Pola Negri: Life is a Dream, at MoMA from September 18 through 25.

"Like so many culture vultures who shouldered the weight of the 60s, Peter Whitehead burned out quickly, mostly abandoning documentary in favor of writing and a mysterious obsession with falcons," writes Max Goldberg in the San Francisco Bay Guardian (and he's got more at SF360). "Although his legacy isn't as canonical as those of contemporaries Michelangelo Antonioni and Godard, his work still provides an important counterpoint to those comfortably established giants of 60s cinema." The Word and the Image: The Films of Peter Whitehead is a series beginning tonight and running through September 28. Also: Cheryl Eddy's overview of the MadCat Women's International Film Festival, through September 27.

In the Independent Weekly, David Fellerath previews Spark Con, "Raleigh's celebration of its creative class that will take place all weekend long in venues all over town."

Armond White in the New York Press: "Film Forum's current retrospective-salute to Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi reaches its peak with Sansho the Bailiff on September 15-16. This couldn�t happen at a better time. The rarely screened film initiates the new movie season with a reminder of why the art form matters."

Also, Eric Kohn: "Downtown Locals screens September 15 at Williamsburg's Automotive High School as part of the Rooftop Film Festival. Seeing it is practically a civic duty for the commuting New Yorker."

"A longtime fan of Cinematexas who has written about Austin's hometown festival for the Voice and other publications, [Ed] Halter was a logical choice to be the series' first-ever guest artistic director." So Josh Rosenblatt talks with him for the Austin Chronicle, where Marrit Ingman previews the fest's retrospective of the work of experimental animator Mary Ellen Bute. Cinematexas runs September 20 through 24.

In the Los Angeles Times, Robert Abele has an intriguing preview of Unknown Cinema: The Animated Films That Got Away, September 22 through 24.

"The blockbuster-packed programme for The Times BFI 50th London Film FestivalSimon Crerar, writing in the Times, is quite happy with it. But the Guardian's Xan Brooks seems pleased as well. The fest runs October 18 through November 2.

Stephen Holt looks back on the Montreal Film Festival for Movie City News.

Posted by dwhudson at September 14, 2006 2:28 PM