Cinema Scope. 28.

"Perhaps it's out of some unconscious will to put off new readers, but it's not from some misguided nationalism (and certainly not to please the funders), that I present a very modest 'Canadian Spotlight' in this issue," writes editor Mark Peranson, introducing the new issue of Cinema Scope. Two of those pieces are online, and we're in luck: in the first, Robert Koehler examines "Some Aspects of Norman McLaren."

These aspects include the currently ongoing canonization of McLaren, propelled by the National Film Board of Canada's "elaborately presented, meticulously realized, and exhaustively presented survey," Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition, the full impact of which is "like some kind of national holiday gone berserk." But as you read Koehler's history of McLaren's reception outside of Canada, you'll find that fairly easy to understand.

Adam Nayman talks with Ron Mann about his "terrific, up-tempo documentary Tales of the Rat Fink. The title refers to [Ed] Roth's most famous creation, a drooling, degenerate, pea-green rodent who was, briefly but genuinely, the most successful anti-establishment cartoon character of all time."

Two more interviews have little to do with Canada. Bug is the occasion for Andrew Tracy's talk with William Friedkin, though the conversation ranges far wider.

A Critical Cinema 5, Scott MacDonald's latest volume of interviews with experimental filmmakers, may (or may not) be the last of the series. Michael Sicinski sees an appropriate moment to "a good time to turn the tables a bit and interview the interviewer," Scott MacDonald.

Just what is this New Crowned Hope series we first heard about when Hamaca Parguaya screened at Cannes, then again all through Venice and culminating in Toronto? Christoph Huber lays out Peter Sellars's thinking and then takes a look at the films in the program.

"Sharing the designation which [Raúl] Ruiz frequently ascribes to himself, [Georgian filmmaker Otar] Iosseliani can be called 'the best known of the unknown directors,'" writes Quintín. "Both are considered minor masters in the French nomenklatur, and they share a sense of subtlety, irony, a love of long shots and a hatred for explanation, psychology, and conventional storytelling.... Iosseliani's films are far from being optimistic. On the contrary, they convey a deep sadness that has been especially apparent in his last few films."

Tom McSorley on a "New Wave from Slovenia": "[O]ne of the most exciting developments in contemporary European cinema in the last decade is the very impressive arrival and persistence of a distinctive, accomplished body of work from this country of two million people."

Jonathan Rosenbaum once again tells you how to get your hands on DVDs you might not have known even existed. Among the stars of this column: Oskar Fischinger, John Berry, Michel Brault, Miklós Jancsó, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Ken Jacobs, William A Wellman, Nagisa Oshima, Jean-Luc Godard, FW Murnau and Sam Fuller.

Andréa Picard: "[Josef] Dabernig's short films have concurrent themes and motifs, each recognizably, unmistakably his. A cross between Béla Tarr, Jacques Tati, Samuel Beckett and Aki Kaurismäki, these works ranging in length between seven and 24 minutes rely on minimalism to fashion portraits of modernist decay and the banal scenarios that occur amidst their structures."

Jerry White focuses primarily on Swiss cinema in his report on the Locarno Film Festival.

Andrew Tracy: "Babel's globetrotting is nothing but the rankest, bloated provincialism, all the more unfortunate in that [Alejandro González] Iñárritu and [Guillermo] Arriaga, artistically adrift on their sea of international co-production dollars, no longer have a province, or a universe, to hail from."

Posted by dwhudson at September 21, 2006 5:01 AM