September 25, 2006

Fests and events, 9/25.

The Films of Su Friedrich "[T]he one thing of which Su Friedrich is incapable is thoughtlessness," writes Stuart Klawans in the New York Times. "Her video diary has now grown into a piece called Seeing Red, and when it has its New York premiere on Wednesday at the Museum of Modern Art, part of a four-day retrospective of Ms Friedrich's work, viewers will discover that she has mulled over her pained monologues until they have taken on a musical form."

From the ongoing Fantastic Fest in Austin:

In the run-up to the SF360 San Francisco City Movie Night on Wednesday, Susan Gerhard talks with Ian Inaba about American Blackout.

Never mind the Century 9, Brian Darr's got ten other cinematic goings on more deserving of San Franciscans' attention.

New York Film Festival previews:

  • Acquarello on Saul Levine: Notes from the Underground, October 7.

  • Tom Hall: "I don't know if there ever was a time when America didn't feel compelled to stand at the intersection of celebrity, gossip, envy and art in our culture, but what I do know is how weary I am of the way in which people's real lives become fodder for the interpretation of their work, and no recent example is as striking as the completely unjustified smear campaign being waged against Sofia Coppola and her wonderful Marie Antoinette."

  • Nick Schager at Slant on Little Children, "a piece of melodramatic malarkey that carries itself with an air of profundity unjustified by its contrived, pedantic, and phony narrative and aesthetic spine."

In the Guardian, Ian Jack surveys the offerings of the series Stop! Look! Listen! he COI & 60 Years of Public Information Film-making in Britain at the National Film Theatre through October 17.

More from Toronto:



Bookmark and Share

Posted by dwhudson at September 25, 2006 5:24 AM

Comments

I've just returned from the San Sebastian film festival, of which I've seen little or no coverage. It's a fine festival but what makes it stand out for me are the retrospectives. I. therefore, spent five days only watching (and revelling in) Lubitsch silent movies. A revelation, not only that he was a foot fetishist and feminist (at least, in the films), but that he was making musicals long before sound. Not only that the films were beautifully choreographed but there were musical numbers such as the lengthy Charleston in So This Is Paris. Another point that struck me was that out of his 27 Hollywood movies, only three were set in America, and not among his best. Anyway, I hope to do a piece for the Guardian on Lubitsch soon. I'm still too intoxicated to write anything.

Posted by: ronald bergan at September 26, 2006 8:02 AM

I'm missing Juan Manuel Freire's usual dispatches from San Sebastian this year, but other obligations have kept him from attending the festival. But a piece on Lubitsch from you in the Guardian would go a long way towards filling the gap.

Posted by: David Hudson at September 26, 2006 8:49 AM