Fests and events, 1/4.

"[A]fter making its San Francisco debut at a 2005 Other Cinema show, [Jem] Cohen's Chain has found its place locally at an art gallery," writes Cheryl Eddy. "Works by San Francisco's Jenni Olson (the Golden Gate Bridge-focused Joy of Life) and Los Angeles's Natalie Zimmerman (Islands, a search for Los Angeles's soul) round out SF Camerawork's Traces of Life on the Thin Film of Longing an exhibit reconsidering the photo essay within the realm of film and video." Through February 24.

Also in the San Francisco Bay Guardian: "No Berlin & Beyond would be complete without at least one film that turns the concept of redemptive love upside down and inside out with relentless aggression," notes Nicole Gluckstern. "This year's contender for most controversial confrontation with the devil inside is The Free Will, a movie about an unlikely love affair set within the context of a current hot-button topic: the effectiveness of rehabilitation for repeat sex offenders."

And Gluckstern and Eddy preview, respectively, Einstürzende Neubauten, documenting a November 2004 concert in what then remained of Berlin's Palast der Republik, and Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback, a five-piece band made up of "American ex-GIs who lingered in Germany after their early 1960s service was up." B&B runs January 11 through 17.

Matt Zoller Seitz kicks off his new gig at the New York Times with a piece on the three films by Ellen Bruno screening at Film Forum through January 9: "Her work takes risks with form to imply that individual suffering and transcendence are but particles in a river of spiritual energy that dwarfs geography and time." More from Jim Ridley in the Voice: "[I]t's the depth of Bruno's commitment - not to abstract principles of liberal idealism, but to flesh-and-blood people - that creates tension within her films."

Saul Bass: The Hollywood Connection is now on view at the Skirball Cultural Center in LA through April 1. Via Coudal Partners.

"Just thinking about Luis Bu�uel cheers you up," writes Wally Hammond for Time Out. "If you're feeling bored or depressed this New Year - or anytime up till the end of February, when the complete NFT retrospective of his movies closes - and sample any one of the old rogue's beautiful outrages you might not laugh out loud but, I guarantee, your soul will smile."

Recent Reverse Shot entries from the Essentially Woody series: mjr on Another Woman ("Allen's generous understanding of character and the delusions that deform it yield unique findings"), robbiefreeling on Husbands and Wives ("looks, with each passing year, more and more like the director's one true post-Crimes and Misdemeanors masterpiece") seanmcavoy on Sweet and Lowdown ("Sean Penn does his best work outside of Mystic River here"), clarencecarter on Sleeper ("makes a nice dystopian double bill with the terrific Children of Men") and freeling: "Only in the past does the writer/director focus on the working class, as he obviously views it as a place he crawled out from - a problematic strain in his work, wonderfully grappled with in Radio Days."

And a reminder: David Rakoff carries on writing up the series for Nextbook. Great reading.

"In the very best of this year's Dance on Camera offerings, there is a sense of looking back," writes Gia Kourlas in the NYT. "Documentaries celebrate artists who have transformed the field; stage adaptations preserve treasured productions for the long haul; and stylistic experiments show the way directors radically changed the approach of filming dance." Through Sunday, plus next Friday and Saturday.

David Lynch and Brooklyn's all-female keyboard trio Au Revoir Simone will be appearing together at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in Manhattan on Thursday, January 11. A free event!

Back to the Voice: "Inconsolable Memories, Canadian artist Stan Douglas's brilliantly seductive film installation at the Studio Museum in Harlem, imagines a future for [Cuban director Tom�s Guti�rrez] Alea's hero [in Memories of Underdevelopment, 1968] up to the controversial 1980 Mariel boat lift, which sent a new procession of Cuban exiles to the shores of Florida," writes Leslie Camhi.

More from Paddy Johnson at the Reeler: There may be some audience members who didn't have to immediately run home, rent the movie the exhibition is based on, Google about 500 key terms and then discuss the show with three of their closest friends before forming any kind of cogent thoughts on the work, but I'm not one of them. For the two remaining readers dying to do this much homework for the sake of understanding an art piece, I have good news: It's worth your trouble."

The Jacques Rivette retro moves on to the Harvard Film Archive, opening tomorrow and running through February 19. In the Boston Phoenix, Michael Atkinson considers this "apostate, a voice from a strange and personal territory that has been largely unmarketable to even a 60s - 70s urban film culture community high on Antonioni, Bergman and Godard."

Quota Quickies: The Birth of the British B Film is another season running throughout January at the National Film Theatre in London. "Quota Quickies"? you may wonder. Matthew Sweet explains in the Guardian. Also, Peter Bradshaw celebrates Fellini's World, a series at the Barbican running through February 4.

IndieWIRE has begun its series of interviews with filmmakers who've got titles in competition at Sundance. There'll be two a day, and so far, they've hit up Cocalero director Alejandro Landes and Chasing Ghosts director Lincoln Ruchti.

Posted by dwhudson at January 4, 2007 2:27 PM