Film Comment. March/April 07.

"During his almost 50 years as a filmmaker, Carlos Saura has been witness to all kinds of convulsions in Spanish cinema and its sociopolitical context," begins Manuel Yáñez Murillo's feature in the newest issue of Film Comment. "A prolific creator (he has made almost 40 features) with a pronounced stylistic and thematic identity, Saura has a strong authorial presence, but the trajectory of his career is closely linked to the work of an interesting group of collaborators."

Chris Chang calls for a distributor for Valeska Grisebach's "minimalist tale of woe," Longing (Sehnsucht).

"In [Susanne Bier's] Open Hearts and Brothers, calamity strikes directly and very early on," writes Joumane Chahine. "In After the Wedding, the tragedy is not so brutally evident, at least not initially. It reveals itself slowly, in tiny and often mystifying ripples, through cool shades and shaky camerawork that hints at muted undercurrents. But the impact is no less poignant."

"A frat party with stars, a blogger convention, a bazaar that could easily share its exploitation wares with the AFM (American Film Market) - these were the most trying aspects of Sundance '07," writes Amy Taubin. More from Gavin Smith: "There was no equivalent to either Old Joy or Little Miss Sunshine this time around, and the once-hot (or at least warm) but now rapidly cooling Premieres section was even more pathetic than last year."

"Readers rant and rave about the films of 2006."

An online exclusive and a treat: Alex Cox and Tod Davies spoke with Charles Burnett in 2002. It's a casual, loose talk, but it'll whet your appetite for the return of Killer of Sheep to theaters at the end of the month and on DVD in the fall.

Posted by dwhudson at March 2, 2007 1:26 PM