Fests and events, 3/30.

"While the official selection of the 60th Cannes Film Festival (May 16-27, 2007) will be revealed on April 19 and French director Pascale Ferran has been named president of the Un Certain Regard jury, rumours have been intensifying about the festival competition line-up." Fabien Lemercier passes them along at Cineuropa, and they are juicy.

"Fifty years after Michelangelo Antonioni's Il Grido splashed at the premier San Francisco International Film Festival, the Bay Area again plays host to the maestro's moody chronicles of bourgeoisie malcontent through April with a major retrospective at Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive and San Francisco's own Castro Theatre," writes Max Goldberg, who then rounds up a series of examples of "the early critics struggling to define (and celebrate) Antonioni in terms of what his films are not, and then the inevitable backlash (capped by a hyper-lucid Manny Farber passage in which the critic laces Antonioni's own 'white elephant art'). Decades later, critics like Stephen Holden and Phillip Lopate chase after Antonioni with reflection rather than polemic - whatever the angle, it's clear that with these films, there's still plenty to talk about."

The UCLA Film and Television Archive's series For Ever Godard opens tomorrow and runs through June 2. For the Los Angeles Times, Kevin Thomas whisks through the oeuvre and writes, "Riding all the currents coursing through contemporary life, as well as observing the eternal verities from new angles, Godard films capture the moment in which they are made so thoroughly that they bristle with an immediacy that makes them timeless. The reputations of many important directors ebb and flow, but it's hard to imagine Jean-Luc Godard ever becoming dated or going out of style."

"Film director and former Monty Python member Terry Gilliam is to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Fantastic Film Festival in Amsterdam," reports the BBC. April 18 through 25.

Another new lineup: Filmfest DC, April 19 through 29.

"Getting ready to head off to the Turin Lesbian & Gay Film Festival in a few weeks where I will be presenting a bunch of film prints from my archive," writes Jenni Olson.

"Starting Tuesday, the NWFF will be showing four films of the Canadian New Wave," notes E Steven Fried at the Siffblog. "As befits a country split between Anglo and French identity, two of the films are in English and two are in French."

"The films at the 21st London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival come in every conceivable form: there are polemical documentaries, romantic comedies, melodramas, thrillers, shorts, horror movies, comedies, and even one or two non-gay films," writes Geoffrey Macnab in the Independent. Through April 4.

The Subtitle Film Festival: April 12 through 15 in LA.

13 films and several distinguished guests: Jim Emerson previews Ebertfest, April 24 through 29.

"It dawns on me that I've been flown here by the HK Trade and Development Council to admire the market stalls, not to enjoy the cultural thrills of a festival that has procured an unprecedented 16 world premieres," writes James Christopher in the London Times. "'It's a cynical business,' grins Matthew Scott, one of the more colorful minders who is steering me around the festival.... If the proximity of serious money and glamorous stars has yet to generate the magical alchemy of Cannes or Berlin, it's not for want of trying."

Michael Lerman covers New York goings on for indieWIRE. An event to add to the list: On April 5, the Stoop Series features moderator Logan Hill in conversation with filmmakers Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart), Julia Loktev (Day Night Day Night) and Chris Zalla (Padre Nuestro).

"Swanberg. Bujalski. Duplass. Katz." For fun, Aaron Hillis draws - literally - connections among the "mumblecore gang," limiting the chart only to those films screened at SXSW 2007, "since if I put in every name/film with overlap, I'd be playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon all the way back to Dziga Vertov." And a reminder: Aaron will be on panel about film blogging on April 10. "I'll be taking part while I'm down in Texas to screen Fish Kill Flea again, and with me in the discussion will be Joel Heller (DocsThatInspire.com), Jette Kernion (Cinematical.com) and Mike Curtis (HDforIndies.com). Come check it out, Austinites!"

Posted by dwhudson at March 30, 2007 2:42 PM