LAW & LAT. LAFF.

The Los Angeles Film Festival, opening today and running through July 1, is "emerging as our most intelligent and ambitiously programmed - indeed, our most essential - annual film event," declares Scott Foundas in the LA Weekly. "It's also the one with the greatest sense of connection to the city itself."

Keep clicking on from that page for overviews of the various sections: music videos, Larry Fessenden, "the most gifted American horror auteur to emerge since the g(l)ory days of John Carpenter and George Romero" (Foundas), appearances by Paul Mazursky and Ulu Grosbard, "two provocative and artfully made political films," Eric Rohmer's Triple Agent and Penny Woolcock's The Death of Klinghoffer (James C Taylor), a spotlight on Romania, the "LA Destroys Itself" series of disaster flicks and the arrival of New Crowned Hope in Los Angeles.

Then, the individual films get blurbed in the LAW's "From A to Y" listings and "Prisons, Punks and Don Quixote," the critics' guide to the best of the fest.

As noted earlier, the Los Angeles Times, a major sponsor, began its LAFF tracking a few days ago. Today, Susan King has a fine overview for those who don't have the time to comb through the LAW package and Chris Lee talks with this year's artist in residence, Pharrell Williams.

Posted by dwhudson at June 21, 2007 5:37 AM