Fests and events, 2/21.

Miklós Jancsó will be in London on the weekend of March 14 through 16 to talk about his work at a series of screenings. The next day he'll be in Cambridge and then, on Wednesday, March 19, in Edinburgh. "This is a must-see event for UK cinephiles, and a rare opportunity to engage this formally innovative, politically and poetically adventurous filmmaker," writes Doug Cummings, who has details at Masters of Cinema.

"The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Museum of Modern Art this morning announced the line-up for the 37th edition of New Directors/New Films," and ST VanAirsdale's got it at the Reeler. March 26 through April 6.

"Separation is the myth and the reality of Ritwik Ghatak's cinema. His work screams it, shouts it, sings it in image and sound." In the Boston Phoenix, Chris Fujiwara previews Politics and Melodrama: The Partition Cinema of Ritwik Ghatak, running tomorrow through Sunday at the Harvard Film Archive.

"Last year's Nevermore Film Festival eschewed the flesh-carving, bone-crunching gore of mainstream cinema's torture-porn craze in favor of psychological terrors to die for," writes Kathy Justice in the Independent Weekly. "This year's lineup is a continuation of the festival's preference for subtlety and nuance in horror." Tomorrow through Sunday.

"Even when they put [Sergei] Paradjanov in the gulag, he still drew on scraps of paper and made beautiful dolls from mailbag sacking. He couldn't stop the flow of ideas and images that poured from his innately visual mind; but the state tried its best, destroying his health and ensuring that he completed only four features in the last 26 years of his life, which should have been his creative prime. These four movies are the primary focus of LACMA's welcome retrospective of Paradjanov's breathtaking mature work." John Patterson previews the series for the LA Weekly. Tomorrow through February 29.

"Metro's annual Prairie Tales is consistently reliable in sharing a courageous set of films and videos that deserve to be witnessed with a clear eye, as hard as it may be to achieve," writes Jonathan Busch in the Vue Weekly. "The program provides a satisfying window into the uniquely Albertan filmic sensibility, a heavily debated blend of cityscapes, history, smooth topography, loneliness and oil. Like last year and the one before that, it's a selection with a preference for films that locate a specific personality at the centre of fresh ideas and visions." This Saturday.

Karina Longworth's latest SXSW preview at the SpoutBlog: Bootleg Wisconsin. Director Brandon Linden tells her: "My concept of it would read something like this: 'If a Swedish director watched too many Naruse films drunk and then decided to do a near silent remake of Brief Encounter in a Midwest outlet mall you would have my film.'"

The Voice's J Hoberman takes note of the Tribute to IFC Films at the BAMcinématek from February 29 through March 6.

"If there is a kindred spirit to Jacques Nolot's Before I Forget a stark and brooding portrait of aging, mortality, and loneliness, it is probably Ventura Pons's contemporary film, Barcelona (A Map), a rumination on architecture and empty spaces as a reflection of internalized, decaying emotional landscapes," writes acquarello. Film Comment Selects runs through February 28.

Posted by dwhudson at February 21, 2008 9:15 AM