Fests and events, 4/18.

"It's down to the wire for the Cannes Film Festival," writes Variety's Todd McCarthy. "With just five days left before fest topper Thierry Fremaux is due to announce the lineup for the May 14-28 event, much uncertainly surrounds the competition titles, as the availability of some films and the completion status of others remains in question." Lots of fun speculation follows.

The Circuit's Michael Jones notes that a restored version of Max Ophuls's Lola Montes will open Cannes Classics.

Meantime, see the new poster in all its glory at indieWIRE.

In the New York Sun, Steve Dollar previews Best of Youth: New Italian Cinema, a series running at BAM through Sunday which "collects prize-winning films from the past eight years that also happen to be directorial debuts."

The cinetrix recommends Letters from Chad: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun at the Harvard Film Archive this weekend.

Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation - you know, the one three 12-year-olds started shooting in 1982 and eventually finished in 1989 - screens tonight and Saturday at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland. Mike Russell talks with one of those kids, Chris Strompolos, now no longer a kid, of course.

"From questioning how Palestinians living in Jerusalem could possibly go to the movies after 1967, when another 250,000 Palestinians were made refugees and the West Bank and Gaza fell under Israeli rule, I finally began to understand the connection between the will and the need to survive," blogs Najwa Najjar for the Guardian. "My film, which was triggered by the plans to turn Cinema Al Hambra into a commercial centre, has helped in returning the cinema to its original state. Cinema Al Hambra will be opening its doors again at the end of this year." Jawhar Al Silwan (Quintessence of Oblivion) will be screening on April 26 as part of the Palestine Film Festival, opening tonight running through May 1 in London.

"John Lasseter, the award-winning animator and CEO at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, has directed two Toy Story films, A Bug's Life and Cars," notes Susan King in the Los Angeles Times. "But what counts as his favorite movie of all time? Dumbo, the 1941 Disney classic animated film." Along with Curtis Hanson, Lasseter will be presenting the film on Monday evening as part of the Movie That Inspired Me series at UCLA.

Brad Anderson's Transsiberian opens the Independent Film Festival of Boston on April 23. The Phoenix's Peter Keough reviews six of the films that'll be screening on April 24; more previews next week.

Carny premieres this week at Hot Docs (through April 27) and Filmmaker's Scott Macaulay emails a few questions to its maker, Alison Murray.

"There's something seductively fascinating about the chilly spareness and cryptic allusiveness of writer-director Nicholas Chin's Magazine Gap Road, a formally precise yet emotionally resonant thriller about going to extremes while escaping the past," writes Joe Leydon. At the WorldFest/Houston International Film Festival on Friday.

"To see [Carolee] Schneemann's films today, in an era absurdly dubbed 'postfeminist,' is at once to experience the explosive power of a radical artist whose work sustains its initial impact and to wonder, well, 'What the fuck?'" writes Holly Willis in the LA Weekly. "Given her legacy, why are today's images of sex and the body so narrow, docile and prescriptive? You can ask Schneemann herself, as she'll be present at three nights of screenings." Sunday, Monday and next Friday.

SF360 interviews with filmmakers who've got films lined up for the San Francisco International Film Festival:

• "An intimate and elegantly crafted work of cinema verité, Calavera Highway encompasses universal familial tensions, Mexican-American identity, the responsibilities of fathers (and sons) and the psychic malleability of map-drawn borders." Michael Fox talks with Renee Tajima-Peña.

• And: Craig Baldwin's "new film, Mock Up On Mu, is an imaginary science-fiction yarn starring the actual historical figures of Jack Parson, L Ron Hubbard, Margaret Cameron and Aleister Crowley."

• Susan Gerhard: "Dawn Logsdon, on new hope in an old neighborhood, Faubourg Tremé."

• And: "Logan and Noah Miller on writing, pitching, acting, directing, and hitting one out of the ballpark in Touching Home."

"If you see one 11-minute video this year, make it Michael Robinson's magnificent, hilarious, and terrifying Light Is Waiting (2007)." The San Francisco Bay Guardian's Johnny Ray Huston recommends Shine On: The Films of Michael Robinson on April 27 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts - whose film and video curator, Joel Shepard, Michael Guillén has a good long talk with.

In the Philadelphia Weekly, Matt Prigge rounds up local goings on.

"The Czech Republic's Karlovy Vary Film Festival will honor veteran helmers Nicholas Roeg and Arturo Ripstein with tributes, officials announced Tuesday, adding that both are expected to be present," reports Will Tizard for Variety. July 4 through 12.

"Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami and actor Fiona Shaw are to make their English National Opera directorial debuts, in a new season that will seek to refresh the artform by bringing in fresh names from outside the opera world," reports Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian. Kiarostami will direct Mozart's Così fan tutte. Also: "As a tribute to [Anthony] Minghella, ENO will revive his Madam Butterfly production next season." Related: Ronald Bergan suggests that Cosi might have been a better project for Woody Allen, who'll be directing Puccini's Gianni Schicchi for the Los Angeles Opera - a piece that, in turn, might have been a better match for Kiarostami.

"To celebrate the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth, Imperial War Museum London is producing the first major exhibition devoted to the life and work of the man who created the world’s most famous secret agent, James Bond." Through March 1, 2009.

"F Javier Gutiérrez's debut film Before the Fall has picked up the Golden Biznaga Award for Best Film at the 11th edition of the Malaga Spanish Film Festival." Sergio Ríos Pérez reports for Cineuropa.

"The appearance of Shimon Peres on stage for the opening night of Doc Aviv's 10th anniversary was an early indicator that the Israeli documentary scene deserves attention," writes Thom Powers at indieWIRE. "Peres surprised this jaded festival goer with his eloquent perspective on the role of documentary film." More from POV exec director Simon Kilmurry.

Programmer Tom Hall bids farewell to this year's edition of the Sarasota Film Festival; and James Israel and Michael Tully (more and more) have pix.

Back at iW, Kim Adelman: "Docs Rocked Aspen Shortsfest 2008."

David Bordwell says "Goodbye to Hong Kong for another year."

Ty Burr was on hand to see producer Jeremy Thomas receive the Coolidge Award the other night, but you weren't: "Oh, well, your loss, because Nicolas Roeg was there! And Debra Winger, for pete's sakes. Tim Roth and director Julien Temple, too, all talking with varying degrees of acuity about the larger-than-life producer they nicknamed 'Toad of Toad Hall.'"

PopMatters unwraps a big package looking back at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Online viewing tip #1. Gabe Wardell has a reel of Atlanta Film Festival clips. Wraps tomorrow.

Online viewing tip #2. Via the Playlist, a trailer for I Need That Record! The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store. Nice list of talking heads; screens May 3 at Hampshire College in Amherst.

Posted by dwhudson at April 18, 2008 12:48 PM