Fests and events, 7/30.

"Starting with the bleak contours of the period preceding the German Occupation and its aftermath's anxious confusion to the stylish rebellion of the New Wave and today's slicker psychological studies, French film directors like Jean-Pierre Melville, Jacques Becker, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol refashioned the tropes of American B-movies to create enduring masterpieces of good and evil," writes Elena Oumano. "And if not all 38 noir films and thrillers (spanning six decades) in Film Forum's French Crime Wave series are rave-worthy, each is rich in defining the moments and ironies of our ongoing struggle against those terrifying yet fascinating unseen forces that bat us about." August 8 through September 11.

Also in the Voice: For ST VanAirsdale, the highlights of Collaborations in the Collection: Coen Brothers, running August 2 through 28 at MoMA, are the three films Joel and Ethan Coen made with cinematographer Barry Sonnefeld: Blood Simple, Raising Arizona and Miller's Crossing.

"In three years, Britdoc has transformed from noble experiment (inclusive documentary conference based at a legendary university) to unquestionable success," reports Matt Dentler at indieWIRE. "Set over three days on the Keble College campus in Oxford, UK, the conference (founded and organized by the Channel 4 Documentary Foundation) has become a necessary launch pad for both completed and in-progress nonfiction filmmaking. The 2008 edition will be known for its combination of large audiences (early estimates are at 900 attendees), inspiring discoveries, and unconventionally beautiful English weather."

"One of the things that BritDoc has consistently gotten right has been the pitch panel format, wherein filmmakers have a limited amount of time to pitch their projects to an impressive table of commissioning editors," notes AJ Schnack. And: "Reasons to Crash a Veddy British Festival."

Lorenzo Semple Jr looks back to Karlovy Vary for the Los Angeles Times.

Online viewing tip #1. The Cinefamily will be presenting an evening of shorts by George Kuchar on August 3. And they've got video of him introducing the shorts he made in San Francisco and New York.

Online viewing tip #2. Scott Kirsner and Lance Weiler talk about The Conversation, a gathering slated for October 17 and 18 at the Pacific Film Archive: "The Future of Cinema, Games & Online Video: New Tools / New Distribution / New Rules."

Posted by dwhudson at July 30, 2008 1:54 PM