Fests and events, 9/18.

"It is likely no coincidence that Anthology Film Archives' Vojtech Jasný retrospective will screen as the 40th anniversary of 'Prague Spring' passes," writes Nick Pinkerton. "A lesser-known player among prominent Czech artist-dissidents (Václav Havel, Milan Kundera, Miloš Forman, the Plastic People of the Universe), Jasný will forever be knotted up with the postwar history of his native land." Tomorrow through September 25. Update, 9/19: Nicolas Rapold (New York Sun).

Also at Moving Image Source: An excerpt from Richard Koszarski's Hollywood on the Hudson which tells the story behind and the critical reception of The Emperor Jones. MoMA's Hollywood on the Hudson: Filmmaking in New York, 1920 - 39 runs through October 19.

"Despite a sequence in which Daniel Okulitch, the talented singer playing the role of the overreaching Seth Brundle, gives the audience a full frontal, Howard Shore's opera The Fly, staged by David Cronenberg with a libretto by David Henry Hwang, is disconcertingly bland musical theater." Amy Taubin for Artforum.

In Screen, Jason Gray has an overview of the lineup for the Tokyo International Film Festival, running October 18 through 26.

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Ted V Mikels - "who with his waxed white mustache and barrel chest looks like a cross between Salvador Dali and a big-rig trucker - belongs to that pantheon of American independent filmmakers that includes Ed Wood, Russ Meyer, Doris Wishman, Ray Dennis Steckler and John Waters," writes Matt Sussman at SF360. "He is of that certain breed of filmmaker solely dedicated to committing their unique vision to the camera, regardless of the stylistic conventions and working conditions of 'the industry' or accepted notions of good taste.... It is only appropriate that Mikels's life and work is being honored this weekend at the distinctly American forum for cinema's lone wolves: the midnight movie. Landmark Theater's Midnights at the Clay series is bringing Mikels to town, with his muse and partner Shanti, to screen his cult classics Blood Orgy of the She-Devils (1972) and The Corpse Grinders (1972) as well as Kevin Sean Michaels's new, John Waters-narrated documentary, The Wild World of Ted V Mikels."

In the Chronicle, Rob D'Amico welcomes the Bicycle Film Festival to Austin.

Films in Review digs into its archives and finds Candor Rex's piece on the 1958 edition of Cannes.

Posted by dwhudson at September 18, 2008 2:54 PM