Fests and events, 10/16.

"Appreciating Miklós Jancsó as Hungary's greatest living filmmaker means first accepting that there is almost never anyone to care about in his films, only nameless pawns locked in the toxic rituals of power and war," writes Lance Goldenberg. "Jancsó has proven himself a prolific and eclectic auteur over a career spanning nearly six decades, but the four films featured in LACMA's indispensable retrospective are cut from much the same, sublime cloth, together constituting a holy pantheon upon which the director's formidable reputation largely rests." Tomorrow though October 24.

Also in the LA Weekly, David Thomson: "[L]et me direct you to UCLA, where October is devoted to the real treasure house of David Lean - the early pictures, the small stories he made (though two are from Dickens) before epics filled his dreams. I have a hunch that in the next hundred years of Lean studies, these are the films that will rise in value. It's a fascinating story." Through October 26.

"Andrzej Wajda is not only Poland's greatest filmmaker but one who, throughout his long career, has demonstrated a remarkable knack for making movies that double as political events," writes J Hoberman in the Voice. "The Walter Reade's Truth or Dare: The Films of Andrzej Wajda is the most complete retrospective an American institution has ever given the 82-year-old director." Friday through November 13; and again, Anthology Film Archives will be screening Wajda's television work from October 24 through 28. Hoberman also notes that the "DV documentary Red Art accompanies and also explicates the Asia Society's current comprehensive survey of Maoist socialist realism, Art and China's Revolution."

"Showcasing eight films over eight months, Best of Tora-san highlights the second longest-running series in history; a series that spanned 48 films in total, 46 of which were made by series creator Yôji Yamada." Simon Abrams in the New York Press: "Yamada, who is most well known States-side for his superb samurai trilogy the starts with The Twilight Samurai (2002), co-wrote and directed all but the third and fourth entries, making the series a paradoxically personal and financially monumental creator-owned, studio-produced franchise. They're like a cinematic, creator-owned sitcom, so they're pretty much the same movie, told 48 different times in 48 different ways." At the Japan Society, starting tomorrow.

The L Magazine's Danielle DiGiacomo previews New York's DocFest, opening tonight and running through October 27.

Tony Curtis's memoir American Prince sparks a whopping entry from Michael Guillén, who reflects a bit on Some Like It Hot and notes that there'll be a tribute to Curtis as well as a mini-retrospective in the Bay Area.

"Finding Northadelphia is a part of a program at Youth Empowerment Services (YES), a non–profit organization dedicated to youth from all over the city who've dropped out of school or are otherwise unemployed." Matt Prigge checks out the film, screening Friday, and the program for the Philadelphia Weekly.

Mike Everleth has the lineup for this weekend's Denver Underground Film Festival.

Strange Illusion screens Sunday as part of Chicago's Doc Films series, but the Reader's Pat Graham just doesn't get all the hullabaloo over Edgar G Ulmer.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian's Johnny Ray Huston looks back on the Vancouver International Film Festival. More from Joanne Laurier at the WSWS.

Online listening tip. Wexner Center for the Arts Film/Video curators discuss a season of overtly political films.

Posted by dwhudson at October 16, 2008 1:44 PM