Author: Doug Cummings

I’ve always been a proponent of using movies to initiate dialogue in public forums and I’m lucky enough to live in a city that does this with some regularity. A couple of nights ago, I had the pleasure of attending a benefit screening and discussion of Salt of the Earth, a 1954 blacklisted film depicting a miner’s strike, and the proceeds went to two unions representing the 71,000 grocery workers currently on strike in Southern California.

For readers unfamiliar with current events in the Golden State, there is a significant crisis in the grocery industry that serves as a …

Being a child of the ’70s and ’80s, I came to cinephilia through video and therefore treasure opportunities to rewatch classic films projected on the big screen. Many of the benefits of film are notorious–increased resolution and detail, a greater range of mid-tones, projected rather than emitted light; other differences are more subtle–a soothing shutter rather than a nervous scanning frequency and a more rigid relationship between the viewer and the film (video allows a viewer to start and stop a movie at his or her own whim).

Sometimes, watching a video favorite on film can amount to a revelation, …

Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers, a classic of political filmmaking from 1965, has gotten its theatrical rerelease by Rialto Pictures and reignited controversy as commentators have attempted to either establish or dispel its relation to current events. While it’s true that the film’s specific context is Algeria’s fight for independence from colonial France beginning in ’54, its riveting depiction of miltary occupation, checkpoints and curfews, terrorist insurgency, and the collective will of a people forging a national identity has undeniable contemporary relevance.

Pontecorvo once described the film as a “hymn . . . in homage to …

My day job consists of being a graphic artist, so I thought I’d post the above drawing I did several years ago in light of the newly-announced Orson Welles retrospective happening simultaneously in late-February at the Film Forum in New York City and the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles.

While it will be a treat to see any monumental, baroque Welles film on the big screen (like 1962’s The Trial, a criminally underrated movie), I’m particularly excited about the rare bits and scraps of unfinished projects compiled by the Munich Filmmuseum in this series.

For more info on Welles, …

ïindieWIRE has posted their top twenty undistributed films of 2003, starting (alphabetically) with one of my favorites, Ross McElwee’s Bright Leaves.

ïDVD Beaver has posted a shot comparison of the new UK DVD of F.W. Murnau’s 1924 masterpiece, The Last Laugh, an 80th anniversary special edition based on the 2003 restoration by Murnau Stiftung/Transit Films. It is far superior to the 2001 Kino release.

ïI’m leaving for PSIFF today, but I’ve decided to cut my trip short–expect a summary and a look at Rialto Pictures’ rerelease of The Battle of Algiers in a few days.…

I’m pleased to announce a site I co-admin, Masters of Cinema, has been nominated by Cinemarati for Best Film-Related Web Site of 2003. I also whole-heartedly endorse our competition:

NOMINEES

ï Bright Lights Film Journal
ï DVD Beaver
ïThe Fog of War
ï GreenCine Daily
ïMasters of Cinema
ïMidnight Eye
ï Senses of Cinema
ïThe Tulse Luper Suitcases Web Archive