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For those living near Chicago (I’m not sure how many of us that includes), Facets is presenting an almost-complete retrospective of Aki Kaurismaki, starting this Friday. Through the gracious help of a friend, I was able to watch a number of his films on video. Obviously not the best way to watch Kaurismaki’s work, but even the videos were impressive. I wrote up a review for a local paper and thought I’d just post it here, in the hopes of provoking some discussion. I’m especially interested in what people think of Kaurismaki’s other movies, such as Juha, Shadows in Paradise, …

October’s going to be a great month for cinephiles. Being one of the co-administrators of robert-bresson.com, I’m privy to news items from time to time, and here’s the latest: Rialto Pictures informs us they will premiere their new print of Robert Bresson‘s Au hasard Balthazar (1966) on October 17 at the Film Forum in New York, and it will travel to various cities in the ensuing months. (Almost all of Rialto’s releases eventually become Criterion Collection DVDs as well.)

This is significant on several accounts, two of which are that it’s probably my favorite film of all time …

As I alluded to last week, I’m going through a difficult emotional season these days. It’s funny how movies can at once transport us through artificial realms of drama and simultaneously reflect our existing realities back to us. A few nights ago, I planned to watch the new movie, Northfork, so I purchased my ticket, grabbed some popcorn and a coke, and found a seat in the theatre. After about five minutes, I realized I was too preoccupied with my own thoughts and too fragile to take on anything else, so I walked out, coke and corn in the …

I’m having a bad week, so my post today will only be an announcement. DVDPlanet is now pre-ordering one of the cinema’s supreme masterpieces, Yasujiro Ozu‘s Tokyo Story (1953), to be released as a 2-disc Criterion Collection package on October 14.

Details will include:

ï New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image
and sound
ï Audio commentary by Ozu-film scholar David Desser, editor
of Ozu’s Tokyo Story
ï I Lived, But…: (1983) a two-hour documentary
about the life and career of Ozu, featuring former assistant Shohei Imamura (director of The Pornographers, The Eel), critics Donald Richie and Tadao …

This weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the American Film Institute’s Cinema’s Legacy program, which featured Paul Schrader and a screening/discussion of his favorite film, Robert Bresson‘s Pickpocket (1959). Schrader, whose claim to fame probably remains his screenplays for early Martin Scorsese pictures like Taxi Driver (1976) and Raging Bull (1980), has directed a few films over the years with mixed results (American Gigolo, Cat People, Auto Focus).

However, many cinephiles remember him best for having written one of the few English studies of Bresson, Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer. The …

Photo by Piotr Jaxa.

Well, the latest issue of everyone’s favorite film journal is up, Senses of Cinema, No. 27. Published in Melbourne, Australia, it specializes in “serious and eclectic discussion of cinema” and contains a few years worth of challenging, invigorating essays. Visit the archives and enjoy.

This particular issue includes a career retrospective I wrote on the late Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski, a typically fine summation of Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos by Strictly Film School‘s Acquarello (an ongoing participant in our Discussions), daily reports from the 52nd Melbourne International Film Festival, a variety …