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For the Bressonphiles among us (and who isn’t?), I published a capsule review of Au hasard Balthazar in the latest catalogue of the mail-order company MovieMail in the UK; I’ve posted it below.

The good news is that the region 0 PAL discs recently released by Nouveaux Pictures (Balthazar and Mouchette, both of which have been long out of print on video in North America) have been created using newly-restored prints and look wonderful. You can find my robert-bresson.com cohort Trond Trondsen’s reviews at DVDBeaver here and here.

But the news gets better…MK2 in France have revealed …

Not only is this a great way to promote some kind of DVD community consensus, but we Masters of Cinema editors get to a) hear from our readers, and b) sometimes learn about discs we missed.

“The Masters of Cinema DVD Award of the Year 2004 will be announced here on Xmas Eve. As usual, it is voted for by our readers. The voting period is from now until December 23.

We’d like our readers to vote for their favourite DVD released in 2004, so here are some simple guidelines that may help you decide: 1.) The DVD can be

A few notes…

ïI’ve come down with a cold this week, so permit me a moment of persnickety cinephile bitchiness. Most of the folks I know consider Jonathan Rosenbaum’s critique of the first Top 100 Movies list by the American Film Institute to be one of the most inspiring critical essays of the last few years, so it’s sad to say that with each successive list the AFI releases, their excuses for promoting pretty much the same Hollywood videos over and over again become even more suspect and absurd. Their latest in a long line of TV-special mediocrities posing as …

I’ve known Russell for several years now and I’m always trying to get him to write more often; he’s full of great insights. Here are his first reviews from the Three Rivers Film Festival currently in progress in Pittsburgh. The festival is surprisingly low-profile given its exemplary line-up. -Doug

* * * * *

By Russell Lucas

Guy Maddin’s Cowards Bend the Knee (2003) started life as an installation exhibit at a Toronto art gallery. The film, which is comprised of ten six-minute episodes, was originally shown through ten individual knotholes so that a viewer could watch the chapters individually …

The gravity of the upcoming US election makes it difficult to concentrate on a lot of movies this week, but stay tuned for at least a couple more reviews. In the meantime:

ïThe new issue of Senses of Cinema is now online.

ïThe excellent Canadian film magazine, Cinema Scope, now has a nice website.

ïWhy I continue to respect Roger Ebert despite the fact that he often subordinates his cinephilia to mainstream mediocrity.

ïLastly, Masters of Cinema has offered its editorial election endorsement.…