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This weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Los Angeles Korean International Film Festival at the American Cinematheque. (Why the word “international” was included, since it only featured Korean films, is beyond me.) LAKIFF screened recent films by two of Korea’s most acclaimed filmmakers, Hong Sang-soo’s Woman is the Future of Man (part of the upcoming NYFF line-up in October) and Kim Ki-duk’s Samaritan Girl–both films are already available as Korean region 3 DVDs. Hong was actually supposed to attend his screening and offer a Q&A that I was very much looking forward to, but he was held …

While I’m finishing my TIFF notes, I thought I’d mention a few unrelated, but exciting tidbits.

ï The films ofCarl Dreyer are currently airing this month on TCM, and it’s always fun to make new converts; on Monday, a coworker came into my office and asked if I’d ever heard of a silent film called The Passion of Joan of Arc, a movie she glimpsed on TCM and is now planning to buy her first DVD player simply so she can own the Criterion disc. And Image Entertainment has just released Dreyer’s The Parson’s Widow on DVD this …

I’m hoping to try something new for Filmjourney‘s coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival this year. Last year, my friend J. Robert Parks, film critic for Paste magazine and Chicago’s Hyde Park Herald, sent in ongoing updates. This year, not only am I attending myself, but several more friends will be there as well. Thus, I hope to blog summaries linked to various write-ups.

I won’t be arriving in Toronto until tomorrow, so J. Robert sets the stage with his festival preview. –Doug

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by J. Robert Parks

My friend Mike Hertenstein describes it …

Is popular access to a wider selection of videos on the brink of its latest success? Would this include all of Netflix’s DVDs or just the ones they think are important? And what would the quality be?

TiVo, Netflix Close to Internet Movie Deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Online DVD renter Netflix Inc. and television recorder maker TiVo Inc. are close to a deal to allow Netflix subscribers to download movies over the Internet to their TiVo devices, according to the latest issue of Newsweek magazine.

Newsweek, citing an anonymous source close to the talks, said the deal could be

Despite living in Los Angeles, I rarely attend its many test screenings or previews; I generally have enough film openings, retrospectives, and single-day screenings at the handful of art theatres around town to keep me occupied.

But last night I was invited to a showing of the new Jean-Pierre Jeunet film, A Very Long Engagement, which doesn’t even open in Paris until late-October. I went with modest expectations. I discovered Delicatessen (1991) on video in college and at the time was charmed by its vibrant eccentricity and dark humor, and while I subsequently appreciated The City of Lost Children…

I’m really excited about the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival, which I will attend for the first time this year and do my best to offer daily reports here at Filmjourney. Along with several hundred new films, the festival will offer its Dialogues: Talking With Pictures series of filmmakers presenting and discussing their favorite movies. One in particular, Chantal Akerman on Robert Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest, I’m most enthusiastic about:

ìI discovered Bresson after I had discovered Godard. I discovered Godard with Pierrot le fou. I was fifteen and Godard was exactly the person I