I’ve been complaining about Film Comment for the past few years, its silly sarcastic newsbriefs and short fiction, its efforts to sacrifice meaningful coverage for “hip” mainstream criticism, etc. But I chanced across the latest issue, and it’s actually got me sitting down and reading:
ï Joan Rivers’ Guilty Pleasures (just kidding!)
ïAn article on early Iranian cinema (pre-Kiarostami, who the author, Sohrab Shahid Saless, suggests is “Bazin-compatible” and therefore more popular in the
West; incidentally, Kent Jones makes a similar argument in defense of Olivier Assayas’ “non-Bazinian” work in the latest Cinema Scope)
ï An analysis by Godfrey Cheshire of one of my favorite undistributed films
from last year, Ross McElwee’s essay film, Bright Leaves. (Which First Run Features has now acquired.)
ïA solid article on Jacques Tati by Richard Combs
ïAn article on “making of” DVD featurettes and a list of the author’s
favorites: Dr. Strangelove, Contempt, Peeping Tom,
Finding Nemo, Man of Aran, The Pianist, American Movie, Moulin Rouge, and North by Northwest
ïCannes summaries by Amy Taubin, Kent Jones, Richard PeÒa, and Gavin Smith
ïThe usual collection of capsule reviews, DVD recommendations, etc.
(Some of these articles, or parts of them, are available online, here.)