Film Journey – Page 34 – world cinema in Los Angeles and beyond

Diary of the Dead

October 16, 2007 Doug Cummings Film review

Last weekend, I caught the West Coast premiere of George A. Romero’s latest zombie allegory, Diary of the Dead, and judging from memory, I think it’s my favorite installment since the 1968 original (which is the only one I’ve seen more than once). It’s got all the ingredients you might expect–slow moving and ravenous dead, resourceful and opportunistic characters, black humor, and creature feature gore–but this time out, the elements seem particularly impassioned and conscientiously formed. Personalities are intelligent and emotionally complex without edging out their function, the humor is softer and more existential, and even the violence seems …

AFI FEST preview

October 9, 2007 Doug Cummings Commentary, Film festival

In years past, the Los Angeles AFI FEST has proven to be a lot like many American Film Institute events–big, glitzy, and not especially exciting in terms of world cinema. This year, however, its line-up–just announced today–is an improvement. In addition to some of my own TIFF favorites (The Duchess of Langeais, Persepolis, Silent Light) and films friends loved (4 Months, 3 Weeks and Two Days, The Flight of the Red Balloon, Chop Shop, Munyurangabo), I’m especially excited about these titles:

ï Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows

The …

Blade Runner: The Final Cut

October 7, 2007 Doug Cummings Film review

Not unlike replicants who treasure photos as tokens of their past, seeing Blade Runner: The Final Cut (2007) this weekend provoked a flood of memories related to my own history. I recall avidly reading about the film’s production as an 11-year-old special effects buff (despite the fact that I’m not a collector, I still have the original Cinefex issue devoted to the film), repeatedly watching it on video as a teenager in love with its cinematography, and more recently, enjoying its complex themes and critical reappraisal as an adult cinephile. Surely Boomer critics who grew up watching Ford, Hawks, and …

Jordan Belson

October 5, 2007 Doug Cummings DVD review

This is the second part of an article exploring the first two DVD releases of the Center for Visual Music. Part 1 can be found here.

“This is a different kind of DVD,” Cindy Keefer, the director of CVM warned me, adding that she and Belson were wary of reviewers who 1) might expect something similar to Oskar Fischinger, or 2) were unfamiliar with the work of Jordan Belson and might criticize the DVD as being blurry or out of focus. Hard to believe, but I’m sure they’ve heard it. She encouraged me to watch the DVD on …

Oskar Fischinger

October 4, 2007 Doug Cummings DVD review

This is the first part of a two-part posting that will explore the first DVD releases of the venerable Los Angeles-based Center for Visual Music: Oskar Fischinger: Ten Films (2006) and Jordan Belson: 5 Essential Films (2007). CVM is a nonprofit film archive, library, research and education center devoted to “visual music.” It’s directed by Cindy Keefer, who amiably gave me a tour of CVM’s facilities located in downtown’s historic Spring Arts Tower. The Center has a long history of organizing exhibitions and is hard at work on upcoming programs for several European museums and festivals. Keefer has described …

Palms

September 30, 2007 Doug Cummings DVD review

It’s unfortunate that Artur Aristakisyan’s 1993 documentary, Palms (Ladoni), has been a film cited more than seen; it’s an intensely poetic, provocative–even inspiring–account of the poor and destitute in Chisinau (formerly Kishinev), the capital of Moldova. Despite winning a slew of awards, it all but disappeared from sight, in no small part due to its filmmaker’s disdain for the critical establishment as well as his penchant for living a bohemian life. Thankfully, the exemplary UK label, Second Run, has just released the film on DVD, and it’s a major addition to the canon of films focused on …