Film Journey – Page 49 – world cinema in Los Angeles and beyond

TIFF final schedule

September 1, 2005 Doug Cummings Site news

So I have to Fed Ex my 30 picks for the Toronto International Film Festival by 5:00 p.m. today, and I’ve agonized over the possibilities long enough now. In a shocking last minute switcheroo, I decided to regretfully skip Haneke’s CachÈ in order to see four films that won’t get distribution. Part of this burst of conviction was provoked by David Ehrenstein’s sobering overview of independent distributors in today’s LA Weekly, who speak matter-of-factly about the risky art film circuit in the United States and the increasing tendency to release films on DVD alone, if at all.

As Dave …

Tony Takitani

August 30, 2005 Doug Cummings Film review

Jun Ichikawa’s Tony Takitani is an elegant little film, and one of the most emotionally resonant movies I’ve seen this year. Based on a story by the popular Japanese author Haruki Murakami that was published in the New Yorker in 2002, the characters and narrative are so lightly sketched, the film’s gravity sneaks up on the viewer, largely through the gradual force of its form and rhythm.

The film opens by evoking the carefree lifestyle of Tony Takitani’s father, Shozaburo, a jazz musician who lives in Shanghai during World War II, endures prison, returns to Japan and marries, but becomes …

A State of Mind

August 27, 2005 Doug Cummings Film review

In this age of global communication, we think of the world as getting smaller, but then a documentary like the BBC’s A State of Mind (distributed theatrically in the US by Kino International) comes along and offers a glimpse into one of the most industrialized but closed societies on earth, and it’s like discovering life on another planet. North Korea, whose war with South Korea has remained in a cease fire for the last half century, is a totalitarian state that bans international mail, travel, and cell phones, offers one official television and radio station, and only admits a trickle …

Masters of Cinema Series: Onibaba

August 24, 2005 Doug Cummings Film review, Site news

I don’t often blog about one of my ongoing ventures, the Masters of Cinema Series DVD collection that I’m quite proud to be associated with, distributed by Eureka Video in the UK. Part of me doesn’t want to confuse Filmjourney with any commercial promotions (any MoC reviews I would write could be tainted with self-interest), but the fact is, the films we’re releasing are wonderful titles, superbly produced by Nick Wrigley. Generally, we MoC curators who don’t live in the UK supplement the website, help choose the titles for the series, proof the DVD booklets, and provide Nick with opinions …

TIFF 2005 line-up

August 23, 2005 Doug Cummings Uncategorized

So the Toronto International Film Festival announced its line-up of films today, and those of us who will be attending can hardly contain our excitement. Of course, Girish and I have already started complaining that the new films by, say, Denis, Bujalski, Aoyama, Tian, Allen, and Hong weren’t included. (Time to order that Korean Tale of Cinema DVD!) But for every “missing film,” there are innumerable titles with great potential, from the obvious (L’Enfant, CachÈ, Three Times) to the perhaps not-so-obvious (My Dad is 100 Years Old, Les Amants RÈguliers, Instructions for a …

New documentaries

August 21, 2005 Doug Cummings Film review

This weekend, the International Documentary Association began screening its DocuWeek program (not “festival,” they were quick to emphasize) so the films could qualify for Oscar nominations next year by playing in a commercial theater in Los Angeles. Whatever, I’m just glad the films are being shown even if there have been less than a dozen people at each of my screenings. The first two documentaries are stylish, engrossing pieces about art and artists, and the third is one of the best films I’ve seen all year, a sober look at global economics and third world devastation.

Touch the Sound…