We begin, as always, in New York, where the Film Society of Lincoln Center has presented its highlights of the summer. “New films by veteran filmmakers Philippe Garrel, Lukas Moodysson, Bong Joon-ho, Lav Diaz, and Steve James are among the features,” notes Brian Brooks, and they “join a slate of first features including Gia Coppola’s Palo Alto, Nadav Lapid’s Policeman, and Ramon Zürcher’s The Strange Little Cat that will open through August. Thirteen of the roster’s 18 titles will open exclusively at the Film Society for one- or two-week runs.” An exclusive run of Lav Diaz’s Norte, the End of History beginning on June 20 “will anchor the Film Society series Time Regained: The Films of Lav Diaz, the most complete American retrospective to date of the Philippines-born director’s work.”
“She was born Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit, and it had taken her a lot of time and trouble to pull herself out of her hardscrabble milieu to become Ellen McRae, a pretty actress and model who smiled a lot,” writes Dan Callahan for BAM. “There are not many actors, let alone actresses, who fully come into their own at the age of 40, but that’s what happened for this singular and path-finding actress, who took the name Ellen Burstyn in 1970.” The BAMcinématek series is on through Tuesday.
“Ghosts are captured on camera in Rumstick Road, the genuinely haunting new work that runs through Wednesday at Anthology Film Archives,” writes Ben Brantley. “Described as a ‘video reconstruction’ of a performance from the mid-1970s by the Wooster Group, the New York experimental theater troupe, Elizabeth LeCompte and Ken Kobland’s film is by its very nature phantasmal.”
Also in the New York Times, Andy Webster: “In the poetic documentary Palabras Mágicas (Para Romper un Encantamiento)—Magic Words (Breaking a Spell)—the director Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez meditates on the fraught history of Nicaragua, starting with the years preceding the Sandinista overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship in 1979.” The film, “presented as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s series Iberoamérican Images: The State of the Art, covers decades, juxtaposing period footage with the director’s reflective narration and gorgeous images.”
Trailer for Lav Diaz’s Norte, the End of History
This week’s recommendations from the L: Mark Asch on Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974, BAM, Saturday), Aaron Cutler on Marco Bellocchio‘s A Leap in the Dark (1980, MoMA, Saturday) and John Oursler on Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream (2000, BAM, Monday).
Seattle. The International Film Festival‘s announced the lineup for its 40th edition, running from May 15 through June 8. At Parallax View, Sean Axmaker presents “a sketch of what’s big, what’s interesting, what’s arriving with big buzz, and what you might want to look out for.”
Chicago. “In another one of those fortuitous moviegoing coincidences, I recently saw The Canterbury Tales (1972) in the Siskel Center’s Pier Paolo Pasolini retrospective just after checking out Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive for a second time,” writes Ben Sachs in the Reader. “I found the pairing instructive—each one provided insights into the other I might not have experienced had I seen the films separately.” Pier Paolo Pasolini: The Eyes of a Poet is on through May 15.
Austin. “The latest Austin Film Society Essential Cinema series, guest-curated by yours truly, opens with 8½ and is followed by four films that further riff on creative block,” writes the Chronicle‘s Kimberley Jones. After 8½: The Creative in Crisis runs each Thursday in May, starting tonight.
Marfa. CineMarfa, opening today and running through the weekend, “makes great use of the town’s reputation as an artists’ enclave,” finds the Chronicle‘s Marjorie Baumgarten.
Park Ridge, Illinois. Tonight, the Pickwick Theater will be celebrating the Tyrone Power Centennial with special guests and a double feature, In Old Chicago (1938) and Jesse James (1939).
London. The BFI’s Studio Ghibli season rolls on through May, and Jasper Sharp‘s written about ten great anime films, including Isao Takahata’s Little Norse Prince (1968). Takahata has in turn written about a major inspiration, Le Roi et l’Oiseau (The King and the Mockingbird, 1980), a collaboration between the animator Paul Grimault and the poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert, now out on DVD (Ryan Gilbey tells its “dramatic back-story” in the New Statesman).
Daniel Bird introduces Cinema of Desire: The Films of Walerian Borowczyk, running at BFI Southbank throughout the month: “Not only was he a trailblazer for fine artists working in film, but he also brought a keen, painterly eye to framing and editing objects, animals and bodies. Since the late 60s Borowczyk has left an indelible stamp on a whole generation of writers, artists and filmmakers: feminist author Angela Carter numbered Goto, Island of Love as a favorite film; his animations were a key influence on Terry Gilliam; and his graphics inspired both the poster designer Andrzej Klimowski and fine artist Craigie Horsfield.”
For the BFI, Michael Brooke picks out and writes up “five essential films.” The series is presented as part of Kinoteka Polish Film Festival, and in conjunction with the ICA exhibition Walerian Borowczyk: The Listening Eye (May 20 through June 29). Watch a clip from Grandma’s Encyclopedia (2’29”) at the Guardian.
Meantime, Bryan Tap suggests you “leave the dates August 6th and August 7th open, as renowned performing arts and concert venue Roundhouse is poised to host two (2) screenings of Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 masterpiece There Will Be Blood, with the 50+-piece London Contemporary Orchestra performing the film’s iconic score live. The performances will be conducted by Hugh Brunt, with none other than the score’s composer, Jonny Greenwood, on hand to perform the ondes Martenot elements of the piece.”
The 60th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen is on from today through Tuesday.
And the 15th Jeonju International Film Festival opens today and run through May 10.
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