f i l m j o u r n e y . o r g

Most film criticism is historically divided into two eras: before the French New Wave and after the French New Wave. Until the ’60s, serious writing on film was hard to come by, but the passion, encyclopedic movie knowledge, and bountiful imagination of the Cahiers du cinÈma critics and others ushered in the world of [...]

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Day
1 - Friday, September 26, 2003
By John
Torvi
It
is really quite advantageous if the city that you live in has an
international film festival. No airplane ticket. No hotel fees. It’s
really great to be able to easily watch 2-3 movies per day (with a few
more on the weekends), most of which would probably never even make to
art houses. [...]

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By J. Robert Parks
British director Michael Winterbottom is one of the most eclectic filmmakers I know. He’s done literary adaptations (Jude), political docudramas (Welcome to Sarajevo), wintery Westerns (The Claim), trippy pomo biopics (24-Hour Party People), and futuristic, sci-fi love stories (Code 46, to be released next year). But his bravest and most successful film [...]

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So I saw Lost in Translation this weekend and, like the critics are saying, I enjoyed its witty charms and mature sensibilities regarding its unusual relationship between a middle-aged actor (Bill Murray) and a photographer’s disillusioned young wife (Scarlett Johansson) after they meet while dejectedly passing through Tokyo. I found Murray’s stoic sarcasm endearing [...]

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Doing our best to perpetuate the world of Internet polling, the moderators over at Masters of Cinema will be seeking votes for DVD of the Year. We won’t be tallying actual votes for a couple of months, but you may wish to start thinking about which disc you’ll pick. The DVD can be [...]

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Jurgen Fauth and Marcy Dermansky over at About.com’s Guide to Independent and World Film have just informed us that filmjourney.org has been selected as one of their top 15 Best Movie Blogs. (Additionally, a site that I co-admin, Masters of Cinema, also made the list.) We’d like to think of this as [...]

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J. Robert continues to send in his informative Toronto fest reviews, and here’s his latest batch. Be sure to visit his entire thread for the complete series. -Doug
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Tuesday, September 9, 2003
Day 5 — Hump Day
by J. Robert Parks
By day five, I feel like an old hand. I know [...]

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ïThe Film Forum in New York has announced its premiere of Rialto Picture’s new print of Robert Bresson’s masterpiece, Au hasard Balthazar (1966), for October 17-30, 2003. The film will then travel to other cities in the ensuing months. (And eventually appear on DVD.)
Their description:

A little donkey is suckled by its mother, then [...]

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J. Robert continues to send in his informative Toronto fest reviews, and here’s his latest batch. Be sure to visit his entire thread for the complete series. -Doug
* * * *
Monday, September 8, 2003
Day Four — A Day of Rest…and Masterpieces
by J. Robert Parks
Before Toronto I was talking with fellow Chicago [...]

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“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.”
–Paul Theroux
One of my sporadic interests is reading travel books–not the sort of glossy tourism guides that litter the discount racks of large bookstores, but the adventurous, personal nonfiction of established novelists (like Theroux) exploring the world in their own terms. And [...]

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