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

The excellent Janus film series has been moving through Los Angeles, but a couple nights ago, the American Cinematheque screened a particularly noteworthy title (one of the films not yet released by the Criterion Collection), Carlos Saura’s CrÌa cuervos (1976). Critics have been summarily referencing Spirit of the Beehive (1973) in reviews of [...]

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Alain Resnais has had difficulty winning an American audience, partly due to the unavailability of much of his work here, and partly due to the avant-garde nature of his first two features (Hiroshima mon amour and Last Year at Marienbad), which caused many US critics to dismiss him as a filmmaker interested in “form over [...]

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Now that S·t·ntangÛ has been released on DVD (in the UK), and Histoire(s) du cinÈma has once again been delayed by Gaumont (in France), the next holy grail for the widest swathe of home viewing cinephiles might be Leo McCarey’s sublime and shattering Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), the last film screened in the UCLA [...]

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Last weekend, the UCLA film archive screened one of Roberto Rossellini’s rarest films, India (1958); according to Peter Brunette in his informative book on the filmmaker, the only print available in the US for years was an unsubtitled, black-and-white copy owned by the Pacific Film Archive, so it was a joy to see a rare [...]

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Au hasard Bresson (1966)
DVD extras aren’t always so informative; you get the impression producers compile whatever they can find off the editing room floor or use the opportunity to re-sell the movie (as if that were needed), with actors and technicians warmly reminiscing about the production.
One of the best DVD extras I’ve seen recently is [...]

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The Tailenders (2006)
I’ve avoided owning a TV for the past 17 years, but I know I miss some good stuff on occasion, one of which is the PBS series P.O.V., which bills itself as “television’s longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films.” And judging by their recent excellent line-up (My Country, My Country, Maquilopolis, [...]

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen some pretty knockout documentaries that have been rattling around in my head ever since; each of them offers a penetrating portrait of their subject that expands into larger questions of form or meaning. I’ll comment on two today and two others tomorrow. -Doug

The Legend of Time [...]

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After a slow winter season for cinephiles in Los Angeles, the new Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum in Westwood–the site for UCLA Film & Television Archive screenings–is in full operation; that is, if you overlook the late film starts, the mistimed electronic subtitles, and the misplaced DVD remotes. (The inaugural screening [...]

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