So the new Cinema Scope is now out and it’s a great
overview of what’s been going on in film culture since their Winter issue (whose cover film Pheonix is still a couple months shy of
getting a theatrical release). In it there’s coverage of the Sundance, Berlin
and Rotterdam film festivals, new releases, more obscure films (Nils Malmros),
and what’s exciting in the world of DVD releases (Don’t Look Now, Sauve qui peut (la vie)) and film book publishing. Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson’s The Forbidden Room gets the cover, and
in Mark Peranson’s introduction to his interview with them he describes it as,
“With few points of comparison, it stands as a proposition for what cinema is
right now and what it can be, a fully digital work that resembles some (mostly)
imaginary past as processed through the human mind and machine software – like
sands in an hourglass, these are the days of our lives.” Andrew Tracy, in his
characteristic way, analyzes the cult of personality around Michael Mann and
problematizes Blackhat. The Mubi guys Adam Cook and Daniel Kasman
interview Kidlat Tahimik for Balikbayan
#1 Memories of Overdelopment Redux II. Blake Williams writes about his
recent experience in Park City, “In fact, against all odds, with over a third of the
works I saw on my trip meeting the minimum requirements of being “good,” the
overall quality of the films in Sundance 2015 was, even shockingly, tolerable.”
My only concern is his description of the new Ross Brothers picture, Western, as “the only film to genuinely disappoint… I’m chalking
this one up to a belabored post-production marathon rather than a creative
regression.” Well I was really looking forward to it! And Sean Rogers continues to bring his comic-book sensibility to the magazine: after an interview with
Blutch, a look at its aesthetic in the films of Alain Resnais,
he now reviews the new Criterion Designs.
And this is among many other equally interesting articles.
The upcoming
spring festivals in Toronto have their own anticipatory pieces:
Michael Sicinski reviews Kevin Jerome Everson’s Park Lanes and Shelly Kraicer discusses Luo Li’s Li Wen at East Lake which are both playing at Images. And Adam
Nayman interviews Rodney Ascher for The
Nightmare and Williams brings up Western,
which both will be playing at Hot Docs.
Cinema Scope continues to provide an excellent window into contemporary film culture by isolating what's really
exciting about it.
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