AltWeeklies Wire
From Industry Turmoil, Great Films Arosenew
And so another year comes to an end, and with it a decade (Gregorian contrarians notwithstanding) in which the answer to the question “What is cinema?” underwent more radical transmutations than in any comparable period since the dawn of moving images.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
01-04-2010 |
Movies
Rebecca Yeldham Fights the Good Fight at Helm of the L.A. Film Festivalnew
The 41-year-old Yeldham came onboard as festival director this past March during a tense moment for LAFF and its parent organization, Film Independent. She had to hit the ground running, with barely three months left to plan for the festival's 2009 edition.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
06-19-2009 |
Movies
Dreaming in Film: At Cannes and Its Renegade Festivalsnew
A look at the scene in Cannes, where the best movies aren't necessarily the ones in the competition.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-22-2009 |
Movies
Tags: Cannes Film Festival
Looking for 'Slow Cinema' at the Berlin International Film Festivalnew
If this year's Berlinale was dominated and ultimately defined by polyglot international coproductions that, as one British colleague joked, might have been rated "G" for globalization, the festival's most memorable offerings came from filmmakers who looked no farther than their own backyards for inspiration.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
02-20-2009 |
Movies
The Sundance Experiencenew
If the highs weren’t as high as those of some Sundances past — no radical, out-of-left-field debut features or eight-figure sales deals to write home about — neither were the lows as dispiritingly low.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
01-30-2009 |
Movies
Tags: Sundance Film Festival
Sundance's Best So Farnew
Push, Cold Souls, and Paper Heart are reviewed. The color ain't purple.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
01-23-2009 |
Movies
Disappointments and Surprises: Toronto International Film Festivalnew
When good directors go bad. At least, that's what it has felt like around here as one anticipated new film after the next by some of the world's name-brand auteurs — the Coen brothers, Spike Lee, Jonathan Demme — has laid a less-than-golden egg
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
09-12-2008 |
Movies
Thank God It's the End of Summer!new
These are, literally and figuratively, the annual dog days, when the mercury rises and studios satisfy contractual obligations to their unloved stepchildren--movies they made (or bought), then thought twice about and decided to dispose of as quietly as possible during those two weeks of the year when most of the industry are on vacation.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
09-05-2008 |
Movies
Tags: summer movies
Manny Farber, 1917-2008new
As a critic, Farber advocated more modest, elemental "termite art" — throwaway B movies, Westerns and, later on, important works of European and experimental cinema that he found sui generis, teeming with life, and more invested in individual moments than grandiose objectives
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
08-29-2008 |
Movies
Controversy at Cannes: 'The Headless Woman'new
At Cannes, one can reliably emerge from seeing a near masterpiece only to discover that everyone -- or at least the influential industry trade newspapers -- has declared the very same movie une catastrophe! Such is the case with The Headless Woman.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-30-2008 |
Movies
Cannes Comebacks: Our Midfestival Reportnew
Call Mike Tyson, Jerzy Skolimowski and Terence Davies the comeback kids.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-27-2008 |
Movies
Sundance: A Midwinter Night's Dreamnew
Finding gems in the snow at 2008's festival.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
01-25-2008 |
Movies
Tags: Sundance
American Cinema: Our Best Diplomat in 2007?new
Wherever my travels have taken me this year, whether as close as the screening room down the street or as far afield as the Cannes Film Festival in France, the sentiment has been the same: What a banner year it has been for American movies.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
12-28-2007 |
Movies
Dispatch from the European Film Awardsnew
A large digital screen featuring a clip of Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless, puffing on his Lucky Strike in an endless loop, was the closest the audience at the 20th European Film Awards in Berlin wound up getting to the evening's lifetime achievement honoree, Jean-Luc Godard.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
12-14-2007 |
Movies
Edward Yang, 1947-2007new
Like most great filmmakers, Yang was timeless, and transcendent of linguistic or geographic barriers.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-27-2007 |
Movies
