NEW YORK MOVIE JOURNAL (Feb.-Mar. 2020)

[Chris Knipp]

After you pay for it you have three days during which you can watch it as often as you like, I believe. No doubt if you like Pedro Costa you'll enjoy Vitalina Varela. It is visually maybe even more striking than previous films of his.

[oscar jubis]

Thanks, Chris Knipp.
At home, I watched the Mexican submission to the competition for Best Foreign Film at the 1963 Oscars" Tlacuyan(1962)
It was written and directed by the Luis Alcoriza, a Spanish writer who collaborated with the genius Luis Buñuel on a dozen films in México; classics such as Exterminating Angel and El. Alcoriza was also an actor and director. He won important awards with films like Lo Que Importa es Vivir (1986), which is a rare and early example of Latin American "queer cinema".

Tlacuyan adopts a humanist, neorealist approach to the depiction of village life in Morelos, Mexico (Zapata's home state). I imagine that a cinephile not recognizing the language spoken may think she's accidentally discovered an Italian neorealist film no one knew about. A priest's relationships with the townsfolk play a big role. It's among many aspects that would also be important in Italian provincial culture. The central event is the robbery of a pearl, which is exploited for dramatic and also comedic purposes (when the pearl is lost and it's believed one of many piglets that roam around throughout the film might have ingested it). However, there are other episodes equally engaging, especially an unlikely but convincing romance between an uptight spinster and a younger man, who is blind and begs. Alcoriza finds a way to show the goodness in every character by the end, with a close-up of dirty piglets roaming around their mother.

I think it's sad that Mexican cinema is regarded as "foreign" and ignored in the US. There was a Golden Age waiting to be discovered if it could be made accesible to English-speaking audiences. The companies that manufacture the dvds I watch for distribution in the US don't even bother to add English Subtitles, so that's part of the problem. It is simply assumed that the only people interested are US Latinos who speak Spanish. Shame.

[Chris Knipp]

Shakeup at Cahiers du Cinéma (Guardian).

This isn't new - it was the end of Feb. - but interesting to find that at least the staff of France's legendary film criticism journal wants to maintain its independence. They have all resigned in protest of a new management (after the sale of the journal) that now includes individuals representing film production companies and members of a movie directors group. The article is in the Guardian

[Chris Knipp]

This just in today (Apr. 11, 2020):

The Booksellers will open nationwide on Friday, April 17 as part of Greenwich Entertainment’s virtual cinema initiative. Greenwich is partnering with movie theaters that are currently closed because of Coronavirus precautions so their customers can still watch The Booksellers and patrons can support their local theater during this difficult time.

FOR SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENTS, IT OPENS VIRTUALLY AT THE VOGUE AND BALBOA THEATERS ON APRIL 17th

FIND YOUR THEATER + RENT IT HERE