Triple Play, Richard Brody on 3 Recent Films by Jean-Marie Straub, via The New Yorker
The three recent films by Jean-Marie Straub (one of which, “Itinerary of Jean Bricard,” is the last that he made together with Danièle Huillet, who died in 2006) that were shown Saturday evening at Anthology Film Archives in the Migrating Forms series ought to have been in the New York Film Festival last year, for the simple reason that the works, which were released together as one program in Paris in April, 2009, were doubtless among the best films released anywhere in the world last year (and were certainly better than much that was in fact screened there). Nonetheless, better late than never, and it was good to see a full house (and some friends) at Saturday’s event… (read more)
Drawing Inspiration at the Movie House, The Wall Street Journal
Now in its sophomore year, Migrating Forms has expanded. This successor to the New York Underground Film Festival winds up its 10-day run this weekend with a bounty of unclassifiable work in every kind of visual format. Rarely seen 16mm films by the California painter Ed Ruscha? Check. A mini-retrospective of documentaries by Jean-Pierre Gorin, including a collaboration with a Samoan gang? Check. A program devoted to the trove of found-art that is YouTube? Check. Promising premieres include “A Grammar for Listening,” British filmmaker Luke Fowler’s three-part film about the aesthetics of noise, and Los Angeles artist Stanya Khan’s intimate video portraits. The latter features a first-person narrative in which the performer is bandaged and visibly scarred after an accident. The title: “It’s Cool, I’m Good.”
Now Showing: Migrating Forms by Joy Dietrich, New York Times
Keith Uhlich on Vapor Trail in Slant Magazine
Leo Goldsmith on In Comparison and Vapor Trail on Not Coming to a Theater Near You