Thursday, September 13---------In a Toronto Film Festival, at over 350 films, a tale of hit or miss (how could it be anything else?), some of the most satisfying and resonant films come not from the new young turks, but from the old masters. Several of Europe's finest filmmakers have shown their latest masterworks here in the past week. It is interesting to consider that most of these films may not make a big splash in the theatrical distribution market (a far cry from some of these masters' e...

Thursday, February 1----With a musical biopic of legendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf opening the 57th edition of the Berlin Film Festival next week, the love affair of the Berlinale with French cinema is also evident in the prominent showcasing of two French film masters in the Competition Section. Veteran director Jacques Rivette will present the world premiere of NE TOUCHEZ PAS LA HACHE (Don’t Touch The Ax), an adaptation of a Balzac novella about a beautiful duchess who wards off the ...

Saturday, December 16---A retrospective of the career of French director Jacques Rivette has been unspooling at New York's Museum of the Moving Image since mid November. Several of the director's most ambitious and least known film gems are yet to be screened, as the series continues through the month of December. Intrepid film lovers should run, not walk, to this rare and wonderful series of a true cinema original. Rivette was a one-man film revolution. A critic for the influential film mag...