Movie News

A few bits of news of relevance to cinephiles:

1. New Yorker Films, an important distributor of foreign and arthouse fare, has gone under.

2. Zabriskie Point, a favourite film of mine and a hard-to-see Antonioni, will finally be distributed on DVD in North America. And some cool Criterions have been announced - In the Realm of the Senses, The Friends of Eddie Coyle...

3. If you've missed it, Bruce McDonald will be introducing his new film, Pontypool - a zombie/ language virus movie (?!) with Stephen McHattie (!) - at the Cinematheque on Friday. Hope to have more on that soon! Also upcoming at the Cinematheque: a one-day only screening of Carol Reed's terrific Odd Man Out, starring James Mason; and a screening of the Canadian experimental film Wavelength, which I'll be happy to see cinematically. The Cinematheque's new website is a bit odd for me still, so I'll note more when I snag the new program (out now); there's probably stuff I'm missing.

4. Vancity Theatre-wise, it might be interesting to see Miller's Crossing on the screen again - it's been a long time - tho' my enthusiasm for that film soured when I discovered just how much it owes to Dashiell Hammett, a debt not acknowledged in the film's credits. And then there's the Hockey Nights in Film series, opening on March 9th with Slap Shot, a film I have not seen in years, but would love to experience communally. There's more to that, too - check the link... Tom Charity has replaced Mark Peranson as programmer for the Vancity, so it'll be interesting to see what April holds at that theatre...