Peter Bogdanovich mini-retrospective at the VIFC

I didn't post much here about the passing of Peter Bogdanovich, but I have greatly enjoyed some of his films - Targets and Saint Jack, especially - though there are some I have yet to get to. But I have owned a book of his, have enjoyed his contributions to documentaries I saw him pop up in, and generally thought him an intelligent, articulate cineaste. When Erika suggested an ascot to cover my tracheostomy scar, it was Bogdanovich who flickered to mind. He leaves a sizeable hole in film culture and will be missed, to be sure.

While no one booked Targets - a film I bet really could use a nice digital restoration - three of Peter Bogdanovich's films will be popping up at the Vancouver International Film Centre (formerly the Vancity Theatre) starting this Sunday: the bleak, black-and-white, early-period Jeff Bridges/ Cybill Shepherd film The Last Picture Show, the frenetic, Hawks-inspired screwball comedy, What's Up Doc, and, indeed, Saint Jack - an adaptation of a Paul Theroux novel, always sorta seeming to me to be Bogdanovich's tropical relocation/ continuation of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, with Gazzara as a likeable American opportunist in Singapore who gets involved in pimping. That's the one I'm most excited to see theatrically - best thing Ben Gazzara ever did without Cassavetes, by far, of the Gazzara's I've seen... I've seen a lot of Gazzara's...