News

Like many film enthusiasts, I love the Criterion Collection. I scoff at some of their selections—I won’t name names—but for the most part, I anticipate new releases with excitement and glee (June’s slate is particularly amazing). Of course, due to lack of finances, I can’t buy as many as I would like – though someday, I will own the entire collection, despite the current economy offering little to no financial opportunity for an individual with my interests and skill set, but I digress.

I do, however, have a minor beef with Criterion. While admiring most of their titles, I’d love to see more emphasis on genre stuff—especially horror. And don’t get me wrong, Criterion boasts some excellent titles—Carnival of Lost Souls, Sisters, The Vanishing, Godzilla, The Devil’s Backbone, Repulsion, plus the highly anticipated release of Scanners being not far off—but they need more.

25 special programs and screenings have been added to the lineup for this year's New York Film Festival, running September 30 through October 26. The only secrets left are the 2011 Views from the Avant Garde lineup and a few free forums in the works.

Because this round is so heavy on the documentaries, I want to first revisit the lineup for Toronto's Real to Reel program in another entry and then return here to add further notes and linkage. For now, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Eugene Hernandez has a few more details, but here's the gist of today's announcement:

Masterworks Screenings

Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925), restored.

Hugo Santiago's Invasión (1969), restored.

Sara Driver's You Are Not I (1981), restored.

Special Presentations: Documentaries

Xan Aranda's Andrew Bird: Fever Year.

Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory.

Nelson Pereira dos Santos's Music According to Tom Jobim.

Karl Heinz Martin's Von Morgens Bis Mitternacht (From Morn to Midnight, 1920) comes on like a parody of a German Expressionist classic, so archetypal are its distorted, hand-painted sets and distorted, hand-painted actors. Undeniably beautiful, it throws in the whole rhomboid kitchen sink, attacking what appears to be a fairly naturalistic, if melodramatic, story with theatrical artifice and painterly style until it fringes on the animated cartoon. It's an exciting way to render real life stories cinematic.

Unfortunately, the film is without English translation at present, which leads to two thoughts, slender things to suspend this lush series of images from, but hopefully just strong enough to do the job without this article fluttering to the floor like a pack of cards.

Thought 1: it's quite restful and interesting to watch films with no translation, even talkies. Von Morgens Bis Mitternacht is silent, and therefore a lot of the plot comes across clearly without language,...