NYFF, etc.

The Shochiku retrospective this fall may well be the most vital series of the year. I'd love to see all the films. But just when I thought I would be in the clear, financially, and could at least get by with a little spending money on the side, student loans--larger than I was anticipating--rear their ugly head. So I will have to select only a handful: as many of the Hiroshi Shimizu films as I can make, at least one early Mizoguchi as well as The Loyal 47 Ronin, at least one by Heinosuke Gosho, Mikio Naruse's Every Night Dreams, and Kiju Yoshida's Love Affair at Akitsu Spa. That's at least eight films, a hefty investment for a single series during a busy moviegoing period, and I shudder to think that it's not even half of what I originally marked down as 'must see'. (Souls on the Road is also one I should really try to catch.)

As for the NYFF, I'll probably try to see only three films: Hong Sang-soo's A Tale of Cinema, Philippe Garrel's new film, and either Mitsuo Yanagimachi's Who's Camus, Anyway? or Sokurov's The Sun. I liked Yanagimachi's 1986 effort Himatsuri, which had some beautiful compositions and a nice sense of rhythm, but from all appearances it would be more important to see The Sun, and I do like the 20th century "bio" films Sokoruv has done that I've seen (Moloch more than Taurus). I have a feeling that the Hou and the Dardennes films, like a few others I want to see, will show up again, and I don't have the same immediate desire to catch them as I do for Hong's work. The Views from the Avant-Garde festival looks surprisingly lightweight (excepting the Straub/Huillet program); though I had high hopes to finally see everything in it this year, I don't think I'll feel too bad passing most of it over.

Being broke can really grate on one's nerves ...