Locarno isn’t a film festival. It’s a pilgrimage. My journey to the legendary festival, which celebrated its 77th edition this year, involved planes, trains, and automobiles to land in Milan, Italy before crossing the border into Locarno. The odyssey felt well worth it when I caught sight of the narrow stone pebble streets, the gelato-colored … Read more
What other place can you see the biggest films from Cannes intermingled with ruminative Eastern European stories that eloquently tell the history of the people and the region? Here, the theaters—a mixture of splendid venues like Grand and Small Hall and intimate, seemingly makeshift cinemas like Husovka—are always packed. Audiences want to see the movies, … Read more
One thing I noticed at the screenings this year was an increased use of cell phones during the films. This is strictly prohibited and frowned upon in Cannes, but I’ve also found that if you ask people politely to stop, they will apologize and turn off their phones. Midway through the festival, I was honored … Read more
KVIFF was also filled with wonderful retrospectives. “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” Peter Weir’s feast of masculine tenderness wrapped in a nautical epic, screened in 35mm. John Cassavetes’ romantic screwball “Minnie and Moskowitz” was also shown. But the major highlight was curator Joseph Fahim’s richly programmed series on mid-century Japanese author … Read more