A curious coincidence seems to have confined me, so far in unseasonal 2012, to attending international film festivals in cities beginning with a B!  This is not to say that any one of them is a B-Festival (we know, pace F.I.A.P.F., that the world of 613-4,000 festivals is not really divided into 'A' category and 'B' category events) but even though --for the first time-- I missed the Berlinale, for a variety of reasons (though I did manage to preview it on BBC World Service Radio from London,...

The 13th Annual Film Noir festival, known affectionately as "Noir City", arrived at its usual venue, the fabled Egyptian theater on Hollywood Boulevard, on April 1st, settling in for a three week run until April 20. Here dedicated Noir fans and many merely curious drop-ins will be treated to a series of established classics of the genre and rarely seen new discoveries in a viewer friendly "double feature" format -- just like the old days -- two distinctive black and white features from Hollywoo...

It's always a bit of a let-down when a big one like this wraps and you look through the catalogue noting oodles of films you were dying to see but just didn't have time to get to. Ouch! Among the most coveted 'near misses' (since it would have been possible to see them, but at the expense of missing other simultaneously scheduled events) I can list with sweet regret (and this is only a small sampling), the following: "The Notorious Betty Page" (with a fetishistically luscious Gretchen Mol); "Ab...