by Marla LewinJust a little more than a month away from my favorite French Film Festival in Los Angeles, The City of Lights-City of Angels film festival. Each year it gets better and better with great films and small intimate interviews with amazing legendary directors and this year will be no different as they will be honoring the acclaimed writer-director Bertrand Blier. Who could forget his film GOING PLACES starring Gérard Depardieu, Miou-Miou, and Jeanne Moreau? This year they w...

If Clara was one musical highpoint in Mannheim this year, another was certainly Carlos Saura's latest revue-film  Fados, which like his earlier Flamenco and  Tango, explores urban melodies,  presenting- with some luminous photography by Eduardo Serra-the place of fado in the life of Lisbon, looking for its African and Brazilian roots and providing 90 sensuous minutes filled with infinite affection and regret.The film received its German premiere, out of competition, and like Iberia seems to...

If Clara was one musical highpoint in Mannheim this year, another was certainly Carlos Saura's latest revue-film Fados, which like his earlier Flamenco and Tango, explores urban melodies, presenting- with some luminous photography by Eduardo Serra-the place of fado in the life of Lisbon, looking for its African and Brazilian roots and providing 90 sensuous minutes filled with infinite affection and regret.The film received its German premiere, out of competition, and like Iberia seems to be c...

 Wednesday, August 8---------There is no equivalent in the United States.....the actor Gerard Depardieu is a truly French phenomenon, a pasty-faced, barrel-chested, unpolished, roughly handsome leading man, who somehow is an enduring Gallic sex symbol. He does not have the sensual prettiness of an Alain Delon, the rail-thin sex appeal of a Jean-Paul Belmondo or the intelligent visage of a Yves Montand. He is, in fact, his own unique creation, and his enduring appeal in French cinema is mostly...

THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP, the latest film from film auteur Michel Gondry, will be the Opening Night Gala of the first Martha's Vineyard International Film Festival. The film, which is slated to open theatrically in late September, will have an avant-premiere at the event on September 17th. Gondry, the writer/director who clicked with international audiences with his cult hit ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, has cooked up another romantic fantasy, this time starring Mexican hearthrob Gael Garc...