Editor's Note

I should plan these editor’s note things better. I’m kind of left without much to say, because my Cannes wrap-up serves as a kind of editorial. I always leave this part of the magazine for last, because I rely on a last-second spurt of inspiration to figure out what needs to be said. This is the issue that comes together extremely quickly in a few short post-Cannes weeks—so last means before the final article has come in. And the inspiration? Don’t make me laugh.

But we never panic here, despite the opinions that it’s another off vintage for Cannes . While right now this doesn’t bode well, history shows that come eight months from now, all the films I’m down on will look much better. Maybe it’s time, maybe it’s the context (it’s probably the context), but for whatever reason “we critics”—as a former European festival director persists on bemoaning my ilk—take pleasure in being cynical. Sometimes I just feel like I’m rewriting the same piece from year to year. Maybe I’m burnt out.

My lack of inspiration could be indicative of the malaise that I feel towards the state of world cinema. Or maybe repetition is my motif du jour. Well, yes, you might say, these things are subjective, and there are films out there: as these pages show, pretty much everyone else and his sister loved “the Cronenberg” ( Cannes parlance) more than myself. I’ll give it another shot in the fall, before it crashes and burns at the box office, but for now, I’ll take the Dardennes and the Hou; others will point to the Haneke and the von Trier. And there’s the best Romanian film since I don’t know when, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. And there might be many worthy films I just completely missed at Cannes ; it’s a big festival, and maybe La moustache is really, really good. (I just couldn’t bring myself to see a film called La moustache, sorry.)

Again, I sound like a broken record, but we usually provide a service in previewing some of the films you’ll be seeing at future festivals, then in arthouse theatres (hopefully); such was the case with Ingmar Bergman’s latest last film, Saraband, for example, reviewed in Issue 20, and finally opening in the summer—and there’s even a rumour that 2046 (a highlight of our Issue 19 Cannes 2004 coverage) will at long last be getting a North American release. But now we go one step further: in an article on Víctor Erice, you can read about a film that wasn’t even made!

All joking aside, some readers have complained that there are too many articles about films or, more often, art installations that they won’t get a chance to see. My response is that with the proliferation of DVDs worldwide, that just isn’t the case with films—as Jonathan Rosenbaum’s column often shows— and even when it comes to video art: I recently purchased The Cinematic Works of Eija Liisa Ahtila (available from D.A.P.). While I’m no expert, surely more such releases will follow. Others have asked for more DVD coverage; we’ve added a longer review to supplement the column. But if you’re looking for release schedules, there are many valuable websites that provide them, such as Masters of Cinema and DVD Beaver. Still, keep those requests coming, and check out www.cinema-scope.com for web-only reviews and to subscribe!

—Mark I. Peranson

 

Editor and Publisher: Mark Peranson

Art Direction and Design: euclid studio

Managing Editor: Andrew Tracy

Associate Editors: Lee Ferguson, Jessica Winter

Contributing Editors: Tom Charity, Steve Gravestock, Dennis Lim, Jason McBride,
Ray Pride

Web Design: Adrian Kinloch

Cinema Scope (ISSN 1488-7002) (GST 866048978RT0001) is published quarterly by Cinema Scope Publishing. Issue 23. Vol. 7, No. 2. Summer 2005 ©2005. All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission. All articles remain property of their authors. Submissions are eagerly encouraged. Distributed in Canada through Disticor Direct and Magazines Canada, in the US through Ubiquity and Bernhard DeBoer, and worldwide through Tower Records. Cinema Scope is found on-line at www.cinema-scope.com.

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