Sunday, May 11, 2008

Upcoming events

This weeks sees another conflict in film events: Palace is hosting the 2008 Spanish Film Festival at the Como and Westgarth cinemas. I like Spanish cinema. Like cinema from any other country, one often has to be selective, but there's two things that appeal to me about Spanish cinema: they're generally comfortable with transgression and they're not afraid to tackle political issues.

Unfortunately, I'm going to struggle to see more than a couple of films at this year's festival as it conflicts with ACMI's Focus on John Cassavetes. I've only ever seen Opening Night, which impressed me sufficiently to want to see more. It's always great to get to a retrospective of a significant director. There's so much more you pick up on in terms of common themes and styles, as well as observing the evolution of an artist's work. So I'm giving Cassavetes priority over SFF, even though at a glance, the latter's program looks good.

The Spanish Film Festival screens from 14-25 May at Palace Como and Palace Westgarth. The Focus on John Cassavetes screens 15-25 May at ACMI.

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