Errata is a web journal written by Robert Davis who has neither spent a night in a ghost town nor pulled a turnip from the earth. He doesn't even know if turnips grow in the ground. Perhaps on trees, like candy corn. Therefore, Errata is a non-commercial project.

Observation #1: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious."

Observation #2: It may be appropriate, when leaving a movie theater, to say "mysterious" at the top of your lungs. Bring your eyebrows together before you say it. Effective!

Observation #3: Same for books. Even at libraries.

There is a prize for people who correctly guess the thing about Metropolis, Nevada.

Except where the text specifically states otherwise, Errata's vagaries are indicated vaguely and its authors are indistinct in the traditional way of the Internet, except where the authors lay claim to their work. In some cases Robert Davis lays claim to work that is not his own but has been abandoned like so many ghost towns. Except where held presently, fistfuls of dirt are suspended via dispersal, or dispersed via suspension (in the air), and thus their dissolution is their transcendence, or their transcendence is their dissolution. And yet our eyes tear, and our vision is impaired, demonstrating for the umpteenth time that one entity's gain is another's fit of sneezes. Except where indicated, storms shall outlive the clay upon which they rain, unless storms are improperly delimited by their clouds, which dissolve, rather than by their inevitable return. Thus the clay loses, unless the clay is said to own the storm, to use it to make itself heavy, to make itself cling to white garments, refuse dispersal, cake upon the facades of abandoned buildings, and sit like Man [sic] upon the earth where it is pelted by a storm that it owns. In which case the clay still loses, if you ask us.

Some of the above is legally binding and should be considered a mental contract between Errata and those upon whom it acts. The bit about the prize should be considered an overstatement insofar as prizes differ from dirt and prize dispersal differs from dirt dispersal. Please recall that ownership is a weight and, therefore, hope that you do not win the prize.

One day Errata or its representatives will call upon you for a favor. It is expected that you will hop-to without delay.

You may contact Robert Davis by email unless it's about the rock that was thrown in anger. The rock is more properly called a clod. Why do you continue to raise the topic?

24 August 2004

Toronto International Film Festival Lineup

The Toronto International Film Festival has posted its official list of films, and it's a doozy. I'm sure there are many great films on the list that I don't yet know anything about, but when I quickly looked for the three or four films that I'm most eager to see, I was elated to see all of them on the list:

Café Lumière — Hou Hsiao-Hsien's (I could stop right there. That's reason enough to see it.) tribute to Yasujiro Ozu (and there's the other). Oh yes, and it's shot by Hou's regular cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-Bing and co-written by his regular screenwriter Chu T'ien-wen, so there are two more reasons. You need more? My God, you're demanding. OK, here: it stars Tadanobu Asano who starred in Last Life in the Universe and Kitano's Zatoichi (and, ok, he was also in Ichi the Killer).
two by Kiarostami — And they're called Five and 10 on Ten, got that? The first is another Ozu tribute. Last year was Ozu's centenary, which is why we've had all the retrospectives and homages, but Kiarostami's Five supposedly has few actors and little dialogue. Intriguing. 10 on Ten has been described like this: "Iran?s most honored director returns to the location of Taste of Cherry for a revealing documentary on himself."
L'Intrus — Claire Denis's latest, which I've mentioned previously. As regular readers know, Denis is easily one of my favorite filmmakers working today.

The list goes on. Chantal Akerman's latest (which I caught at San Francisco's Jewish Film Festival and will post something about very soon), an anthology by Wong Kar-Wai, Steven Soderbergh, and Michelangelo Antonioni (woah), new films from Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, etc. etc.

I'll be attending the festival this year, and couldn't be more excited.

Posted by davis | Link

Reader Comments

August 24, 2004, 11:19 PM

phyrephox

The Hou and Denis I too am particularly looking foward to. I hope to catch the former at the NYFF in October.

From all the buzz I hear (and from the snippets I've seen), 10 on Ten is truly terrible.

August 24, 2004, 11:44 PM

davis

That's too bad. I don't think he's made a bad feature (I haven't seen ABC Africa), so maybe he's due for a dud. Of course I'll withhold judgment.

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