Three press screenings. Actually, Wednesday was another "theme" day. Two screenings, one in the morning, one in the evening. And both were films in which French fags directed French divas, i.e., Patrice Chereau's "Gabrielle" starring Isabelle Huppert and Pascal Greggory, and Francois Ozon's "Time to Leave" with Jeanne Moreau. Thought "Gabrielle" was exquisite, perhaps too exquisite. It stayed distant until a few moments near the end, when it erupts. But i loved "Time to Leave", thought it was Ozon's most directly emotional work to date and a big step forward for him. (If i'd gone to a screening of Techine's "Changing Times" with Catherine Deneuve, that would have been three. Melvil Poupaud, after "Changing Times" and "Time to Leave", is now in the running as the best actor of the year.)

The other press screening: "Two Sons of Francisco" from Brazil. Pleasant and with a lot of music, though a bit rambling and long.

Didn't get to the screening of Vittorio De Seta's "Bandits of Orgosolo" which i'd wanted to see again. It's been decades since that movie was around, and i wanted to check it out. I hope that it'll be on DVD soon. But the IFP meeting went longer than usual, because we're almost at the end of our mission. By next week, we'll be coming up with the final group....

At the screening of "Time to Leave", Sophie Gluck was there, and got to see a photo of her baby. Eight months now.

Which reminds me that Roddy and his wife should have had their baby by now.

My (old) sneakers got drenched last night and (finally) cracked. That thunderstorm was crazy. But now everything is calm. But have to go get some new sneakers. I'll try Century 21 and if they don't have what i want, then i'll go to Modell's.

Last night, watched "Petulia" (new to DVD) and "Point Blank"... and it reminded me that the reason Godard's movies were so stunning in the 1960s was that his movies actually seemed to be about the moment people were living in... in "Petulia" so much was happening in America in the 1960s, politically, socially, artistically, and all that tumult appears peripherally (if at all). That's one of the problems with movies, so few of them really seem to be about the times we live in. There's so little direct address, even now. You'd think that digital filmmaking would open up the process to a greater sense of immediacy. But it hasn't happened yet....