Quick notes. Spent most of this week at the press screenings for Rendezvous With French Cinema, the annual series of recent French films at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Well, a more discouraging week i can't imagine. Is this going to be one of those instances where the movies i see are duds and the ones i missed are brilliant? Yesterday, for example, i skipped Claude Miller's film (he's a variable but often worthwhile director) to go to see the press screening of "Chop Shop" at Film Forum. I missed this morning's film, "Shall We Kiss?" but am going to see "The Feelings Factory" and "All Is Forgiven": if someone tells me that i really missed a little gem with "Shall We Kiss?", i'll really go nuts. (Last year, one of the highlights was "La Mome", a.k.a. "La Vie en rose" here in the States, with Marion Cotillard's much talked-about performance.) But so far, have seen "Roman du Gare", "Love Songs", "Heartbeat Detector" and "The Grocer's Son".

"Chop Shop" really was thoughtprovoking... not so much because of the story as because of the style, the attempt to recreate the conditions of neorealism in terms of digital filmmaking.

Fox Movie Channel showed "Ladies in Love" yesterday! Finally! It's the best of the Fox perennial of three-girls-sharing-an-apartment, and this time the three are Janet Gaynor, Loretta Young, and Constance Bennett. It's a real treat.