Today, went to see two films by Lin Cheng-Sheng at Anthology Film archives. Glad i did! There was a possibility that the films might have been shown digitally, but, instead, these two were shown projected in very beautiful 35mm prints! And they are extraordinary looking! In the 1990s, Lin Cheng-Sheng was one of the most interesting of the "younger" Taiwanese directors, his films "Drifting Life" and "Murmur of Youth" made the rounds of the festival circuit. (If i'm not mistaken, we tried to get "Murmur of Youth" for the New Festival... which reminds me that i haven't seen Robin Vachal in ages.)

But these two recent films by Lin Cheng-Sheng, "Robinson's Crusoe" and "The Moon Also Rises", were exceptional films.

Yesterday saw "Wolfsbergen", a Dutch film by Nanouk Leopold, and "Dark Matter", an American independent film by a Chinese-born director, Chen Shi-Zheng.

But the films this week which really were truly special were Seidl's "Import Export", Emigholz's "Schindler's Houses", and "Robinson's Crusoe" and "The Moon Also Rises". I did enjoy Rivette's "The Duchess of Langeais" quite a bit, and it's very intriguing to think about. But it wasn't a generative film, it didn't suggest formal or stylistic possibilities which might prove fruitful in terms of pursuing.

I remember Max Kozloff reviewing Manny Farber's book "Negative Space" in Artforum, and saying how Farber's point of view was that of a painter, and when he looked at movies, it was with a painter's sense of usable form.

Just some quick notes: politically, this week was very exciting. I am so glad that Giuliani dropped out of the race: i hope this ends his political career, the man is odious in the extreme! The endorsement of the Kennedys (Caroline, Patrick and, finally, Ted) for Obama was intriguing; i was glad that Ted Kennedy took the time to make a statement about Bill Clinton's underhanded tactics on behalf of his wife.

There was a small article last week in the business section of the New York Times: the editorship of Interview was changed, and Ingrid Sischy is out. And the same is expected for Art in America. Peter Brandt has bought out his ex-wife, and he's now moving to make those publications profitable.