SPEC D: Zhang Yimou, Wong Kar-wai, Joel and Ethan Coen and 31 more w/ David Cronenberg, Josh Brolin. France. 119 min. Sep 8, 11 am Visa Screening Room (Elgin) Sep 14, 6 pm Visa Screening Room (Elgin). Rating: NNN
A collection of 33 short films about cinema commissioned by and premiered at the Cannes Festival, the segments in Chacun Son Cinéma would be better seen one at a time, as hors d’ouevres before a feature. Run all at once, they leave me with an overwhelming sense of bleak nostalgia for rundown theatres full of sprung seats that screen to empty houses.
There are some real treats, notably the Coens’ World Cinema, Cronenberg’s At The Suicide Of The Last Jew In The World In The Last Cinema In The World, Nanni Moretti’s Diary Of A Spectator and Walter Salles’s 9,844 km From Cannes.