Bees in the bonnet

Figure 1.

Daniel Buren, Nine Colors in the Wind, originally 1984; installed for La Biennale de Montréal, August 17–October 18, 1998, Sherbrooke Street East and Parc Lafontaine. Photo: Courtesy Larry Qualls.

Figure 2.

Chen Zhen, Boat People, 1998. Mixed media installation during La Biennale de Montréal, August 17–October 18, 1998, in Old Port of Montreal, jetty no. 2, Bonsecours dock. Photo: Courtesy Larry Qualls.

Figure 3.

Ian Hamilton Finlay, La Revolution . . ., poster on advertising supports installed as part of La Biennale de Montréal, August 17–October 18, 1998. Photo: Courtesy Larry Qualls.

Figure 4.

Lee Kwangmo’s Spring in My Hometown, a film from South Korea shown at the Montréal World Film Festival.

Figure 5.

Philippe Hahon as “The Man” in Gaspar Noé’s I Stand Alone, a film shown at both the Montréal and New York Film Festivals.

Figure 6.

One Evening After the War, a film by the Cambodian Rithy Panh shown at the Montréal World Film Festival.

Figure 7.

L’Inconnu de Strasbourg, a French film by the Chilean filmmaker Valeria Sarmiento.

A few years ago, an executive from the European Film Commission mentioned that the current state of the cinema centered on three markets: the domestic theatrical market, the ancillary markets of television and home video, and the film festival circuit. The difficulties of distribution in the United States have curtailed any continuity for what can be termed “the art of cinema.” It’s for this reason that film festivals have become increasingly important, both as an alternative to commercial distribution, and as the site for the development of film. The question now is how can the motion picture industry utilize film festivals? From small independent productions to large-scale prestige endeavors, festivals often play a part in the marketing strategy of a film. The New York Film Festival, now in its thirty-sixth year, is a veritable institution; there’s no denying that a certain amount of publicity can accrue from inclusion in the festival, so that both domestic and foreign films can benefit from favorable festival screenings. This was obviously the strategy which resulted in Woody Allen’s Celebrity being chosen as the opening night feature.

But the festival has been noticeably more diverse, less commercialized, in the last few years, with many sidebar screenings and special presentations. This year, those sidebar presentations included another round-up of avant-garde cinema; the presentation of Ingmar Bergman’s television film, In the Presence of a Clown; retrospective screenings of Sergei M. Eisenstein’s Strike and G.W. Pabst’s The Joyless Street; and a full retrospective of the Egyptian writer-director Youssef Chahine. The quality of films maintained the standards that one would assume prevail in the international cinema of today. It’s impossible to comment on all the films, but three might be taken as paradigmatic.

Hou Hsiao-Hsien is a contemporary master, but his works have received almost no theatrical distribution in the United States. As he has refined his work, he has lost what small audience he had in Taiwan and Hong Kong, yet he continues to pursue his stylistic and thematic obsessions. Flowers of Shanghai is based on a 1894 novel about the...