Fests and events, 3/19.

By David Hudson on 03/19/2009

Nick Dawson's "Being Hal Ashby: Life of a Hollywood Rebel" is just about out and, in the process of his research, he and Ashby's daughter, Leigh MacManus, came across an as-yet-unseen director's cut of "Lookin' to Get Out," which will screen at the Sarasota Film Festival (March 27 through April 5). Programmer Tom Hall: "We've put together a strong retrospective of Ashby's films, we're hosting an onstage conversation about Ashby's life and work with Jon Voight, Burt Young and Illeana Douglas (among others) and we're creating a Tribute film that draws from many different aspects of Ashby's life and work." And Tom points to a Movie Geeks United podcast featuring Voight, Young and Nick.

"Pixar's 3-D toon, 'Up,' co-helmed by 'Monsters, Inc' director Pete Docter, will open the 62nd Cannes Film Festival," reports Elsa Kelassy for Variety. And here's the festival's announcement.

"James Ellroy once called Joseph Losey's 1951 'The Prowler' his favorite film," notes Philippe Garnier in LA Weekly. "Not only will Ellroy be on hand Friday night to present Losey's film with sidekick (and noir anthologist) Eddie Muller, but we hear he plunked down a sizable chunk of cash to help restore it (he's on the advisory board of the Film Noir Foundation, which with the Stanford Foundation brought back Losey's most successful American picture in all its primal, glorious ooze)."

"[M]egalomaniacal ambition in real estate developers, utopian fantasies of behavior engineering in corporate architects, slightly smug moralizing in critics of consumerism, and rousing antimall activism in environmentalists and labor activists." For Artforum, Brian Sholis previews Helene Klodawsky's "Malls R Us," screening Saturday and Monday as part of MoMA's "Canadian Front" series.

Shaula Clark previews the Boston Underground Film Festival for the Phoenix. Mike Everleth has picked out a few highlights. Through Thursday.

"Does the financial collapse mean that a hushed and chastened mood will come upon the art world?" asks Time's Richard Lacayo. "Don't count on it. Remember how 9/11 was supposed to usher in the end of irony? That didn't happen either. All the same, is it too much to hope that a stricken world might have more time for art that's less declamatory and cocksure? If it does, this will be a very good moment for William Kentridge, anguished moralist." "William Kentridge: Five Themes" is on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art through May 31.

"So when I urge those of you in the greater Los Angeles area to check out a new indie film that'll be screening at Method Fest later this month, and then confess that it's the work of my friend Nicholas Gray, trust that this is not just me being loyal. I wouldn't call your attention to it if I didn't genuinely consider it worth your time." Go see "If You Could Say It in Words," advises Mike D'Angelo.

"Sergei Eisenstein: The Mexican Drawings" will be on view from April 3 through June 21 at Extra City in Antwerp.

[Photo: Hal Ashby, Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon on the set of "Harold and Maude," Paramount Pictures, 1971]

Tags: Cannes 2009, Hal Ashby, Joseph Losey, William Kentridge