"Paul Cox:  Lost & Found" was my private headline, looking through the list
of 180 movies Tuesday at the press conference announcing the 45th annual
San Francisco International Festival, which is running April 18 through
May 2.

I missed the Dutch-Australian director ("Man of Flowers," "My First Wife,"
"Vincent") for a long time, but now it turns out he spent the last 12 years
making "The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky," a film biography of the great
Russian dancer, focusing on his choreography ("Afternoon of a Faun," among
others) and life after his mental breakdown in 1918.  (April 28, 29.)

Can there be a decent film festival without something-Carmen? Not likely
- from Saura's flamenco treatment to "Carmen Jones" and Godard's "Prenom
Carmen," there have been 52 film treatments of either Merimee's novella or
Bizet's opera.  This time, it's "Karmen Gei," from Senegal's Joseph Gai
Ramaka, the revolting cigar-makeress singing her way through a world of
smugglers in a contemporary African city, to pop tunes, tribal drumming,
and jazz saxophonist David Murray, (April 23, 25 in SF, April 30 in
Berkeley.)

While Ali Akbar Khan's 80th birthday is celebrated in Marin by Indian and
Pakistani musicians, SFIFF will honor another master of Hindustani music,
with Mark Kidel's "Ravi Shankar:  Between Two Worlds," the sitar getting
equal time for Khansahib's sarod.  (April 20 in SF, April 28 in Berkeley.)

Don't be fooled by the title of Seijun Suzuki's "Pistol Opera," it's just
another bloody yakuza opus - even if by a master of the genre.

Bang on a Can co-founder Michael Gordon provided the "cacophonous symphonic
score" for Bill Morrison's "Decasia." (April 21, 24.)

Contemporary music of the more accessible kind is available on the
soundtrack of Jean-Luc Godard's "In Praise of Love," from composers Ketil
Bjornstad, David Darling and Karl Amadeus Hartmann.  (April 26 in Berkeley,
April 28 in SF.)

For information about the other 174 movies at the festival, see
www.sffs.org.

Janos Gereben/SF
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