Goodbye, Kon-san. Josef von Sternberg. Poster Mania.

Satoshi Kon, who showed us just how wildly, even dangerously imaginative anime could be, has left us too soon. He was 47. We’re remembering him here and here. Meantime, here’s what else going now on at MUBI and The Auteurs…
JOSEF VON STERNBERG
On Monday, Daniel Kasman kicked off what pretty much turned out to be Josef von Sternberg Week with an appreciation in text and imagery of “the atmosphere running thick with worldly cynicism, beautiful faces, stoic and mask-like, tests of belief and sublime gestures of faith.” The following day, Criterion released its 3 Silent Classics set and the reviews of Underworld (1927), The Last Command (1928) and The Docks of New York (1928) have been rapturous.
IF YOU ONLY SEE ONE MOVIE THIS WEEK
Scan some of the early fall previews appearing just now in magazines and online, and you’ll see right off that the pickings are going to be more plentiful starting next month or so. For now, though, let’s go with Claudia Llosa’s The Milk of Sorrow, which won the Golden Bear and a FIPRESCHI Prize in Berlin in 2009 and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. “Wonderfully strange, hypnotically beautiful,” writes Ella Taylor in the Voice.
THERE’S NO STOPPING POSTER MANIA
The Night of the Hunter (1955), Brute Force (1947) and Touchez pas au grisbi (1954) are all screening at All Tomorrow’s Parties in New York (September 3 through 5), an event curated by Jim Jarmush (see Christopher R Weingarten’s terrific interview with him in the Voice). But here’s the part we can all get a kick out of, whether or not we’re in NYC: Criterion designer Eric Skillman has commissioned new posters for the films from comic book artists. Meantime, have you seen David Lynch’s poster for AFIFEST 2010?
For more news and views, check in on The Daily Notebook. Twitter: Essentials (@theauteurs) and/or up-to-the-minute alerts (@thedailyMUBI). Find us on Facebook.





