A long silence, punctuated by a piece of good news

So where was I?

Oh yeah, writing for a living, being sick with an upper respiratory infection (chest cold to all you science buffs), and generally being swamped by life. Since I make it a policy not to break movie reviews here of Jewish-themed films, hoping instead that you might be interested enough to check out Jewish Week, where they pay me for mouthing off, I haven't written about much of what I've seen lately. I will say that with Tribeca upon us, there are a few Jewish movies that I can recommend heartily so far -- Oren Rudavsky's The Treatment is a nicely judged romantic comedy drama with some lovely supporting performances; much to my surprise, Scott Marshall's Keeping Up with The Steins, which opens theatrically next month, is a deeply felt and frequencly charming satire about Hollywood Jewish materialism, and features a deft turn by Garry Marshall, the director's dad. (Better he should stay out in front of the camera, nu?)

But the nicest piece of news to cross my virtual desk came this afternoon when I got an e-mail press release informing me that Laurent Cantet's Heading South is opening in New York in July. My review of the film, which I like a great deal, is farther down this page. Go to March 4 and check it out. And when the film opens this summer, go see it. It opens July 7 at the Lincoln Plaza and the Angelika and on July 14 in LA at the Royal.

Meanwhile, my health permitting, I expect to be seeing the (newish -- it's really a year or two old) Chris Marker and the new Claude Chabrol in the next couple of days. And you'll be among the first to know when that happens.

Back in the Saddle Again . . .

Brussels and Amsterdam are certainly pleasant places to spend a week, even a rainy week. Heavy-duty film towns, too. The b.w. and I spent a very pleasant hour in the Brussels film museum, which has a delightful interactive exhibit about early cinema and pre-cinema devices.

Didn't get to any movies, but with Tribeca and the spring releases bearing down on us, I expect the next month will make up for lost time.