Author Archives: James Steffen

About James Steffen

I'm currently the Film Studies and Media Librarian at Emory University in Atlanta. Although my primary passion and expertise is in film, I also love literature, music and other arts.

Taxi Driver restored

I just returned from a special screening of the restored Taxi Driver (1976) at AMC Phipps Plaza: a very unusual opportunity–in Atlanta, at least–to see a 4k digital restoration of a film projected in its native format. (The Blu-ray disc … Continue reading

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Salman Rushdie at the movies: Pather Panchali

As anyone familiar with Sir Salman Rushdie’s works must know by now, he is a great cinephile in addition to being a great writer. As the Distinguished Writer in Residence at Emory, this semester he is curating a series entitled “Great Works of … Continue reading

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Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at the Atlanta Symphony

Atlanta residents have the all-too-rare opportunity to catch a pair of live performances of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis (Op. 123) with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus on  January 20 and 22 (Thursday and Saturday). Donald Runnicles is conducting with with … Continue reading

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The Color of Pomegranates: four DVD editions compared

Last night I was finally able to see the new subtitled Russian Cinema Council DVD of Sergei Parajanov’s The Color of Pomegranates (1969) and can now do a comparison of all the existing DVD editions. Ruscico’s subtitled edition of the … Continue reading

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Posted in Film, Parajanov, Reviews | 12 Comments

Elia Kazan at the Plaza

The Plaza Theater in Atlanta, in cooperation with 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Emory University, is running a film series devoted to Elia Kazan. Monday night’s double bill included A Letter to Elia  (2010), Martin Scorsese’s new hour-long documentary (co-directed by Kent Jones) and … Continue reading

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Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes: a survey

I’ve been going through a Franz Liszt phase again since around Christmas, when I brought his Piano Sonata in B minor (Claudio Arrau) and his Années de pèlerinage (Lazar Berman) along with me to California. Above all, I’ve been fascinated by … Continue reading

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Posted in Music | 7 Comments

Avatar: Going Native

I just returned from an advance screening of James Cameron’s new film Avatar. Initially I was skeptical after seeing a trailer, but I’ve become an enthusiastic convert. In order to appreciate what Cameron and his vest technical crew have accomplished, … Continue reading

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Speaking to Las Vegas…

Laurenn McCubbin, a professional graphic artist and MFA student at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, is developing an ambitious performance and gallery show entitled Speaking to Las Vegas in the Language of Las Vegas. The gallery show is … Continue reading

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Surviving the Antichrist

I managed  to catch Lars von Trier’s Antichrist on its last night at the Landmark Midtown in Atlanta. Long before the dedication to Andrei Tarkovsky appeared in the film’s closing credits, I spotted any number of visual echoes of Tarkovsky’s … Continue reading

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Posted in Film, Reviews | 7 Comments

Comments on Jeanne Dielman

Friday night’s screening of Jeanne Dielman did not disappoint. As a film about psychological breakdown, I find it more subtle and more strikingly conceived than Polanski’s Repulsion, which relies a bit too heavily on obvious visual effects, brilliant as it otherwise is. … Continue reading

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