All My Good Countrymen - 1968 Czech Satire on DVD
A Throw of Dice - 1929 Silent Drama Filmed in India
Solo Sunny - 1980 Slice of Life from East Germany
Keisuke Kinoshita's Twenty-Four Eyes on DVD
Hollywood Singing and Dancing: A Musical History
Orson Welles' Don Quixote - The Never Completed Dream Project

Two Day Jean Gabin Event at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, Sept. 6 & 7

What can one say about French superstar Jean Gabin? If he’s not the "world’s coolest movie star," as proclaimed by the title of Charles Zigman’s entertaining and endlessly illuminating new biography of the actor (in two mammoth volumes!), he has to be up there in at least the top five. Gabin’s appeal, like that of Bogart, his American counterpart, relies on a quiet, unpretentious toughness, an unassailable integrity, a cynical – but not nasty – sense of humor and a classy, nonjudgmental wisdom about people and the ways of the world. He projects his persona effortlessly but forcefully from the screen -- the world-weariness and resigned, wisecracking fatalism of a wide-ranging array of characters, from tragic drifter to insightful patriarch.

On Sept. 6 & 7, The American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles presents a special two-night Jean Gabin event. If you are in the area and are interested you should check out their schedule at their official site.

The program includes these Gabin gems - the hard-to-see THE SICILIAN CLAN (in a new 35mm print!), the long-unavailable MOONTIDE, the ultra-rare HOUSE ON THE WATERFRONT and the French crime classic GRISBI. Author Charles Zigman will be signing and selling his new biography, World’s Coolest Movie Star: The Complete 95 Films (and Legend) of Jean Gabin, each night preceding the screenings.