The 63rd edition of the Venice film festival has opened with a salvo of noir or noirish films during which the 'dark horse' "Hollywoodland" has upstaged the odds-on favorite "Black Dahlia" which arrived with far more ballyhoo. While Dahlia, with its high-powered cast, name director Brian De Palma, and big time writer James Ellroy all on hand, was rather tepidly received at various screenings, "Hollywoodland” or 'the Death of Superman’ as the press has dubbed the film, was roundly applauded...

In the business world a well known adage informs us, that "When it comes to the success (or failure) of a business enterprise, the three most important things are: Location, Location, and Location!" It being one of the hard facts of life that large-scale film festivals are large scale business enterprises as well, the Karlovy Vary film festival -- which has been hard put at times to survive from one year to the next -- is fortunate enough to be graced with one of the most beautiful and user-fr...