I jumped over to the Film Forum website to look something up about their Ozu retrospective, and found that it is now officially dedicated to the memory of Donald Richie. The program is very densely-packed, and as usual, I'm insanely jealous of a NYC retrospective series.

The good news for Austinites is that we might just be getting some Ozu early this fall. A conversation last night with Austin Film Society Director of Programming Chale Nafus resulted in what seems to be the fast-tracking of a rather unique event for the fall.

I mentioned to Chale that one of my favorite bits of Ozu trivia is that he remade more of his own movies than possibly any other major director. I've long wished for the right venue and timing to do a film and food event with Ozu, where the first feature is a silent (something like I Was Born, But... or A Story of Floating Weeds), everyone heads to an adjoining hall to eat Japanese food, and then the second feature is the sound/color remake (Good Morning or Floating Weeds).

Chale added that AFS is hoping to do more silent movies with live accompaniment by Austin's own Graham Reynolds, and that this would be a great fit. In general, Chale seems to have loved the idea, and it's apparently at the top of the pile for fall planning. Now that AFS has its own dedicated art house venue, the Marchesa Hall, they can actually do stuff like this. I couldn't be happier.