originally published October 1, 2008

I'm in Heaven: I just woke up after falling asleep last night watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Top Hat, so I'm afraid this week's column won't make much sense unless you imagine it being sung in a delicate, genteel tenor. Please do so.

Déjà Vu: It seems like just two weeks ago I was imploring you to go to Ciné and see an eclectic three-piece jazz band provide live accompaniment to a classic silent film, and yet... I'm doing it again. In the immediate wake of Kenosha Kid's successful and tremendously fun encore performance of their original score for Steamboat Bill Jr., Ciné welcomes Boston's Devil Music Ensemble, which will accompany the 1929 Chinese film Red Heroine with their own original music Monday, Oct. 6. The film is one of the earliest surviving examples of the wu-xia (sword fighting) film, and features a prototypical “woman warrior” as well as “flying” effects. The trailer (available at www.devilmusic.org) looks great, and the music really cooks - the members of the group each play multiple instruments (including Chinese lap steel and two-string violin), so it's a pretty rich sonic concoction. Devil Music Ensemble has done this kind of thing with a number of other silent films in the past, including Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times and F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu. The group is touring to the West Coast and back with the film, and the Athens date was booked by fellow-traveler Jim McHugh of Athens' own Dark Meat. McHugh was responsible for bringing the documentary My Name Is Albert Ayler to Ciné last November, and he sounds just about as excited about this. It's a one-night-only engagement, and there will probably be two shows - the band has to pay a royalty to the Chinese government for each screening, so that's still up in the air. To top it off, the evening will include additional musical entertainment from Athens all-stars The Instruments. Not to be missed. For updated information, go to www.athenscine.com.

An Offer You Shouldn't Refuse: Dr. Karim Traore is teaching his excellent African film class at UGA this semester, and he's been kind enough to invite all of you people to his screenings every Monday at 7 p.m. in Room 207 of the UGA Student Learning Center (the giant building on Lumpkin Street next to the new Tate Center construction site). The films are mostly from West Africa (Dr. Traore is from Burkina Faso), and most are hard to see outside of these screenings. The film scheduled for next Monday, Oct. 6 is one of the few you might have heard something about: Abderrahmane Sissako's amazing Bamako, which won all kinds of international awards last year and had a very limited engagement at Ciné last August. The following screening on Oct. 13 will be either Cheick Oumar Sissoko's Guimba or Sia by Dani Kouyate. These films come from a decidedly non-Western tradition of filmmaking and storytelling, and are enormously valuable and exciting to see. All are worth your while - check this space for information about future screenings.

Who Will Win “Best Law Enforcement Film?”: This weekend (Oct. 3–5) brings the Fifth Annual Dixie Film Festival to Carmike Cinemas in Athens. The festival will showcase fictional shorts and features, as well as at least a couple of documentaries. Many of the filmmakers will be in attendance for a “Meet & Greet in the Lobby” at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. Awards will be presented in nine categories, including “Best Feature Film,” “Best Comedy” and yes, “Best Law Enforcement Film.” I'm hooked. For further details visit www.dixiefilmfest.com.

This Just In: Former Flagpole music editor Hillary Meister has just sent word that What About Me?, a film from “concept band and media project” 1 Giant Leap, will be showing at Ciné this Saturday, Oct. 4. This musical travelogue features conversations and collaborations with entities as various as Noam Chomsky, KD Lang, Tim Robbins, Speech and Michael Stipe. You can get more info about the film, including trailers, at www.whataboutme.tv/. Check with Ciné for showtimes.

Finally: About Max Ophuls, Andrew Sarris wrote, “If all the dollies and cranes in the world snap to attention when his name is mentioned, it is because he gave camera movement its finest hours in the history of the cinema.” The Criterion Collection has just released a trio of the hugely influential German-born director's late-period French films in immaculately restored DVD editions. Chances are you've never seen La Ronde (1950), Le Plaisir (1952) or The Earrings of Madame De... (1953) - or any of Ophuls' other films, for that matter - because they weren't available. Now these three are, so go bug your favorite video store clerk. Really. For more gushing, go to www.criterion.com.

I'm Out of Words: Write to film@flagpole.com.

Dave Marr