July 17, 2003

Shorts, 7/17.

La Dolce Vita La Dolce Vita is coming to DVD. Eugene Hernandez has the story in indieWIRE. Koch Lorber Films is launching a new DVD label, striking deals with smallish distributors and building up a library that'll include titles ranging as widely from Patrice Chereau's Intimacy to a whole line of Bollywood films. And Fellini's romp will be coming out in September.

Segue alert. A very fun "La Dolce Musto" this week in the Village Voice: "Everyone was dumbstruck when Ed Norton and Oscar nominee Salma Hayek broke up - but did I not tell you about the Academy Awards relationship jinx?... I'm not saying awards are the only factors in these breakups, but honey, they usually play more than a supporting role."

Interviews:

  • Long, but somehow fast and fun: Denis Leary in the Guardian.
  • Even longer, but who wouldn't want to spend time with Cate Blanchett. Oh, and Joel Schumacher showed up at the National Film Theater in London for the interview as well.
  • Gary Dretzka talks to Gregor Jordan about Buffalo Soldiers for Movie City News. We did, too, actually, and to Joaquin Phoenix as well. Plus, we previewed the movie. But what Dretzka adds is more info in Ned Kelly; Jordan directs Heath Ledger, Geoffrey Rush, Naomi Watts and Rachel Griffiths. Still, I can't help but note: Dretzka asks, "Obviously, then, you don't see Buffalo Soldiers as being hopelessly dated by the swirl of events in Iraq and Afghanistan?" And Jordan completely misses the opportunity to say: "What do you think the boys in Iraq are up to right now?" Far, far be it from me to suggest they're being anywhere near as rowdy as Phoenix's cinematic cohorts, but, given the level of morale (privates calling for Rumsfeld's resignation, etc.), I seriously doubt every rule is being strictly adherred to.
  • Dretzka also gets to spend time with Audrey Tautou. Sigh.
  • Tobey Maguire is making the rounds for Seabiscuit, even as he completes work on Spider-Man 2. You can read a bit of what's come up so far in Moviehole and Time.
  • Joslyn Yang talks to Matteo Garrone about his new film, The Embalmer, based on "a sensational tabloid story about the murder of a gay dwarfish taxidermist in Rome."
  • And finally, MCN's Leonard Klady has some "convoluted" but interesting thoughts on the interview format itself. And a few fun stories to illustrate them, too.

    Then, via MCN, a report on the latest twist in the perpetual saga at Bayreuth: Lars von Trier has been picked to stage the Ring next go-round; but Wagnerians probably know they have more to fear from Christoph Schlingensief.

    Planet Bollywood chalks up the hits of the first half of 2003.

    "Mexican cinema seems to have everything going for it these days, except money," writes Elisabeth Malkin in the New York Times. And you know, that sounds a bit familiar. Probably because, just a couple of weeks ago, we linked to a piece in the Guardian by Jo Tuckman which also harked back to the successes of the last three years - Amores Perros and Y Tu Mamá También; Malkin leaves The Crime of Father Amaro out of her intro, though - and also established early on, "The problem, as always, is money. There isn't enough."

    Rex Reed on Richard Chamberlain: "Onstage, Mr. Chamberlain is starring in a new play entitled The Stillborn Lover as a gay Canadian ambassador who has spent his entire career in the diplomatic corps living a lie. Awash with ironies, the similarity to the star's own life has not gone unnoticed." Further in the same column: the new Stephen Frears, Dirty Pretty Things (which, of course is what that Tautou interview is about), and the Polish brothers' Northfork. Also in the New York Observer: Louis B. Mayer biographer Scott Eyman on Kate Remembered.

    Speaking of the NYO, Greg Allen adds a few thoughts to Rebecca Traitser's piece on all the studio activity in New York recently: "Why, it's the thinking person's Hollywood."

    Heavens, Doug Cummings has been journeying up a storm lately.

    Cinemuerte Poster Johnny Ray Huston on the Cinemuerte International Fantastic Film Festival:

    Time for more challenging tales of hope and survival from around the globe. Time for more splintered boards piercing eyeballs and jugular veins being pulled licorice-style from open necks. Time for more underwater battles between sharks, zombies, and topless female scuba divers. Time for more glowing Cadillacs that descend from the sky, more synchronized dance numbers on escalators, more kaleidoscopic drug-drag orgy sequences. Time for more images of heads being trampled by stampeding horses and people being sewn up within the carcasses of recently slaughtered bulls. Time for more flaming nuns.

    Also in the San Francisco Bay Guardian: B. Ruby Rich praises the city's Jewish Film Festival for "consistently challenging the Jewish American community's comfort zone by pushing questions of identity past the sacred themes of Zionism and Holocaust survival" but ultimately slaps it because it has "failed to capitalize on its historic mission and moment: there are no Palestinian films in the festival."

    With a wide eye on "Eyes Wide Open: The Evolution of Widescreen Cinema" and "Cinemascope Films," the Voice's Michael Atkinson offers a few surprising thoughts on how size matters.

    Derek Malcolm on the passing of Alexander Walker, the influential film critic for the London Evening Standard and author of some 20 books.

    Quite a story in the Los Angeles Times: Within two years, Mark Alessi's CrossGeneration Comics Inc. has scored eleven movie and TV projects, reports Thomas S. Mulligan. Also:

  • Michael Hiltzik on film score enthusiasts.
  • Manohla Dargis answers questions about Meryl Streep, About Schmidt, von Trier (again), Pumpkin, Robert De Niro and more!
  • Kevin Thomas on LA's Latino International Film Festival.
  • John Horn chats up Martin Lawrence.
  • And Horn also reports (briefly) on Fox Searchlight's plans to add DVD-like extras to the 1400 prints of 28 Days Later still playing in theaters.

    And more weirdness from Fox Searchlight. A blog. A Blogspot blog, no less.

    Bamboo Dong returns to the Anime News Network for an "insanely long" Shelf Life column. Six new releases are deemed "Shelf Worthy," six more are best rented and three you can forget altogether.

    ASCII Matrix

    Online viewing tip. ACSII Bullet Time.

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    Posted by dwhudson at July 17, 2003 8:38 AM