News bit(e)s

Did I mention I was excited about the upcoming Looney Tunes DVD set? Well, I am. If you are, too, you can now see what 'toons are actually on the collection. So many of my favorites on the list, sigh. Okay, I'll shut up about the cartoons, already.

Also on The Digital Bits was some news that really caught my eye: Once Upon a Time in the West is finally coming to DVD. The first ten minutes or so of this film offers one of the great, nearly wordless openings ever. A film sound design workshop I once attended used Sergio Leone's film as an example of filmic storytelling with great sound, but no dialogue. I much prefer this one to his later Once Upon a Time in America, which is impressive but more erratic and bloated. The cover art for Once...West's European DVD is pretty darn cool, too (and, agreeing with Digital Bits, hopefully they'll keep this for the US DVD, too).

I'm not exactly sure why Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was pulled from the release calendar once before -- perhaps director George Clooney wanted to add more extras to it, perhaps Chuck Barris freaked out about something -- but no matter, it's back on track, for a September 9th release. The film was a mixed bag but I liked it. There was no real story arc or dramatic momentum, and yet between the darkly comic tone, Sam Rockwell's kick ass performance as (game show creator-slash-CIA assassin) Barris, and some great set pieces and period detail, it's still very worth seeing.

Speaking of which, Drew Barrymore.... Did anyone catch her on Bravo's Inside the Actor's Studio recently? ... Is that show stretching it now or what? I thought A&E's Biography was slumming these days ("Next on Biography: Cristina Aguilera" -- what is she, 16? "Doris Roberts," "Geraldo Rivera"... actually Geraldo might be interesting, in a f***ed up kind of way.)

'member when Bravo was more like IFC?

Anyway, you might be amused to check out AmIAnnoying's survey of Inside the Actor's Studio guests, ranked from least annoying to most annoying. Least annoying: The Simpsons voice cast. Most annoying: Spike Lee and Sarah Jessica Parker. Barrymore ranks pretty poorly but not as bad as expected. Host James Lipton gets a pretty high annoyance rank, too, and deservedly so. All snarky-ness aside, though, many episodes of that show -- before they ran out of talented people to have on as guests -- were highly illuminating and would even be worthy of a DVD release.

But now... now they have Jay Leno as an upcoming guest, which, as as Ken Parish Perkins notes, might have something to do with Bravo now being owned by NBC. Another reason why it is no longer a respectable channel, and why it's really hard to take that show seriously.

On an artistically happier note, Israeli's legendary filmmaker Amos Gitai has a new one screening at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Jonathan Curiel in today's San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting piece about Gitai and his tumultuous relationship with his home country. The new work, Kedma, is like a more realistic version of Exodus, capturing, as Gitai puts it, "all the dilemmas and contradictions."