Shorts, 8/25.

Kamera.co.uk has big plans for its future, "circumnavigating the globe in search of the brightest, most imaginative and most challenging cinema from around the world," in the words of editor Oliver Berry. On the itinerary: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand, and finally, back home, when and where they'll attempt to "explain why, despite continual proclamations to the contrary, the British still aren't coming."

Things kick off with a special issue on Japanese cinema, starting with a "bluffer's guide" by John Gorick, a two-part feature on Takeshi Kitano by Tim Smedley (1, 2), a review of Kitano's Dolls, another of Hideo Nakata's Dark Water and Bob Carroll's piece on the rise and fall of the chanbara film.

Seems I'm way behind on catching up with the July/August issue of Reverse Shot, centering on a symposium entitled "This Means War." The introduction takes no prisoners, noting first that, days after the Bush administration launched Gulf War II, there was still only the briefest mention of "the world outside" in the New York Times Movies section. It's a problem that's been going on for some time:

By denying movies their status as the late 20th Century's most important format for intellectual and cultural exchange, apolitical criticism has managed to blunt their potential impact. If even the nation's most influentual critics can only judge movies only as cheap "entertainments" that exist in a cultural vacuum, it might be time to start reassigning the blame for the sorry state of American cinema from clueless corporate studio heads to their equally unimaginative counterparts in the realm of film writing.

Nine pieces follow on films ranging widely from John Huston's Let There Be Light to Starship Troopers to Amos Gitai's Kippur.

And then there's the new issue of The Film Journal: An interview with Jim Steinmeyer, a magician and close friend of Orson Welles (there's more there than you might think), a talk with experimental filmmaker John Greyson, an analysis of Olivier Assayas's Demonlover, a look at Aki Kaurismäki's Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatjana, an appreciation of Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog and an interesting question: "Are the USA's Independent Films a Distinct National Cinema?"

Glen Garvin in the Miami Herald: "Its heroes were drunks and slobs and Peeping Toms; its villains were teachers and cheerleaders and anybody who was or would ever be grown up. It trashed militaristic ROTC Nazis and limp-wimp folksingers with equal glee. It was grungy rock 'n' roll in the slam-glam Age of Disco. It made audiences crazy. It was Animal House, and it was something." Indeed it was. Today in the New York Times, Elvis Mitchell calls it "one of the most influential movies of the last 25 years."

Also in the NYT:

Nathan Lee on the Stan Brakhage DVD set, "a litmus test of video's most subtle capabilities."

Schwarzenegger stuff, flying off the shelves.

Eric Bogosian on "two juggernauts," Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, in The Kitchen.

K Street, Steven Soderbergh's "real-time fiction" project for HBO: "Mr. Soderbergh wants the templates for the show to be The War Room, Chris Hegedus and DA Pennebaker's documentary about the first Clinton presidential campaign, and The Candidate, the 1972 Robert Redford movie that Mr. Soderbergh regards as the best fictional depiction of the political process."

Revisiting Matt and Ben: "[W]ith their fond but pointed sendup of celebrity overload, [the creators] understand that while we're insatiably fascinated by stars and their bizarre spectacles, we don't care in any profound sense."

David Edelstein rounds up "afterlife pictures" but neglects to mention After Life?

Juan Morales on Shane Meadows's struggles to make Once Upon a Time in the Midlands.

In the Guardian:

Parminder Nagra may be the biggest of the new "Indo-Saxon" stars, but she'd never been to India until she started shooting Second Generation. A profile by Neil Spencer, co-writer of Bollywood Queen.

Remember EasyCinema? So far, it's been an uphill climb. Nigel Culkin and Keith Randle of something called the Film Industry Research Group write, "EasyCinema has a point. Whether it stays in business long enough to prove it is another matter."

Pornography: the Musical.

In the San Francisco Chronicle:

Nannies!

An update on that poor Star Wars Kid (though you might feel compelled to sign the petition).

Short Shorts:

Andrea Gronvall watches Searching For Debra Winger.

James Surowiecki on Barbet Schroeder's General Idi Amin Dada.

"Can I call a film a masterpiece without being sure that I understand it? I think so, since understanding is always relative and less than clear-cut." Jonathan Rosenbaum is pleasurably puzzled by Seijun Suzuki's Pistol Opera.

Robert Evans interviewed in DVD File.

You spot a celebrity. What do you do? Just ask Michael Ian Black. He knows.

Newsweek talks to Nicole Kidman about Cold Mountain and to Charlie Sheen about CBS's Two and a Half Men.

The competition lineup for the 51st Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival (September 18-27) has been announced. Sadly, alerts to good info like this will soon be coralled behind Screen Daily's subscriber-only firewall. Speaking of festivals, via Movie City News, a Globe and Mail report on the hard times that have hit the Montreal World Film Festival.

Online viewing tip. "Read My Lips/Endless Love."

Posted by dwhudson at August 25, 2003 6:50 AM