Shorts, 8/27.

"Whatever unfolds before and after the October recall election (Oct. 7) is, sadly, California's grandest contribution to world culture, if not the medium of reality television this season." Glen Helfand's probably right. As much as we look forward to the release of Tanner '88 on DVD, by the time it's out, it may look like it was directed by David Lean rather than Robert Altman. But anyone seeking refuge from October's misscheduled summer blockbuster will have the fall season of movies, handily listed, dated and annotated and introduced by Edward E. Crouse as part of the San Francisco Bay Guardian's fall preview. There we also find David Fear's look ahead at Bay Area film events and Cheryl Eddy's choices for diversion, School of Rock ("this ain't no sappy piece of Disney junk") and David Zucker's Scary Movie 3 ("asses across America will be laughed off").

Here's another fall preview of sorts. Or is it advertorial? Just an ad, plain and simple? Can't tell. It's the fall line-up from New Line Cinema prominently placed at something called Movie City Centre currently being constructed on the spot where the now trimmed and gentrified Movie City Geek used to be. Gotta admit, that "re" in "Centre" does add a touch of class. At any rate, Movie City News, which is still where it's been, has David Poland paying very close attention to the new Matrix Revolutions trailer. Could Neo really be the bad guy?

Another preview, this one worthy of a bookmark if you're one to follow the festivals: Eugene Hernandez's "Subjective Guide to Autumn Festivals." Also in indieWIRE: The inaugural Global Lens series; and Dan Cox offers a foretaste of the Sundance Film Series. In the Boston Globe (via MCN), Lynda Gorov gets Robert Redford to talk about his reign as "indie king": "I'll go to a fund-raiser or whatever and someone will just about assault me, attach themselves like a bird dog, they just want to be a part of movies so bad... On the other hand, that's who we're supporting, the independent guy."

One of the staples of the fall season from here on in, like it or not, may be the 9-11 tribute. Or whatever you want to call it. Today's must-read is J. Hoberman's piece in the Village Voice bearing a title that says it all: "That's Our Bush! The President's Re-Election Campaign Kicks Off With a Shameless 9-11 Docudrama: Lights, Camera, Exploitation." Rather eerily, it serves as a footnote to yesterday's entry right here:

DC 9/11 also marks a new stage in the American cult of personality: the actual president as fictional protagonist.

There are, of course, precedents. "One of the original aspects of Soviet cinema is its daring in depicting contemporary historical personages, even living figures," André Bazin dryly observed in his 1950 essay, "The Myth of Stalin in the Soviet Cinema." It was one of the unique characteristics of Stalin-era Soviet movies that their infallible leader was regularly portrayed, by professional impersonators, as an all-wise demiurge in suitably grandiose historical dramas. So it is with DC 9/11, where documentary footage of the collapsing WTC is punctuated by the pronouncements of [Timothy] Bottoms's Bush.

...[C]asting a former Bush travesty in the role of the serious Bush only reinforces the telefilm's agenda, namely that the events of September 11 served to render divine Bush's dubious mandate.

Also in the Voice: Jessica Winter on The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, accompanied by Ben Kenigsberg and David Ng's list of movies in which the New York subway makes at least a cameo.

"RGV's obsession with making script-oriented, low-budget, quick-turnaround movies is unheard of in chaotic Bollywood, where films always go over budget, are always behind schedule and rely too much on overpaid stars." Shailaja Neelakantan profiles director and producer Ram Gopal Varma for Salon. Over at Planet Bollywood, Siddharth Srivastava has a similar take on Schwarzenegger's political career as Shashi Tharoor's in the New York Times a little over a week ago. And, by the way, this would be an opportune moment to mention that, following our primer on German Expressionism, we've got a new one at the site on Bollywood.

Anyway, also in Salon, Charles Taylor attempts to answer the question, "Why do men love lesbian scenes?"

In the Guardian, Fiachra Gibbons reports on the round of fiery commentary from Oliver Stone at at the Edinburgh Film Festival. Bashed: Bush, naturally. Praised: Baz Luhrmann, surprisingly, since both directors are shooting competing biopics of Alexander the Great. Meantime, the winners at Edinburgh have been announced; Andrew Pulver writes about choosing one for the Guardian new directors award; and here's the front door to the paper's complete coverage.

Orson Welles biographer David Thomson has a modest proposal: Withdraw all prints, videos and DVDs of Citizen Kane: "Now, my plan for withdrawal is not playful. I mean it most strictly." Also in the Independent: Paul Schrader has been disengaged of Exorcist IV: The Beginning.

In his New York Times piece on Jack Kirby, Elvis Mitchell quotes Michael Chabon: "I don't think it's any accident that at this point in their history the entire Marvel universe and the entire DC universe are now all pinned or rooted on Kirby's concepts."

It sounds like something out of Blazing Saddles or Airplane!, but evidently, there really are such things as inflatable extras.

John Singleton is interviewed in DVD Talk (he's way into DVDs, though he finds many commentary tracks "Boring") and Rob Zombie talks to G. Noel Gross.

DVD news roundup. First, cracking them open and then telling other people how is not free speech, the California Supreme Court has ruled (Wired News). But, as John Borland reports at CNET, copying tools just keep right on proliferating. Nostalghia.com's Trond S. Trondsen takes "a closer look at the problem of overscan on consumer TVs and monitors."

Online viewing tip. "This is the most preposterous ad I've seen all year - and I love it. It's hilarious. And it only works because they got Devo's actual lead singer, Mark Mothersbaugh, to sing the sublimely stupid new lyrics." Well, I dunno. I'm usually right there with Rob Walker when he writes his "Ad Report Cards," but this time... Go, click, view, judge for yourself.

Posted by dwhudson at August 27, 2003 6:49 AM