Shorts, 1/16.

"If there are film-makers reading this who like to complain about the difficulty of financing their movies, consider how 1990 began for Siddiq Barmak: up to his knees in snow, walking across some of the highest mountain passes on earth, his party's horses dying, having to abandon most of his gear in order to keep going, all so he could slip from Afghanistan into Pakistan to seek funds for a feature film. The trip was unsuccessful." Fortunately, as James Meek writes, Osama has since been met with prizes and praise around the world.

Also in the Guardian's Friday Review:

Harvey Weinstein himself explains why he just had to see Cold Mountain made. You'll laugh, you'll cry: "We've never lost sight of our roots." Which is actually true, if you think about the ways Miramax marketed its first films.

Molly Haskell on what the afterlife looks like in the movies.

"It's not much of an exaggeration to say that all contemporary escapism begins with The Thirty-Nine Steps." Robert Towne, currently at work on a remake, as quoted by Geoffrey Macnab.

Take the painters on film quiz. 9 out of 10, if I do say so myself.

Bradley Steinbacher in the Stranger on Francis Ford Coppola's One From the Heart: "[D]espite being a triumph of production design and photography, the film is finally as vacant as the world it creates."

It's a "Mann's World" at the Pacific Film Archive. Anthony Mann, that is.

Jean-Baptiste Andrea says, Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands? Good. Carlos Reygadas's Japón? Bad. Then, the interviewers and interviewees currently paired off in the Independent are: Ellin Stein and Christopher Guest; Matthew Sweet and Ian Holm; Ryan Gilbey and Robert Benton.

"I'm starting to get into doing projects that just aren't even possible on a film. That's what's so great about the new technology. It allows you to dream about things that weren't even possible before." That's Robert Rodriguez, talking to DVDFile's Peter M Bracke, who asks him if he'll ever work with film again: "Can't go back, not at all."

IndieWIRE's Sundance coverage is whipping right along: "Bigger and Busier... More People and More Marketers," Andrea Meyer on what the first time's like, and pix.

Posted by dwhudson at January 16, 2004 9:29 AM