Adaptations and shorts.

The winners of The Modern Word's "Adaptation" contest have been announced. The challenge, you may remember: "Imagine one of your favorite books has been turned into a movie, and write a review." And the response? "Over 50 delusional film critics entered this contest, with reviews ranging from absurd parodies to critiques so realistic we had to check the IMDB to be sure we weren't being spoofed." And the winners are:

• Craig Hasbrouk for his review of Wong Kar-Wai's adaptation of Kobo Abé's Dendrocacalia.
• Ronald Flanagan on Umberto Eco's 42-hour version of George Perec's Life: A User's Manual.
• Garrett Rowlan on Steve Villa's film of Joseph McElroy's Lookout Cartridge.

And scroll down for the Honourable Mentions, "Movies We'd Most Like to See Actually Pulled Off," "Best Parody" and "Best Hope for a Lovecraft Film Done Right." By the way, another update: A clip of Thomas Pynchon's appearance on The Simpsons (again, scroll or read your way down).

The 22nd Annual Minneapolis / St Paul International Film Festival opens on Friday and runs through April 17. Rob Nelson introduces a hefty cover package in the City Pages: "[W]e decided to stage our own version of the lobby chat. We corralled five far-flung experts in the art of watching movies and discussing them - Bob Cowgill, Mark Peranson, B Ruby Rich, Amy Taubin, and Matthew Wilder - and got them to talk." And that they do. Then the editors pick the "Most Noteworthy Fare" for the first week and Peter S Scholtes rounds things out with a brief chat with Mara Pelece about her doc, Between Latvias. One more item worth mention, though: J Niimi on Blonde Redhead: "As 'cinematic rock,' they're much more Godard than Spielberg."

In Salon, Charles Taylor looks back and last year's roundtable on Showgirls in Film Quarterly and explains why he, too, is "a critic who loves Showgirls, who has loved it since it was released in the fall of 1995 and [... is...] happy to see the film being taken seriously but even happier by the sight of people owning up to their admiration."

In the San Francisco Bay Guardian:

• David Fear encourages you in no uncertain terms to catch the two Shunichi Nagasaki films showing at the Yerba Buena Center if you possibly can.
• Also: The "Undiscovered Gems" series, culled from indieWIRE's "Top 20 Undistributed Films of 2003," April 1 - 15.
• B Ruby Rich on A Thousand Clouds of Peace, "a sublime meditation on love."
• Camille T Taiara on how to get your camera smashed in San Francisco.

The New York Press, where Armond White and Matt Zoller Seitz review, respectively, Patrice Chereau's Son Frère (His Brother) and Never Die Alone this week, has redesigned its site. Probably a step in the right direction; just wish it didn't even remind me of all those New Times sites.

In the Village Voice:

• RC Baker reviews Bob Levin's The Pirates and the Mouse: Disney's War Against the Counterculture.
• J Hoberman: The Outskirts, The Ladykillers and Eija-Liisa Ahtila, the "hottest Finnish filmmaker since Aki Kaurismäki."
• Elliot Stein on the New York African Film Festival.
• Ed Gonzalez talks to Bruno Dumont about Twentynine Palms.
• More New Directors / New Films notes.
• More reviews: David Ng on Amir Naderi's Marathon; Michael Atkinson on Kim Ki-duk's Spring...; Dennis Lim on Son Frère; Ed Halter on Walking Tall; and briefs.
• "I'd rather look like Shelley Winters than one of these anorexic freakshows." Who said that? Michael Musto, who didn't say it, serves up dish from the set of The Stepford Wives.

Posted by dwhudson at March 31, 2004 8:32 AM