Shorts, 5/6.

But exactly what is in the movie that could so alienate the first family? I have some idea because Moore interviewed me for the movie for several hours.... Moore had been among the first to assert in the press that a large-scale evacuation of prominent Saudis from the United States began shortly after 9/11 - for which he was derided by critics as a conspiratorialist.

As it happens, my research for House of Bush, House of Saud backed up his charges.

The New York Times runs an editorial on the Disney-Moore brouhaha: "It is hard to say which rationale for blocking distribution is more depressing. But it is clear that Disney loves its bottom line more than the freedom of political discourse."

Then, with Laura M Holson, Jim Rutenberg follows up on the story by reporting on the clash between the two parties, mostly on television, and on the prospects of Fahrenheit 9/11 finding another distributor - which are pretty good, evidently. And hopefully. Meanwhile, discussion in the NYT readers' forums is, as you'd expect, lively.

More in the NYT:

• Eric A Taub has an intriguing little story - really, there's a juicy magazine piece here - on the short film created by Threshold Digital Research Labs as a Las Vegas attraction: a 3D adventure, in focus throughout the depth of field, which happens to be all around you instead of just in front of you; "it's surround sound for the eyes."
• Sharon Waxman reports that negotiations between screenwriters and the studios aren't going well. Her other story today: Saved!, a comedy set in an evangelical Christian high school, poses a unique challenge. Says MGM marketeer Peter Adee: "I love this movie, but it is so hard to figure out who the audience is."
• Greg Allen's been watching this one: Roberta Smith considers video artist Jon Routson's work, "the latest to find itself in the murky zone between copyright infringement and artistic license, between cultural property rights and cultural commentary."
• Thomas Crampton talks to Jim de Sève, director of Tying the Knot: "The frame around the debate on [gay] marriage rights has not changed. This is the new civil rights movement."
• Alessandra Stanley: "NBC's send-off [for Friends] has been the most overwrought and prolonged farewell since Violetta's death scene in La Traviata." But Salon staffers said goodbye ages go.
• Geraldine Fabrikant and Andrew Ross Sorkin report that there may - or may not - be a deal by the end of June resulting from the slow dance between Sony and MGM.
• There may be no crying in baseball, but there will be Spider-Man on the bases. Frank Litsky on how the fans are taking it.

"Ever since he put Emily Watson through the emotional mincer in his first big international success, Breaking the Waves, [Lars] Von Trier has nurtured his reputation for gleeful directorial cruelty." Matthew Sweet gathers all the stories and quotes to prove it, too. Also in the Independent, David Thomson: "[I]f it is men doing the damage to other men, the result is tragic; but if the damage comes from nature, bad luck, unruly weather or faulty mechanics, then it's a disaster movie. In which case, we are allowed to have a good time." And Ryan Gilbey on "a breed of film that Britain does frighteningly well but American film-makers wouldn't touch with someone else's bargepole. You might call it the gay gangster movie, only that doesn't quite cover it."

Tribeca diaries: Wendy Mitchell and Matt Dentler.

Fiachra Gibbons meets Nuri Bilge Ceylan in his apartment in Istanbul to talk about Mehmet Emin Toprak, who won best actor in Cannes for his performance in Uzak and who died in a car crash just four months later. Also in the Guardian:

• Dan Milmo interviews Estelle Morris, films minister at the British Department for Culture, Media and Sport: "Ms Morris has a three-point plan to reinvigorate a sector which attracted £1.1bn of investment last year but produced few home-grown hits: build a better relationship between the government and the film industry, improve training and begin an industry-wide 'conversation' which will result in a new funding framework for UK film-makers."
• Andrew Pulver on Closely Watched Trains.
• "Take our quiz to see if you're doc or mock." (7 out of 10. Oh, well.)

In the Austin Chronicle:

• Marc Savlov talks to Greg Pak about Robot Stories.
• Anne S Lewis previews the 10 Under 10 (Again) program of docs - ten shorts (under ten minutes), selected from 68 entries, made for under $10. All ten, she writes, "take the kind of creative risks that fuel new ways of thinking about the documentary genre itself."
• Another small-scale fest previewed: Courtney Fitzgerald on the Nudge Micro Digital Film Fest.

Television permeates this week's LA Weekly:

• "Before [Andy] Kaufman died (or 'died') on May 16, 1984, he told several friends that he was planning to fake his death, disappear and return in 20 years, precisely. So, on May 16, 2004, Comic Relief, the charity organization [Bob] Zmuda founded in 1985, will present... something. Something secretive, something at House of Blues on Sunset Strip. Title: Andy Kaufman — Dead or Alive?" Hence, Dave Shulman's article. But what an article. Complete with an interview with Tony Clifton, the works.
• Falling James: "In 1977, for reasons that still remain unclear, the suits at NBC suffered a temporary bout of good instincts and handed the reins and a big budget to comedian Richard Pryor. He dutifully delivered one of the most brilliant, controversial - and quickly canceled - series in television history."
• Nikke Finke on the long, drawn out battle between Fox and the voices behind The Simpsons: "Add this to the litany of horrible negotiations in Hollywood’s rich and sullied history of horrible negotiations."
• But films get reviewed as well: John Powers on The Saddest Music in the World; Ella Taylor on Super Size Me; and Scott Foundas reports from the Buenos Aires Film Festival

Posted by dwhudson at May 6, 2004 7:25 AM