Cannes and shorts.

Cannes opens today and the Guardian's Andrew Pulver has a theory: It's all about Quentin Tarantino. It's not just that he's president of the jury, Pulver argues. Even the selection for the competition seems tailored to his tastes.

In a companion piece, Steve Rose offers an annotated list of 16 people to keep an eye on throughout the fest. Then there's the Cannes quiz (my worst score yet! 5 out of 10) and the front door to all the paper's Cannes coverage. Also in the Guardian, Marianne Faithful on William S Burroughs (ok, maybe only tangentially film-related, but still), and Kate Stables presents this month's seven online viewing tips.

In Libération, Michel Henry reports that demonstrators and festival organizers have reached an agreement to respect each other's concerns (for a brief backgrounder on all this, see Jon Henley's piece in the Guardian and this update). In exchange for a platform from which to voice their demands, the protestors have agreed not to gum up the works. Google does a splendid job translating Henry's story:

A few hundreds of tradesmen are in the street, with the call of the municipality. Streamers: "Cannes Lives", "Lives the festival". The best: "work Lives". The brass band opens walk. A musician: "Where it is Popaul? Go, one sends a piece!" The deputy and mayor Bernard Brochand (UMP) is in the forefront. A man clamp: "All middle-class men together! We are rich, we want to remain to it!" Une busy: "the money Lives!" Jean-Paul Antonioli, professional of the water sport: "the intermittent ones, one is not against them. That they are useful of the festival like platform, very well. That they break it, not. It is not May 68, nevertheless!"

Onward. The cinetrix's take.

Eugene Hernandez has posted his first shot from Cannes and first report for indieWIRE. But the iW piece people are buzzing about at the moment is actually an update. Once again, that invaluable roundup, "The Buying Game: indieWIRE's Guide to Acquisitions."

For lack of a better idea when there isn't actually any news yet coming from the fest, John Walsh does one of those A to Z things on Cannes. Also in the Independent, David Thomson on Performance and another Val Kilmer profile, this time from Charlotte O'Sullivan.

Whether or not The Day After Tomorrow, opening on May 28, truly whips up a "political firestorm," as Sharon Waxman claims it's already doing in the New York Times, is probably a matter of perspective. With Iraq blowing up in our faces and the once fractious Arab world rapidly uniting against the US, most Americans have more immediate concerns than the long-term effects of global warming, even when viewed through Roland Emmerich's warping of geological time into two whiplash hours. Which is too bad, because there are very few scientists left the Bush administration can rely on to deny the reality of the man-made phenomenon.

The most accessible and entertaining way to brush up on all this is surely at Viridian HQ, where sci-fi writer and frequent Wired contributor Bruce Sterling keeps tabs on the impending disaster. But more straightforward, and what's more, specifically related to the movie is a new site created by the Energy Future Coalition: "The Day After Tomorrow Facts."

By the way, Gregg Easterbrook, also concerned about global warning and also worried that Tomorrow trivializes the issue, frowned on Al Gore the other day for preparing to "affiliate his reputation with a cheapo third-rate disaster movie that makes Fantastic Voyage seem like a peer-reviewed technical paper." But according to Waxman, that's simply not the case: "'There are two sets of fiction to deal with,' Mr. Gore said. 'One is the movie, the other is the Bush administration's presentation of global warming.'"

Via Movie City News, J Paul Peszko in VFXWorld: "There are lessons to be learned from the making of Hoodwinked: The True Story of Red Riding Hood, an independently produced 3D animated feature that refashions the familiar fairy tale as Rashomon." And: David Poland breaks down studios' performances over the past few summers; and Gary Dretzka on Michael Connelly's novel, The Narrows, in which characters comment on how they were depicted in Clint Eastwood's adaptation of Blood Work. And then, this:

Fahrenheit 911 Distribution Deal Locked, Involving Multiple Partners For Theatrical/ Home Ent... To Be Announced At Cannes In Next Few Days

Hm. The Guardian is actually passing along word from an unnamed source quoted in the New York Daily News that Harvey and Bob Weinstein might buy the film themselves and then sell the rights to a third-party distributor, "as they did previously with controversial films Kids and Dogma."

AICN's Moriarty interviews Jim Jarmusch, who's full of praise for Gary Farmer and Bill Murray.

In a short but terrific piece for the City Pages, Dylan Hicks previews the Flaming Film Festival, the Twin Cities' area GLBT fest opening today and running through the 16th. Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World sounds downright harrowing. Anyway, more on the fest from Michael Davis in Lavender.

With Rabid coming out on DVD on June 1, G Noel Gross, a major fan of The Fly, has the perfect opportunity to sit down and talk with David Cronenberg for DVD Talk. And ask him why there's no proper DVD version of The Fly yet. Attention, Fox: Let the man oversee the transfer.

Meanwhile, I had no idea Cronenberg was attached to an adaptation of my favorite Martin Amis novel, London Fields!

Jessica Murphy interviews Dennis Lehane for Atlantic Unbound: "I don't understand why people don't grasp - I've never had trouble grasping this - that a book is a book and a movie is a movie. One's an apple and one's a giraffe." Meanwhile, in the Atlantic Forum, they're discussing the Moore-Disney brouhaha. James Israel tracks the "slugfest" in the Reactions section following indieWIRE's May 5 story.

For Planet Bollywood, Shruti Bhasin lists ten stars on the right career path.

Jehane Noujaim's Control Room, her doc on Al Jazeera, is the subject of features in both the Village Voice and the New York Press this week. Kareem Fahim talks to Noujaim, but some of the most interesting perspective comes from Lieutenant Josh Rushing, "perhaps the film's most compelling figure." Alexander Zaitchik initially takes a more critical approach to the film, but by the end, he writes:

The Defense Department claims such images are either false or "lack context," but unless these Iraqis are highly skilled actors on the Al Jazeera payroll, it's hard to see what context is missing from an old woman in front of a bombed house, screaming, "If this is Bush's democracy, then we don't want it!" or a boy's intestines spilling onto a grimy hospital sheet. These are the images of the war America is actually fighting, and Noujaim is to be applauded for bringing them to American screens, where they should have been all along.

Also in the NYP: Armond White, excelling once again at what he does best, namely, giving a music video the analysis the format deserves. Why music videos are so widely ignored, despite the fact that they can have as much cultural impact as many a summer blockbuster or the fact that they're the most obvious meeting ground for the avant and the commercial, is another matter; for now, White's focus is on Mark Romanek and Jay-Z's 99 Problems, which, along with P Diddy's Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun, "are forcing a reassessment of what hiphop culture means."

White also reviews Troy, Matt Zoller Seitz takes on Godzilla (more from Luke Y Thompson in the SF Weekly) and Mark Ames catches the preview for The Day After Tomorrow and wonders, "Do Average Joes really harbor fantasies about the violent destruction of America?"

In the Voice:

• Anthony Kaufman on the "unprecedented surge of activist documentaries is poised to join the election-year debate." Now that's a viewing list. On his blog, Kaufman looks back at Tribeca (Filmbrain's capsules; Wendy Mitchell's diary): "[Fest director Peter] Scarlet has said repeatedly that all the hype trickles down to the movies, and judging from the walkouts I saw at some of the films, I believe these folks bought tickets for whatever was available and found their eyes opened to the possibilities of cinema." More in his piece for indieWIRE.
• Leslie Camhi on two docs about the Middle East, The Junction and Slaves of the Sword: Ariel Sharon.
• Rob Nelson looks back on the Toronto Documentary Forum.
• Thulani Davis on With All Deliberate Speed.
• Ed Park (who also reviews that "puzzling fiasco," Van Helsing) has a brief chat with novelist (25th Hour) and Troy screenwriter David Benioff; Michael Atkinson reviews the movie as well as Coffee and Cigarettes.
• More reviews: Dennis Lim on Strayed (more from Erica Abeel in iW) and The 24th Day and Jessica Winter on Carandiru.
• Joy Press: "There are 6 million ways for a TV series to die: Choose one."
• Jane Harris on the group exhibition "Terrorvision."

There are reviews of Mean Girls and there are reviews of Mean Girls. And then, there's Andrew Sarris's:

I can be credited (or maybe blamed) for introducing the word auteur into the English language and allegedly enshrining the director as the supreme, indeed the sole creator of meaning and style in the cinema. I say "allegedly" because I never wrote any such thing; instead, I maintained that a disciplined and selective auteurism was the first step rather than the last stop in evaluating movies. Since 1962, I've written more than 2,000 pieces seeking to refine my arguments, but I'm still no closer to finding the magic formula for deciding which movies are good and which movies are bad.

Also in the New York Observer:

• Jake Brooks seems to be introducing a new column, "DVD's, Videos, TiVo, Downloadables."
• Scott Eyman reviews Mickey Knox's The Good, the Bad and the Dolce Vita: "You know you're in safe hands from the opening sentence: 'I was born a "love child," as they sweetly used to describe a bastard.' For the next 350 pages, Mr. Knox lays it out like a grumpy but loving grandfather giving you the deep skinny about the movie stars, the girls, the way things really were."
• Noelle Hancock covers the local premiere Troy; Rex Reed reviews.
• Sheelah Kolhatkar talks to the filmmakers trying to complete Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over 65.

Tasha Robinson has a good, meaty interview with Tim Robbins for the Onion AV Club.

In the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Cheryl Eddy previews the SF Documentary Film Festival, Dennis Harvey reviews Troy (but mostly Brad Pitt) and David Kim advises us to "Forget Bill."

Matt Dentler: "So we've created a summertime online festival at South by Southwest, and we're calling it 'South by South Web.'"

Steve Gallagher's on a roll at Filmmaker; here's one of his recent finds: "vyZ Music has launched a Web site to promote its new movie, NOVUS (short for Novus Ordo Seclorum - New Order of the Ages), an experimental documentary celebrating the achievements of one of the world's greatest inventors, Nikola Tesla." But he's also looking forward to Ken Russell's Charged: The Story of Nikola Tesla.

Chuck Olsen catches Whole.

When it comes to Brian Flemming, I'm with Matt Clayfield: "I'm telling you, this guy blows my mind."

Via Matt Langdon, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Super Size Me, but also on McLibel; and news of a six-disc Martin Scorsese collection due in August from Warner Bros.

Al Reid on John Fante's Ask the Dust, soon to be a major motion picture directed by Robert Towne.

YMDb is back; Doug Cummings on the lists.

Tanner '04!

Online viewing tip. The trailer for Jimmy Prescott's short film, "Loveholstery." It might take a while to load, but do wait. The short, by the way, which was voted an audience favorite back in February at an Open Screen Night at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, is making the festival rounds.

Posted by dwhudson at May 12, 2004 10:45 AM