Shorts, 5/26.

For Pacific News Service, and via Alternet, Shahla Azizi - not her real name; she lives in Tehran with her two children and is evidently being careful - reflects on the spectacular but all-too-brief success of Marmoolak (The Lizard), a comedy first approved and then pulled by Iran's "all-powerful, un-elected Guardian Council."

It's a tremendous loss for Iranian audiences; you can see photos of crowds eager for the intelligent comic relief the film offered at the official site and at Iran: Translated.

Six films, six reviewers. The Village Voice samples Film Forum's Ingmar Bergman retrospective. Also:

• Thulani Davis meets Mario and Melvin Van Peebles and J Hoberman reviews Baadasssss!
• Leslie Camhi previews the "Open Roads: New Italian Cinema" series at the Walter Reade (June 1 to 10).
• Reviews: J Hoberman on The Five Obstructions (over at the New York Press, Armond White nabs the opportunity to rail once again against Lars Von Trier); Dennis Lim on The Mother (more from Peter Brunette at indieWIRE); and Jessica Winter on Raising Helen.

Sheelah Kolhatkar: "[C]orporations and those who operate them are destined to behave amorally because, well, that’s what they do, according to The Corporation, a film that won the World Cinema Documentary Audience award at Sundance and opens in New York on June 30. The filmmakers' reasoning is simple: Corporations by their very nature are psychopathic." Also in the New York Observer: The Transom and Jake Brooks's column.

Robert Davis wonders if Colour Me Kubrick will be more like Close Up or Catch Me If You Can.

In her "Art & Industry" column, Amy Taubin considers Jennifer Reeves's The Time We Killed and Peggy Ahwesh and Bobby Abate's Certain Women, two "grim, unsparing little movies about women who have been betrayed and/or brutalized by men, other women, and/or society at large."

Interviews at indieWIRE: Anthony Kaufman with Jorgen Leth and Erica Abeel with Jehane Noujaim. Jason Guerrasio checks in on five indie films in production.

Kevin Conley files a fun piece in the New Yorker on the Taurus World Stunt Awards.

Matt Dentler: "[C]ompanies like Films We Like need to be promoted, supported, and explored by audiences all over North America.... I would suggest an American open mind about what's going on in the Canadian film scene."

David Fear finds the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation squelching misconceptions about local one-screen theaters - and serving a need few realized existed. Also in the SF Bay Guardian, reviews: Fear on Word Wars, Johnny Ray Houston on Los Angeles Plays Itself and its director (see also the ongoing series at the Pacific Film Archive), Dennis Harvey on Bukowski: Born Into This and Lynn Rapoport on Saved!.

In the New York Times:

• Shrek 2 "broke or flirted with breaking a number of box office records" this weekend, reports Jesse McKinley.
• Laura M Holson: Steve Jobs is in no hurry to get Pixar hitched.
• Bill Carter: The sitcom's in trouble.
• Mel Gussow catches up with Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic in London.

Reader reviews are pouring into AICN from the Seattle International Film Festival. The Cinecultist has a SIFF correspondent as well. And speaking of the CC, she caught an onstage conversation with Zhang Yimou last night, "though when we call it a conversation we're using the word loosely."

How do you know you're watching a Hollywood epic? Why, it's the "vaguely ethnic wail" that's the true tell-tale sign, points out David Roos in Salon.

The Guardian preps for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban with a "special report" (i.e., a page collecting all its coverage, sure to go almost daily between now and the film's premiere around the world over the next several days). David Poland, who hasn't read the books and didn't much like the first two movies, is quite taken with this one and the "one central reason" is Alfonso Cuarón.

Via Movie City News, Karishma Vaswani's BBC story on the Fifth International Indian Film Awards. Kal Ho Na Ho snapped up eight out of eleven honors. More on the awards at Bitter Cinema.

Oh, this is too rich. McDonald's is getting into the DVD rental business. Steve Gallagher has the news and links at Filmmaker. Besides the most obvious prediction - that Super Size Me will not be among the 350 titles available - the punchlines practically write themselves. And most would probably be better than the Washington Post's.

Posted by dwhudson at May 26, 2004 9:25 AM