Weekend shorts.

Julie Salamon's story in the New York Times about the NYPD interrogating artist Arthur Robins and pretty much barking up the wrong tree is more amusing than scary, but it does provide an opportunity to mention a case that is most definitely not amusing at all and pretty damn scary: Steve Kurtz (whom I had the pleasure of interviewing several years ago) teaches art at the State University of NYU in Buffalo and is also a member of the Critical Art Ensemble, a group that has been exploring the politics of biotechnology for some time now.

When he woke up on May 11, Steve Kurtz discovered that his wife Hope had suffered a cardiac arrest and died in her sleep. He called 911. Long story short, the police suspected that the material and equipment they found in his apartment was being used for some sort of bioterrorist plot. Kurtz was held briefly, then allowed to return home, but the investigation is still in full force - in fact, instead of being called off once the obvious misunderstanding came to light, it has expanded to include other CAE members. So: Get to the site for the CAE Defense Fund; read the overview and/or the FAQ; and sign the letter of support.

Back to the NYT:

• Stuart Klawans has a wonderful backgrounder on Maurice Pagnol's "epoch-making" Fanny trilogy.

• David L Ulin reviews Geoff Nicholson's The Hollywood Dodo (excerpt), and begins with, "It's no accident that virtually every Hollywood novel worth reading - The Loved One, The Player, The Day of the Locust - is a satire, a bitterly amusing passion play."

• Two pieces in the run-up to Friday's release of The Terminal: Ben Ratliff interviews Benny Golson, the sax player who plays himself in the film; and Andy Newman conducts an experiment: "As soon as I heard about the movie, I packed a notebook and a toothbrush and set out to spend some quantity time at the International Arrivals Terminal, a building that looks like a cross between a very beautiful airplane hangar and a giant wing."

• With the 6th Annual San Francisco Black Film Festival in full swing through the weekend, AO Scott's piece jutting viewings of Baadasssss! and Soul Plane against each other is particularly relevant: "The range of black pop-culture archetypes has expanded enormously in recent years, but the uncomfortable, double-edged legacy of minstrelsy nonetheless persists."

• Terrence Rafferty profiles Mike Hodges: "There's a weird dignity in his obscurity."

• Sarah Lyall on Steve Coogan, who's about to be all over the place all of a sudden.

David Poland has seen Fahrenheit 9/11 and isn't joining the pile-on of praise:

What is scariest about Fahrenheit 9/11 - for those of us who are waiting impatiently for our Democratic Party to deliver an affirmative argument for a change of leadership instead of just waiting for Bush to nail his own coffin shut on the evening news - is that [Michael] Moore, The Liberal Most Likely to make the argument with wit and insight and facts that may border on falsehood but which compel nonetheless, has come up with little more than a recruiting film for people who are still bitter about the election of 2000.

Movie City News points to Bob Tourtellotte's Reuters piece on Michael Moore's next target: "I personally hold Blair more responsible for this war in Iraq than I do George W. Bush, and the reason is Blair knows better. Blair is not an idiot. What is he doing hanging around this guy?"

Via Pop Life, the Onion's guide to the least erotic moments on film.

Via the SXSW News Reel, Dann Halem in Premiere on why "Christendom's aspiring movie moguls [are] feeling bullish."

In Salon: Heather Havrilesky's appreciation of Six Feet Under and Charles Taylor's of Ray Charles.

Sean Spillane on the odd case of Willie Wilder, Billy's older brother.

With Johnny Got His Gun coming out on DVD in the UK, John Patterson looks back at the life of its blacklisted director, Dalton Trumbo, who "extended a hand of friendship from Old Left to New, and accordingly was well loved by both."

Also in the Guardian:

• When a studio spends $200 million or more to make a movie, where does all that money go? Archie Thomas breaks it down.
• James Inverne's strange collection of movie trivia.
• Simon Busch: "Talking during films - and chewing, texting, tapping - has made cinema-going such a tense experience for me that I now mainly avoid it."
• Andrew Pulver's adaptation of the week: Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall.
• Patterson again: "[N]ever count [Bruce] Willis out: his career may have the soul of an ad campaign, but it also has the hide of a rhino."

"[T]here is a pitfall in American film whereby the brilliant kids can fade without quite growing up. There are those who would argue that this condition affected Orson Welles and Nicholas Ray, just as much as Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma." And now, it's happening to Joel and Ethan Coen, fears David Thomson. Also in the Independent: Matthew Sweet interviews David Duchovny.

A broadcatching roundup via Marc Canter by way of Cinema Minima. More in a similar vein: Jeff Jarvis on why "TV is about to explode."

"Why does this shot pan, dolly, or tilt? How does it do what it does, how does it show what it shows, and why, why, why, why, why?" And 'because it's cool' is not an answer." Matthew Clayfield on, among other things, why there is such a thing as film school.

Doug Cummings: "The disaster genre is not generally known for its insights into characters or its clever screenplays, but The Day the Earth Caught Fire is an admirable exception."

Defamer attended the AFI bash for Meryl Streep: "By the end of the night, we kind of wanted to do her. But you know, Bob Gummer's got dibs."

Elizabeth Carmody offers "20 tips for screenplay readings."

Greg Pak's plug may be "shameless" but it's a good-to-know one as well: AsianAmericanFilm.com has been revamped.

Filmbrain approaches My Sassy Girl "with some trepidation" but is eventually won over.

A remake of Bullitt? Why, groans Aaron.

Matt Langdon boils down the oeuvres of more than two dozen directors to a thematic bottom line. Example: Yosujiro Ozu: "ubtle family clashes erupt between the younger generation and the older generation - but housework must continue to get done."

Posted by dwhudson at June 12, 2004 11:52 AM