Shorts, 7/1.

"It is through the filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard that the history of cinema - understood as the history of the twentieth century - was forever divided." Big, big claim, that. And one at the center of Colin MacCabe's recent book, Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at 70. But this is the opening sentence of the preface to a new book, a collection of essays, For Ever Godard.

The site for the book, inspired by a conference in London in 2001 bearing the same name, is extraordinarily well done, with each of the essays getting its own little uniquely designed blurb and a collection of links that, granted, take you to simple pages for more books for the most part, but there are exceptions: agnes b. for one and the Institut français, which will be staging a massive series of events throughout July in London, including master classes with the likes of cinematographer Raoul Coutard and composer Antoine Duhamel as well as screenings introduced by MacCabe, Mike Figgis and many others. If you were thinking of visiting Paris this summer, you might actually be thinking London.

"I made the move to the New York Times because if I hadn't I would have regretted it." Manohla Dargis emails the LA Weekly and Nikki Finke lets us have a peek at all 67 words. Which is a lot more words from Dargis we non-subscribers to the Los Angeles Times's "Calendar" have been able to see for some time now.

Also in the LA Weekly:

• Scott Foundas talks with Richard Linklater. If you're in a hurry, though, the sub-headline for Bradley Steinbacher's review in the Stranger pretty much says it all: "Rent Before Sunrise Then See Before Sunset - Now." Meanwhile, Film Threat is reporting that Linklater has wrapped shooting for A Scanner Darkly.

• Ella Taylor finds Spider-Man 2 "more of a charmer than its predecessor." And taking the release as her news hook in the New York Times, Sharon Waxman argues that the "new generation of Hollywood's young leading men are soft of cheek, with limpid stares and wiry frames." On another related note, Slate is re-running Chris Suellentrop's 2002 piece on Spider-Man's celibacy, and in the Philadelphia City Paper, Sam Adams argues that the sequel takes the comic book movie "past puberty, perhaps for the first time." None of this can get Al Reid excited, though.

• Taylor didn't have nearly as good a time watching De-Lovely, "a likable but plodding blend of strenuous style and canned psychology." Far kinder words than those NP Thompson found: "Musically, aesthetically, it's a shambles."

Hey, Cory Doctorow has a cover story in Wired. Yes, it's another one of Wired's movie packages, but Cory most definitely makes the best of it, opening with a bit of background on I, Robot director Alex Proyas before diving deeper into Isaac Asimov's major role as a popularizer of robotics. And on the side, Jennifer Hillner interviews Will Smith.

Festival wrap-ups at indieWIRE: Scott Foundas on Maui and Jonny Leahan on Los Angeles.

Tom Hall: "Whenever I return to New York from any amount of time spent away, I immediately go gorge myself on movies as a way of reminding myself why I love living here, why the city is essential to me."

Ken Russell recalls his discovery of Tchaikovsky - it's every bit as dramatic as you'd imagine - and how he sold United Artists on the idea of The Music Lovers: "'What's the pitch?' they said in unison. 'It's about a nymphomaniac who falls in love with a homosexual,' I answered impulsively. Ka-ching!"

Also in the Guardian:

• Neil Tennant on the Pet Shop Boys' soundtrack for Battleship Potemkin (no, really; I mean, I do love the Pet Shop Boys but - what? I do! - but...): "We looked at it as though it were 11 pieces of music, and tried to develop themes that worked within those pieces, trying to sync into the different moods of each scene."
• Sarfraz Manzoor meets Stan Laurel's nephew, who's got a tale or two to tell.
• Dave Simpson, briefly, on the White Stripes issuing a cease and desist against George Roca because his Nobody Knows How to Talk to Children is "not up to scratch."
• Geoffrey Macnab, just as briefly, on a zombie flick being shot in Chernobyl. Seriously.

What's this? Richard Gere once sat on the cinetrix's sofa?

Posted by dwhudson at July 1, 2004 12:56 PM