Weekend shorts.

Let's begin this batch with a weekend read only tangentially related to film but not all that tangentially. In the London Review of Books, Rebecca Solnit contemplates a new edition of Dante's Inferno with paintings by Sandow Birk, whose work can also be seen in the unique mockumentary, In Smog and Thunder: The Great War of the Californias (more here). But Solnit's passage here is worth quoting at length before diving once again into the transitory tidbits:

One of the reasons often given to explain why the American film industry settled in Hollywood is Southern California's ability to simulate almost any part of the world: it has lush agricultural areas, deserts, mountains, forests, oceans and open space in which to build Babylon or Atlanta, all drenched in ceaseless light. That is to say, to be in California is to be everywhere and nowhere and usually somewhere else (in the posher parts of LA every house seems to be dreaming of elsewhere: this half-timbered job is in the Black Forest and that one next door is the Alhambra). And as the Los Angeles writer Jenny Price recently remarked, to say 'I ate a doughnut in Los Angeles' is a different thing altogether from saying 'I ate a doughnut.' The invocation of LA throws that doughnut on a stage where it casts a long shadow of depravity or opportunity (which, here, might be the same thing). She added that just as Lévi-Strauss once remarked that animals are how we think, so Los Angeles, and by extension California, are also how we think - about society, about urbanism, about the future, about morality and its opposite. It's as though, in the golden light, everything is thrown into dramatic relief, everything is on stage acting out some drama or other.

You can sample Birk's Inferno and Purgatorio (San Francisco, naturally; Birk hasn't let on yet where the Paradiso will be set) at Trillium Press.

Meanwhile, Greg Allen's found a memo!

From: Scott Sforza, Head of Productions, White House Studios
To: Karl Rove, CEO
RE: Summer Schedule

Remember Michael Moore Hates America? Well, via Weblogsky, a blog aimed at that guy: Michael Wilson Hates Filmmaking, in which you can find out all about the guy who financed the anti-Moore doc. Hoo-boy.

The Hollywood Reporter's Martin A Grove lists the "Top 10 things Moore did right with Fahrenheit." From a marketing point of view, that is. Via the Movie Marketing Blog by way of Cinema Minima.

Suzanne Goldenberg heads to the heart of suburbia in west Houston to try to give away tickets to Fahrenheit 9/11. She gets finds a few takers and listens to their furious running commentary all the way through (interesting idea for an extra on the DVD, by the way).

Also in the Guardian:

• Molly Haskell has a theory about Brando's "who-needs-women swagger." Related: American Prospect editor-at-large Harold Meyerson argues that "Brando remains beyond the pale of official canonization," and via Movie City News, Johanna Schneller defends the latter years of Brando's life and passes along a few amusing anecdotes. At Alternet, Dave Zirin remembers the political Brando.

• An exhibition of work by Saul Bass will open at the Design Museum in London on July 17; Martin Scorsese: "Title sequences all too often overwhelm the movie that follows. Or, they serve as a neutral backdrop, or a holding pattern before the real movie begins. Saul gave us something different."

• Aida Edemariam tells the sad story of Eric Douglas, Kirk's son and Michael's brother, who died a few days ago. More from Corinne Sweet in the Independent.

• Simon Hattenstone talks to Chiwetel Ejiofor, who played Okwe in Dirty Pretty Things.

"Where do avant cinema and exploitation meet? Somewhere on the crusty margins of '50s Hollywood, perhaps." Sean Spillane offers a terrific backgrounder on Dementia.

Most reviewers are agreeing that Anchorman is silly summer fun, but Salon's Charles Taylor has a but-seriously-folks angle as well. The sad truth is, most local television news is "beyond parody." Also: Scott Lamb introduces a collection of ten clips backing him up on this.

Alex Abramovich doesn't simply rank nine film guides at Slate; he's actually read these things cover to cover and cooked up a five-star rating system for each of five categories. At the risk of giving away the ending, David Thomson's New Biographical Dictionary of Film comes out on top.

Let Roger Avary talk you into downloading a PDF file, Matthew Modine's "Full Metal Diary," a collection of notes and photos from the set of Full Metal Jacket.

George Fasel assesses the year so far. In short: Last year was better.

The Economist reports on the risks and the costs of those risks being factored in when directors decide to shoot in dangerous places. They're high, especially on a production like, say, Kingdom of Heaven, Ridley Scott's film about Saracens and 12th century Crusaders filming in... Morocco.

Watching a "Fassbinder on Tuesday, an Ozu on Wednesday" has programmer Tom Hall appreciating the work of other programmers all the more.

Matt Langdon's got some fascinating trivia for you re: The Set-Up.

In the Independent:

• The Corporation is Fahrenheit 9/11 for people who think," writes Jonathan Hari. He's also impressed by Super Size Me, but evidently not all that impressed: "My own flabby, clogged heart was so chilled by the movie I didn't eat a Big Mac for six whole hours."
• Director Franc Roddam chooses his "Ten Best Cult Movies."
• Liese Spencer meets Vincent Cassel.
• And Tiffany Rose interviews Will Smith.

Robert Davis recently interviewed Jim Jarmusch for Paste; which is great enough, but he's also posted the outtakes at Errata. He also joins the discussion of Scorsese's My Voyage to Italy at Filmjourney.

Siddarth Srivastava at Planet Bollywood on a trend in Indian cinema: "The themes are getting bold and so are Indian women."

In the New York Times:

• "It has become something of a commonplace to note the symmetries between Mr. Moore's movie and Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ," writes AO Scott, but what about them: "Is it too idealistic of me to think that this freedom from compromise is part of what attracted audiences? Perhaps more than ever before, the movie studios are ruled by timidity, anxiously tailoring their releases to avoid giving offense.... But the movie-going public can be alienated as much by boredom as by distaste, and it may be that the studios should be more afraid of our indifference than of our anger."

• But the real finger-on-the-pulse movie of the moment is Spider-Man 2, argues Frank Rich: "It gives us a selfless wartime hero unlike any on the national stage, and it promotes a credo of justice without vindictiveness. This year that appears to be the heretofore missing formula for capturing a landslide mandate in red and blue states alike." Anthony Kaufman has a different take, and one that's sparking reaction, too; the film, he says, is "the most Eisenhowery piece of white-bread American mainstream entertainment I've seen in a long time. I'll bet Dubya loves it."

• If the whole notion at the center of Metallica: Some Kind of Monster - heavy metal band seeks therapy - seems strange or new to you, you might be surprised to learn just how many bands have gone through the same process. Lola Ogunnaike talks to some of the therapists. Related: Brian Brooks seems to have had a helluva time at the party following the New York premiere.

• Larry Rohter talks to the director and star of Maria Full of Grace, Joshua Marston and Catalina Sandino Moreno. Peter Brunette reviews the film at indieWIRE.

• Tod Williams, director of The Door in the Floor, is not a jerk, discovers Caryn James.

Jonathan Curiel previews the Palestine/Israel Film Festival (through Sunday) for the San Francisco Chronicle.

IndieWIRE's Wendy Mitchell reports from the just-wrapped Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

"Time has rarely passed in a film with such apparent ease and spontaneity, yet with such rightness in every moment." The Nation's Stuart Klawans on Before Sunset Also at Alternet, the American Prospect's Noy Thrupkaew steered clear of the horror offerings at the New York Asian Film Festival, but she did catch several she's pleased to recommend.

Filmbrain has an intriguing question or two for you regarding Byun Young-joo's debut feature, Ardor. Actually having seen the film may or may not be a prerequisite for your POV.

Brian Ruh guages the state of bootleg anime in PopMatters.

Online viewing tip. ASCII/MIDI music videos, via Greg Gilpatrick.

Posted by dwhudson at July 10, 2004 1:41 PM