Shorts, 8/10.

...3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.

A not uncommon exercise for film critics is the occasional survey of the contemporary cinemascape in search of an almost accidental collective statement: Here's who we are, now. Salon's Charles Taylor believes he's found a "feeling of rootlessness, of being in a world where the only sense of home is to be found in a state of constant flux" in films as varied as Lost in Translation and Before Sunset, What Time Is It There? and "the lovely and underrated" Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life: "It's as if our anxieties about the headlong pace of technology, of living under the threat of terrorism, of an economy that leaves most of us unsettled long past the age when our parents and grandparents had achieved some semblance of security, about being overwhelmed with choices we're not sure we even want to avail ourselves of, had risen from us like a collective ether and permeated the screen."

Also in Salon: Andrew O'Hehir on Michael Henry Heim's new translation of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice.

"While war rewrites civil and criminal laws, Hollywood rewrites history." Tony Kashani in Dissident Voice. Also via They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?: Scarlet Cheng in the Sun-Sentinel on how Takeshi Kitano and Yoji Yamada are revitalizing the samurai genre.

In Patricia Quinn Saved My Life, two women meet three Quinns, or rather, three Magentas at a Rocky Horror convention. The Guardian's Michael Coveney sorts out another meshing of fact and fiction, this time on stage in Edinburgh, where Patricia Quinn herself will be performing.

David Thomson in the Independent on The Manchurian Candidate: "Why or how is the first film funny? Well, let's count the ways."

Harvey Weinstein may be allowed to forge a new production company on his own while his brother Bob would remain at Disney, reports Laura M Holson in the New York Times.

Aaron Barnhart fears the worst for one of his favorite channels: "It would be a travesty if Trio didn't make it to November. Had more Americans been allowed to see it in the first place, they would've joined me in voting for it with their clickers."

In the Los Angeles Times, Claudia Luther remembers Fay Wray.

Posted by dwhudson at August 10, 2004 4:18 AM