Weekend shorts.

Dave Kehr has an interesting piece in the New York Times on what's become of the notion of studios as brands. Of particular note is the informally floated idea that the once-scrappy Miramax, by forging and sticking to its now well-known formula - slick middlebrow literary adaptations, a stable of actors on a career track aimed straight at Oscar, etc. - has become the contemporary equivalent of the MGM of the 30s, whose product now "looks cold, constrained and excessively standardized." This segues into speculation as to what Sony may now do with its many brand names, nearly as many, Kehr notes, as General Mills.

Also in the NYT:

• What at first looks like another polite Sunday profile of some respectable Hollywood figure turns out to be something entirely else: Sharon Waxman has been checking in on the progress of David O Russell's I ♥ Huckabees since at least April 2003. Turns out that if you're looking for juicy, funny material for a book called Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Studio System, the book due next year, as announced at the end of the piece, you'd be hard pressed to select a better shoot. Note, too, that Waxman shot the photos that accompany the piece.

• Ginger Thompson heads to Mexico City for this week's polite Sunday profile: Gael García Bernal.

• Dennis McDougal: "By Tuesday morning Hollywood screenwriters, working without a contract for the last half year, will have decided whether they are ripe for revolution."

  Wolfgang Saxon: "Harvey Wheeler, a political scientist and author, whose novel about nuclear war by accident, Fail-Safe, caused a national shudder in 1962, died on Sept. 6 at his home in Carpinteria, Calif. He was 85."

Simon Hattenstone talks to Spike Lee, who quite reasonably refuses to believe that David Kelly committed suicide but has a more questionable theory about the death of Jean Seberg.

Also in the Guardian:

• A fine collection of short interviews with fashion designers about how the movies influence their work from Hadley Freeman.

• Stephen Moss is of two minds about The Forgotten Kingdom: Prince Harry in Lesotho.

• Following a bashing by the critics, Claude Lelouch is trying to save his latest film, Les Parisiens, by offering free screenings in 400 cinemas throughout France. Amelia Gentleman reports.

• Andrew Pulver previews the UK Jewish Film Festival (October 13 - 21 in London; then on to Brighton and beyond). His adaptation of the week: Richard Brooks's In Cold Blood.

• Tangentially film-related: Tim de Lisle lists 70 things you might not have known about Leonard Cohen; Zadie Smith introduces a new edition of Graham Greene's The Quiet American; Stuart Jeffries writes a long profile of Stephen King: "He doesn't plan to work much for the next few months; instead, he's going to campaign for John Kerry in the swing state of Florida."

The Nation's Stuart Klawans: "El Viaje, by the extraordinary Argentine director Fernando Solanas, has gone undistributed in the United States since its completion in 1992. All we get is The Motorcycle Diaries." Also: When Will I Be Loved and Vanity Fair.

In the Independent:

• Open Water director Chris Kentis selects the "ten best films on water."
• Matthew Sweet meets Jamie Foxx.
• Andrew Gumbel profiles Mena Suvari.

"Troubled, downtrodden youth is nothing new to Korean cinema, yet Im [Sang-soo's Tears] is really quite unlike anything else Filmbrain has seen."

In Salon:

• For his "Beyond the Metroplex" column this month, Andrew O'Hehir talks to Zak Penn and Werner Herzog about Incident at Loch Ness and reviews Reconstruction and Silver City.

• Stephanie Zacharek on Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Mr. 3000.

• Charles Taylor on The Brown Bunny, Head in the Clouds and Wimbledon.

Tasha Robinson interviews Mamoru Oshii for the Onion AV Club. Via Wiley Wiggins.

Via Movie City News:

• A non-work-safe outtake from Sideways.
• News from Chicago: rogerebert.com - nice! - and the Reader gets a new look - at least in print - reports Eric Herman in the Sun-Times. Ines Cho in the JoongAng Daily: "Pusan International Film Festival organizers said this year's festival will have the largest number of entries in its history." October 7 through 15.

Online viewing tip. Ads for MoveOn PAC by Richard Linklater, Allison Anders, John Sayles and more. Via Jonathan Rosenbaum.

Posted by dwhudson at September 18, 2004 12:50 PM