GreenCine Daily: Shorts, 10/18.

October 18, 2004

Shorts, 10/18.

"The good stuff appears to have taken wing from the page, migrated and landed on the big screen." James Norton doesn't mean that in any small way. Introducing Flak Magazine's roundtable, "Fiction vs Film," he traces his own transition from bookworm to cinephile. Joshua Adams picks up "Round 2" and, rather than argue a single case, lists a series of intriguing observations. Louis Cooke concentrates more on what TV can do for book sales; Stephen Himes lashes out at the "snobbery" of the "literati": "By attacking reductionist adaptations and/or standard multiplex fare, however justly, the critic is - whether he realizes it or not - merely attacking a certain impassive audience, not film itself."

The French have rarely needed to be persuaded to lift their brows as high for film as they do for literature. On October 21, Fran�ois Truffaut will have been gone for 20 years. The 400 Blows is to be re-released in France, and also just out are a new book of photos, Truffaut au travail and Le Dictionnaire Truffaut. In L'Express, Jean-Pierre Dufreigne pays slightly whimsical but affectionate tribute.

Also via Perlentaucher's "Magazinrundschau": Two pieces in Outlook India sparked by the release of Bride and Prejudice, which, according to Namrata Joshi, only illustrates "how it isn't all that easy to make the simple, all-singing, all-dancing Indian musical." In a longer piece, Joshi and Lata Khubchandani pose the question, "How Hot is Ash, Really?" Judging by "initial reaction" to the film, "there may not be a euphoric end (or should we say beginning) to [Aishwarya Rai's] crossover saga."

"But the longer, dirtier cut was the grail." Nick Paumgarten tells the story of the recent rediscovery and imminent re-release - by Fleshbot, no less - of two versions of Necromania: A Tale of Weird Love!, the last film Ed Wood ever made.

Also in the New Yorker:

Alex Ross on Julie Taymor's production of The Magic Flute: "The Met stage has never been so alive with movement, so charged with color, so brilliant to the eye."
Nancy Franklin on The Office: [I]t's perfect.... [S]ome people like it so much that they can't watch it. That's how good it is."
David Denby on Sideways, Alexander Payne's "largest, most candid work."

New York: Jude Law Today's Jude Law profile: Ariel Levy's for New York.

For Alternet, Jennifer Nix assesses the Films to See Before You Vote Tour.

In the New York Times:

Faith-based marketing is working quite well for Woman, Thou Art Loosed, reports Julie Salamon.
Natt Ives: The Oscar race is wide open, so studios are spending on ads early and often.
Both sides in the Sinclair standoff are digging in, reports Bill Carter.

Trivia Night The Guardian's Mark Lawson finds the best of British TV in the coming week; I mention it only because, if you scroll down, you'll find a description of the sitcom My Life in Film. Looks fun. Also, for the Observer, Polly Vernon interviews Radha Mitchell.