Sunday shorts.

"[O]ur glasses, our tweed jackets, our glum mugs." Woody Allen's appreciation of George S Kaufman fronts the New York Times Book Review. In the paper:

• Why might The Polar Express "change the way movies are made and seen," as Dave Kehr proposes? It may come down to money. As with Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, "there are no expensive sets to be built, no elaborate lighting to be rigged, no bulky camera to be painstakingly hauled into place. In fact, there is no film." But that's the long view. Polar Express itself was not cheap and, as Claudia Eller reports in the Los Angeles Times (via Movie City News), the film "will have to amass more than $500 million in worldwide revenue from box-office, DVD and TV sales and other sources to leave Warner and [producer Steve] Bing any presents under the tree." Let's just hope there's a solid story. Frankly, the trailer suggests that the characters come off cold and wooden, the opposite impression one gets watching, say, the trailer for The Incredibles.

• David Edelstein interviews Rhys Ifans, who defends Jed, the character he plays in Enduring Love and suggests a game you might play once the DVD comes out.

  Jesse Green interviews screenwriter Ron Nyswaner, who's just written a memoir, Blue Days, Black Nights: "By my 10th hour in Hollywood, I'd imbibed cocaine, Quaaludes, marijuana, bourbon, Scott Thorson, Liberace - and insulted Bette Midler. And it was really fun."

  Adena Halpern tracks moments in cinema history "that caused moviegoers to turn to one another and ask, 'Did they really do that?'"

• Is Jon Stewart still a comedian? Damien Cave asks around. Much more on this from Aaron at Out of Focus.

Greg Allen passes along David O Russell's ♥-felt ad for his movie.

David Ritz, co-author with Ray Charles of Brother Ray, lists all the opportunities missed in Ray. Also: David Edelstein: "[T]he phrase, 'The second best movie of the year' on Slate's content page has elicited quite a few e-mails asking, 'Dude, what's the best?' Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, of course."

"By now you must be sick of seeing the countless television ads, billboards, Today Show appearances and Happy Meal tie-ins promoting Primer." Matt Dentler passes along a fun letter from Shane Carruth.

The British Board of Film Classification has decided you must be 18 to see Tracey Emin's debut film, Top Spot, whereas Michael Winterbottom, Emin's producer, has seen his 9 Songs deemed... well, at least not porn. Mark Lawson argues, "These coincidental rulings seem contradictory: Emin meeting the censors at their most draconian, Winterbottom benefiting from liberalism. But on examination, the two decisions suggest a coherent view of what should be viewed at what age." In other words: Explicit sex is less of a problem than teenage suicide when it comes to what the under-18s ought to be allowed to see. Agree with the lesser problem idea, but have trouble with the prohibitive approach. As the cinetrix notes (via Emin's distributor), "in 2000 the American film The Virgin Suicides, about five teenaged sisters who kill themselves, was released in Britain with only a 15 rating."

Also in the Guardian:

• Even director Rob Marshall's "expert on geisha" admits he understands the apprehension with which the Japanese are eyeing the production of Memoirs of a Geisha: "Anyone who knows something about Japanese culture might actually be appalled by the whole thing." Justin McCurry reports from Kyoto.

• Josh Lacey: "The worst thing about Neil LaBute's first collection of short stories is not the stories themselves, but the fact that they force you to reconsider your enjoyment of his plays and films."

• AS Byatt on JM Barrie, the neo-paganism that permeated late-Victorian England, and of course, Finding Neverland.

• Andrew Pulver's adaptation of the week: Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol.

• John Patterson's mini-profile of the week: Kate Winslet.

In the Observer:

• Mary Riddell speculates as to what's making Vera Drake such a popular draw in the US cities where it's playing.
• Robert Frank grants Sean O'Hagan a rare interview.
• Tim Adams meets documentarian Adam Curtis.

One year on, how's that Schwarzenegger revolution going, ask Robert Salladay and Peter Nicholas in the Los Angeles Times Magazine.

Let Todd at Twitch point you towards some making-of footage from the set for the live action version of Initial D.

Online viewing tip. "Op for Pop" at artafterscience: "Although cut down for the web, because of the random element, it goes on forever without repeating itself, and if you refresh the page, something different will appear each time." See that list of demo and clip pages towards the bottom there? Explore.

Posted by dwhudson at October 24, 2004 5:40 AM