Shorts, 10/25.

Reviewing Iskenderiya-New York (Alexandria-New York), the latest film from Youssef Chahine, now in his mid-70s, leads Mohamed El-Assyouti to broader observations in Al-Ahram Weekly:

Artists invest their last works with elements from their best ones, self-referentially trying to rescue them from the abyss of mediocrity; and Chahine seems to be no exception. Precedents in cinema include the last works of Jean Cocteau, Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni, who reiterate well-worn themes, centralising either themselves or their alter-egos - surrogates for their real-life personas. While these last works are never on a par with the directors' best works, they can be seen as a kind of appendix to their oeuvre - a tribute to, if never a continuation of, their former excellence.

Also via Perlentaucher's "Magazinrundschau": Alain Riou's interview with Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Pascal Mérigeau's initial assessment of Jeunet's new film, A Very Long Engagement. Both in Le Nouvel Observateur, both in French.

But back to Mohamed El-Assyouti's piece for a moment. Compare and contrast with this, from Ben Slater's thoughtful and personal overview of the films of Wong Kar-wai:

2046 is a symphony that majestically replays images, sequences, lines and ideas from almost every single previous Wong Kar Wai film, but miraculously, it never slides into self-parody (WKW got that out of his system by producing the mercilessly funny Chinese Odyssey 2002).... But there is an almost erotic ecstasy in the lack, absences and flaws of 2046. It would be wrong again if it was pristine and perfect. It has the baggy density and detail of a great novel which demands to be reread. For Wong, I hope it's the close of a chapter in his life and art and he can come back to meet us in the present.

In the New Yorker, Anthony Lane reviews "the jokeless gloomarama that is Enduring Love" and:

On the one hand, the proud imbalance of Hearts and Minds, which gives no clue that atrocities were committed by the other side, and which allows [Peter] Davis to cut from a rampaging football game, back home, to the Tet offensive, will be a lesson to anybody who thinks that Michael Moore invented the notion of documentary as blunderbuss. On the other hand, Clark Clifford's admission that his opinion of the war was changed, for the worse, by a long and dispiriting session with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1968 - this while he was Secretary of Defense - has, in its civilized humility, no equivalent today.

Lane's tone is clear but rings a lighter note than the magazine's editors do in their chillingly sober assessment of Bush's presidency.

New York has revamped its movies section.

Spiegel Online, one of your humble blogger's old haunts, has launched a daily, English-language international edition, featuring news, summaries of what's in the German papers, selected articles from the magazine and so on. Today, Jody K Biehl examines the latest of many Hitler waves to engulf the country:

Sixty years of guilt and democracy have clearly fostered an evolved level of Holocaust discourse. Now, it seems, Germans are embarking on a much harder task. Rather than studying the Holocaust from the point of view of the victims, they seem intent on taking a serious look at themselves as perpetrators. Hence all the docu-dramas.

For Litrix.de, Oliver Jahn reviews Alexander Kluge's collection of stories, The Gap Left by the Devil: In the Context of the New Century.

Michael Tully would like to introduce you to "an ocean of film criticism so warm, so exhilarating, so inviting, that I cannot help but surf its soothing waves every single day": The Outlaw Vern.

For indieWIRE, Wendy Mitchell interviews David Gordon Green.

"It's pretty unusual to wake up in the morning and read entertainment industry news detailing benefits specifically targeted towards independent filmmakers." But Scott Macaulay at Filmmaker has found in news of the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 which, among other things, offers tax breaks to those who invest in American indies.

What's so great about Alexander? Salon's Amy Reiter asks Greek history prof Paul Cartledge.

Posted by dwhudson at October 25, 2004 9:11 AM