Shorts, 11/19.

Well, this is noteworthy. The German papers are giving positive reviews to a film by Volker Schlöndorff. It's about time. Thanks to FAZ Weekly, we can read Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's Andreas Kilb in English.

Schlöndorff has made nine movies in the 25 years since he won an Oscar for The Tin Drum. Most of them were expensive flops. Schlöndorff could have considered the miniscule budget of The Ninth Day to be an insult. Instead, he used it to free himself from the false aesthetic models of his film adaptations of literary works. Once, it annoyed Schlöndorff to be called a "director without a style." Nowadays, he regards the lack of a recognizable trademark as an opportunity. In The Ninth Day, we can see why.

Not exactly praise of the highest order, no, though there is higher praise, albeit qualified, throughout the piece. The real revelation for Kilb is Ulrich Matthes, who portrays the priest, Henri Kremer. And again, Kilb is not alone. For those who read German, you'll find more reviews here.

Mention has already been made here, albeit too briefly, of the phenomenal ten-week program, "Premieres," celebrating the reopening of MoMA and, with it, the Department of Film and Media. Tonight, for example, sees the world premiere of Jean-Luc Godard's Moments choisis des Histoire(s) du cinema, which the program promises is "more than a summation of his multipart video masterpiece Histoires(s) du cinema. IndieWIRE's Wendy Mitchell talks to Laurence Kardish, senior curator at the Department, about many of the other outstanding highlights.

Meanwhile, iW's launched another blog: IDFA will cover the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam through November 28.

You've probably heard that the Academy has come up with a list of twelve documentaries from which it'll choose five nominees for the big one, the Oscar. But have you seen Steve Gallagher's notes and links over at Filmmaker?

As the 60 Years of South Korean Cinema series rolls into its second week, Filmbrain offers his recommendations. If you're in New York City and have even the slightest curiosity about Korean cinema, for heaven's sake, listen to the man.

For Film-Philosophy, Thorsten Botz-Bornstein looks for "a new concept of cinematic time that is proper to Tarkovsky."

If you're looking for a primer on the influence of Japanese cinema on recent American movies, Ian G Mason's got one for you at the New Statesman.

Fiachra Gibbons describes the very ugly "struggle over who have the right to call themselves descendents of the greatest military commander in history, and the first real western imperialist," a struggle that's grown a lot uglier on the eve of the release of Oliver Stone's Alexander: "I nearly lost an ear to a particularly patriotic barber in Thessaloniki last month when I mentioned that I had just arrived from the 'other Macedonia'." In an accompanying piece, historian Robin Lane Fox describes meeting Stone: "Six hours of questioning later, I was exhausted - and employed as adviser to the film."

Also in the Guardian:

• Peter Bradshaw reviews "the biggest, poshest, shiniest advertisement ever - for Chanel perfume." Starring Nicole Kidman and directed by Baz Luhrmann.

• Skye Sherwin opens her Anatomy of Hell tie-in - and by the way, though Ashcroft never succeeded in cloaking the goddesses of justice completely, in the wake of the "mandate," even Tartan Video has concluded it's best to save one's own skin by covering up that of others - with a terrific quote from Catherine Breillat: "Nothing could possibly be degrading to Rocco Siffredi. There are people who cannot be degraded."

• David Mamet surprises with a fun and entertaining column about some of his favorite effects. Speaking of Mamet. Drew gets a kick out of Francis Heaney's "Dammit, Dave."

It's been three weeks, but Jonathan Rosenbaum is back. And how. His review of the reconstructed version of Sam Fuller's The Big Red One can't help but be enlighteningly subjective and conclude, "if a more intelligent and, yes, contemporary American movie has been released this year, I haven't seen it." And of course, even his pans are interesting: "Sexist male fantasies of conquering white heroes that were minted in the 60s - often fostered by wealthy and mythologized (as well as mythologizing) laissez-faire playboys and Ian Fleming fans such as JFK and Hugh Hefner - lurk behind both After the Sunset and the new Alfie, despite their radically different milieus."

In the Independent:

• "At the behest of a small, remarkably well-preserved, curiously-accented 71-year-old filmmaker with leonine hair and a bulky red quilted jacket, the dark, dank London of 1837 is bustling to life." Craig McLean visits the set of Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist. 16 weeks of shooting, 800 extras, an estimated budget of nearly $60 million.

• Roger Clarke tells the story of the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark that always gets the biggest laughs.

• Interviews: Carlo Bizio with Leonardo DiCaprio (admiring words all around for both Howard Hughes and Martin Scorsese, of course) and Tiffany Rose with Jennifer Tilly (focus on the voice and her gay fan base).

Doug Cummings: 3 notes.

John Hiscock previews The Aviator ("DiCaprio is in virtually every scene and he gives the best performance of his career") and Phantom of the Opera ("lacks the mystery and tension of the stage production").

Also in the Telegraph:

• Hiscock interviews Dustin Hoffman.
• Mark Monahan looks back on L.A. Confidential.
• Brett Ratner tells Benjamin Secher what he loves so much about Being There.

Those in San Francisco might well consider catching Harold Lloyd's Movie Crazy at the Balboa Theater on Sunday night. Lloyd's granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd, will be on hand to introduce the film and sign copies of her book, Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D.

The Broken Saints team has announced the release of their mammoth DVD package.

Bush's Red Army is on the march, and it's no secret that they've got Hollywood in their cross-hairs. But Shark Tale? Yep. "The film does not come right out and say that we should all accept homosexuality," warns Ed Vitagliano, "reviewing" the film for the American Family Association, but it "comes far too close to taking a bite out of traditional moral and spiritual beliefs." (Thanks, Joe!)

So how do those new tax breaks for film production really work? Cinemocracy outlines the basics.

Online viewing tip. Errol Morris has posted a fascinating clip that might be something of a sketch for the Movie Movie, "an aborted project... based on the idea of taking Donald Trump, Mikhail Gorbachev and others and putting them in the movies they most admire. Isn't it possible that in an alternative universe Donald Trump actually starred in Citizen Kane?"

Posted by dwhudson at November 19, 2004 3:09 PM