Shorts, 11/29.

Sundance (January 20 - 30) is unveiling its line-up today and tomorrow. Keep an eye on indieWIRE's Park City coverage for the roll-out. Eugene Hernandez is already sorting through the finalists for the 2005 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards.

In an entry labeled simply "Weird," Wiley Wiggins notes: "There's a picture of my eyes (both real and illustrated) on the 2005 Sundance Film Festival feature films page."

Jeff Economy in the Chicago Reader on John Cassavetes: "During his lifetime, his films were dismissively referred to as 'home movies,' but in the age of iMovie his kitchen-sink production studio looks positively prescient."

In the New York Times, Kate Aurthur has a fascinating piece on a potentially fascinating doc about a clearly fascinating subject. Xan Cassavetes's Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession tells two intertwining stories, the first of the highly influential LA area cable station and the second of its programmer, Jerry Harvey. Evidently, Xan's father was a fan, too.

In April, Film Threat reviewer Phil Hall went wild over a unique feature called Getting Out of Rhode Island - 44 characters living out a story in real time over two-and-a-half hours. Now that FT is releasing it on DVD, Mark Bell interviews filmmaker Christian de Rezendes.

Mark Schilling in Screen Daily on Blood and Bones: "In Shunpei, Takeshi Kitano has found the role he was born for - or perhaps raised for.... This monster makes for the best film to come out of Japan this year."

"For years I have been lobbying for Chi sei? (Beyond the Door) as one of the most maligned movies in horror history. David Colin, Jr, the talented child actor starring in both this movie and its quasi-sequel, Shock, had apparently made only those two movies and nothing ever since; nobody seemed to know anything about him." Until, that is, Colin himself emailed Harald Gruenberger and an interview ensued.

For Film-Philosophy, Hedwig Gorski reviews The Cinema of Andrzej Wajda: The Art of Irony and Defiance, a collection of essays edited by John Orr and Elzbieta Ostrowska.

"There's a lot of guff about the greatness of Scorsese, and apparently there are still people around who swallow this line," grumbles George Fasel. "On the other hand, there is this fabulously gifted Spaniard who seems to leap from one Himalayan peak to the next highest to the next highest, utterly without effort."

"With Gosford Park, and now with Vanity Fair, [Julian] Fellowes has established himself as Hollywood's top toff, the man you turn to when you want to know how a duchess holds a teaspoon." But Lynn Barber finds the wound in him that makes him human.

Also in the Observer:

• Phil Hoad profiles Stacy Peralta.
• Stephanie Merritt checks in with Billy Connolly.
• Mary Poppins is headed to the stage. Kate Kellaway reports.

Newsweek's Jeff Giles visits the set of Peter Jackson's King Kong. Naturally, things are going swimmingly. Then, Devin Gordon: "Like the first two Rings DVDs, the extended ROTK isn't just for obsessives. It's a flat-out better movie than the one that swept the Oscars."

DK Holm rounds up a few choice holiday films and DVDs over at Movie Poop Shoot.

Here comes a "sudden rush" of adaptations of works by Roald Dahl, reports Hugh Davies in the Telegraph: Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr Fox and Robert Altman's six-part TV series based on Dahl's short stories.

Time's Richard Corliss: "If a batch of recent movies were to ask, 'Are we sexier, more mature - better - than films of 30 years ago?', the brutal, truthful answer would be, 'No way.'" Via Movie City News.

A fun idea for the Reel Roundtable's series of weekly screenings: Have bloggers choose and introduce a film. The series kicks off with Greg Allen presenting Hirokazu Kore-eda's After Life. Elizabeth Carmody has more.

Wendy Mitchell gets out and about in Greece before heading home from Thessaloniki.

Online browsing tip. 1kilo.org.

Posted by dwhudson at November 29, 2004 9:24 AM