Shorts, 12/17.

Before Sunset is "the best movie of the year," argues Nathan Kosub at Stop Smiling, but not because it's some sort of American equivalent to an Eric Rohmer film: "A movie about love at middle age, reunion, and expectations might sound like Eric Rohmer, but three films from the second half of the French director’s long career - Autumn Tale, A Good Marriage, and A Tale of Winter - exemplify the differences, as subtle as Ozu’s family variations."

The Guardian's John Patterson doesn't address the Rohmer issue, but he's in full agreement with Kosub as to which film is the best of 2004: "[I]t was an eloquent repudiation by example of the bloated and empty spectacles - and sequels - that mainstream Hollywood laid upon us. But much of its appeal had to do, tangentially at least, with geopolitics.... As much as anything else, Before Sunset is a fantasy about how a lively discourse between the two countries, and by extension, the two main western power blocs, might or should be conducted."

Quentin Tarantino moderated a discussion last night at MoMA with Bob and Harvey Weinstein, kicking off a celebration of Miramax's 25th anniversary with a series of 50 films to be screened at the Museum through next summer. IndieWIRE editor Eugene Hernandez listened in on the conversation which, of course, reveled in old times, but naturally steered soon enough to the company's ongoing falling out with Disney. Eugene adds a few more thoughts on his blog: "[I]t was obvious to me that the brothers are working hard to tout their successes and build sympathy as they continue to battle Disney, and also showcase themselves for potential investors." Also: A who's-who of the NYC indie scene gathers for something "like a night of greatest hits from 04 parties past."

"I think that buying a movie at Sundance for x number of dollars as an advance and opening it in five, 10, 20 screenings and hoping for the best is pure gambling. It's economically idiotic - I don't care who you are. It makes no sense." That's Larry Meistrich, telling the New York Observer's Jake Brooks why the approach to distribution his company, Film Movement, takes "collapses the window between the release of a film in the theaters and its DVD release and cultivates a built-in audience, much like a cable station - [and] is a way to minimize the gamble of independent-film distribution."

Hal Hartley, too, knows the system's undergoing rapid changes. His new DV feature, The Girl From Monday, will debut at Sundance, screen right after at MoMA and then, right away, go out on DVD via his own label. Ray Pride quotes the director: "I attended Sundance in 1990 and 1991 with my first two features.... I could see that the films we were making then, and the way we were producing them, had the professionals thinking about new distribution trends. 13 years later, I'm back with new work and everyone is talking about even newer - more radically different - trends in distribution."

Movie City News has the list of bests from the Washington DC Film Critics Association. Nice to see another film catch a few rays of spotlight, particularly one as worthy as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Best Film, Director, Acting Ensemble and Screenplay.

New York Times book reviewer Michiko Kakutani finds David Thomson's The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood "appealing but overstuffed and at times undernourished" while the updated version of The New Biographical Dictionary of Film is "wonderfully entertaining." You knew that about the Dictionary, but anyone who's worried lately that Thomson's writing is heading off on some weird trajectory won't be comforted. "Sometimes, Mr Thomson gets carried away with his own musings," writes Kakutani; and she's got evidence, too.

Also, it's biopic season. You'll have noticed. And for every biopic there's a book, at least one, some of them direct tie-ins, some of them long preceding the movies they've inspired. Caryn James sorts through the pile, recommending a few, warning you off others.

Back to the Guardian:

• Universal will be the first studio to make a movie set in the midst of Dubya's sequel to his father's war. "The Battle for Falluja," reports Dan Glaister, "promises to depict the story from the point of view of US soldiers and politicians; it seems unlikely that the plight of the Iraqis will figure too prominently in Hollywood's take on the subject."

• Sure, there are "omissions and distortions" in Ray, writes Richard Williams, but: "You could barely slide a cigarette paper between [Jamie] Foxx's portrayal of Charles and the real man."

• Geoffrey Macnab interviews Zhang Yimou. And so does Julia Stuart for the Independent.

Twitch presents an "Essential Christmas Movie Guide." And via Twitch, Terry Gilliam welcomes you to the official site for Tideland; three trailers you will want to see; and a rumor: Nicolas Cage in the US remake of Oldboy?

Tim Cooper also looks back on the best and worst of Christmas movies. Also in the Independent: Tiffany Rose talks with Kate Beckinsale.

The Telegraph picks 22 Region 2 DVDs of the year. Also: Sheila Johnston listens to Tracey Emin finally decide on a favorite movie: Rosemary's Baby, but getting there, you take a lively path with a few surprises around each corner. And: Mark Monahan on why everything is right about Dangerous Liaisons.

Holden Frith offers a "First Glance Review" of Danny Boyle's Millions in the London Times.

Jeremy Harrison: "The Australian Film Commission (AFC) launched IndiVision (media release) yesterday, it's new low budget feature film making initiative.... The funding devoted to it is laughable, but at least it's a push in the right direction... Rolf De Heer (The Tracker) and Chris Noonan (Babe) have already signed on to the project." More, via Movie City Indie, from Garry Maddox in the Sidney Morning Herald.

Ed Rampell for Alternet: "[A]s On the Waterfront is re-released it's important for 21st-century audiences to place the movie in its proper historical context as a case study in Red Scare movie propaganda."

San Francisco, tonight, the Castro: "A Judy Garland Christmas." Meanwhile, Steve Rhodes sends word that there'll be a gathering tomorrow afternoon in front of the theater to "Save the Castro." In happier Bay Area news, Noir City 3 is slated for the Balboa from January 14 through 27.

Aaron Dobbs looks ahead to the final week of the "Essential Noir" series at Film Forum. More NYC goings on via the cinetrix: In the Realms of the Unreal, also at Film Forum and, at the Anthology, Joseph Cornell, people, tonight.

Brian Flemming points to SinclairAction, "a campaign to protest Sinclair Broadcast Group's continued misuse of public airwaves to air one-sided politically charged programming without a counterpoint."

Chuck Olsen's getting more and more excited about videoblogging these days, and understandably so. Among his latest finds (and there are more; click his name): BlogTelevision.net.

Second online viewing tip. The finalists for the Arts Project Moving Image Contest in which entrants were asked "to create short films demonstrating some of the tensions between art and intellectual property law, and the intellectual property issues artists face, focusing on either music or documentary film." Via greg.org.

Posted by dwhudson at December 17, 2004 1:47 PM