Shorts, 1/18.

In the Al-Ahram Weekly, Amina Elbendary talks to director Yousry Nasrallah about his film, Bab Al-Shams (The Gate of the Sun), while Mohamed El-Assyouti offers his take on the nearly 280-minute retelling of the Palestinian struggle based on the novel by Elias Koury.

Also via Perlentaucher's "Magazinrundschau":

• Russell Davies in the Times Literary Supplement on Beyond the Sea: "Every time the boy-apparition Darin pops his head round a door with some perky caveat, cinema evaporates and pub theatre takes over."

• Martín Solares's profile of Alejandro Jodorowsky for Radar (and in Spanish).

• A preview of some of the highlights headed to screens in India in 2005 from Outlook India's Namrata Joshi.

Abhishek Bachcan had a very good 2004, notes Shruti Bhasin at Planet Bollywood.

Filmbrain and his readers are discussing whether this whole idea that Kim Ki-duk might have taken more than appropriate from Tsai Ming-liang could possibly hold water.

To tackle Jeong Yong-gi's Doll Master, Koreanfilm.org regular Kyu Hyun Kim dons a boisterous alter-ego: Yuhn Mi-kuk.

Jason Wood has a "Quick Chat" with Nuri Bilge Ceylan: "I am the sum of everything that has influenced me in my life. My observations, my own life, other films, everything. Tarkovsky is one of the filmmakers that has influenced but even more than Tarkovsky I would cite Ozu." Also at Kamera: Christopher Sandford on Paul Newman at 80 and a review of Michel Chion's entry in the BFI Modern Classics series, The Thin Red Line, by Ben McCann.

Well said, Cinemocracy: "By giving Gunner Palace an 'R' rating, the MPAA effectively hinders the most sought-after candidates for military duty from appreciating the risk of what they're about to get themselves into."

"So why is George W Bush taking the oath of office this week and not John Kerry?" asks Errol Morris in the New York Times. "For me, the answer is clear: Mr. Kerry failed because of his inability to tell his own story."

Also in the NYT:

• David Carr remembers Ruth Warrick, 1915 - 2005.

• Richard Severo remembers Virginia Mayo, 1920 - 2005.

• Dave Kehr on new DVD releases.

The Independent presents a guide to awards season.

Somehow, I missed this top ten: Aaron at Out of Focus, leading with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

"It was on of those little accidents that happens on the set, the trash can tripped over, and Sean [Penn], who inhabits the roles he plays, he did just what Sam Bicke would do." Director Niels Mueller talks to Ray Pride about The Assassination of Richard Nixon.

At indieWIRE, the Reverse Shot team considers Siegrid Alnoy's She's One of Us. In the Voice, David Ng speaks with the director and Melissa Anderson reviews the "occasionally affecting but overdetermined debut feature."

Also:

• Rob Nelson on two docs Martin Scorsese made 27 and 31 years ago, Italianamerican and American Boy: "Mind you, this is a huge fan talking here. Looking back over the last half-dozen Scorsese pictures, I count no fewer than four masterful explorations of the matters that have most concerned him since the successful release of Cape Fear: privilege, desire, anxiety, isolation, social custom, world history, and cinema."

• J Hoberman on Assault on Precinct 13, the remake and "a surprisingly credible action flick."

• Benjamin Strong on Elektra, which "offers no surprises, and whether or not you'll appreciate its modest charms depends entirely on whether you too have been anticipating [Jennifer] Garner's new outfit."

• "Tracking Shots": David Blaylock on Coach Carter and Hoberman on With God on Our Side.

Matt Lee reviews Wittgenstein, Theory and the Arts, a collected edited by Richard Allen and Malcolm Turvey, for Film-Philosophy.

Craig Phillips asks, "Did anyone catch the Guy Maddin reference on The Simpsons last night?"

The universe is expanding, and so are screens, and it's all giving Jim Knipfel a very hard time.

Also in the New York Press:

• Armond White on Coach Carter, but really, it's all about Samuel L Jackson; and - this is one of the great things about White; he takes music video seriously - on Spike Jonze's Ludacris video, Get Back.

• AD Amorosi closes his review of M with a say-whatter: "Everyone from Hannibal Lecter to John Wayne Gacy is in debt to Lang and Lorre."

• Saul Austerlitz on Everyday People, "Jim McKay's jaw-dropping day in the life of the workers of an iconic Brooklyn restaurant," and The Story of the Weeping Camel, "one of the oddest films in recent memory to strike arthouse gold."

Tod Booth is back, tanned and blogging.

Look who else is blogging: American Jobs director Greg Spotts.

Roger Avary asks, "How could the UI workflow differences in iMovie be changed to be closer to [Final Cut Pro HD]?"

Om Malik: "The fate of TiVo also highlights the dilemma facing a lot of 'exploding TV' start-ups." He also collects views from around the Web on what's happening to the company. Via Steve Rosenbaum, who has a few thoughts of his own as well.

Online browsing tip. The site for Richard Kelly's Southland Tales, via Todd at Twitch.

Posted by dwhudson at January 18, 2005 3:39 PM