Shorts, 2/7.

Chuck Tyron on Benjamin Smoke: "[W]hat I found more interesting about the film is it's treatment of Benjamin's place within an Atlanta culture that itself seems to be on the verge of being lost."

Matt Clayfield weighs the dichotomies of Vertigo.

With the DVD releasing tomorrow, indieWIRE reruns Jason Guerrasio's talk with Greg Pak about his debut feature, Robot Stories.

Over at Maud Newton's blog, Emma has news of five literary adaptations in the works. For fun, match the director and the book:

1. Liev Schreiber	a. Their Eyes Were Watching God
2. Alfonso Cuarón	b. The Namesake
3. Darnell Martin	c. Running with Scissors
4. Mira Nair	d. Everything is Illuminated
5. Ryan Murphy	e. The History of Love

Like I say, just for fun.

Dennis Cozzalio, who met John Vernon on the set of Animal House, remembers the actor who died on February 1: "He infused what could have been a simple cartoon characterization with real gravitas, real arrogance, the real frustration of "the establishment" as the first hiccups of 60s rebellion began to manifest in the rebellious hi-jinks of real-life college students whom the Delta Tau Chi fraternity very closely resembled."

"Over the course of the next hour, the motion accelerated into a full battle scene: men toppling onto one another, suits ripped off, children hoisted aloft, women crying and weaving through the carnage. The music escalated. 'Mosh pit!' a child shouted." Phoebe Hogan reports on the making of Eve Sussman's Raptus.

Also in the New York Times:

• Hilary de Vries: "How difficult is it to play a mythic figure like Gabriel as opposed to, say, a soccer mom?" Tilda Swinton: "They're exactly the same, because no one you play is 'real.'"

• The organizers of the 25th anniversary screening of Raging Bull made a serious omission when it came to the guest list: Johnny Barnes, who plays and is still associated with Sugar Ray Robinson, profiled by Corey Kilgannon.

• The old synergy of movies and gaming is hot again, reports Laura M Holson.

• Maureen Dowd's spoilerific defense of Million Dollar Baby against the recent round of conservative attacks: "It's funny that the moviemaker stirring up the fuss is an icon of the right, a man the president's father aped when he said, 'Read my lips: No new taxes.'"

  Deborah Solomon has a light chat with the new head of the MPAA, Dan Glickman. Policy changes aren't to be expected, evidently.

• Anne Thompson has a strange short piece on Memoirs of a Geisha; sort of a progress report, I suppose.

• Richard Severo and Douglas Martin remember Ossie Davis, 1917 - 2005. More from George Fasel.

"They were strong and brave at a time when many Negro entertainers stood on the sidelines. Ruby [Dee] and Ossie were by Malcolm’s side, they were with Dr. King in Birmingham, Selma and the March on Washington, and never worried about the negative impact it might have on their careers." Spike Lee to Roger Ebert. Also via Movie City News, Christianity Today's top ten for 2004 and, in the New York Daily News, Alev Aktar's profile of Aishwarya Rai, who's about to star in a round of US features, John Clark's chat with producer Brian Grazer about Inside Deep Throat.

Speaking of which, Dave Itzkoff catches up with Harry Reems for New York: "I'm the thread to tell the story of social change in America." Also: Logan Hill meets Alan Alda: "Hawkish Hawkeye haters name-check him as a kind of flouncy, male Jane Fonda, despite a raft of devious, even homicidal roles - many of them Republicans."

Reviewing Rebels on the Backlot for Powell's, Gerry Donaghy finds so many errors he wonders if Sharon Waxman "spent a lot of time talking to all of the players, but very little time actually watching the movies she writes about."

In the Observer:

• Who was the real Mrs. Robinson? Charles Webb, author of the book which became a film, then a play and is now about to become the subject of another film, won't tell David Smith, but he's interested to see what will come of Rob Reiner's Rumor Has It.

• Dan Glaister profiles Graham King, whose "tiny Initial Entertainment Group has amassed 17 Oscar nominations since 1995."

• Mary Riddell: "Euthanasia is the latest box-office draw, and, like cinema popcorn, it does not come in frugal helpings."

• With Kevin Spacey reprising his breakout role in National Anthems at the Old Vic, Matt Wolf assesses 's tenure as the theater's artistic director so far.

Jeffrey Wells on the duelling versions of HG Wells's The War of the Worlds: "The notion of a Seattle-based, hip-pocket filmmaker beating Spielberg, Cruise and Paramount Pictures to the Martian punch is, at the very least, intriguing."

Andrew Pulver's Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose. Also in the Guardian: An extract from Jerry Stahl's novel, I, Fatty and Alison Powell's talk with Rodney Bingenheimer.

The Independent seems to be having linkage problems at the moment, but this comes through: David Thomson considers VW's remixed "Singin' in the Rain" a "vile transgression" but also only a symptom of a deeper problem.

David Denby in the New Yorker on Downfall: "German liberals need not fear: this human Hitler is just as disgusting as the iconic one. Yet I feel a certain exasperation in writing a description of what is, finally, an extremely literal-minded production."

Daren Fonda profiles BitTorrent author Bram Cohen for Time.

For Hollywood Bitchslap, Jason Whyte blurbs his picks screening at the 11th annual Victoria Independent Film & Video Festival, through the 13th. More on the vitality of the Canadian scene at SF IndieBlog.

Filmbrain highlights the Asian selections in the "Film Comment Selects" series, February 9 through 24.

At indieWIRE, Shilpa Mankikar looks ahead to San Jose's fest, Cinequest, March 2 through 13.

James Israel finally gets a chance to look back at Sundance and write up his favorites. So, too, does Scott Macaulay at Filmmaker (with a follow-up on The Squid and the Whale). Macaulay also posts an email from Barbet Schroeder, forwarded by Ted Hope: A plea for awareness of the disappearance of Libération journalist Florence Aubenas.

Cinemocracy's been billboard hunting.

Online viewing tip. The trailer for last year's collection of Digital Short Films by Three Filmmakers (Sogo Ishii, Bong Jun-ho and Yu Lik-wai), via Todd at Twitch, where Mack reminds us that the three directors for the next round are Shinya Tsukamoto, Il-gon Song and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

Posted by dwhudson at February 7, 2005 6:42 AM