GreenCine Daily: Weekend shorts.

February 26, 2005

Weekend shorts.

Jonathan Letham kicks off Nerve's special Film Issue with the provocatively titled piece, "Donald Sutherland's Buttocks, or, Sex in the Movies for People Who Have Sex":

This, to put it bluntly, is what I want.... films that install themselves... in my sexual imagination, by making me feel that sex is a part of life, a real and prosaic and reproducible fact in the lives of the characters, as it is in my own life, and at the same time makes me feel that sex is an intoxicant, a passage to elsewhere, a jolt of the extraordinary which stands entirely outside the majority of the experiences of the characters, as it stands in relation to my own experience. Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. I want the paradox. I want it all.

"In recognition of Sunday's Academy Awards, The Smoking Gun offers this special tribute to Hollywood, the source of many memorable lawsuits, restraining orders, narcotics arrests, palimony beefs, divorce petitions, indictments, and other assorted paper-based entertainment."

With five Oscar nominations, it's a banner year for African Americans. For the mainstream press, J Douglas Allen-Taylor argues at Alternet, the only question that arises is, "[W]hat could black folks possibly have to be concerned about this year?... Among African Americans, however, [Jamie] Foxx's nomination stands out. And that is because Ray is a far different major-release movie than we have ever seen on American screens. In a combination of content, pace, and presentation, Ray is a black movie."

Oscar, Oscar, Oscar...

Craig Phillips doesn't just predict the winners - he reminds us of who got shafted. Paul Giamatti, for example. And Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind pops up in the Shaftie division of more than a few categories, too.
Andrew Gumbel in the Independent: "Essentially, it's a contest between second-rate Martin Scorsese, who has never won anything, and third-rate Clint Eastwood, who has probably won more often than he deserved."
Via Movie City News, three Los Angeles Times writers put together a story on the costs of greasing the Academy's wheels - prohibitive, of course, for smallish films. David Poland posts a few facts worth keeping in mind, though.

It's not every day you find an assistant professor of English expounding on the translation of Yeats's poems into Irish in a boxing movie on the Op-Ed page of the nation's premiere paper, but today is such a day: Wes Davis.

Also in the New York Times:

The Best of Youth

Manohla Dargis on the Oscars: "The event may be the ultimate in self-affirmation - we like ourselves, we really, really like ourselves! - but it reflects a larger conversation this otherwise publicity-driven industry does not always share with the rest of us."
AO Scott's utterly persuasive recommendation for The Best of Youth.
Lizette Alvarez profiles Sophie Okonedo, who "has been embraced [in London] as the new face of multicultural modern Britain."

Eu Su-ung chats briefly with Takeshi Kitano about Blood and Bones in the Chosun Ilbo. Via Twitch.

In the Guardian:

Zoe Williams

Catalina Soreno Moreno

Maria Full of Grace

John Patterson on Isabelle Huppert, "one of the greatest screen actors alive, fearless, bold and ferociously brilliant."

Sam Delaney meets Chris Rock.
Today's other Oscar piece: Dan Glaister on what's in those gift baskets.
Aida Edemariam caught David Thomson's reading at the London Review Bookshop.

"Chess in the Cinema / Schach im Kino." Via Bitter Cinema.

Festivals:

Times Square Film Festival

Times Square Centennial Film Festival, Mondays, through April 4.
The Cinequest Film Festival opens on Wednesday in San Jose, an event of far more than usual interest to all of us at GreenCine because one of our own, Jonathan Marlow, is the cinematographer at the right hand of director Scott Smith for Charlie the Ox, featuring Jon Polito, who'll be honored with the Maverick Spirit Award.
Online viewing tip. Dozens of trailers for films screening at SXSW, March 11 - 19.