Shorts, 3/4.

"What is the problem with you English? You killed millions of Indians and Africans, and yet you go nuts about the circumstances of the death of a single Serbian pigeon. I am touched you hold the lives of Serbian birds so dear, but you are crazy. I will never understand how your minds work." Emir Kusturica has a point here. A British censor insists on cutting a two-second scene from Life is a Miracle in which a cat pounces on pigeon that's already dead. Little wonder Lars von Trier cut the donkey. But really, this is among the least of Kusturica's concerns, as Fiachra Gibbons learns when he visits him in Kustendorf, the utopian village he's waded deep into debt to build as a refuge from "the new bolshevism" of "corporate control." A terrific profile of an iconoclast.

The Guardian also runs an extract from Clinton Heylin's Despite the System: Orson Welles Vs the Hollywood Studios. And John Patterson looks ahead to an arid spring and summer at the movies.

Woody Allen:

It could not be worse: you are born; you don't know why, you don't know what the story is; you have a short amount of time that's pregnant with illness, suffering, carnage and conflict; and you end up being exterminated for no offense you've made, nothing bad that you've done... That's my comic vision so I'm not a lot of fun at parties. I'm not the guy you want to have a good time.

Also in the London Times: James Knight and Katrina Manson report from "the African Cannes," Fespaco. The festival runs through tomorrow in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

The Independent is the media partner for the first Birds Eye View Film Festival, March 8 through 13, devoted to the work of women filmmakers. Leslie Felperin explains why this is particularly necessary at a time when we've become complacent about the gender gap. Related: Cari Beauchamp, author of Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood, the book on which Bridgett Terry's doc is based, presents a much shorter overview. Via the cinetrix.

Also: Kaleem Aftab profiles Sophie Okonedo and, from John Hiscock, we learn a little more about Danny Boyle's plans for Sunshine. Related: Todd at Twitch has caught wind of a September release for Boyle's 2002 30-minute short, Alien Love Triangle.

More news via Todd: The AP's Martin Steinberg reports that Howard Shore is "working on an opera version of David Cronenberg's horror film The Fly for a 2007 premiere by Los Angeles Opera, a collaboration with Cronenberg and librettist David Henry Hwang of M. Butterfly fame." Wonder if Shore's ever seen Jeff Goldblum in the musical version of The Elephant Man.

A Gunner Palace double feature in Salon: Mark Follman talks to Michael Tucker as well as a few vets and active-duty soldiers who tell him the film "offers the first true picture of military service in Iraq... Apparently some military officials are concerned that Gunner Palace is a little too real." Andrew O'Hehir finds the doc "more than cinéma vérité on-site with the U.S. Army's 2/3 Field Artillery at the garish, half-demolished former palace of Uday Hussein. It's also a nerve-jangling work of visual poetry and ironic juxtaposition, and a powerful human story of a group of brave young Americans thrust through the looking glass into a confused and confusing new reality." More from AO Scott in the New York Times.

Anna Shepard certainly didn't set out to like Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs. "I may be a tolerant, 21st- century twentysomething, but that doesn't mean I have to celebrate X-rated action and shoe-staring rock in a film with virtually no plot or script," she writes in the New Statesman. "Fortunately, modern gals can also change their minds. I found the 'muckiest film ever' to be honest, brave and oddly compelling."

Jon Lovitz is staging his comeback as a stand-up comic and, according to Carl Kozkowski in LA CityBeat, audience reaction "could very well signal the rebirth of a star." Also: Andy Klein on The Jacket, "a trip with its own emotional logic," and on a much more frightening picture, Bambi: "It's like an animated version of The Diary of Anne Frank, with the whole human race as the Nazis. I'd like to say that it works because of the character development, but that would overlook the really scary animation."

Jonathan Rosenbaum on Jem Cohen's feature debut: "[I]t's highly ambitious, has plenty to say, and is far from inaccessible. Chain was shot in 16-millimeter over six years in hundreds of malls around the world - Atlanta, Dallas, Orlando, Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, Melbourne. That it's impossible to tell the malls' locations is part of the point." Don't skim or you'll miss the comparison towards the end with The Savage Eye.

Bomb is rerunning Ron Rifkin's 1994 interview with Arthur Miller.

"There are very few existing properties that I’d be interested in writing. I like making up my own stories.... But if someone asked me to write a James Bond film, you wouldn’t see my arse for dust. Sad, innit?" Francis Hwang reBlogs Warren Ellis.

Morgan Spurlock:

Well, we didn’t take home the little gold man, but what a capper to undoubtedly the best year of my life as filmmaker. I predicted weeks ago that Ross and Zana would take the honors... I am so proud of them and all that they have done and believe me when I say, after having met them at Sundance last year and subsequently spending lots of time with them at various festivals and screenings over the last 13 months, it couldn’t have happened to two nicer, more deserving people.

Which leads to an online listening tip via Movie City News: NPR's Melissa Block talks with Born Into Brothels co-director Zana Briski about her plans to build a school for the Kids With Cameras.

Doug Cummings: "One of the last things Susan Sontag did before she passed away last December was program a sequel to her last touring series of classic Japanese films. Of the nine titles in the new series now playing at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, I'll remark on the [Mikio] Naruse selections here."

Warner Bros is the new Criterion Collection, argues Fred Kaplan: "I know of no other label, in fact, whose output has been more consistently spectacular." Also in Slate: David Edelstein on The Best of Youth: "This is the sort of movie you'll recommend to friends and they'll go, 'Six hours! Are you nuts?' and then call you up and thank you in the middle of the night." At Gay City News, though, Steve Erickson aims to tone down the so-far overwhelming critical reaction.

Paul Fischer's package of Be Cool interviews at Film Monthly: Uma Thurman, John Travolta, The Rock, Harvey Keitel, F Gary Gray, Andre 3000 (the Outkast movie is finished, by the way) and Christina Milian.

IndieWIRE Insider: "Missed the True/False Film Fest in Missouri last week? No worries. Pete Bland was blogging from the event for the Columbia Daily Tribune."

Michael Tully's found "a miracle of perfection," Tom Perrotta's short story, "The Smile on Happy Chang's Face."

Vince Keenan: "I didn't plan on this being 'Thrillers of '87' week. That's just how it worked out. Honest."

"Bush in 30 Years" is the MoveOn's latest contest. Submit your Flash entry between March 7 and 25. Via Fimoculous.

Online viewing tip #1. Greg Allen: "Rex's mention of Interpol's new video reminded me of the short film contest they threw last year for the release of their album, Antic." Long story short: 7 out of 10 winners are viewable. Short story long: Greg's concept for his submission, "Unrelated Story," alternatively titled "Public Pervert."

Online viewing tip #2. SXSW. More trailers in bigger sizes.

Online viewing tip #3. Amy Krouse Rosenthal's written a book called Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. As part of her Lost and Found Project, she "intentionally left" 150 copies in various hiding spots around Chicago. Towards the bottom of that front page, on the right, you'll find "Watch the video clip." Do. Via Coudal Partners, where you'll also find many more links to many more wonderful things.

Posted by dwhudson at March 4, 2005 7:33 AM