Shorts, 4/7.

"[T]hough the Bush administration has done its best to alienate us from the world, this year's Philadelphia Film Festival proves we may not be so far apart," writes Sam Adams, introducing this week's Philadelphia City Paper cover story: "We've picked three stories of postwar recovery from the festival's offerings - films that differ in tone, setting and date but share a common goal: helping countries rebuild themselves." Those three, by the way, are: Midwinter Night's Dream, Shake Hands With the Devil and I Know Where I'm Going!.

More in the City Paper on the festival that opens today and runs through April 20:

• Adams on how the PFF has managed to present a wide range of films from Asia.

• The staff writes up short takes on the first week's offerings, marking a few "Recommended" and a select few "Highly Recommended."

• Elisa Ludwig tells the unusual production story behind cellar, a tight drama about two friends locked in a basement.

Also in the City Paper:

• Cindy Fuchs on Monsieur N., depicting "a series of political and romantic intrigues" played out during Napoleon's last days in exile, Fever Pitch, Nick Horby's novel "in its most watered-down version yet," and Sahara, offering "anemic (if loud) action and a disturbingly retro-racist plot."

• Adams on the Philadelphia Holocaust Film Series, April 9 through 13, and Michael Moore Hates America.

• The City Paper's "Movie Shorts" archive, a handy second opinion if, say, the New Yorker's "Film File" just gets too too.

You'd think it's Hazardous Building Materials Week or something. As our interview with Blue Vinyl director Judith Hefland runs at the main site, another disturbing doc screens tonight at the Walter Reade in NYC and later this month at the 2nd annual Artivist Film Festival in LA (April 20 through 24).

"Equal parts mystery, horror film, black comedy, corporate indictment and human tragedy, Libby, Montana sheds what light it can on a menace once mined in that town, the asbestos contaminate vermiculite," writes Ray Young in a solid review at Flickhead anchored even deeper by links to several further resources. "The film pulsates with urgency and commitment, and manages splendidly without the abrasive finger-pointing and knee-jerk aggression that has marred reportage in our age of so-called reality television."

Doug Cummings has an excellent entry on The Corporation, "a crash course for those unfamiliar with the ideological and historical underpinnings of the corporation and yet it is also humorous, engaging, and visually creative." As for the two-disc DVD, "this was clearly a labor of love."

At Alternet:

• LiP Magazine's Ariane Conrad Hyde interviews Heather Rogers, director of Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage.

• Don Hazen recommends Left of the Dial

• Jon Frosch defends Woody Allen.

"When it comes to documentary film festivals, April has evolved into a key month, featuring some important festivals around the globe, among them the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in the United States, Hot Docs in Canada, and the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece." At indieWIRE, Jonny Leahan notes which films are being talked about most - and why. Also: Brian Brooks briefly tells the back story on "[g]uerilla documentary The Art of Flight" and previews MIX, the New York Queer Experimental Media Festival relaunching today.

Salon gives Andrew O'Hehir enough space to chat through the state of Chinese cinema on his way towards a review of Kung Fu Hustle. Also: Dana Cook collects memories of Saul Bellow.

The "mission" of Downfall, argue David Cesarani and Peter Longerich in the Guardian, "is to depict the German people as the last victims of Nazism whose true defenders were a band of brave German soldiers, including SS men, who fought until overwhelmed by the Bolshevik hordes. This is no accident. The film's agenda echoes the Historikerstreit controversy in the late 1980s over interpretations of the Third Reich, and parallels the efforts of former Chancellor Kohl to allow Germans to feel comfortable with their past."

Also in the Guardian:

• The final extract from Jane Fonda's My Life So Far. It's the Ted Turner section. A shorter clip on the workout video slipped online yesterday, too.

• US philanthropists are sending Ben Kingsley on a tour of the Middle East with Gandhi.

• Guy Dammann and Xan Brooks on elections in the movies.

• Ian Sample reports that Sony "has patented a device to evoke smells, flavours and even a sense of touch in audience's brains, in the hope of enhancing the movie-watching experience." It's evidently some ways off, but it's also very weird: Do you really want to go to the movies to get your brain microwaved? More: Jenny Hogan in the New Scientist, via Movie City Indie.

Also via MCI:

• The Shanghai Daily reports on a press conference with Jia Zhangke.

• FilmForce is running a diary by Robert Brinkmann, director and producer of Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party.

• In the Daily Trojan, USC's student newspaper, Kate Findley asks Scott Foundas (LA Weekly, see below for lots more) and Kenneth Turan (Los Angeles Times) how much power America's film critics yield.

Speaking of critics. The cinetrix has found the interview of the day, hands down: Aaron Aradillas's with Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman. Longish, not exactly new, but heavens; if you're short of time at the moment, the cinetrix, as is her wont, has pulled an excellent quote, and Ben, who blogs at The Whine Colored Sea, has pulled half a dozen.

"[D]efinitely the weirdest thing I've ever seen." Cinematical's Peter Sciretta catches What Is It? and points to Brett Buckalew's interview with Crispin Glover for Film Stew.

Also: Karina Longworth gleams news of films selected to screen in competition at Cannes from Variety. Among the highlights: David Cronenberg's A History of Violence, Gus Van Sant's Last Days, Lars Von Trier's Manderlay, Jim Jarmusch's Bill Murray movie and the Wim Wenders-Sam Shepard collaboration that may set Wenders back on track.

The trailers swarming the Net and the theaters right now aren't just ominous warnings that the summer is about to hit and to hit hard; they also help industry watchers "handicap which studio stupidos are about to involuntarily spend more time with their families," writes Nikki Finke before launching into riffs on the major offenders.

Also in the LA Weekly:

• A Michael Snow retrospective is headed to LA and it's going to be all over town. Scott Foundas: "For five decades now, this founding father of avant-garde cinema has been tearing apart and reassembling the DNA of film language in a series of dazzling experiments - and lest that sound austere or forbidding, I should add that Snow possesses a healthy reserve of impish good humor."

• Ella Taylor on Eros, "either a deep curtsy to Michelangelo Antonioni by two major talents who have outstripped him, or a sad homage to a master whose powers sank into decline even before he suffered a stroke in the early 90s."

• Foundas: "Anyone seeking proof of the profound diversity of interests and influences at work in today’s French cinema need look no further than the ninth edition of the City of Lights, City of Angels film festival (April 11 - 17)."

• And once again, Scott Foundas: "Even on its own terms, Fever Pitch strikes out."

The Times of Harvey Milk will screen in Austin next week as part of the Texas Documentary Tour. Anne S Lewis, who interviews director Rob Epstein, writes: "Watching this film 27 years after the events it portrays, one is struck by its feeling of timelessness, probably because the Harvey Milk story is the past, present, and future of the gay struggle for co-existence across the country."

Also in the Austin Chronicle: Marc Savlov talks to Jim Van Bebber about making The Manson Family and notes a few other key attractions in the Alamo Drafthouse program. And Josh Rosenblatt takes in Criterion's release of Kagemusha.

Wiley Wiggins points to another Austin event, this one happening on Saturday: "Luke Savisky presents Film Actions V, the latest in his series of ethereal live projection performances. The visuals will be accompanied live with musical pieces by Graham Reynolds and Stars of the Lid, with a special guest performance by the Tosca String Quartet (fresh from their world tour with David Byrne)."

Despite a devastating fire last year, the Belfast Film Festival is back this year with "its biggest program yet," reports Jane Campbell in the Independent. The fest opens today and runs through April 16.

Highlights of the European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück, April 20 through 24: An "extensive" program of work by Harun Farocki, an Owen Land retrospective and the further adventures of Peter Greenaway and those suitcases.

Chuck Tryon's slouching towards an excellent Saturday in Atlanta: Two Harold Lloyd classics accompanied by the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra at the Rialto.

"Are studios finally embracing the Net?" asks Todd at Twitch. Also: News of a live action adaptation of Urasawa Naoki's manga series, Monster.

Online browsing tip. Sean Spillane loves those movie star tribute sites. Now he's turned up a keeper: The Meeker Museum.

Online browsing and viewing tip. Works by Marc Lafia.

Posted by dwhudson at April 7, 2005 4:06 PM