April 29, 2005

Shorts pile-up.

Jean Vigo Chances are, you'll have noticed that a series of unfortunate events led to a meltdown around here for a few days. At long last (well, relatively speaking), GreenCine Daily is back, and in the meantime, the shorts collection has been swelling like a bladder sitting through The Best of Youth.

Before busting the dam, though, let's wish Jean Vigo a happy 100th by pointing to James Briggs's "Bon anniversaire"; via Howard Pierce. And if you're in New York, MoMA will be screening his films tonight and tomorrow. If you're not, there's Guy Dammann's appreciation of Vigo alongside Peter Bradshaw's of L'Atalante in today's Guardian; and Maximilian Le Cain's essay in Senses of Cinema.

Ok, let's spill...

As we enter the second week of the San Francisco International Film Festival, the San Francisco Bay Guardian blurbs on ahead, covering highlights through May 3 (the fest itself runs through May 5).

Also: Dennis Harvey on Bride of Frank, the "flabbergastingly tasteless joke that all participants seem joyfully 'in' on" that's just closed the "Giant Tubs of Mayonnaise: In Search of a Trailer Trash Aesthetic" series, and Cheryl Eddy on Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room: "[I]t's one you won't want to miss." For Slate's David Edelstein, by the way, the doc "has a touch of playful sadism that I quite enjoyed."

Doug Cummings had a rather "lackluster" string of days at SFFIF as far as films go: "Ten films, two incontestably good ones and one interesting mood piece, summarize my take, although I should note that the festival continues for another week and could improve." His "favorite film by far": Ana Poliak's Pin Boy (Parapalos).

The Tribeca Film Festival, of course, is the other vortex of cinematic goings on in the country and will be through May 1. IndieWIRE is the first of two spots to watch, with dispatches being filed daily at its Tribeca blog, where you'll also find pointers to further coverage, and the rest of its coverage gathered on this handy page right here. IndieWIRE has also already launched its Cannes blog, too, by the way.

The second source of the best Tribeca coverage is Cinematical, where Karina Longworth recently rounded up a helpful guide to all their entries from both Tribeca and the Independent Film Festival of Boston.

Also: Karina, who also happens to have the latest on the Maggie Gyllenhaal brouhaha, offers a fine mini-primer on the Situationists as she points to an evening of Films of the Situationist International: Guy Debord, Rene Vienet and Jean Isidore Isou at the Anthology Film Archives.

At Filmmaker, where there's a new issue up - more on that soon - Matthew Ross passes along "another indie-film horror story... Read and weep." Also: Steve Gallagher has an offline viewing tip for fans of 70s-era midnight movies (or, as John Waters calls them, "pothead movies"), a note on Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's Hitler: A Film From Germany and a pointer to the lineup for this year's Director's Fortnight in Cannes, while Scott Macaulay lists Sundance's 2005 Summer Lab projects.

Shake Hands With the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire won the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award at Sundance this year. Director Peter Raymont told eye's Joel McConvey that he believes the subject of his film, the Canadian general in charge of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda in 1994, is "a hero partly because he doesn't feel he is. He put his life on the line, and refused to leave when there was no more peace to keep. And he's been very straightforward about his post-traumatic stress disorder. That, to me, is more heroic than your [historical] American heroes, your Patton or MacArthur." Many agree. Gil Courtemanche, author of the novel A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali, in which a character is based on Dallaire (as is Nick Nolte's character in Hotel Rwanda), does not agree - and explains why in his review of Dallaire's 2003 memoir from which the doc takes its name.

Also in the Guardian:

  • Geoffrey Macnab meets Jean-Luc Godard and finds him, at 74, "as playful, provocative and perverse as ever." He is also insistent on the whole end of cinema thing - "'It's over,' he sighs. 'There was a time maybe when cinema could have improved society, but that time was missed'" - links Tarantino and Abu Ghraib, doesn't like DVDs, film festivals... "Even Colin McCabe's enthusiastic biography, Godard: A Portrait of the Artist at 70, meets with his disapproval." Even so, he considers Notre Musique an optimistic film: "reconciliation is possible."

  • Highly recommended: Tariq Ali's whiplash primer on the widely various cinemas of Islamic countries.

  • In the long run, this particular event may be remembered as little more than a footnote, but in the short-term, it's a big deal: Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner have signed up Steven Soderbergh to direct six movies on HD - that's the "one" of the one-two punch - and each will be released simultaneously in theaters, on DVD and television. More on this from Eugene Hernandez in indieWIRE.

  • Novelist, poet and biographer Jay Parini gets a kick out of James B Stewart's DisneyWar.

  • Chris Petit's Radio On will soon be released on DVD; here, he reviews Clinton Heylin's Despite the System: Orson Welles Versus the Hollywood Studios.

  • Mike Figgis is enraptured and saddened by Julia Blackburn's With Billie.

  • Andrew Pulver's adaptation of the week: Michael Radford's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

  • American sports movies follow a much simpler formula the British ones, explains Steven Wells.

  • John Patterson makes a bizarre argument against restoration.

"Sensational news! Philip Seymour Hoffman, arguably the greatest character actor of our generation, the guy you adored in Almost Famous and Boogie Nights, the guy who always delivers a fresh and unexpected gem of a performance in every single film he graces, absolutely loves our script! Pause for effect. And he passed on the part." Filmmakers David Munro and Xandra Castleton file an entry in their diary. Also in the San Francisco Chronicle: Benny Evangelista on the Open Media Network and Reyhan Harmanci has a lively report on Slavoj Zizek's appearance at the Roxie last week for the premiere of Zizek!.

When Chris Parry visited the set of Blade: Trinity for Spin, he discovered "a drug-affected, moody, uncooperative piece of garbage, masquerading as an actor while all around him tried to cover for his shitty attitude." That would be Wesley Snipes. Parry wrote the story as he saw it and Spin killed it. Not Hollywood Bitchslap, though. Also: David Cornelius's Ebertfest diary.

"Many of you know Georgia Hubley from Yo La Tengo, but you may not know that she came from a family of famous animators." Chickfactor, whose new website you'll know about if you follow Fimoculous like you should, talk to Hubley and her sister, Emily, about their Oscar-winning parents - and of course, their own work.

Even as his delightful second feature, Mutual Appreciation, makes the festival rounds, Andrew Bujalksi is now seeing his debut, Funny Ha Ha, opening in New York on Friday. Joshua Land chats him up and Dennis Lim notes that Funny "might be subtitled The Possibly Indelible Adventures of a Desultory Twentysomething." And he means that in the best way.

More Funnyness from Matt Zoller Seitz in the New York Press, the Reverse Shot team at indieWIRE, AO Scott in the NYT and an extra special recommendation from the cinetrix.

Also in the Village Voice:

"Sounder is one of the greatest films ever made in this country, but guardians of film culture repeatedly choose to overlook it," writes Armond White in the NYP. "Anyone who thinks they're above this has not understood how Sounder's classically simple story was transformed by its director, Martin Ritt."

Ron Rosenbaum rants against what he calls "The Cinema of Pretentious Stupidity," epitomized, for him, by Tarantino and merely exemplified recently by Robert Rodriguez's Sin City. "Let's face it: The graphic novel (with the exception of R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman and a few others), superhero mythology and the Cinema of Stupidity with which it's often linked, have become our era's bourgeois avant-garde. Zzzz."

Also in the New York Observer: Jake Brooks talks to Michael Corrente about the film he's working on based on the rise and fall of Buddy Cianci, former mayor of Providence, Rhode Island. David Mamet's written two drafts of the screenplay and Paul Giamatti may well take the lead. Related doc: Buddy, reviewed by Peter Sciretta at Cinematical.

Before leaving the NYO entirely, though, gotta note that the ever-diligent Alison Willmore, who writes the IFC Blog, catches and expertly dissects Rex Reed's acknowledgment that he pissed off more than a few people with that Oldboy review of his a while back.

In the Austin Chronicle:

AICN's Moriarty flies to London and visits the set of Tim Burton's Corpse Bride: "One of the things that has been important to the filmmakers since day one is that this not play out like a sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's obvious from looking at the footage that they've accomplished their goal." There are films one places on top tens with all the appropriate fanfare, and then, there are the orphans of such lists, banned to the private quarters, the cabinet of personal favorites. For me, Nightmare has long been one of these; Moriarty's report has me very much looking forward to Corpse Bride.

The PR tour for War of the Worlds begins. Der Spiegel interviews Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise. Q: "Would you have made the film if September 11 had not happened?" Spielberg: "Probably not." Then, Cruise gets many, many words in about Scientology.

Sin City and Kung Fu Hustle are, "without question, two of the most inventive screen entertainments released so far this year," writes AO Scott, but they are also "knowingly and ostentatiously derivative." The influence of Pulp Fiction on the former is obvious; but go back, argues Scott, to Who Framed Roger Rabbit and note the ways in which it was "a harbringer of things to come."

Also in the New York Times:

Telegraph critics make and explain their choices of the twenty greatest opening scenes of all time. Also: Untold Scandal director E J Yong tells Sheila Johnston why he was compelled to make a period drama and what it was about Barry Lyndon that inspired him. Also: Paul Gent looks back on Jules et Jim.

David Smith on Hugh Laurie's long overdue breakthrough in the US: "So, 'by golly!', Laurie must be playing one of those goggle-eyed, bumbling, umming and aahing aristocratic English types the Yanks delight in? Not a bit of it. He is, instead, a misanthropic but brilliant hospital specialist with an impeccable American accent in House, a medical drama which is this year's surprise US hit." Also in the Observer: Simon Reynolds on the real golden age of British pop.

In Outlook India, S Anand profiles the two biggest stars in Tamil cinema - and wonders what the fact that they're both over 50 has to say about that state's films. Via Perlentaucher's "Magazinrundschau.

At Alternet, Elizabeth Kadetsky asks, "Why don't Americans know Amitabh Bachchan?"

Grady Hendrix has been doing more than blogging on Asian films for Variety recently; he's also been conducting quick interviews: Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Wu Jing. But this is short, sharp and great: "Asian Movie Myths Debunked!"

"The New Taiwan Cinema, or Taiwanese "new wave," refers to the film movement that arose in the early 1980s that challenged the aesthetic and sociopolitical orthodoxies of postwar Taiwanese filmmaking." And it's being celebrated in the series, "In Our Time: New Taiwanese Cinema," April 29 through May 8 in LA.

What do some wives of famous filmmakers do in their spare time with all those connections? Get their novels published, discovers the New Yorker's Lauren Collins. One of them is Cheryl Howard, wife of director Ron. Which brings up another question: Is Ron Howard underrated? Devin Gordon argues the case in Newsweek.

Back in the New Yorker, David Denby turns in an early review of screenwriter Paul Haggis's directorial debut, Crash, calling it "hyper-articulate and often breathtakingly intelligent and always brazenly alive. I think it's easily the strongest American film since Clint Eastwood's Mystic River, though it is not for the fainthearted."

In the Independent, David Benedict contemplates the everlasting appeal of Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz, Sheila Johnston interviews Harvey Keitel and Melanie Goodfellow reports on the Palestine Film Festival (through May 6).

Kevin Burton Smith reviews two novels that happen be coming out at more or less the same time, Reed Farrell Coleman's The James Deans and Robert Eversz's Digging James Dean: "Each, in its own tangential way, does justice to the memory of the young cinematic rebel from Marion, Indiana." Also in January: An excerpt from Charles Higson's Silverfin, a prequel taking Ian Fleming's James Bond back to the 30s - when he was 14.

George Fasel revisits Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game: "Nobody who cares for film, art or life should miss this gorgeous creation."

Robert Davis on Abbas Kiarostami's Five: "It's the kind of movie that succeeds when you're willing to let your mind wander the way it does when you watch clouds."

Flickhead on Jean-Pierre Melville's Un Flic: "Between the trench coats, sunglasses and tension, Melville tips his Fedora to noir while establishing a reticent mood never to be abandoned for a moment, in a study of ambiguous figures and their varying degrees of contempt—for society, for rules, and ultimately for themselves." Also: a pointer to word from Gary Tooze on Criterion's plans for its releases this summer. The menu looks delicious.

Filmbrain discovers Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin to be little more than "a poorly written Afterschool Special with a great soundtrack."

Ed Champion defends Interiors, one of Woody Allen's "most underrated films."

The best thing about Hal Hartley's The Girl From Monday? Sabrina Lloyd, argues NP Thompson, though he does add, "Technically, the film is a marvel."

At Bitter Cinema, Sean Spillane recounts tales of sloshed moviemakers.

"Rock films as revealing as [Bradley Beesley's] The Fearless Freaks [The Wondrously Improbable Story of the Flaming Lips] are rare, writes Matt Ashare in the Boston Phoenix.

Edward Jay Epstein, author of The Big Picture: The New Logic of Money and Power in Hollywood, explains in Slate where, when they want it, Hollywood studios can get their "money for nothing." In short, they scoop it right out of loopholes in German tax law.

The summer's looking pretty bleak already to David Poland at Movie City News.

Of course, Star Wars diehards won't be discouraged. Empire runs ten thousand words on Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. It's actually a freewheeling conversation the magazine hosted between Kevin Smith, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Freewheeling yet serious as hell. This is via Twitch, which again... just too much good stuff to pluck out a few items. These guys forage like nobody's business and they can probably rightfully claim, "You heard it here first," more than any other film blog out there: Twitch, Twitch, Twitch.

How nerdy to you have to be if you happen to love Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Not too, discovers Emily Biuso. Also in Salon: Thomas Bartlett interviews one of the film's stars, Mos Def and Andrew O'Hehir: "I'm on a particular mission to get people to see [Danae Elon's] film Another Road Home. Yeah, it's a documentary about Israelis and Palestinians, but it isn't what a friend of mine calls 'spinach cinema.'" More from Jeannette Catsoulis in the NYT.

In the Globe and Mail, Tralee Pearce previews Jeppe Ronde's The Swenkas, screening tonight at the hotdocs festival in Toronto. And who are the Swenkas? Zulu men who perform a sort of South African variation on voguing. Meanwhile, in indieWIRE, Jonny Leahan: "Personal documentaries - films being made by people about their own lives or those very close to them - are more prevalent than ever, and if the programming at the recent doc festivals around the world is any indication, the trend isn't slowing down."

Another busy week for Sam Adams of the Philadelphia City Paper. He looks ahead to the Trenton Film Festival (tomorrow through Sunday), which is showing Home the feature debut of NYP critic Matt Zoller Seitz, and to the MadCat Film Festival; and he interviews Todd Solondz and reviews Palindromes. More on that one from Gerald Peary in the Boston Phoenix, Sean Nelson in the Stranger, JR Jones in the Chicago Reader and Christian Lorentzen for n+1: "Our poor hipster auteurs - they seem destined to spend their careers excising the ghosts of suburban childhoods."

The Nashville Film Festival, which wrapped last week, was a success any way you cut it, and Jim Ridley not only celebrates in the Nashville Scene; he's got ideas for making it even better.

At Stop Smiling, Christopher Stapleton looks back on three days at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Jordan S Hatcher spent a weekend watching horror flicks at the 12th annual Dead by Dawn festival in Edinburgh and lives to write about it for Cinema Minima.

Ben Slater turns in quite a report in his two weeks in the UK, where he curated "a strand on 'digital feature films'" at Lovebytes.

Mindjack has launched a new and expanded section, "Mindjack Film." Editor Donald Melanson handles the unveiling.

Ray Pride at Movie City Indie: "The jaw-droppingly gifted Scottish director Terence Davies, who made Distant Voices, Still Lives, The Long Day Closes, The Neon Bible and House of Mirth sees another project detonate for lack of English finance. Scotland on Sunday reports..."

In the LA Weekly's special issue devoted to local apartment living, you'll find Nikki Finke's tour of Hollywood's spookiest and most glamorous apts; sometimes at the same address.

The Economist surveys a fresh wave of celebrity mags about to wash over America.

With less than a week to go before the British election, Kevin Mahler reports in the London Times on how the major parties are hiring A-list directors to argue their cases.

CNET's Declan McCullagh explains the implications of the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act: "The bill, approved by Congress on Tuesday, is written so broadly it could make a federal felon of anyone who has even one copy of a film, software program or music file in a shared folder and should have known the copyrighted work had not been commercially released. Stiff fines of up to $250,000 can also be levied. Penalties would apply regardless of whether any downloading took place." Also: John Borland on the making of Star Wars: Revelations, one of the many truly indie, bootstrap fan films; this one's "sweeping the Net as fast as any X-wing."

Video blogging has come of age, announces Greg Lindsay in a piece for Business 2.0. He lists the companies investing in the next wave, but of course, there's one big stand-out: "Google has the means to invent and own the way video bloggers find, publish, and store their content, and apparently it has the will to at least take the first step."

Online listening tip #1. Joe Jabbar talks to Mark Jeavons, the writer and director of The Boy With a Thorn in His Side, and Matt Cope, director of the doc, People to Contact in the Midlands When You're Dead.

Online listening tips #2 and #3. Writing a screenplay? Ever heard of the "Truby Method"? Cyndi Greening talks to Karen Copeland about it and offers another, shorter listening tip: Danny Boyle, talking Millions.

Online viewing tip #1.JD Lasica talks with Dan Gillmor about citizen journalism. Parts 1 and 2. Via Matt Clayfield.

Online browsing tip. "Poetry in Movies," a comprehensive list compiled by Stacy Harwood for the Michigan Quarterly Review. Via the cinetrix.

Online browsing and viewing tip. Dr Macro's High Quality Movie Scans, source of countless 8x10 glossies and oodles of film clips. Via Wiley Wiggins.

Online viewing tip #2. The Crime In Your Coffee has rounded up links to dozens and dozens of trailers for so-bad-they're-really-bad movies.

/dwh



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Posted by cphillips at April 29, 2005 4:14 PM

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Btw, you probably all figured this out, but most of these posts are coming from David directly; he's just using my log in until we fix the one last glitch. [g]

And may I say, Welcome back to us! I feel like we were as blocked as a constipated traveler who finally... well, ugh, perhaps I shouldn't carry the analogy any further. But glad we're back regardless.

Posted by: Craig at April 29, 2005 4:30 PM