Shorts, 5/26.

Rob Nelson asks Barbara Kopple about her latest documentary, Bearing Witness, which "takes a critical look at wartime reportage, though it leaves control-room considerations aside in order to focus on the personal costs of unembedded frontline journalism." More on the doc from Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times. Also in the City Pages, also from Nelson: A look back at Cannes: "You know it's a dark film festival when the most well-adjusted male protagonist is Charles Bukowski."

Mike D'Angelo's Cannes wrap-up appears in the Nashville Scene: "This year's festival, which ended Sunday after 11 days of the best that world cinema has to offer at the moment, prompted a record number of dunderheaded misinterpretations."

Scott Foundas's recollections of Cannes center on his role as a Camera d'Or jury member and the thinking that went into selecting Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know and Vimukthi Jayasundara's The Forsaken Land - two very different films, on the one hand; on the other: "[I]n both films one senses a gifted young artist powerfully, thoughtfully responding to his or her environment in specific and unfamiliar ways. And both films can be seen as studies of isolation and loneliness in forbidding modern landscapes. At the end of our daylong deliberation, a shared prize seemed the only way to go."

Also in the LA Weekly, a Mysterious Skin double feature: Ella Taylor reviews the film ("on the evidence of his smart, fresh new movie, a fallow stretch has energized [Gregg] Araki and allowed him to grow up without abandoning his edge") and David Ehrenstein talks with its lead, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Plus: Ted Soqui's shots of Hollywood's Star Wars crowd.

All in all, Gerald Peary had a splendid time at Cannes. You can quibble with the jury's choices but, he argues, they did just fine. Peter Keough is glad American indie filmmakers fared well at Cannes, but that's not keeping him from worrying about the state of indie film in general. Also in the Boston Phoenix: Chris Fujiwara on Kira Muratova.

Tell Them Who You Are, My Architect, Tarnation. "What these works have in common is their makers' desire to put themselves and their personal traumas front and center," writes Elbert Ventura. "Implicit in each is the notion that the act of filming is integral to personal growth - a prerequisite for the 'healing' to begin. If that sounds not a little facile, that's because it is." Also at the New Republic site: Keelin McDonell reviews Alexandra Pelosi's Sneaking Into the Flying Circus: How the Media Turn Our Presidential Campaigns Into Freak Shows, a book that presents her take on all she saw making her HBO doc on the 2004 election, Diary of a Political Tourist. Since that take didn't come through in the doc, evidently.

Andrew O'Hehir takes in a series of docs for his "Beyond the Multiplex" column at Salon.

Avi Lewis describes how The Take, the documentary he's made with Naomi Klein, is being "used as an organising tool by labour and social movements around the world."

Also in the Guardian:

• Tristam Hunt on Ridley Scott: "At the intellectual core of his films is an inquiry into the meaning of the city and the nature of urban life."

• Scott Wright: "After 58 years of distinguished service, Victoria II, the projector at Buckingham Palace, is being retired."

• Peter Bradshaw remembers Ismail Merchant. More from Helen McCormack in the Independent.

Bob and Harvey Weinstein are beefing up the roster for their new Weinstein Co, reports Gregg Kilday in the Hollywood Reporter: "Tarantino and Rodriguez will each write and direct a 60-minute horror film, and the two films will be packaged together under the overall title 'Grind House.'" Much more on the Weinsteins' slate of up-n-coming films at indieWIRE Insider.

Kevin Thomas in the Los Angeles Times: "Outfest presents its fifth annual collection of gay and lesbian shorts tonight, and it is one of its strongest to date."

Robert Davis follows up his thoughts on the state of the San Francisco International Film Festival - and festivals in general - by turning to the films themselves: "Many of the character's in this year's films travel without traveling, virtually. They live in an age when geography is no barrier and any place on earth is reachable, or seems for a time like it might be."

The Philadelphia City Paper's Sam Adams finds the current edition of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival "smaller and much weaker than usual. One of the three films in this year's brief program, the Korean documentary Repatriation..., not only fails to do justice to its subject, but actively contradicts the festival's stated goals." Update: Sam Adams is writing about the Traveling HRW Festival, not the series that will be screening in New York in June; hence, the link has been changed. Happily, and with a certain degree of relief, too.

At Koreanfilm.org, Tom Giammarco turns in a full and wide-ranging report from the 2005 Jeonju International Film Festival.

Today at the Seattle International Film Festival: Seattle Maggie at the Cinecultist and quite a crowd now at the Siffblog.

Kyle Henry took his film, Room, to Cannes - where he kept a diary that now appears in the Austin Chronicle. Also:

• What to watch on DVD this summer (scroll down to click through all seven titles). Plus: Marjorie Baumgarten on Tout Va Bien.

• Raoul Hernandez reviews Edward McPherson's Buster Keaton: Tempest in a Flat Hat: "One can hardly do justice to one of cinema's immortals in 288 pages."

• Joe O'Connell's news roundup begins with word on a followup to Dear Pillow.

Bay Area folk: Brace yourselves for next week. It'll be a busy one. (Yet) Another Hole in the Head, eight nights of horror, sci-fi and fantasy, opens June 2 at the Roxie. Then, from June 3 through 5, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will be presenting a retrospective of Caveh Zahedi's work, culminating with the regional premiere of I Am a Sex Addict.

Richard Misek reviews Sean Cubitt's "brilliant, infuriating new book," The Cinema Effect, for Film-Philosophy; and Cubitt replies.

George Fasel is back from that circle of hell run by ISPs with a review of Agnès Jaoui's Look at Me, thoughts on the passing of Ismail Merchant ("people are always asking what producers do, and his career answers the question") and an odd combo: Claude Chabrol and Michael Cimino.

Mark Schilling in the Japan Times on Seijun Suzuki's Princess Racoon: "Expecting to be embarrassed by this former cinematic anarchist's trip down a dusty musical memory lane, I was charmed by his affection for his material and his unabashed showmanship in presenting it. His puckish sense of humor is still alive and well, but he is making a popular entertainment, not a private joke." Via the IFC Blog.

Alison Veneto picks up where she left off: "The Modern Hong Kong Triad Film: Part II." Also at Movie Poop Shoot: DK Holm echoes the Phoenix's Peter Keough: "Hal Hartley is probably the last of the true indie filmmakers." But then he swerves out onto his own lane: "So why don't I like his films? The Girl From Monday goes a long way toward telling me why."

Andrea Gronvall interviews Daniel Craig for Movie City News. Another slice of Layer Cake? Cindy Fuchs in the Philadelphia City Paper.

A roundup of what Darren Hughes has been watching lately.

For the Chronicle of Higher Education, Lila Guterman profiles W Nicholas G Hitchon, who doesn't particularly enjoy having a camera aimed at him every seven years but allows Michael Apted to do it nonetheless: "Because he believes in the project... The movies have made him think about how personality is carved, how social class affects the course of Britons' lives, and how people make important life decisions."

Discussion of Richards Corliss and Schickel's top 100 list for Time hasn't been all that hot and heavy, primarily because few have taken it too seriously. DJMonsterMo, however, is pissed off and submits a list of changes or alternatives that would alter the list by about 20 percent. Excellent suggestions, but why the anger? Listening to Corliss and Schickel talk about their list, one really doesn't get the impression that they were aiming for the 100 best movies ever, but rather, a sort of movie history sampler aimed at, that's right, readers of Time. You can imagine: they have their accounts and are now wondering what to put in their queues. Different folks, different lists. Films using the Wilhelm scream? Ask Wiley Wiggins. Top 100 voices in the movies? The cinetrix's got you covered.

Empire gets Richard Linklater to say a few words - very few, but still - about his adaptation of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. Via Karina Longworth at Cinematical.

At Twitch, logboy has news of a trilogy of horror flicks in the works from Dario Argento, Tobe Hooper and Monte Hellman. These things always sound great at first...

"The native habitat of the US movie and entertainment industry, Hollywood, California, is a lush and densely populated ecosystem." At PopMatters, Glenn McDonald offers a guide on spotting a few species, from the Struggling Screenwriter (Scribblus interminus) through the Eager Young Protégé (Naiveius doomedii).

You won't find a more useful "Summer Movie Comparison Chart" than the one over at the Face Knife. Via the cinetrix.

Craig Phillips has been sorting through the GC promotion pile and has found seven must-see titles. The titles, that is, not the films. "I'm not making any of these up!"

Online viewing tips, round #1. His Girl Friday. Yes, the Howard Hawks classic. It's public domain now. Via Movie City Indie. The Crime in Your Coffee's been poking around the Internet Archive as well: Nosferatu and more.

Online viewing tips, round #2. Brian Flemming's live video chat with an audience in Birmingham, Alabama. That doesn't sound terribly exciting, but really. Watch. Meanwhile, Chuck Olsen has more online viewing tips than you can keep up with.

Posted by dwhudson at May 26, 2005 5:12 PM