Shorts, 8/2.

Aaron Aradillas of RockCritics.com not only gets David Edelstein to spill about the first film to make a major impression on him at a young age (Bride of Frankenstein), his background in theater, his pre-Slate days at the Voice and elsewhere, Pauline Kael, the 70s, TV, the email he gets, vigilantism ("the principal motif in modern action movies"), bad movies (his least favorites are Natural Born Killers and Mississippi Burning), the Bush administration ("this is gangsterism on a scale that would have shocked Al Capone, along with lies and doublespeak that would have shocked Orwell"), the state of movies now and why we need good criticism "more than ever," but also posts a snapshot.

And in Slate: "How will Hollywood get out of the death spiral?" Edward Jay Epstein asked last week before adding, "(Stay tuned for the answer next week.)" His parentheses. Well, this is that week, and frankly, you have to wonder if he wasn't hoping the answer would hit him by now. Not that the sketches for several possible solutions to Hollywood's current quandary aren't interesting, but no, nothing's hit him yet.

James Surowiecki doesn't have a whole lot more to add, though one point can't be emphasized enough: "What's becoming increasingly clear is that the people who buy DVDs are, for the most part, not the people who go to the movies on opening weekend." If the movers and shakers play their cards right, "The rise of the DVD... should allow Hollywood to spend less and make more." Also in the New Yorker: David Denby on Broken Flowers and Grizzly Man.

For Pitchfork, Ryan Dumbal interviews Chris Cunningham. Robots, Kubrick and the videos he'd love to have made. Via Coudal Partners. Related: Go to the Director's Label site for a trailer thumping for the four new titles on the work of Anton Corbijn, Jonathan Glazer, Mark Romanek and Stéphane Sednaoui. Via the IFC Blog.

Half the fun of Filmbrain's review of the 1937 Chinese classic Street Angel - "This Maoist melodrama (made shortly before the Japanese shut down most Shanghai studios) is an absolute wonder to behold, and director Yuan Muzhi was clearly influenced by American, European and Russian cinema of the time" - is the story of hunt that leads to his finding it in the first place. Can't help but admit that in a less globalized and teched-up world, that film and that eager and perceptive viewer would never have found each other.

Two new reviews by Adam Hartzell at Koreanfilm.org: Moon Jong-keum's disappointing Saulabi and Kim Soo-yong's 1965 A Seaside Village.

Once again, X has oodles of news from Korea at Twitch. Besides the round-up, entries are devoted to theatrical and DVD release schedules (links and trailers galore), Welcome To Dongmakgol, Cello, The Big Scene and The Host. Meanwhile, the Gomorrahizer covers Japan, with news of films set to be screened at the PIA Film Festival and more.

The Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival vs the Real Fantastic Film Festival. Mark Russell tells the tale.

Also in the New York Times:

• Dinitia Smith reviews Marlon Brando and Donald Cammell's Fan-Tan, the novel that "offers a singular insight into Brando's fantasy life."

• Singapore filmmaker Royston Tan is hoping a kinder, gentler side of himself comes through in his next feature, 4:30, he tells Alexandra A Seno.

• David M Halbfinger talks with Junebug director Phil Morrison about his - and others' - attempts to get way past the usual on-screen clichés about the South. Related: At indieWIRE, the Reverse Shot team presents three reviews of the film.

• Dave Kehr on new DVDs.

"To watch Saraband begin is to feel a surge of happiness.... The very making of Saraband is one more Bergman marvel," writes Stanley Kauffmann in the New Republic. And then, after effusive and undoubtedly due praise, "Now we arrive at a sadness. The screenplay dissatisfies." More from David Lowery.

"[S]he wasn't just pretty, she was glorious; she wasn't just spirited, she could be filled with mischief, spite, poetry and madness. It's still not recognised - I fear - how very good an actress she is." David Thomson on Jean Simmons. Also in the Independent: Ed Caesar on the "cult of Donnie Darko."

At Movie City News, Leonard Klady talks to Edukators director Hans Weingartner: "If there is a new wave of German filmmakers, he'd have to characterize it as more of the zeitgeist than an actual physical community."

Robert Greenwald's Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price is only part of a nationwide campaign that's just now coming to a boil, writes Liza Featherstone in Salon. More from Peter Rothberg at the Nation.

Blake's been up to some creative blogging at Cinema Strikes Back; more than simply linking to the journal Fernando Meirelles kept during the making of The Constant Gardener, he's already run them through Google's translator for you. Related: Meirelles on NPR.

On Sunday, Catherine Elsworth reported in the Telegraph that Paul and Chris Weitz were so "rattled" by the London bombings that they were considering changes to their screenplay for American Dreamz. Not so, Paul Weitz tells David Poland: "[T]he plot of my film has not changed, nor is a change being contemplated. The film is a comic examination of our cultural obsessions and how they can anesthetize us to the actual issues of our day."

Cinematical's Karina Longworth talks to Nicholas Jarecki about the making of The Outsider which, in turn, documents the making of James Toback's When Will I Be Loved.

"It wasn't a photography shoot. It wasn't a celebrity shoot... We looked at it like a small, independent film, an investigation into the breakdown of a family." Photographer Steven Klein tells Chris Lee about that 58-page spread in W featuring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Klein's current exhibition, "Case Study #13," is at the Gagosian Gallery.

Also in the Los Angeles Times: Elaine Dutka on the direct-to-video boom.

Alison Coffey interviews "beloved local filmmaker" Kat Candler for the Austinist. Via David Lowery.

With Mick Jagger's past among the "dregs" resurfacing in the news for no apparent reason, now's nonetheless a good time to look back with Flickhead to the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, "a joyfully compelling document of the acid generation."

"Every time the lights go down there's a part of me that whispers, 'Maybe it'll be good.'" David Sterritt turns a final column into the Christian Science Monitor. Via the IFC Blog, where Alison Willmore also points to Richard Corliss and James Inverne's profile of Terry Gilliam in Time.

Ian Haydn chats briefly with Los Debutantes director Andrés Waissbluth. Also in Kamera: Ben McCann on Stephen Heath's study of Marcel Pagnol's César.

George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck, featuring David Strathairn as Edward R Murrow, will open the New York Film Festival (September 23 through October 9), reports Eugene Hernandez. Also at indieWIRE: Brian Brooks previews the Atlantic Film Festival (September 15 through 24 in Halifax, Nova Scotia) and Jonny Leahan on five docs that have had wind blown in their sails thanks to festivals.

The 58th Locarno International Film Festival opens tomorrow and runs through August 13.

"The last Jamaican-made feature film to hit it big, internationally? The Harder They Come... and that was over 30 years ago," notes Matt Dentler. "This is one of the reasons why, in 2005, the Flashpoint Film & Music Festival was created."

Chuck Olsen has a disturbing story about "the price of being honest." Update: See comments.

"'Security' is a red herring; we are witnessing instead the triumphal rearing-up of an unconscious cinematic fantasy," proposes Geoff Manaugh. "Accordingly, we find ourselves, everyday, living more fully than ever before in the utopia of someone else's inescapable, fortified film set."

Online listening tip. Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir. Shannon Clute and Richard Edwards discuss the classics. In the latest episode: The Third Man. Coming soon: The Maltese Falcon and Blade Runner.

Online viewing tips, round #1. First, Tcheupel Garanger's Making of. Via Coudal Partners, where you'll find many more pointers to remarkable things such as director Adria Petty's commentary track for her video for the Ditty Bops' "Wishful Thinking" at Video Static, the R*Emote Mirror and InspireMe.tv, featuring artists' briefs on "what inspires them, what books are on their shelves right now, where they work or simply talk about what's on their mind at that moment in time."

Online viewing tips, round #2. The Story, a short film by Homer Groening. Yep. Via Screenhead, also currently pointing to the disturbingly amusing third episode of Leave It To Bush!.

Posted by dwhudson at August 2, 2005 10:00 AM