Shorts, 8/19.

Shannon has a lovely little piece on Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus at depravedfangirls.org: "[Jim] White mentions that you don't find the South on interstates, but rather on the pigtrails and logging roads that cut through the trees, along natural red clay and hauled-in caliche gravel tracks that wind with the shape of creeks and rivers, and tire ruts that cut across floodplains. You find it in barbershops, churches, and fleamarkets, and the number-marked two-lane highways that lead to the razor wire and guard towers of the maximum security facilities that ring the outskirts of my hometown." And a few excellent comments follow.

Jeffrey Wells isn't exactly looking forward to the 9/11 movies heading our way. For one thing, why are they all "being conceived from the same patriotic and (can I finally say this?) in some ways simple-assed point of view?"

Mark H Harris at PopMatters: "I'm talking about Hollywood pimping: the whoring out of black culture for celluloid profit.... Here's how to do it in 10 simple steps."

"'The musical is a great underestimated form,' declares Sally Potter. 'In all cultures, dance and music are the first and deepest ways of expressing the big events in life: births, weddings, funerals, harvests. And whenever a dance number breaks out in a movie, it's tapping into those roots. I've yet to make my own musical, though I certainly want to, and music has always been a central thread in my work.'" Sheila Johnston talks with the director about Singin' in the Rain.

Also in the Telegraph: Marc Lee listens to another angle on the making of Jaws, producer Richard Zanuck's, and Judith Wood interviews Nicholas Hoult.

"I feel like some sort of epochal shift is happening in my life." Canfield interviews Wes Craven for Twitch.

Craven "must have already used every 'Boo!' setup imaginable, and he still comes up with a couple of new ones to make you jump. What a treat." Yes, Slate's David Edelstein quite likes Red Eye but he's less impressed with The 40-Year-Old Virgin. More on both from Manohla Dargis in the New York Times and Stephanie Zacharek in Salon.

Scott Foundas likes Virgin. "It's an unconscionably funny sex farce that, by its end, turns into a tender and honest romance, an acute portrait of loneliness and, believe it or not, a musical. This is a movie Blake Edwards might have made." And Robert Abele chats with Steve Carell. For SuicideGirls, Daniel Robert Epstein interviews director Judd Apatow.

Also in the LA Weekly:

• Foundas on The World, "comic, tragic and monumentally beautiful," and Foundas and Robert Koehler interview Jia Zhangke.

• Ben Marcus checks out the wrap party for Broken, "a low-profile indie with high-profile stars Heather Graham and Jeremy Sisto backed by Linda Hamilton, Jake Busey and a cast of 20."

• Hollywood studios have decided that readers of the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times are, "to quote one mogul, 'older and elitist' compared to younger, low-brow filmgoers," reports Nikke Finke, and so, they're about to cut way back on advertising in the papers. And, as Kate Kelly and Brian Steinberg report in the Wall Street Journal, they may pull back from TV as well.

"John Boorman's 1967 Point Blank was among the earliest attempts to develop a color noir style." Andy Klein in LA CityBeat on "an arty, elliptical, European-inflected thriller... [made] at MGM, no less." Klein also revisits War of the Worlds because he's got a fresh idea about what's actually going on in there.

Chris Fujiwara, author of Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall, makes the case for "a long-overdue reappraisal" of Tourneur père's rep. Also in the Boston Phoenix: Peter Keough on 2046 (more from Craig Phillips) and Gerald Peary on 9 Songs and Junebug.

Bill Berkowitz reports on all that Michael Moore's been up to since Fahrenheit 9/11. Also at Alternet: For James Westcott, Occupation: Dreamland "comes closer than anything else about Iraq to connecting us to the raw experience on the ground - and, hopefully, leading us to a real reckoning."

"When compared with the higher profile Over There, the Steven Bochco series about soldiers on the front lines of the Iraq War, Embedded/Live's teeth are sharper, coaxed by wicked humor and touches of pathos at all the right moments," writes Belinda Acosta.

Also in the Austin Chronicle:

• Marrit Ingman talks to Werner Herzog about Grizzly Man.

• Spencer Parsons files a second report from the set of The Cassidy Kids.

• Joe O'Connell's got more newsbits from the local scene.

• Marc Savlov recommends the two Seijun Suzuki films just out on DVD, Gate of Flesh and Story of a Prostitute.

At Movie City News, both David Poland and Ray Pride look back on the summer and wonder about the future of blockbusters and artier fare. And both Martin A Grove in the Hollywood Reporter and Tom Shone, author of Blockbuster, consider the long-term implications of the Slump in the Guardian. The Slump's got theaters and studios sniping at each other, reports Sharon Waxman.

Also in the NYT: Joyce Wadler profiles Ricky Gervais and more reviews: Stephen Holden on Valiant, Jeannette Catsoulis on This Divided State and Dana Stevens on El Crimen Perfecto and Now & Forever.

Back to the Guardian:

• Miranda July's snapped shots of people who caught the British premiere of Me and You and Everyone We Know. The Guardian posts them along with their email addresses and invites you to write them: What'd they think?

• Beautiful Boxer is based on Parinya Charoenphol's true story. What does she think of it? Will Hodgkinson asks her.

• "Without them, we wouldn't have..." John Patterson lists a slew of films from the past couple of decades that opened doors for countless others. Also: "[W]e are living in a low-level golden age of DVD reissues."

"Fall is to the specialty film distributors what summer is to the studios: It's the make-or-break season," writes Anne Thompson at the Hollywood Reporter. "This year, as it contemplates the fall lineup and the Oscar heats, Focus Features, NBC Universal's specialty film label, faces a dilemma that only Harvey Weinstein could love: It has four films all worthy of an Oscar campaign."

"'My partners Suki Hawley, David Beilinson, Jeff Sanders and I self-distributed Horns and Halos," Michael Galinsky tells Brian Brooks at indieWIRE. It was tough but also a learning experience, and what's more, "we actually made a bit of cash on the theatrical run [and] it did significantly better on DVD than it would have if we hadn't put it in theaters." So they're preparing to go the same route on three more films.

Grim's been busy:

• Cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli, who worked with Fellini, Pasolini and Sergio Leone among many others, has died at the age of 82. A story from ANSA comes by way of Martha Fischer at Cinematical.

• Joe Ranft, head of story at Pixar, has died in a car accident at the far-too-young age of 45. Sheigh Crabtree has the story in the Hollywood Reporter. Via Todd at Twitch. More from Harry Knowles.

• filmz.de points to several German-language obits for Eva Renzi. She was 60.

Yet another link between Star Trek and sexual deviancy? Ellen Ladowsky looks into it at the Huffington Post.

Along with passing along other Matt Damon newsbits, The Reeler points to shots Just Jarad's got of Scorsese and Damon on the set of The Departed.

OutNow.CH has collected its interviews conducted during the Locarno Film Festival. They're quick affairs for the most part, but still.

Up-n-coming:

• Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Brendan Gleeson and probably Crispin Glover. And now, Angelina Jolie. The cast for Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf, written by Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman, takes shape. Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian. More up-n-coming news, but briefer.

• Boyd at EuropeanFilms has stills from Pedro Almodóvar's Volver.

• Jonathan Demme's shooting a Neil Young doc. Ros Krasny reports for Reuters.

• Casshern in 06? If it happens, Grady Hendrix urges you to make plans now.

At the World Socialist Web Site, Joanne Laurier credits Abbas Kiarostami for drawing attention to Uganda's AIDS crisis in ABC Africa. "However, the overall effect of the film is quite limited."

Completely unrelated to film, but absolutely amazing: Lifestraw. How about a Nobel for Design? Via Coudal Partners.

Looking for more to read? How much time have you got? If a lot, Matt Clayfield has two suggestions. In a hurry? ME Russell's CulturePulp comic goes to the drive-in.

Online viewing tip #1. The trailer for Wheedle's Groove. Longer than the usual trailer, but you'll likely be glad.

Online viewing tip #2. Dougal Wilson's video for LCD Soundsystem's "Tribulations." Wow. Via Coudal Partners.

Online listening tip. Kim Masters on NPR: "The Aftermath of Movie Flops." Also, the Talk of the Nation Summer Movie Awards: Best Death Scenes.

Posted by dwhudson at August 19, 2005 9:06 AM