Shorts, 9/6.

Darren Hughes: "It's been a long time since I've fallen in love with a book the way I've fallen in love with The Moviegoer, and I'd like to think that would have happened even if New Orleans weren't under water."

Nick Davis: "As my dismay and horror at Katrina's aftermath linger, and in many ways keep building, I'm bothered by how many of the images emanating from the disaster rhyme with those of our most sickening horror films." In particular, Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake: a seven-point breakdown. Also: "The Best of 2005... So Far."

Girish is reminded of Calcutta.

"Why did film matter so much to her? What was it that she missed - and so sternly memorialized - in 1995?" asks David Denby in the New Yorker in a piece on Susan Sontag's film criticism. In a brisk overview, a sort of mini-biography her intellect, he attempts an answer, too.

Alan Riding calls up Hany Abu-Assad to talk about the challenges - merely beginning with the political - of making Paradise Now, a film about two Palestinian suicide bombers on location in Nablus. (Related: "Why They Do It," Christian Caryl in the New York Review of Books.) Also in the New York Times: Dave Kehr on new DVDs: "Gary Tooze, editor of the invaluable news and review site dvdbeaver.com, has described Paramount Home Video's DVD release of The Miracle of Morgan's Creek as 'easily the biggest no-brainer purchase of the year,' and one can only concur." More new release highlights from Susan King in the Los Angeles Times.

Also in the LAT, Reed Johnson surveys the state of Mexican cinema. In short, it's on the rebound and recent federal measures combined with a new generation of directors and returning vets may mean that that rebound won't be temporary.

"[W]ith all that David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan hold in common, how is it that their movies are so completely, so emphatically, so apples-and-oranges different?" asks Rick Groen in the Globe and Mail before deciding that his "affection" lies with Cronenberg's work. Via Movie City Indie; and Cinematical's Robert Newton points to Michael Ferraro's piece in Film Threat on the MPAA slapping the NC-17 rating on Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies.

Tim Atkin talks cooking and acting with Gérard Depardieu. Also in the Observer: Anthony Holden is let down by Terry Coleman's Olivier: The Authorised Biography but Rafael Behr is all fired up by David Hare's Obedience, Struggle and Revolt.

Acquarello has been "slowly been catching up with the thematically dense essay films of Cameroonian filmmaker Jean-Marie Téno."

Lisa Allardice talks to Fanta Regina Nacro, whose debut feature, The Night of Truth depicts ethnic warfare in a fictional African country, though many of its elements, not least a particularly gruesome death scene, are "all too real." Also in the Guardian: Owen Gibson notes that Gone With the Wind still tops the all-time box office top ten in the US and Geoffrey Macnab on Drawing Restraint 9, "not an easy voyage, but the wit and invention are as startling as in [Matthew] Barney's earlier Cremaster cycle." Related: Filmmaker's Steve Gallagher looks at what came before #9.

On September 28, the Cinémathèque Française will open the doors to its new home, "a cartoon-cubist castle, designed by Frank Gehry, with four screens," writes Rhoda Koenig, who argues that London needs to learn the sort of respect for cinema one finds in Paris and New York. Also in the Independent: David Thomson on the "dynamic force" that is Mickey Rooney.

Signandsight has translated Katja Nicodemus's defense in Die Zeit of Wim Wenders's Don't Come Knocking.

Reuters' Ray Bennett offers another early take on Werner Herzog's The Wild Blue Yonder.

Jason Morehead: "Up until now, Porco Rosso has always been my least favorite Miyazaki film. But I think that Howl's Moving Castle now holds that dubious honor."

Joanne Laurier at WSWS on The Constant Gardener: "The decision to film this novel is not insignificant."

Nick Rombes: "If movies have always been - on one level - about spectacle, about the event of acknowledging a movie's greatness or awfulness in public, with total strangers, then 'little' movies - in rejecting the possibility of rejection - are about something altogether different."

The Chicago Tribune's Michael Wilmington has got at least ten movies he's looking forward to this season. Via They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?

New York unveils its fall preview; here's the movies section.

Joe Leydon's got a fun list of lists in the New York Daily News.

Mark E Hayes talks books and movies with Bruce Campbell for Flak.

Daniel Robert Epstein's interview for today at SuicideGirls: Mark Romanek.

"I am a black man... and I love horror movies.... Maybe it validates my suspicion that white people want us dead." In PopMatters, Mark H Harris explains the obsession behind Blackhorrormovies.com.

Six months on, Looker is still trying to forget Crispin Glover's What Is It?.

Wiley Wiggins says "all I've got to say about the nose touching stuff."

Mike Mills snaps shots of the reporters interviewing him, re: Thumbsucker. A lot of shots.

Online listening tip. Datajunkie's collection of radio performances by Peter Lorre, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. Via filmtagebuch.

Online viewing tips. Alison Willmore's got five trailers for you at the IFC Blog.

Posted by dwhudson at September 6, 2005 4:04 PM