Meanwhile, shorts.

Here's where Martin Scorsese went wrong, according to David Thomson: When he abandoned unified scores, such as Bernard Hermann's for Taxi Driver, and began relying on "jukebox music."

Thomson goes so far as to predict that "Scorsese won't make another film as great [as Taxi Driver] until he trusts another composer as good." One page over, Thomson again: "There are moments in movies when everyone involved (if they are in their right minds) comes upon a scene so demented that they say, 'See if Donald Sutherland is available.'"

Also in the Independent:

• Geoffrey Macnab explains why many, not least Kevin Brownlow, who's made a new documentary about her, regard Greta Garbo as the greatest film actress of all time. It's a fine piece, though it does seem to have been written before the long-distance exchanges between Garbo and Mimi Pollak were revealed, as reported on by Alex Duval Smith in the Observer: "Private letters released in Sweden to mark the centenary of the film star's birth throw a new and and tragic light on the tormented life of the pauper girl from Stockholm who became 'The Face' of Hollywood in the Thirties, made 27 films and spent the last 50 years of her life as a recluse."

• Chris Sullivan on My Life as a Dog, "one of the greatest films about childhood that has ever been made."

• Kaleem Aftab on the films he caught at the Venice International Film Festival. More from James Christopher in the London Times and Jason Solomons in the Guardian.

Empire's "50 Greatest Independent Films." Also via Martha Fischer at Cinematical: The Guerilla Drive-In.

Empire's #1 indie? Reservoir Dogs. Segue: The Cinema Strikes Back team is furiously blogging QT6 in both word and image.

Twitch's X translates the "most interesting snippets" of two interviews with April Snow director Hur Jin-ho. The film's a big deal in Korea and, to hear Korea Times Culture Editor Joon Soh tell it, it lives up to the hype.

Filmbrain: "Spider Forest is a haunting, disturbing film that seamlessly blends psychological horror with tragic drama, and its story will resonate with anybody who has ever loved and lost."

The Reeler (who, like Michael Tully, is just wild about Keane) asks Anton Corbijn how Control, his Ian Curtis biopic, is going: "'Slow,' Corbijn said, shaking his head."

Reverse Shot sneak previews: Caché, A History of Violence and Thumbsucker. More on that one from David Lowery.

"What's so heartbreaking about so many recent genre films is that, under the pretense of nihilism, decadence and insanity, they pulse with humanity." Steven Boone on the vast cultural and socio-economic gaps in America and on how little American cinema is doing to bridge them.

"Make it Funky! is the most heartbreaking movie I've seen in some time, all the more so because sorrow is the last thing on its mind," writes AO Scott of Michael Murphy's documentary on the music of New Orleans. More from Andy Klein in the LA CityBeat.

About the best thing Scott can find to say about The Man, besides noting its "few decent gags and amusing moments," is that the "whole thing is over in less than 90 minutes." Also: The Exorcism of Emily Rose. More that one from Karina Longworth at Cinematical, Canfield at Twitch, ME Russell and Alison Willmore rounds up more reviews at the IFC Blog.

Far more interesting, though not exactly movie-related: Scott's also got a longish piece in the Magazine on The Believer (currently featuring Maura Kelly's interview with Mark Mothersbaugh up front and center at its site) and n+1.

Also in the New York Times:

• After quickly recounting the story behind the film, Manohla Dargis reviews Francis Ford Coppola's new, recut version of The Outsiders: "[T]here are moments of greatness here as well as grace." Also: Green Street Hooligans and Kamikaze Girls, a "yummy Japanese confection."

• Stephen Holden on An Unfinished Life, "solemn, sentimental bore of a movie." Also: Campfire and Côte d'Azur: "Neither funny nor sexy, nor leavened by the wistful laissez-faire wisdom of the typical sophisticated Gallic comedy, it is less than a trifle." Related: Gary M Kramer's interview with Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau for indieWIRE.

• Jason Reitman was initially reluctant to follow in the footsteps of his father, Ivan, but he's made a movie after all: Thank You for Smoking. Sharon Waxman reports.

• Jeannette Catsoulis on Answering the Call: Ground Zero's Volunteers, which "reminds us that when tragedy strikes, inaction may be the most painful response of all." Also: Steal Me.

• Laura Kern on Daniel Anker's "profound and moving documentary," Music from the Inside Out. Also: Walking on the Sky.

• Anita Gates: "Maybe it's true that movie genres are an artificial conceit, since life itself is constantly turning from comedy into tragedy and back again. And Bollywood films do have certain conventions, which should be respected. But Salaam Namaste must set some sort of record for genre pileup."

Back to the Guardian and Observer:

• "From the delightful Clueless to Bride and Prejudice, a moronic Bollywood extravaganza, there have been no fewer than seven film and TV adaptations of her work in the past decade." Robert McCrum contemplates the enduring appeal of Jane Austen. Related: John Robinson's ten elements of period detail, Liz Hoggard meets Joe Wright, who's directed the latest adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Will Hodgkinson interviews Rosamund Pike. Meanwhile, the London Times has set up an "Austen Special" on its film page.

• Charlotte Higgins on Gerald Barry's opera, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, based on the play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

• Kevin Spacey has been the artistic director of the Old Vic for about a year now. Michael Coveney asks him about his highs and lows, about Bill Clinton and Richard II. Related: Sophie Krikham on Robert Altman's turn at the Old Vic. He'll be directing Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues.

• Steve Rose looks back at the era of "video nasties" in the UK, when "the explosion in popularity of the video format in the late 1970s outpaced government measures to regulate it."

• Photographer Andy Gotts has turned his obsession - the Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon game - into an exhibition and a book. David Smith reports.

• Robin McKie on Tom Hanks's Imax extravaganza, Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D.

• Craig McClean: "Paddy Considine is British acting's secret weapon."

• Actor and director Simon Callow reviews Terry Coleman's Olivier: The Authorised Biography.

• Andrew Pulver's adaptation of the week - get this - Adaptation.

• Jo Adams on Eye for Images, an exhibition of photographs by Jim Lee at the Firehouse in London through the end of the month.

• John Patterson on the Brat Pack: "The merest 10 minutes spent on the Internet Movie Database studying their discrete destinies is a haunting lesson in the ephemerality of fame in a low, dishonest decade."

"I'm trying to play Elizabeth as two people," Helen Mirren tells the Telegraph's Sally Williams. "The necessary icon and the person she is within: vulnerable, frightened, passionate, insecure, nervous, whatever." Now that could well be something to see. Elizabeth I airs on Channel 4 in the UK at the end of the month.

At Cinematical, Ryan Stewart considers I See a Dark Stranger as "one of the most interesting failures of all time."

Nick Rombes on Michael Almereyda's Hamlet: "[I]ts failure is a thing of beauty."

Quick takes from Chuck Tryon: Funny Ha Ha, Murderball and Lila Says.

Dennis Cozzalio asks for - and receives - titles of sequels both inferior and superior to the originals.

Online viewing tip #1. Moving Pictures: American Art and Early Film, 1880 - 1910 is an exhibition at the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown, Massachusetts, through December 11. Five annotated juxtapositions are online.

Online viewing tip #2. Writing: An Homage to James and Abbas. Matthew Clayfield.

Posted by dwhudson at September 11, 2005 4:45 PM