Shorts, 1/3.

What a way to start 2006! Sean Spillane's Bitter Cinema suddenly returns, and how: thoughts on Buñuel's Ensayo de un crimen, a Buñuel photoset, pointers to great obsessors' obsessions and an amusing snippet from Donald Fagen's early 80s interview with Ennio Morricone. Yes, that Donald Fagen.

For Issue 22 of Artkrush, devoted to film and video, Paul Laster talks with Chrissie Iles about the upcoming Whitney Biennial: "The current situation shows an even more diverse approach to the moving image, as artists appropriate and reclaim the white walls of the galleries. Within this diversity, a nostalgia for a cinema that appeared to be vanishing has been replaced by a desire to make cinema, and an unprecedented number of artists are making serious films, with a passion for, and knowledge of, film history that is complex and deep."

Girish has an excellent entry on Sam Fuller, specifically, House of Bamboo.

The cinetrix watches and listens as Terrence Malick shifts viewers' alignment in The New World.

The National Film Theatre's Michael Caine retrospective runs through to the end of the month; in the Guardian, Zoe Williams asks him about it:

I think it's a threat. They're saying, "We're doing this for you, now you'd better die." Whenever anyone asks me to do something about my life's work, I keep saying, "Please, I haven't finished yet. Can you give me another year?" At least with this, it's ordered in an interesting way, it's not chronological. In a lifetime achievement award, you just have to watch yourself grow old in 45 minutes.

More Sundancing from Cyndi Greening.

Alan Riding talks with Imre Kertész about Fateless: "The notion of a 'beautiful' Holocaust movie may seem as strange as the homesickness that Mr Kertész recalled feeling for camp life when he returned to Budapest in July 1945." Also in the New York Times, Dave Kehr on new DVDs: "The new year begins with two comedies of caddishness."

Jim Emerson on Paradise Now: "What would those who are criticizing Steven Spielberg's film for 'moral equivalency' have to say about this one?"

Gregg Goldstein in the Hollywood Reporter: "Many filmmakers now contend that getting an indie film made or seen today without stars is harder than ever before."

Once again: Attendance is down, but revenues are up. Claudia Eller and James Bates report. Also in the Los Angeles Times, John Horn and Scott Collins talk to moviegoers about what they love and what they hate about the experience.

Slate, too, carries on exploring the economics of the movie business. Variety's Gabriel Snyder explains where weekend box office estimates come from and Edward Jay Epstein describes the three businesses movie theaters are in simultaneously.

For Wired News, Seán Captain reports on studios' hopes that digital projection will help them track down pirates.

Saul Hansell reports in the NYT on Vongo, the Starz Entertainment Group's new video-on-demand service.

Online listening tips. Recent guests on DVD Talk Radio: The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill director Judy Irving; and Joss Whedon.

Online viewing tips, round 1. Pennsylvanians having plushy fun: Groundhog 202.

Online viewing tips, round 2. The trailer for Arthur En Vrai! Le Dessin Anime and, also via Twitch, a new trailer for 5-25-77.

Posted by dwhudson at January 3, 2006 6:42 AM