Shorts, 1/13.

The RES newsletter teases, promising that the January/February issue, out next week, will tell the story of the making of Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly.

The January issue of fps, the "Magazine of Animation," is available now, though, which is to say, the handsome preview is free and you may well be tempted to splurge all of 99 cents for the full issue in all its PDF splendor.

Doug Cummings reviews four more films he's seen in Palm Springs, including Richard Dembo's The House of Nina with Agnès Jaoui.

Sujewa Ekanayake has not only enjoyed The Proper Care & Feeding of an American Messiah, he's also noted that Kelley Baker, the Angry Filmmaker, is touring the US and Europe and, inspired by recent events, written up a list of "4 films that were inspired by the war in Sri Lanka."

For SuicideGirls, Daniel Robert Epstein interviews Kent Williams, who's illustrated (and somewhat adapted) Darren Aronofsky's screenplay for The Fountain.

Big fans of V for Vendetta: David Poland and Jeffrey Wells. Related: Peter Wilkinson in Rolling Stone on "The Mystery of Larry Wachowski," via Anne Thompson.

X at Twitch: "It took 11 years, but they're finally back: Director Zhang Yimou and Gong Li will work together again."

Zach Campbell: "Cinema has given us the world in a coffee cup (Godard) and an ashtray (Brakhage)."

"These will not be films 'about' something, but films that 'run into' something." The Bernadette Corporation's Pedestrian Cinema, via Greg Allen who assesses the results so far.

"There's a reason [Michael] Haneke was named best director at Cannes, why Caché got a prominent slot in the most recent New York Film Festival, why at the end of 2005 various critics' groups and the European Film Awards cited Caché as the year's best picture," writes Stuart Klawans in the Nation. "There's also a reason to resist Caché - but to propose it, I'll need to conduct a quick review of Haneke's career."

Related: Benjamin Secher interviews Haneke. Also in the Telegraph: David Gritten visits Peter O'Toole on the set of Venus and Jasper Rees basks in the luxury of the Rex Cinema.

Jonathan Rosenbaum in the Chicago Reader: "Some critics are saying that Match Point is essentially a remake of Allen's 1989 Crimes and Misdemeanors. There's obviously some connection, but having just seen these movies back-to-back, I find the differences more striking than the similarities."

"Arab cinema has yet to acquire a strong sense of identity, both for itself and in the eyes of international audiences," writes Sheila Johnston, though that of course can be taken as a healthy sign of its diversity. Also in the Independent: Robert Sellers talks with Neil Jordan about Breakfast on Pluto.

Jonathan Freedland on Munich: "[L]ook, it says, Israel is not some brute military power, but a country of real, morally conflicted human beings. This is a contribution several doveish Israeli artists - like the novelists Amos Oz and David Grossman - have made to their country before: by revealing Israel's internal dissent, they show their nation in its best light."

Also in the Guardian: Hordes of British comedians are storming the screens, notes Jon Bentham, who wonders if that's a good thing. Relax: it is. And John Patterson looks back and sighs, "The world of the old Katharine Graham Washington Post, and of the New York Times in its Pentagon Papers glory years, is gone forever... Back in 1976, All the President's Men was a eulogy for something that was already passing away, while Network was showing us all the things to come."

The indieWIRE Sundance interviews roll on: Nick Francis on his and Marc Francis's Black Gold and Paul Fitzgerald on his Forgiven.

Signandsight translates the Gerhard Midding interview with Patrice Chéreau mentioned yesterday.

For the LA CityBeat's Andy Klein, After Innocence isn't particularly artsy, but it's effective. Also: Criterion's release of Shoot the Piano Player is "first-rate."

Movies are too damn long these days, complains Caryn James. To the reviews in the New York Times:

• Stephen Holden on "the small but stately" Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye, the Oscar-winner Marjoe and When the Sea Rises, "a serious romantic comedy with surreal touches." More on that one from Steve Erickson at Gay City News.

• AO Scott on the "marvelously overripe 1922 silent melodrama starring Gloria Swanson and Rudolph Valentino," Beyond the Rocks and on Glory Road, "this season's obligatory inspirational coach-centered sports movie."

• Manohla Dargis on Tristan & Isolde, which "has nothing new to say about either love or filmmaking, but that... isn't necessarily a bad thing" (more from Ed Gonzalez in Slant) and Last Holiday: "Queen Latifah has a beautiful smile and the sort of relaxed screen presence that can take some performers decades to hone, but even this superflack for Wal-Mart can't gold-plate junk." More from Stephanie Zacharek in Salon.

• Jeannette Catsoulis on April's Shower, "a lighthearted comedy with an appealing cast."

• Nathan Lee on "the superb documentary" That Man: Peter Berlin and on Hoodwinked: "Less sassy than shrill, more crass than clever, the maiden cartoon from the Weinstein Company turns the Little Red Riding Hood legend into a sub-Shrek bummer that appears to have been manufactured for the pleasure of tone-deaf kids with a thing for sarcasm, extreme sports, and Andy Dick." More from Martha Fischer at Cinematical.

• Dana Stevens: "Unfortunately, the story behind the making of The Keeper [The Legend of Omar Khayyam] is more inspiring than the film itself."

Brilliant Korea is a series running at the ICA in London from January 20 through 31. Victoria James gets New Statesman readers in the mood.

Programs for the Berlinale's Kinderfilmfest and 14plus are set. The site's also featuring an interview with section head Thomas Hailer.

Will the Twin Cities' only repertory theater shut down? Paul Demko looks into it at Culture to Go.

For Slate, Paul Boutin picks out the highlights of the Consumer Electronics Show.

Carroll Ballard will be on hand at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco for two afternoon showings of Duma tomorrow.

Online browsing and viewing tip. Vasulka.org. Via the DVblog.

Online listening tip. Mark Romanek's keynote address at Resfest in LA. Via Ben at the Whine Colored Sea.

Posted by dwhudson at January 13, 2006 8:04 AM