Shorts, 3/31.

"No political columnist on either side of the Channel - or the Atlantic - has resisted the comparison between France's current waves of strikes, violence and demonstrations and those that rocked the country back in May 1968," writes Sheila Johnston in the Telegraph. And yet, she continues, few French films have addressed that tumultuous summer. Now, "only 38 years after the événements, a new film on the subject will open here this summer. Philippe Garrel's Regular Lovers was conceived as a response, and riposte, to [Bertolucci's] The Dreamers."

Jonathan Rosenbaum in the Chicago Reader: "Almost 30 years have passed since I wrote a heated article about French filmmaker Luc Moullet for Film Comment - the first extended defense of his movies and his film criticism in English. But the first American retrospective devoted to him is only now opening, at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Only 8 of his 32 films will be included, and some of my favorites are missing. Still, it's been worth the wait."

Also: "For a philosopher who believes the capitalist system makes enjoyment impossible, he sure is hilarious" is a more than adequate subheading for James Westcott's review Zizek!, though this phrase is especially nice as well: "the insidiousness of liberal capitalist ideology - an ideology that pretends it isn't one."

What to see at the San Francisco International Film Festival? B Ruby Rich explains her selections at SF360.

Antonio Weinrichter in Screen Daily: "Devoid of the camp ebullience and colourful subplots one expects from an Almodóvar film, Volver nevertheless achieves moments of deep dramatic intensity as a well-observed study of a small group of characters."

Acquarello delves into Belgium's biculturalism and André Delvaux's "elegant and quietly devastating first film," The Man Who Had His Hair Cut Short.

Michael Wood praises L'Enfant and bashes Caché in the London Review of Books.

"The link between Eyes Wide Shut and Caché (Hidden) is, to me, crystal clear," asserts David Poland. Also, the latest blog in the Movie City News network: Digital Dretzka.

"Drawn to visions of windblown flags, both Battle in Heaven and Claire Denis's latest film, The Intruder, set their unsparing sights on the final pilgrimages of doomed protagonists," writes Johnny Ray Huston. "But whereas [Carlos] Reygadas's movie reveals the cruelty that upholds nationalist pride and prejudice, Denis explores the equally murderous crannies of a fractured colonialist psyche." Related: Susan Gerhard talks with Reygadas for SF360.

Also in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Dennis Harvey: "Anchored by [Andreas] Wilson's credibly slow-burning performance, Evil (which took three years to get here, despite its 2004 Oscar nomination) is so good it's almost on par with all-time-great Boarding School Hell movies like Another Country, Young Torless, and The Devil's Playground."

And Huston talks briefly with Clifford "TI" Harris Jr about his new movie, ATL, and new album, King. More from Pete L'Official in the Voice, Scott Tobias in the AV Club, Martha Fischer at Cinematical, Neil Genzlinger in the NYT and MaryAnn Johanson.

More at or via Cinematical:

• Jette Kernion interviews Hard Candy writer Brian Nelson and director David Slade.

• Kim Voynar emails screenwriter Stewart Stern to double check on this idea that Marlon Brando did a screen test in 1947 for Rebel Without a Cause. Turns out it was a very different story Brando was testing for from the film that was made eight years later.

• Martha Fischer points to Michael O'Sullivan's piece in the Washington Post on "a rather singular bonus feature" on the Keane DVD: Steven Soderbergh's alternate cut. Also, two bits of up-n-coming news, neither of which appear to be early April Fool's pranks: Gus Van Sant directing Tom Hanks in Starbucks Saved My Life and Christopher Walken in Balls of Fury. Better: 10 Rossellini films to be restored.

"Wu Hao, a Beijing-based documentary filmmaker, has been in police custody in the capital since Feb 22," reports Audra Ang for the AP. There's a tremendous amount of online activity surrounding this case, which you can follow at Free Hao Wu.

Signandsight translates former East German dissident Wolf Biermann's piece for Die Welt on Das Leben der Anderen (The Life of Others: "This debut film makes me suspect that the truly deep-reaching confrontation with Germany's second dictatorship is only just beginning."

Bruno Ganz and Theo Angelopoulos will be working together again, reports Boyd van Hoeij, who also reviews Cuore sacro (Sacred Heart), "the fifth and by far best film of Italo-Turkish director Ferzan Ozpetek."

J Hoberman: "Part Pentateuch, part Animal Farm, Iron Island is closer to Makhmalbaf faux naïveté than Kiarostami modernism. Depending on one's mood, the movie might seem boldly simplified and poetic—or boringly simpleminded and prosaic. Either way, Iron Island poses the question that was always asked of movies produced behind the Iron Curtain and later in China: How was it shown at home and what does it mean there?"

Also in the Voice, "Tracking Shots": Michael Atkinson on Iowa (more from Laura Kern in the NYT) and Tibet: A Buddhist Trilogy, Rob Nelson on Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School (more from Jeannette Catsoulis in the NYT and Andy Klein in the LA CityBeat), R Emmet Sweeney on Oscar-nominated shorts (more from Neil Genzlinger in the NYT) and Melissa Levine on Adam and Steve (more from Stephen Holden in the NYT; and a backgrounder from Gregg Goldstein in the Hollywood Reporter).

Just out on DVD: the Busby Berkeley Collection and a re-release of Triumph of the Will. Dave Kehr: "The coincidence is too suggestive to ignore." As it happens, J Hoberman also name-drops Berkeley in his review of Yang Ban Xi: The 8 Model Works for the Voice. As Manohla Dargis describes the doc, "[D]irector Yan-Ting Yuen revisits the country's recent past to explore the history and legacy of one of the strangest byproducts of totalitarian madness: the revolutionary spectacular." More from Steve Erickson at Gay City News.

But also in the New York Times:

• Charles Lyons on "one of the more confounding puzzles of the film world: the expanding Hispanic population in the United States, which totaled 35 million in the 2000 census and is projected to top 100 million by 2050, still hasn't created a market for Spanish-language pictures." In a similar vein, Lorenza Muñoz in the Los Angeles Times.

• Norimitzu Onishi reports on the surprise hit in South Korea, the most popular movie in that country's history, in fact, King and the Clown. The surprise: "the film centered on a gay love triangle in a 16th-century royal court... In American terms, it would perhaps be the equivalent of Brokeback Mountain — to which this movie has been loosely compared — grossing as much as Titanic."

• Stephen Holden another round of New Directors/New Films briefs: Twelve and Holding, 13 Tzameti, Things That Hang From Trees, My Country, My Country, Wild Tigers I Have Known and Toi et Moi. 'Nother festival: "New York International Children's Festival Goes Year-Round," reports Laurel Graeber.

• Nathan Lee on Toro Negro, "an unflinching look at bullfighting and debasement in the Yucatán Peninsula." More from Michael Atkinson in the Voice.

• Randy Quaid's lawsuit has Sharon Waxman noting that "the disparity between actors' fees and the film's promotional budget points toward what may be an endemic problem for the specialty divisions: even actors whose contracts provide for profit participation in successful films may find there is no profit left in which to participate, while the studios still collect rich distribution fees."

• Dargis: "[W]hat makes Slither sometimes feels like a monster-mash, what makes it work is how nimbly it slaloms from yucks to yuks, slip-sliding from horror to comedy and back again on its gore-slicked foundation." (More from Josh Levin in Slate, Jim Tudor at Twitch, Matt Singer in the Voice and Scott Weinberg at Cinematical.) Also, Basic Instinct 2: "[J]ust watching trash like this is degrading."

• Ben Sisario remembers Stanislaw Lem.

By the way, the New York Times has nominated Manohla Dargis for a Pulitzer Prize for criticism. Sara James reports for Women's Wear Daily; Anne Thompson comments: "Manohla Dargis is one of the best film critics writing today... No namby pamby she. Which is why so many PR people are afraid of her."

Seth Studer's overview of the films of Werner Herzog and Terrence Malick at Bandoppler 3.0. Via Jason Morehead.

Gavin Esler tracks down a few leading figures in "the new generation of Argentine directors who are beginning to be recognised as producing some of the most creative films anywhere in the world": Ariel Winograd, Daniel Burman and Fabian Bielinsky. Commentary: Anthony Kaufman.

Also in the Independent: Chris Sullivan talks with Denzel Washington about Inside Man and this and that - "I got my method and it's not based on Stanislavski; I just get it from wherever I can get it from, what I feel, what I see." Stephen Applebaum talks with Rebecca Miller about The Ballad of Jack and Rose and Elaine Lipworth talks with Kristin Davis about life since Sex and the City.

The Guardian runs an extract from Burton on Burton in which Johnny Depp writes about his long friendship and working partnership with the director: "For me, working with Tim is like going home. It is a house made of risk, but in that risk, there is comfort. Great comfort.... The only elements that keep me sane are my knowledge of his trust, my love for him, and my profound and eternal trust in him, coinciding with my hefty yearning to never disappoint him."

Also:

• Ewen MacAskill reports on Michael Winterbottom and Steve Coogan's planned adaptation of Murder in Samarkand, Craig Murray's book on his two years as British ambassador to Uzbekistan.

• In Pierrepoint, Timothy Spall plays "by far, Britain's most prolific hangman," as Marcel Berlins puts it in his backgrounder.

• Stuart Jeffries files a set report from Shanghai, one he's held til the release of The White Countess, which Peter Bradshaw finds a severe disappointment.

• Producer Quentin Reynolds replies to critics who've bashed Evil Aliens.

• And on one of the proliferating Guardian blogs (they've got podcasts now, too), David Boaz sees a libertarian streak in recent cinema (and likes it).

Which leads us to today's Jason Reitman/Thank You for Smoking pieces; Darcie Stevens in the Austin Chronicle and, in the Stranger, Annie Wagner, who also talks with Iraq in Fragments director James Longley. Don't know why I haven't mentioned yet that Reitman is blogging.

A roundtable discussion on V for Vendetta at the November 3rd Club: Film critic and playwright Brian Dauth, Club editor Victor D Infante, performance artist and film critic Matt Cornell, Libertarian Party co-founder Dave Nolan and PopCultureShock senior comics editor Guy LeCharles Gonzalez.

Antonio Pasolini writes in Kamera on the "devastatingly moving experience" of Jean-Pierre Melville's L'Armée des ombres (Army in the Shadows).

Ian Johnston at Not Coming to a Theater Near You: "Bergman enthusiast and Criterion Collection regular Peter Cowie (for once, not providing the commentary on this Criterion DVD) calls The Virgin Spring 'one of the highest peaks in the Bergman range.' He couldn't be more wrong."

John Adair: "Sunrise is considered by many to be one of the greatest silent films of all time. Take out the word 'silent' from that last sentence, and you get a more accurate picture of my own feeling on the matter."

Craig Phillips on The Best of Youth: "Ultimately, it's one of the most beautiful and truly moving experiences I've ever had watching a film."

MS Smith, among the Cinemarati: "In many ways, the experience of Ugetsu is one of visual and cultural immersion."

At Twitch, X, who's just updated the Korean Film Databank, translates excerpts from Cine21's interview with Im Kwon-taek in which he talks about the troubles he's been having realizing his next film.

HanCinema briefly mentions that Park Chan-wook has begun shooting I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK with singer and "heartthrob" Bi, also known as Rain. At Twitch, Todd's found the teaser poster.

Darcy Paquet reviews Min Kyu-dong's All for Love at Koreanfilm.org: "[O]n the whole, this film is a winner, for its narrative strength and its large cast of memorable characters."

Grady Hendrix: Fearless is one of those movies with a limp. Technically it can't be beat.... But the downside of early 90s Hong Kong cinema is apparent in Fearless as well."

Is a "new" Bollywood really a good idea? David Chute points to a discussion at Naachgaana.com. Commentary: Grady Hendrix.

Back in the NYP, Matt Zoller Seitz on Ice Age: The Meltdown: "This is not just a decent sequel, it’s a cartoon animal comedy about fear of annihilation; in essence, War of the Worlds for kids." More from a less enthusiastic Tasha Robinson for the AV Club and from Jeannette Catsoulis in the NYT.

Ryan Gilbey in the New Statesman: "In these enlightened times, then, let us end discrimination against those films which are disadvantaged in the area of length: the temporally challenged, if you like."

Tim Robey argues that John Williams is "both over- and under-rated."

Lance Mannion wraps his in-depth look at Chris Hansen's The Proper Care and Feeding of an American Messiah.

"[T]he situation at most nonprofit media arts centers has never been more dire," writes Brian Newman, executive director of National Video Resources (he also writes an excellent blog, SpringBoardMedia). Also in indieWIRE, Jonny Leahan presents an overview of the current deluge of docs on the war in Iraq.

The Cinecultist wishes her apartment's movie theme decor were as "freakin' cool" as Martin Scorsese's.

"San Francisco got majorly spanked by South Park," notes Joe Brown at the Chronicle's Culture Blog!

Haven't voted yet in Edward Copeland's worst of the bests poll? You have until midnight.

Josh Horowitz chats with Steve Buscemi.

Sharon Stone? "Somebody stop her," pleads the Chicago Tribune's Mark Caro. "Please." Via Ray Pride at Movie City Indie.

"Some filmmakers go DIY route to DVD" is the title Gregg Goldstein's piece in the Hollywood Reporter; if only we could read the whole thing, though, as Scott Macaulay points out at Filmmaker, another article in the series, "Alternative output gains steam in indie scene," is available. And we can read John Gaudiosi's story on Roger Avary's screenplay for Christophe Gans's Silent Hill, based on the game.

YouTube is the "Talk of Tinseltown," reports Greg Sandoval for CNET.

Online listening tip. Bill & Ted's Excellent Musical Adventure. Via Waxy.

Online viewing tip #1. Wiley Wiggins passes along some "Amazing 70s Signage" from The Electric Company.

Online viewing tip #2. Music For Your Eyes, via WmMBerger at WFMU's Beware of the Blog: "There's Punk, Post-Punk, Folk, Brit-Folk, Krautrock, Tropicalia, Psychedelia and lots more to warm a music lover's heart." Related, and online viewing tip #3: Flickhead gives us The Who.

Online viewing tip #3. The Rolling Stones record a Rice Krispies commercial. In 1964. Via Fimoculous.

Online viewing tip #4. Caveh Zahedi's I Am a Sex Addict vlog.

Posted by dwhudson at March 31, 2006 9:48 AM