Shorts: Slouching toward the weekend.

"[T]he Catholics were on to something with Baby Doll," suggests Annie Wagner in the Stranger. "Watch that 1956 film now. I triple-dog dare you. Baby Doll, part of a new box set of works written by [Tennessee] Williams, is utterly, horrifyingly, wonderfully, indisputably obscene. All this with no nudity and exclusively offscreen sex."

"The complete, uncut Greed has become something of a 'Holy Grail,' a Hollywood urban legend that somewhere out there is a copy, waiting to be discovered." Welcome to Silent Movies tells the story of Erich von Stroheim's long lost masterpiece. Via Coudal Partners.

"William Klein is the ultimate post-war incarnation of that very twentieth-century beast: the American in Paris." Time Out's David Calhoun meets him.

Richard von Busack at Cinematical: "Modern Romance, a vintage Albert Brooks comedy of 1981, demonstrates the man's unsurpassed gifts in the comedy of excruciation."

"Just as the seed for The Last Days of Disco came from the 'beautiful women in discos' scenes in Barcelona, the idea for what I hope will be my next film came from the early Jamaican music we tried to use in Disco's non-club scenes. Justin Hinds & the Dominoes' song "Carry Go Bring Come" - used during the semi-climactic taxi escape scene - fell into my life like the Coke bottle in The Gods Must Be Crazy." Whit Stillman explains what he's been up to lately - and why he's going to Cannes.

Also in the Guardian: Laura Barton talks with Paul Bettany about The Da Vinci Code (related: Will Lawrence with Audrey Tautou in the Times of London; and Peter Keough for the Boston Phoenix: "No matter how you look at it, the Church can't lose"); and Kate Stables has half a dozen online viewing tips for soccer fans.

Peter Nellhaus: "If there is a reason why Violent Summer and Girl with a Suitcase should be made mandatory viewing for virtually all contemporary filmmakers, it is to study how Valerio Zurlini uses popular music in film."

Art School Confidential is "an inspired, fascinating, and revealing mess," writes Jonathan Rosenbaum in the Chicago Reader. For more, see Tony DuShane's interviews with Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes, just up at the main site, and this entry, which is still being updated.

John Rockwell introduces a New York Times critical guide to ballet on DVD - or cut straight to the list. Also:

• Now that AO Scott is back, look at him go! Giuliani Time, Sketches of Frank Gehry (more from Marcy Dermansky), Poseidon (related: Mike Russell's best and worst disaster films ever) and Just My Luck. More on that one and all things Lindsay Lohan from DK Holm at Movie Poop Shoot.

• More reviews: Stephen Holden on Keeping Up With the Steins; Jeannette Catsoulis on Goal! The Dream Begins and Wah-Wah (more from Christopher Campbell at Cinematical); Anita Gates on Saving Shiloh; Laura Kern on Dead Man's Shoes (more from Jürgen Fauth) and Refuge; Neil Genzlinger on Mendy: A Question of Faith; and Nathan Lee on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

For Steve Erickson, writing in Gay City News, Russian Dolls is "more like an overextended Friends episode than the Truffaut comedies it initially evokes."

Speaking of... James Mottram interviews Jennifer Aniston in the Independent, where she also sets sail with Jeanne Moreau to talk about François Ozon's Time to Leave, and of course, all those other great directors she's worked with.

"Even as the popularity of documentaries is increasing, the difficulties with financing them is also growing," writes Sheryle Carlson. Also in Vue Weekly: Paul Matwychuk on The Film Snob's Dictionary and - nice combo - Mission Impossible III, Carolyn Nikodym on 3 Needles and Los Zafiros: Music From the Edge of Time, Brian Gibson on Blackballed: The Bobbie Dukes Story, David Berry on Death by Popcorn: The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets.

Patrick Smith in Salon: "As a moviegoer with a marked distaste for cloying dramatizations, and as a pilot with equal distaste for technical bloopers, I found United 93 to be without a doubt the best airplane movie I've ever seen - though, as we know, there's not much of a well to draw from." More from Joanne Laurier (who's not a pilot) at WSWS.

Joe Leydon talks with Mary Harron about The Notorious Bettie Page for the Tennessean.

In the Hollywood Reporter, Anne Thompson explains why the studios' indie divisions are doing so well these days.

Nikki Finke: "Attention, indie film biz: the check may actually be in the mail. That's because I've learned that Merrill Lynch's Global Asset Based Finance Group and Rizvi Traverse Management have formed New Bridge Film Capital, a Los Angeles-based film financing company to provide gap capital to independent producers."

"If you want to see your face on the silver screen, outsource yourself to India," writes Scott Carney for Wired News. "Bollywood's casting agents are scrambling to find foreigners to give their films a cosmopolitan feel." Via Grady Hendrix.

Diane Keaton, L'Oreal spokesperson. Laura Compton's got details at the Culture Blog!.

Waggish is on the map, the radar screen, the carpet, a click away.

What'll you be watching this weekend, asks Girish. The Siren recommends Frank Borzage's Moonrise.

If you're looking for weekend reads, you might consider catching up with Issue 4 of Scope or Issue 3 (Vol 10) of Offscreen.

Online viewing tip. The trailer for Jean Rollin's Requiem for a Vampire at The Crime in Your Coffee.

Posted by dwhudson at May 12, 2006 2:40 PM