Shorts, 8/21.

"Movie history is rife with tales of genius thwarted, trashed, traduced (DW Griffith, Erich von Stroheim, plus dozens of lesser talents), but the story of Orson Welles has become central to a core myth, beloved by passionate cinephiles and the ever-contemptuous literati, that Hollywood wantonly, inevitably destroys its most gifted creators. I think that notion is nonsensical." For the Los Angeles Times, Richard Schickel reviews Simon Callow's Orson Welles: Hello Americans and Joseph McBride's "more personal and passionate" What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?: A Portrait of an Independent Career (coming in October) and argues that "Welles was the primary auteur of his own misery."

Also in the LAT, Susan King previews Buzz, a doc about AI "Buzz" Bezzerides: "[H]e became one of the major writers of film noir in the 1940s and '50s, penning such movies as Thieves' Highway (which he adapted from his own novel), On Dangerous Ground and Kiss Me Deadly. His first novel, The Long Haul, was adapted into the 1940 film They Drive by Night, starring George Raft and Ann Sheridan."

New York's David Edelstein on the films of Andrew Bujalski: "These free-floating comedies of manners - of rudderless young people who can't articulate their feelings to themselves, let alone others - turn out to be shapely, cunning, and indelibly strange." Also: Catch LOL when it screens at the Pioneer for a week beginning on Wednesday.

Scoop. The Illusionist. The Prestige. Clarence Carter: "We at Reverse Shot try to avoid silly cultural-moment analyses; though I could argue that the perfect storm of war malaise, terrorism fears, and waning belief in the credibility of our government necessitates the introduction of the magician character into popular fictions (always a ready mirror of our collective unconscious, of course) that would be, well, stupid."

What does Eisenstein's run-in with the Left Front circle have to do with Art Since 1900. Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism? Konstantin Akinsha explains in springer|in.

Will Mel Gibson's AA meetings mess up Terence Malick's shooting schedule? Jeffrey Overstreet has been looking into it.

Among the other things we learn in Jonathan Romney's interview with Pedro Almodóvar is that the turned down the opportunity to make Brokeback Mountain because was afraid he wouldn't be given the freedom to make it his way. Also in the Independent, David Thomson on Alan Arkin and his 1971 film, Little Murders, "exactly what you need to see if you don't yet credit how outrageous and bold American filmmaking could be at that moment."

Sunday-length interviews in the Observer: Sanjiv Bhattacharya with Toni Collette, Sean O'Hagan with Joan Didion and Barbara Ellen with Sigourney Weaver.

Also:

• David Smith asks Sharon Foster about accusations that the film she's written, Shoot the Messenger, pointing a finger at blacks as a source of their own problems, actually fans racist fires.

• This Film is Not Yet Rated prompts Mark Kermode to ask, "Isn't it time America grew up?"

• Philip French on A Scanner Darkly.

And in the Guardian, Stephen Applebaum talks with Larry Clark about Destricted.

"Television has become a more reliably fulfilling and commercially uncompromised medium than film," declares Heather Havrilesky. "This is largely due to the rise, in the last decade, of the serial drama, with its season-long arcs, slow-simmering character development, and diverse permutations, all of which have allowed TV writers more creative range than ever before. Instead of concise, often formulaic, self-contained episodes, we're treated to rich, complexly plotted stories about tortured Mafia families, soulful Muslim CIA agents and intergalactic spirituality crises that we end up caring deeply about." Also in Salon, Havrilesky's "clip-and-save guide to the new TV season's new dramas."

Empire gets Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford talking about Indy IV. Via Movie City News. Related online viewing tip: Panopticist finds Robby Benson's Star Wars audition. Ouch.

Matt Riviera on The Host: "Watching this moody film, I couldn't help but thing of Tsai Ming-Liang's The River. Though very different, Tsai's film also features an evil presence, born out of a river, which threatens an Asian metropolis from the inside... As with Tsai's film, I think all kinds of metaphors can be read in The Host, especially political ones."

"The tension of distance between the lovers becomes the spatial manifestation of love." Selen B Morkoc in Film International on Baran.

From Jonathan Dee's profile in the run-up to Idlewild: "What's compelling about OutKast isn't simply that the interests of two old high-school buddies should have diverged; it's that Big Boi and André have somehow contrived to turn this incompatibility to their musical advantage." Also in the New York Times Magazine, Deborah Solomon's talk with Whoopi Goldberg. More on Idlewild from Kirk Honeycutt in the Hollywood Reporter and John Anderson in Variety: "[I]t has such ineffable charm and pure entertainment value, it's hard to imagine auds going only once."

In the paper:

• Jane Perlez meets Indonesian filmmaker Nia Dinata: "Her movies are more art house than Hollywood, and her success springs from a fearless drive to address issues of the day with poignancy and touches of humor. In her newest film, Love for Share, which portrays the behind-the-scenes anguish of polygamous marriages, viewers can also detect something else: an authenticity bred of experience."

• Material Girls? Check out Martha Coolidge's 1983 comedy Valley Girl instead, suggests Manohla Dargis.

• A deal Will Smith has made with India's UTV "says a lot about Hollywood’s desire to court foreign audiences," reports Laura M Holson.

• Ryan Lizza: "August, usually the sleepiest month in politics, has suddenly become raucous, thanks in part to YouTube." Commentary: Chuck Tryon.

David Lowery talks with Quinceañera directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland.

Another reason you'd better be reading Nick Davis: "Jackie Brown is the AK-47 in Tarantino's arsenal, which is all the more surprising because, on the surface, the director seems to have more on his mind than blowing us away."

James Wolcott: "Seven Men from Now begins in an uncharacteristic downpour (Boetticher films are usually bone-dry), and receives an injection of snake venom once Lee Marvin turns up as the villain. Where Randolph Scott is the most rectangular of laconic movie heroes, Marvin moves like a whip, at one point practicing his quick draw in a saloon with such hipster humor ('pow pow') it's as if he's anticipating Cat Ballou."

The Reeler invites "Pinch Hitters" to contribute entries while he escapes from New York. Contributors so far: Noel Murray (AV Club), Josh Horowitz (Better Than Fudge), Paddy Johnson (Art Fag City) and Lisa Vandever (CineKink).

The Bothersome Man and Free Jimmy were the big winners at the Amandas, Norway's Oscars, reports Annika Pham at Cineuropa.

On Friday, Marcel Carné would have been 100. Filmz.de points to tributes from Gerhard Midding in the Berliner Zeitung and Sabine Glaubitz in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. Also, Renate Brausewetter, 1905 - 2006.

Relaunched with new features and all: The Movie Review Query Engine.

Brian Flemming: "Lonelygirl15 jumps the shark."

Recently updated entries:

• "It had to come out." (the Günter Grass entry).
• Spike Lee's Requiem.
• ATTN: Wes Anderson.
• Critics (again).
• The Pusher Trilogy.
• Interview. Jan Svankmajer. and Lunacy.
• Weekend snakes.
• The Illusionist.
• Brian De Palma.

Online browsing tip. Amid Amidi (Cartoon Brew) posts a collection of photos snapped in the summer of 1958 at Disney studios as animators were completing work on Sleeping Beauty and beginning production on 101 Dalmatians."

Online viewing tip #1. Ricky Gervais talks Office Values for Microsoft. At Film Threat.

Online viewing tip #2. "Fellini." "Who?" Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Pictures of Assholes at DVblog.

Online viewing tip #3. Eddie Izzard: "Brit vs US Movies" at ticklebooth.

Online viewing tip #4. Folkstreams. "The Best of American Folklore Films."

Posted by dwhudson at August 21, 2006 3:54 PM