Shorts, 12/5.

David Bordwell has a quick primer on Lewis Klahr, "one of the most gifted collage animators in the American avant-garde" whose "work deserves to be more widely known."

"For five years now, one of the great film resources in America has been unjustly imprisoned, boxed up and sitting in a storage facility in Hamlin, Pennsylvania." Jim Emerson and Mary Corliss explain - and call for action.

Peter Nellhaus calls for nothing less than the preservation of Thai cinema.

In the New York Times, Dave Kehr reviews Facets' first volume of a collection of films by Johan van der Keuken, "arguably Europe's most important documentary filmmaker, and: "Lubitsch's Hollywood Europe was a highly artificial, thoroughly imagined place, but then so was the Europe he envisioned while still in Germany, as revealed by the five wonderful films being released today on four discs by Kino International under the series title Lubitsch in Berlin. All reveal a filmmaker in flight from everyday reality." Related: Film historian Bob Mastrangelo and Laughter in Paradise author Scott Eyman are guests on the Leonard Lopate Show.

Grady Hendrix points to Mark Russell's decidedly so-so review of Park Chan-wook's I'm a Cyborg and That's Okay, which "comes off kind of like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest mixed with Brazil... then run through a substance strainer." Given choice, he suggests, see Pan's Labyrinth.

Pamela Rolfe for the Hollywood Reporter: "Pedro Almod�var's next film will be titled 'El Piel Que Habito' ('The Skin I Live In') and the cast will include Penelope Cruz, according to an interview published Monday in the Spanish press."

"Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One may be the ultimate paradigm of self-reflexive cinema," writes Michael Atkinson at IFC News, where also reviews the new Wenders box. And: Matt Singer talks with Daniel Burman about Family Law and Dan Persons: "People steadfastly attached to a book have the book, after all - why shouldn't they get out of the way of those who might turn the material into something bigger than the original and better suited for the screen?" A list of creative adaptations follows.

Anthony Lane has a longish appreciation of Walt Disney in the New Yorker: "'The work of this master,' Eisenstein claimed, 'is the greatest contribution of the American people to art.'"

For indieWIRE, Jason Guerrasio checks up on five true indies in production.

"Self-distribution allows me to be very creative and not worry about Hollywood and Indiewood expectations. I can make what I would enjoy without worrying about the tastes of the handful of acquisition executives." Ellen interviews Sujewa Ekanayake for Fylmz.com.

Dennis Cozzalio presents "Professor Dave Jennings' Milton-Free Holiday Midterm. Blue books open, and begin!"

Andrew Gumbel in the Independent: "Hollywood may fancy itself as a politically progressive sort of place, where gay people are not only accepted but are employed in large numbers. But the unwritten rule - unchanged in many decades - is that no actor ever admits he is homosexual." Oh?

"[T]here is a weird new trend for American actors to play Brit writers," notes the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. "It's a trophy thing. Books are classy - and so are Brits."

Maria Elena Fernandez has the Annie nominations in the Los Angeles Times, where Patrick Goldstein sees Dreamgirls as the frontrunner in the Oscars race.

Online viewing tips, round 1. Steve Bryant presents a "Brief and Amusing List of Alternative Endings to Movies and TV Shows."

Online viewing tips, round 2. Giant presents the "Greatest Commercials of the 80s." Via Ed Champion.

Posted by dwhudson at December 5, 2006 4:27 AM