Shorts, 3/1.

"May 6th is an unnervingly fitting epitaph for the bearish, chain-smoking, always-controversial [Theo] Van Gogh, a politico/libertine of the old school who was fueled by his passionate belief in the power of free speech and even freer art," writes Mark Savlov in the Austin Chronicle. "May 6th is Blow-Up for the new world disorder, a taut paranoid thriller about the 2002 assassination of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. Fortuyn, an openly gay Libertarian firebrand who polarized the Netherlands, was, like Van Gogh, loved and loathed in equal measure. Van Gogh's improbably probable final feature - he would be assassinated 911 days after Fortuyn - rockets along on the bloody rails of the here and now, a fictional film that appears to be growing less so every moment." More from Louis Proyect. Only tangentially related: Stephen Elliott's disturbing read in the Believer.

"[W]hereas [Maya] Deren and [Stan] Brakhage envisioned a homegrown avant-garde cinema that would scorn the Hollywood behemoth, [Kenneth] Anger emerged from the dragon's lair itself," writes Tom Gunning in Artforum. "His détournement of Hollywood tropes helped Pop art emerge from the biting irony entwined with affection that defined American homosexual camp culture."

"On a 24-day shoot in Corsica since February 12, Hungarian director Béla Tarr's The Man from London is on the last lap of its adventurous voyage, and may be ready in time for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival," reports Fabien Lemercier for Cineuropa.

"Director Kim Ki-duk's 14th film, Breath, has been sold to 10 countries even before it has finished filming." KBS reports.

"Not since the mid-1960s has [Harold] Pinter been so much in vogue. But why now?" asks Michael Billington. Naturally, he can think up a whole list of reasons, the first round summed up as, basically, a belated recognition of the depth and nature of his talent. Then: "The current rash of revivals also testifies to a big shift in our attitude to Pinter's view of world politics.... Pinter was forever mocked as the Angry Old Man and instructed to pipe down and get back to writing plays. If those attacks have largely disappeared, it is because recent events have tragically vindicated Pinter's world-view."

Also in the Guardian:

• "Directors Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho are to collaborate on a portmanteau film set in Tokyo."

• "The recent announcement of the supposed discovery of the ossuaries (bone boxes) of Jesus' family is void of scientific and archaeological merit," argues Dr Justin Thacker, "head of theology of the Evangelical Alliance."

• Hannah Pool talks with Nick Love about Outlaw and onscreen violence.

• And news of a Hollywood remake of The Lives of Others. Filmbrain was right all along! Bilge Ebiri comments at ScreenGrab.

MS Smith revises his list of "Twenty Favorite Films": "[T]he most pronounced consistency lies in how all of the films in my list of essential, personal favorites ultimately exist within the long, imposing shadow of my number-one choice."

Some might argue it's a bit late, but how else to gain perspective: Geoff Andrew on the year in film, 2006, in Frieze: "Too many of the Asian movies released were flashy exercises in horror and violence; an exception was the exquisitely beautiful Three Times, by Taiwan's Hsiao-Hsien Hou... Many of the finest films of the year were European."

"How hard is it to get a simple human drama made in the current film industry?" asks Jim Ridley in the Nashville Scene. Even if you're Curt Hahn and your company's got Two Weeks, an indie featuring Sally Field and Ben Chaplin, opening this weekend, it's pretty hard - unless you toss in a gratuitous rape scene. Hahn won't.

"For my money, charm comes altogether too easily to the French, and Gallic whimsy only serves to prop up infantile Anglo fantasies about the ceaseless glamour of la vie Parisienne," writes Ella Taylor, reviewing Avenue Montaigne for the LA Weekly. "Still, I make an exception for Danièle Thompson, whose warmly irreverent fluff (La Bûche, Jet Lag) comes animated by an earthy refusal to take the cult of the artist at face value, and a fetching habit of nudging to the dramatic spotlight the kinds of people who, in movies of this kind, usually show up for five seconds to roll their eyes at bourgeois folly and exit, sweeping." Also, Gbravica.

The Reeler talks with Mira Nair about The Namesake. Also, Vadim Rizov: "The timing of the Film Forum's revival of Raise the Red Lantern may seem odd (come celebrate its 16th anniversary!), but there's probably never been a more urgent time to re-evaluate the work of Zhang Yimou."

Production Weekly has news of what's up next for Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington.

Picking up with her take on Come and Get It, Self-Styled Siren considers "The Strange Fame of Frances Farmer, Part Two."

Kalen Egan at the Six-Reel Shuffle on Don Siegel's The Beguiled: "Here is a film so ahead of its time that even today it feels like something relevant, wise and alien."

"It's hard to imagine it, but there was a time when the striptease artist was considered one of the classiest acts in all of entertainment." PopMatters' Bill Gibron on a double feature: Dream Follies/Dreamland Capers.

"As part of a newly created venture, [James] Cameron is working with Jimmy Iovine, the chairman of the Interscope Geffen A&M record label, to produce music films, concerts and other content in 3-D to show in specially equipped theaters. Mr Iovine and Mr Cameron hope to deliver their first production by summer." Jeff Leeds's report in the New York Times features cameos by Gwen Stefani, Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails.

"The film, That, may just be a 39-minute 'snowboarding epic,'" writes Filmmaker's Scott Macaulay, "but independent filmmakers should take note of it because, according to Variety, it's the first piece of independently distributed media on the Apple iTunes Movie Store."

Online gazing tip. Ray Pride's hotel room portraits.

Posted by dwhudson at March 1, 2007 4:08 PM