Weekend shorts.

"Jean Genet's words have been put to celluloid in styles ranging from Fassbinder's cold Querelle to Todd Haynes's frigid Poison, but only once did Genet direct his own scenario," writes the Stranger's Annie Wagner. "The 25-minute semipornographic film Un Chant d'amour (1950), set in a prison lined with murderers and roses, is so removed from the mannerism of his disciples (but so close to his own novels) it's almost funny. Every scene is plump with romanticism, every soft 35 mm shot (by cinematographer Jacques Natteau, who had worked for Max Ophüls and Jean Renoir) suffused with a longing that's three parts eroticism for every one part pain."

"[Alain] Resnais's third feature, widely considered to be one of his best films (perhaps even his masterpiece), Muriel, or the Time of Return (1963), has finally been released on DVD, and its colorful, character-based immediacy might surprise those only familiar with his ethereal, black-and-white tone poems," writes Doug Cummings. "Although it can take several viewings to grasp the details of the narrative (it took me three), the film's staccato, elliptical construction ultimately seems completely natural and deeply compelling."

Jonathan Rosenbaum: "I'd like to beat the drum a little for a terrific new book just published by University of California Press, Catherine Benamou's It's All True: Orson Welles's Pan-American Odyssey, which is far and away the definitive book on It's All True, Welles's doomed documentary project about Latin America in the 1940s."

"Charles Burnett's debut feature, Killer of Sheep, resides so far outside the norms of movies-as-usual that I might as well review it as sculpture," begins Stuart Klawans in the Nation. "Killer of Sheep is one of those rare films that's so substantial, you feel you could walk around it, test its weight, observe how firmly and forthrightly it meets the ground.... I feel safe in calling it one of the best new films of 2007."

Ken Russell in the London Times: "So before each take, Oliver [Reed] would say: 'What do you want, Jesus?' (he always called me Jesus), 'Moody One, Moody Two or Moody Three?' The rest is history, including six films we made together, not forgetting his role as the martyred priest in The Devils, by which time the three moods had become infinite. And no, he never drank on the set nor came to work with a hangover. I unfortunately can't say the same."

"Paramount Pictures has set Jonah Nolan [Christopher's brother and collaborator] to write Interstellar, a space adventure that has Steven Spielberg attached to direct," reports Michael Fleming for Variety. "There is no hurry. Spielberg is prepping the fourth installment of Indiana Jones for a June start with Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett, and he is expected to follow with a film about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, based on the Doris Kearns Goodwin book. Spielberg wants his Schindler's List star Liam Neeson to play Lincoln."

James Cameron's Avatar "will be released in 2009 simultaneously with a massive, multiplayer, video game based on the film," notes Brendon Connelly at film ick.

Patrick Barkham meets Danny Boyle: "Today the director of Trainspotting is mostly raving about the sun, Kenny from South Park, student digs, acrobatic planes, CGI hamsters, cordless kettles, Dr Brian Cox, D:Ream, the God particle and Hugh Grant. Grant apart, these things all play a role in Sunshine, Boyle's new film and his first foray into science fiction." Earlier: Nigel Floyd with Boyle and Cillian Murphy.

Also in the Guardian:

• "Once again it is Shimon Peres who reminds us how thoroughly screwed the peace process is, by scheduling talks - his word - with none other than visiting Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio," fumes Marina Hyde. "Yes, I know. We all loved him in The Departed. I'll bet he has some really interesting stuff to say on West Bank disengagement." Related: DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are set to reunite in Sam Mendes's adaptation of Richard Yates's Revolutionary Road.

• Ronald Bergan: "Despite having appeared in several films, and subsequently becoming an enterprising producer, Nicole Stéphane [1923 - 2007], who has died aged 83, will always be associated with the role of Elisabeth, the semi-incestuous sister, in Jean-Pierre Melville's adaptation of the Jean Cocteau novel, Les Enfants Terribles (also known as The Strange Ones, 1950)."

• Sarfraz Manzoor on "one of the most unusual Indian films ever," Namastey, London. "Although produced in India, it was filmed almost entirely in Britain and, uniquely for a Bollywood film, its plot concerns the struggles for love and belonging among second-generation Asians living in Britain."

• "The older audience is already the fastest growing sector in the market," notes Geoffrey Macnab, and exhibitors are catching on.

Bryan Whitefield catches a Q&A with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright after a screening of Hot Fuzz, which, by the way, "is fucking hilarious and completely exceeded my expectations. I honestly cannot remember laughing that hard or having that much fun in a movie theater in a long time."

The New York Times Book Review more than makes up for falling a couple of weeks behind on its coverage of the all but simultaneous appearance of two biographies of Leni Riefenstahl by getting a casually, almost flippantly argumentative - and therefore, highly readable - essayist, Clive James, to write the review. James, as you probably know, has a new book out himself, Cultural Amnesia, "876 pages on 107 figures in history and the arts... celebrating what he calls 'humanism,' by which he appears to mean historical memory unsullied by 'ideology' and dependent on 'liberal democracy,'" as Richard Locke notes in his review for Bookforum. Slate editor Jacob Weisberg is an unabashed fan - the magazine is running 25 pieces from the book over two months and webcasting several episodes of the Clive James Show - which makes sense. With the possible exception of Christopher Hitchens's frequent contributions, Slate has been arguing quite reasonably (albeit seldom passionately) that one can say no to both radical Islam and the neo-cons of the Bush administration and that, in fact, both extreme ideologies feed off of and strengthen each other. It's the 21st century version of saying no to both Stalin and Hitler, which brings us back to Riefenstahl.

The two books are Jürgen Trimborn's Leni Riefenstahl: A Life, which "has the better pictures," according to James, and Steven Bach's Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl, which "has the better text." With a few exceptions, that's about all James has to say about them. The bulk of the piece is devoted to retelling the story his way, exposing Riefenstahl's lies at every turn, admonishing her "cinéaste admirers" (quite sternly in his final paragraph, too) and cutting her a little slack just once: "Susan Sontag later made a serious mistake in arguing that Olympia was entirely steeped in fascist worship of the beautiful body. But it's nature that worships the beautiful body. Fascism is natural. That's what's wrong with it: it's nothing else.... [E]verything she did in Berlin in 1936 was topped by what Kon Ichikawa did in Tokyo in 1964. Nevertheless, Leni, with her raw material handed to her on a plate, and unhampered by those requirements of invented narrative that she could never manage, had made quite a movie for its time."

"Intentionally or not, The Prisoner [or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair], which was directed by [Michael] Tucker and his wife, Petra Epperlein, addresses [Gunner Palace's] myopic point of view because this time out it's an Iraqi who dominates the camera, not an American," writes Manohla Dargis. Time's Richard Schickel finds that it "somehow - quietly, devastatingly - shows and tells you more than you may perhaps want to know about the dehumanization implicit in the mighty, blighted Iraqi adventure." For Cameron Scott, writing in Mother Jones, it's "an odd and even imperfect film, but one that ultimately rewards its viewer with an emotional account of the smaller tragedies and humanities of the war in Iraq."

Manohla Dargis again: "A would-be psychological thriller with next to no psychology and shivers instead of thrills, The Page Turner is a nervous-making, lightly amusing vengeance story that owes an obvious debt to Claude Chabrol."

Also in the New York Times:

• Color Me Kubrick "is a platform for John Malkovich to burst into lurid purple flame," writes Stephen Holden. "[I]t is obvious that the actor is having a wonderful time camping it up.... With a soundtrack built around excerpts from Kubrick film scores and an opening scene that parodies A Clockwork Orange, this arch, episodic movie is really an affectionate sequence of in-jokes conceived as a posthumous homage to Kubrick by two knowing insiders." More from Jim Emerson at RogerEbert.com. Related: At ScreenGrab, Bilge Ebiri emails with screenwriter (and former personal assistant to Kubrick) Anthony Frewin.

• Stephen Holden again: "A pointed little thriller with metaphysical pretensions, First Snow is shrewd enough to approach basic philosophical questions in sneaky, offhand ways." More from Andy Klein in the LA CityBeat: "[Guy] Pearce is in every scene, and the movie rides almost completely on his fine performance; still, props must be given to William Fichtner, who is wholly memorable at Jimmy's exasperated best friend. First Snow is solidly made - which, for this sort of film, is nothing to sneeze at - but it doesn't leave that strong an impression either. It's a decent freshman effort." Related: Jennifer Merin talks with director Mark Fergus for the Reeler.

• Matt Zoller Seitz on Air Guitar Nation: "Like Spellbound, Murderball and other competition documentaries, it's a valentine to underdog dreamers: Rocky gone basic cable. But the movie's wild performances and droll humor are tough to resist." More from Rob Humanick at Slant.

• MZS again: "Gleefully sensationalistic and paced like an adults-only shoot-'em-up video game, [The Hills Have Eyes 2 is] ultimately less interested in subversion and subtext than in making viewers squirm, shriek and throw up into their popcorn bags." Related: For the Los Angeles Times, Deborah Netburn asks Wes Craven, "What do you think is scary today?" Answer: "The current administration. That's the standard answer now. Unfortunately I'm not even joking. But the basic themes of what is scary have always been the same. A murderous rage that builds up in a family, a neighborhood or a nation, those are things I think are scary."

• Also: Journey From the Fall "depicts one family's endurance in sturdy, old-movie style, with sweeping camerawork, a monumental and occasionally intrusive orchestral score, gorgeous yet forbidding natural vistas and enough shocking tragedies, brazen escapes and crowd-pleasing acts of defiance to fuel several action-adventure pictures." More from Rob Humanick at Slant.

• Jeannette Catsoulis: "Based on the novel by Matthew Rettenmund, Boy Culture is a slick and absorbing drama about an attractive gay hustler named X (Derek Magyar), with an extensive investment portfolio and a restricted clientele of 12 wealthy men." More from Michael Guillén.

• Also: "Invoking Lewis Carroll, E.T. and Tibetan Buddhism, The Last Mimzy is an overstuffed yet warmhearted sci-fi drama"; the "inane, sluggish mess" that is Memory; and then there's TMNT: "[O]ur superheroes on the half shell have been firmly co-opted by the industry their creators once sought to spoof." Related: Erik Davis interviews director Kevin Munroe for Cinematical.

• "Hollywood braces for a new government review of the marketing of violent entertainment to the young," reports Michael Cieply. "The Federal Trade Commission is putting the final touches on a follow-up to its September 2000 report on the marketing to children of violent movies, music and video games. The first such assessment in three years, it will examine the selling practices of a mainstream entertainment industry that in the interim has become increasingly dependent on abductions, maimings, decapitations and other mayhem once kept away from studio slates."

"In the wake of Jean Baudrillard's death, Ballardian presents Benjamin Noys's essay exploring the 'point of convergence between the writing of Jean Baudrillard and JG Ballard.'"

"This, I think, accounts for much of Jodorowsky's power," writes David Lowery: "[H]e makes the grotesque and fantastic entirely tangible."

"The thing to know is that [John] Carpenter didn't like to outsource his soundtracks. Long past the point of repetition, they felt like his break from the hazards of filmmaking - his retreat. Sometimes Carpenter collaborated, but he rarely surrendered whole hog. Except, most notably, on The Thing." Nathan Kosub in Stop Smiling on Ennio Morricone.

Sheigh Crabtree in the Los Angeles Times on Haskell Wexler's political bid: "The firebrand filmmaker, who famously made Introduction to the Enemy in North Vietnam with 'Hanoi' Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden in 1974, has launched a pro-labor, anti-corporation campaign, in his bid to become the next president of Local 600, the International Cinematographers Guild. Now 81-years old, the cameraman (Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf) and documentary filmmaker (Medium Cool) sent out a mass mailing that included a free DVD screener of his latest pro-labor documentary to ICG members."

"I had a very minor role in Film Geek, playing 'myself' along with a few other local movie reviewers and pundits during the film's final fantasy segment," recalls DK Holm. "A mostly improvised sequence, it appeared to come off well, and I suggested to [James] Westby (begged, really) that if he had a part in any upcoming films to please contact me." He did. The new one's The Auteur and the new story's fun. Also at ScreenGrab, Vadim Rizov finds Close-Up "visually dull, endlessly talky, and not particularly rewarding, with Kiarostami ignoring his own strengths. But it's the fans he really hates."

"More relevant than the failure to adapt What Makes Sammy Run? is how close the production came to fruition." Eric Kohn tells the story in Forward.

"Javier Corcuera's The Back of the World is an understatedly observed, indelible, and provocative examination of the inextricable social cycle of poverty, exploitation, disenfranchisement, and disposability," writes acquarello.

Michael Guillén watches Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) and listens in on a Q&A with director Jason Kohn.

"There is no doubt that Amazing Grace, which depicts William Wilberforce's 18-year battle to outlaw slavery in the British empire, has its heart in the right place," writes Ryan Gilbey in the New Statesman. Even so, "Amazing Grace is the sort of film best watched on the radio." More from Tim Robey in the Telegraph.

"Is it possible to make a comedy that's too smart for its audience?" asks Peter Nellhaus. "I had to wonder as I was the only person at the theater where The Sperm was playing."

Miljenko Skoknic talks with Grace Lee about American Zombie for SF360.

Homophobia is alive and well in advertising, television and the movies, notes Michael Abernethy. Also in PopMatters, Cynthia Fuchs interviews Mira Nair.

Willem Dafoe defends his appearance in Mr Bean's Holiday in David Usborne's profile for the Independent.

Debuting on the Sundance Channel on April 17: The Green.

Online listening tip. Rock in Reykjavik at CineFile Video.

Online viewing tips, round 1. David Poland talks with Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine about their doc, Manufacturing Dissent and asks John Pierson, "So what is it about Austin?" And of course, they talk about the state of the local film scene, what's happened to indies, Baltimore, why She's Gotta Have It still isn't out on DVD and more. Meantime, Cinematical's James Rocchi turns the tables and interviews David.

Online viewing tips, round 2. The best of February at No fat clips!!!.

Posted by dwhudson at March 24, 2007 6:05 PM