Shorts, 4/9.

Frankly, other than the items already posted today, there isn't a film story out there that would warrant taking the lead spot in this batch of "Shorts" away from the news of the death of Sol LeWitt at the age of 78. FWIW, he does have an IMDb entry. More relevantly, he wasn't, of course, a complete stranger to cinema. The Guardian's Adrian Searle noted in December that "LeWitt has in his long career conveyed ideas through his arrangements of aluminium cubes, through paired photographs of worn-out shoes and a film of a cock-fight."

At any rate, Michael Kimmelman today: "To grasp his work could require a little effort. His early sculptures were chaste white cubes and gray cement blocks. For years people associated him with them, and they seemed to encapsulate a remark he once made: that what art looks like 'isn't too important.' This was never exactly his point."

Somewhat related online viewing at the DVblog: "Baldessari sings LeWitt.

Back in the New York Times:

• Sharon Waxman talks with Jonathan Kasdan (son of Lawrence, younger brother of Jake) about his first feature, In the Land of Women. Related: Lisa Rosen on the Kasdans in the Los Angeles Times.

• The release on DVD of the second season of Twin Peaks is "a challenge to the received wisdom that the show's second half was a prolonged free fall," writes Dennis Lim.

• Ben Brantley, AO Scott and Alessandra Stanley respond to comments Stephen Fry made a few weeks ago. You may remember: "I shouldn't be saying this - high treason really - but I sometimes wonder if Americans aren't fooled by our accent into detecting a brilliance that may not really be there."

Billy Stevenson has launched a blog, afilmcanon, "to accompany a fairly comprehensive film screening program that I am embarking upon with two friends." By "fairly comprehensive," he means around 2000 films - to be watched over a period of years. No plot summaries; the gist lies "somewhere between criticism, reviewing and anecdotal appreciation - an attempt to evoke what was most distinctive about each film. Concomitantly, Dave Marin-Guzman will be providing a decade-by-decade assessment." He's begun with Méliès, seen a lot of Griffith and is just now getting into the 20s.

"Okay, so I've heard bandied about something to the effect that you're New Zealand's only American, Hungarian, Chinese filmmaker." Jacob Powell talks with Sándor Lau for the Lumière Reader.

"Crossing Over, a film that focuses on the gut-wrenching drama of people caught up in the nation's immigration morass, begins filming Wednesday in Los Angeles, and judging by the script, it paints a searing portrait of immigration issues in LA in much the way Crash did with the city's race relations." For the LAT, Robert W Welkos reports on the film starring Harrison Ford, Sean Penn and Ray Liotta. Speaking of whom; Chrissy Iley interviews Liotta for the Guardian.

"[R]ecent decades have seen a shift in the tastes of audiences, and as the musical has declined, and audiences have drifted away, its role has been usurped (at least in part) by a most unlikely candidate: the Chinese martial-arts epic." Shane Danielsen lays out his argument in the Independent.

For the New Yorker, Michael Schulman spends some time with Father Michael Holleran, who has been answering viewers' questions following Film Forum screenings Into Great Silence.

"Over the next few months, Hilary Swank, Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger - all of them Oscar winners - will topline scary movies.... Hollywood has turned into Horrorwood, and the reason is simple: money," writes Newsweek's Devin Gordon.

"What Are You Reading?" asks Girish, and the comments burst forth.

More books:

• "The Frodo Franchise, my book on the Lord of the Rings film phenomenon, is now available for pre-order from Amazon or directly from the University of California Press," announces Kristin Thompson, who's got the cover illustration, too, by Victor Juhasz.

• Gaby Wood reviews Neal Gabler's Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination for the Observer.

• Richard Schickel on Holly George-Warren's Public Cowboy No 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry for the LAT.

Mardecortesbaja.com on The Shop Around the Corner: "The deep humanity and emotion of the film revealed that his dreamy evocations of high-class European culture were simply a displaced nostalgia for his youth, and when he engaged that nostalgia directly, a sort of miracle occurred. Lubitsch opened his heart for perhaps the first time ever in his work."

Jennifer Merin talks with Susanne Bier about After the Wedding for the Alliance of Women Film Journalists. Via Movie City News.

Scott Kirsner ranks "the five players that are 'most likely to succeed' in the business of digital distribution." That list looks about right to me, too.

Online viewing tip #1. Thomas Groh's got one. Thou Shalt Always Kill. Scroobius Pip vs Dan Le Sac. Sold.

Online viewing tip #2. At Curbed LA, a 1972 BBC documentary featuring architecture critic Reyner Banham touring Los Angeles. Amazing in all sorts of way. Thanks, Evan!

Posted by dwhudson at April 9, 2007 2:28 PM