Shorts, 6/6.

Nick Dawson talks with Todd Rohal for Filmmaker: "Somebody in LA came to see The Guatemalan Handshake, and they were like, 'I thought this was going to be like Andrew Bujalski's film, and then it opens up and it's widescreen anamorphic film.' Right in the first two minutes, they said, 'There's no logic to whatever that Mumblecore thing is.'"

Somewhat related: David Lowery points to Tipper Newton's The Timebox Twins!, co-starring Joe Swanberg.

Adam at Another Green World on Jacques Rivette's 12-hour mini-series Out 1: "At a certain point, the details of the film become fact, and it seems no more valid to criticize (or notice) fluctuations in 'quality' or 'success' than it would to do so in your daily life. Which isn't to say that the details aren't important: the incidental observations vastly overwhelm the portions of the film that contribute to the narrative(s). The film becomes a place the viewer inhabits."

Dave McDougall throws Manoel de Oliveira's The Fifth Empire: Yesterday as Today into historical perspective and then comments:

Let's review: in the midst of a long, existential conflict with the Muslim world, a ruler tries to replicate the success of his father - sorry, grandfather - and embarks on an ill-advised mission against the advice of experienced leaders in the country, leading to the ruin of his nation. Oh, and he believes that God put him on the throne to begin with, and hears voices encouraging his actions? Perhaps now is a good time to remind you of the subtitle of the film...

Related: Michelle Orange in the Voice on de Oliveira's nod to Belle du Jour: "The intent of an homage is intensely personal and its merits therefore rather tricky to parse, but even on those terms de Oliveira's tribute aspires to shimmering enigma. Belle Toujours' deliberative narrative dance eventually reunites matinee hooker Séverine and her tormentor Husson after 38 years, but falls too often into didactic post-game analysis for its delicate mysteries to retain their luster."

Ghost Train "ultimately proves more unnerving than terrifying," writes Matt Zoller Seitz in the New York Times.

"There's something inherently fascinating about the backstories and eventual fates of big stage musicals," writes Dennis Harvey, reviewing "the absorbing new documentary ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway" for the San Francisco Bay Guardian. "The egos involved and the radical revisions that take place during tryouts and previews (a process far more public than movie retweaking) make for high drama, even before you add the Russian roulette economic factor." More from Gerald Peary in the Boston Phoenix.

Colour Me Kubrick "is really the story of Kubrick as a phantom, perhaps even more explicitly than its symbiotic kin, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), which somehow manages to have Stanley Tucci and Geoffrey Rush (as Peter Sellers) 'embodying' Stanley Kubrick," writes Jason Sperb at Dr Mabuse's Kaleido-Scope.

Related: Jason Kottke points to all four parts of Vivian Kubrick's Making The Shining: 1, 2, 3 and 4.

"Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, from 1951, seems to have been the final gasp of an odd 1940s micro-vogue for romantic movies about the afterlife," writes the Self-Styled Siren. "These are movies for specialized tastes, but if you happen to have those tastes, Pandora is a doozy."

You're Gonna Miss Me "is entertaining," writes Aaron Hillis. "But with battered archival footage and celebrity worship, [director Keven] McAlester skimps on perspective and complexity, instead focusing in on the courtroom battle over 53-year-old Roky [Erickson]'s custody and painting Roky's brothers as heroes and Mom, who's against giving her son psychiatric meds, as the villain."

Also in the Voice: Albert Pierrepoint's "monomaniacal focus on efficiency and his capacity for compartmentalization are creepy—and scary. In other words, delicious fodder for a pungent piece of retro-noir, which is not what we get in Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman," writes Ella Taylor.

"The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is about to become one of the few serving heads of state to have a feature film made about his life," reports Rory Carroll. The director is Tonchi Antezana and at least some of the funding comes from the British company Buena Onda, "which was involved in the commercially and critically successful film City of God." Danny Leigh comments. Also in the Guardian, Bidisha proves once again that all you need to attract a swarm of comments is a riff on Star Wars. Somewhat related, and via Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing: Steam Trek.

In the Los Angeles Times, Robert W Welkos: "Laura Kightlinger is suing Mike White in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claiming she gave him her script, We're All Animals, to read only to discover he was making a film called Year of the Dog, which the suit contends relied on the script about her life as a cat rescuer."

Online viewing tips from Todd at Twitch: Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo's Inside; Wong Kar-wai's My Blueberry Nights and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.

Posted by dwhudson at June 6, 2007 12:19 PM