Shorts, 10/8.

"Founded in 1954 by Jonas and Adolfas Mekas, the New York-based magazine Film Culture began by covering Hollywood cinema and evolved into the primary voice of independent and avant-garde cinema with a total of 79 issues spanning the years 1955 - 1996." And now UbuWeb's posted nearly two dozen selections from the magazine. Via filmtagebuch.

For the Los Angeles Times, Reed Johnson reports from Rio de Janiero on "several cultural projects created by a growing number of home-grown, favela-based filmmaking collectives, theater companies and small animation studios that are looking to foster local talent and present a more nuanced picture of these fecund communities that are commonly stereotyped as crime-ridden urban jungles ruled by vicious drug lords. In fact, most favelados, as residents are called, are simply poor, working-class people who can't afford to live anywhere else."

Also: Monica Corcoran has an amusing look at the pairing of Louis Vuitton artistic director Marc Jacobs and Wes Anderson and Patrick Day looks at a few movie endings that might have been - endings that were shot, even.

The Pakistani film In the Name of God "has sparked fury among hardline clerics with its moderate interpretation of Islam and its spirited criticism of the atrocities committed under the guise of religion," reports Homa Khaleeli in the Guardian.

For signandsight, Meredith Dale translates a review by Katja Nicodemus for Die Zeit: "Here and there we hear Fatih Akin's script groaning as the fatal, fateful moments are wedged into the plot. And coincidence is hard at work too. But the film really does need the two deaths to get to the theme at its heart. Because The Edge of Heaven quite simply asks what is left. With its characters it follows the plans and sentiments, the thoughts and desires, the loves and the severed threads of destiny that a person leaves behind."

Michal Oleszczyk in Polish Culture on "problems with adapting Joseph Conrad's works":

Personally, I do not think that anyone managed to approach the writer nearer than Hitchcock in Sabotage (1936), despite the fact that the film almost completely rebuilds the action of the novel... It is fascinating to trace these "meeting points" between cinema and Conrad. The picturesque nature of The Duellists (1977) by Ridley Scott and The Shadow Line (1976) by Andrzej Wajda; the inner sensuality of the heroin in Gabrielle (2005) by Patrice Chéreau; an almost tangible sketching of a London night in The Secret Agent (1996) by Christopher Hampton (one that Conrad described as "composed of soot and drops of water"). All of these films and many others have their disadvantages and merits; they are rarely masterpieces, but a persistent strive to square up to the difficult literary material, which also takes place on the part of the viewer who is acquainted with the originals. That what we find in these "meeting points" is the purest Conrad gold I mentioned in the beginning: the doubt.

In the New Yorker, Mark Singer talks with Tom Meehan about readying Young Frankenstein for the stage: "The trick of the play is to retain the spirit of the original movie and some of the iconic lines while essentially making it a whole new thing. We did that with The Producers, too, but this has been more difficult, because it's not naturally a musical."

She's in LA, he's in Japan, but Anne Thompson was able to link up with Barbet Schroeder to talk about Terror's Advocate.

Ted Z talks with Mike Mills about Does Your Soul Have a Cold?

In the New York Times:

• "On Saturday, nearly 100 people turned up on a quiet street in Chelsea to audition for their chance to be B.I.G.," reports Melena Ryzik.

• "Like Bergman, Faro is remote." Danielle Pergament tours the Swedish island.

• Rolf Potts visits the office of Asylum, a company in Hollywood specializing in "mockbusters," straight-to-DVD flicks made fast and cheap and in stores when major studios' blockbusters hit the screens, e.g., Transmorphers, The Da Vinci Treasure and Snakes on a Train.

"I've always considered Blade Runner (1982) a masterpiece," writes Doug Cummings. "I saw the Final Cut digitally projected, and speaking as one who has only seen the film on 80s VHS and TV, scratched revival prints, and a below-average DVD, the new print looks and sounds absolutely stunning."

Sitges, Paris, London, just another whirlwind week for the good-natured Matthew Vaughn.

Also in the Observer:

• "The sight of naked men wrestling has always been one of cinema's guilty pleasures," writes Mark Kermode.

• Chrissy Iley talks with Demi Moore.

• Eleanor Bron and Michael Coveney remember Ned Sherrin.

"Babelsberg has achieved what, by any standards, amounts to an astonishing comeback," reports Tony Paterson for the Independent.

Christopher Goodwin talks with Reese Witherspoon for the London Times. Via Movie City News.

Online viewing tips. "October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we'd like to help raise awareness for the American Cancer Society by celebrating the best breasts to ever grace the cinema screen." A list with clips from Film Threat.

Posted by dwhudson at October 8, 2007 9:30 AM