Shorts, 2/19.

"Castro's out the door, so the introductory title for our new DVD of the Day feature is a no-brainer," writes Phil Morehart at Facets Features. "Waiting for Fidel is a documentary classic that unfortunately fell through the cracks. Luckily, Facets' exclusive DVD label picked up the slack a few years back to re-introduce this essential film to the masses."

Kimberly Lindbergs's marvelous "Favorite DVD Releases of 2007" list is now complete.

"Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell will appear as Heath Ledger's character in [Terry Gilliam's] unfinished film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, the BBC has learned."

"For better or worse, [Larry] Clark has created at least two signatures: the raw, unflinching imagery of the Tulsa photographs, and the meandering, observational, but seldom illuminating style of his films." Sean O'Hagan talks with him for the Guardian.

For the Independent, Karen Wright talks with Isaac Julien about Derek. Earlier: Brian Darr.

Patrick Radden Keefe in Slate on Michael Clayton: "[B]eneath the expertly deployed suspense lies something more interesting: an indictment of the mercenary universe of white-shoe law firms and a devastating - and unusually accurate - look at the demoralized lives of the lawyers who work for them."

For the Los Angeles Times, Patrick Goldstein profiles producer Scott Rudin, who "makes films he believes in. Perhaps that's why No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, the two Oscar best picture contenders with the darkest, most uncompromising vision, share a common denominator - Rudin's role as a producer of No Country and executive producer of Blood." Via Movie City News.

So, Daniel Day-Lewis in Blood: Greatness or... not? Kathleen Murphy and Jim Emerson, pro and con, respectively, hash it out at MSN.

Brian Orndorf talks with director Jon Poll about Charlie Bartlett at Hollywood Bitchslap.

"For Deleuze, the plane of experience is about motion, movement, and images. There is no subject, and no ideology. There are no "correct" ideas or images, just ideas and images." Ted Pigeon offers excerpts from Negotiations.

Online listening tip #1. Slavoj Zizek: Embedded in Ideology: The Case of Cinema. Via infinite thØught.

Online listening tip #2. Ed Champion talks with Steve Erickson, author of Zeroville.

Online viewing tip #1. Kevin Lee has video of Jonathan Demme introducing a screening of Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude.

Online viewing tip #2. Chip Kidd's "5 Experiments in Form and Content," via Jason Kottke.

Posted by dwhudson at February 19, 2008 2:33 PM