Shorts, 2/20.

"Finding the original sources for Redacted is a difficult task," write Stéphane Delorme and Jean-Philippe Tessé, blogging an ongoing project for Cahiers du cinéma. "Only approximations come out of our genealogical study: tracking down images to their source is tantamount to a grand fishing party. For every big fish (the full text of the imprecating young punk on YouTube,) we came across multiple schools of fish, of micro-films shot by American soldiers unconsciously aggregating in motifs and sub-genres. In the end, the crossing of this war in images is closer to Jackass than Platoon."

"There should be no question that Godard has been to his medium what Joyce, Stravinsky, Eliot and Picasso were to theirs - utterly unique, rule-rewriting colossi after whom human expression would never be quite the same." Michael Atkinson reviews Pierrot le Fou for IFC News: "Of the Godardian 60s, this effervescent, self-mocking, effortlessly iconic masterpiece may be the filmmaker's quintessential work, the ultimate commentary on how life and movies fuck and spawn spectacularly beautiful children." He then segues into Hélas pour Moi, part of that new box set and "a creative nonfiction essay, built from multi-layered tableaux of random incidents and gestures and dramatic dialogues and arguments with God on love, devotion and memory, which to Godard all translate to regard for The Past, and our pitiful disregard for it."

Written by Dave Eggers and to be directed by Sam Mendes, This Must Be the Place is "a light-hearted movie about a couple on a road trip around America in search of a new home," according to Francesca Martin.

Also in the Guardian, Ronald Bergan: "Quantum of Solace, the title of the new James Bond movie, got me thinking on film titles in general: the good, the bad and the ugly." And: "Is Naked Britain's most under-rated film?" asks Ben Meyers.

Harry Knowles passes along word from Spike Jonze: That Where the Wild Things Are clip floating around out there has very, very little to do with what the movie will look like. Related online viewing: Again, the "Flashing Lights" video, but this time with commentary from Karina Longworth at the SpoutBlog and Brandon Soderberg at No Trivia.

Timothy Sun at Not Coming to a Theater Near You: "To view Tokyo Drifter as just an especially rambunctious yakuza riff on the American gangster film is to deny half of its genealogy - the film is as much a western as it is a gangster film."

In Newcity Chicago, Ray Pride contemplates the many shifting forms of contemporary glamour.

Salon's Stephanie Zacharek chimes in on an ongoing debate: "The tragedy of [Daniel] Day-Lewis's performance in There Will Be Blood is that it defies the naturalism that made him a great actor - and I use the word 'great' unequivocally - in the first place, as if he'd decided that naturalism is boring, that it no longer presents a challenge for him."

Meanwhile, in Slate, Jan Swafford reviews the soundtracks for Blood and No Country for Old Men.

The Philadelphia Weekly's Sean Burns gets irritated by "the crummy, incredibly annoying Vantage Point."

With Indiana Jones returning this summer, Rob Gonsalves at Hollywood Bitchslap looks back at other series that have been revived throughout cinematic history.

"The ricochet effect from the Hollywood writers strike might be more far-reaching and long-lasting than first thought," reports Elizabeth Guider for Reuters. One economist estimates that Los Angeles County's out about $2.5 billion.

Online browsing tip. The Leonard Schrader Collection of lobby card, as introduced by Peter Biskind in Vanity Fair. Via Movie City News.

Online listening tip #1. At Music for Robots, Mark is mightily impressed with Brad Breeck's anthem for the film One Too Many Mornings.

Online listening tip #2. For NPR, Mike Pesca talks with DA Pennebaker, Albert Maysles and Robert Drew about their 1960 collaboration, Primary.

Online listening tip #3. Stephen Fry launches a series of "Podgrams."

Online viewing tip #1. Issa Clubb posts a couple of clips that won't make it into the documentary that'll be included on Criterion's release of The Ice Storm.

Online viewing tip #2. Ray Pride's found a 1975 NBC profile of Francis Ford Coppola.

Posted by dwhudson at February 20, 2008 9:17 AM