Shorts, 3/20.

"Truthfully, for me, it was a decade of cinephilia and thought finding a certain closure and, more importantly, a certain renewal." Zach Campbell, following NYU's Responsibilities of Criticism conference and two films by Manoel de Oliveira.

More from Girish, who moderated a discussion with Adrian Martin and Jonathan Rosenbaum: "All over, a generous, infectious enthusiasm was circulating this weekend and I'll remember one funny, touching moment that crystallized it: at the screening of Doomed Love, Adrian slowly and silently raised his fist and punched the air when the opening credits unrolled 'Um Filme de Manoel de Oliveira'..."

Daniel Kasman in the Auteurs' Notebook on Manoel de Oliveira's Christopher Columbus, The Enigma: "The mission of the film is a mission reminiscent of Godard's work of the late 1960s and 1970s - demonstrative, realism-based pedagogic cinema, lessons on the state of the world in precise terms. Only here, today's state - for Portugal especially - only has meaning within the weight of importance of the magnificent quests of discovery of the past."

"In general, 'publicity turns consumption into a substitute for democracy' since it assumes a world that is impervious to collective action and substantive change," writes Chris Robé, quoting John Berger in PopMatters. "By naturalizing social inequality, publicity asserts that happiness can only be purchased, not fought for, as it attempts to mask over and compensate for 'all that is undemocratic within society.' It is these two divides - between the rich and the poor, between publicity and the practices of everyday life - that most concerns Agnès Varda."

"With its parodic reversals, [At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World] laughingly celebrates [David] Cronenberg's survival, and the survival of the true movie-lovers (or are they Jews?) who constitute his people," writes Stuart Klawans in Nextbook. "This is his Purimspiel - even if he doesn't care for the tradition."

"Fourth Estate has paid a five-figure sum after a vicious bidding war between London publishers to snap up [Cronenberg's] debut novel," reports Graeme Neill in the Independent. "Cronenberg has already completed 40 pages of Consumed and is expected to deliver the manuscript next year, with a view to publication in the autumn." Via Movie City News.

"Blackface has long been taboo, but now it's not all about insult," writes Neely Tucker in the Washington Post. "Since we're all supposedly post-racial, some white comedians feel it's allowable to use makeup to portray black characters with empathy or just for laughs." Mentioned: Fred Armisen's Barack Obama, Robert Downey Jr in Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder, Tracey Ullman and others - plus, a slew of incidents in the past, some of which worked, some of which didn't. Mark Hooper.

"There are two camps in the debate on whether or not to ban the Koran film Fitna by Geert Wilders." For signandsight, Maggie Oattes translates Gelijn Molier commentary in Trouw.

"Does user-generated content make possible a new form of artistry, prefigured in both [Glenn] Gould's approach to the recording studio and in Wendy Carlos's synthesizer renditions of Bach? Or are Gould and Carlos being positioned as anticipating the dissolution of the individual artist in an anonymous digital network?" Mark Fischer on Cory Arcangel for frieze.

Ted Pigeon considers "a more Deleuzian definition of cinematic movement, in which the movement-image is not exlusively a visual phenomenon, but also an auditory one, a musical one."

"In Germany there has been little room for any German wartime heroics in the cinema," writes Tony Patterson in the Independent. "The Red Baron is set to break completely with that trend."

"In conjunction with my review of his new graphic novel and Repo Man sequel Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday (Gestalt Publishing, 164 pages, $19.95) in this week's [San Francisco Bay Guardian], I set down a few questions for writer/director Alex Cox to answer via email," blogs Jason Shamai. "Clearly he doesn't find me as clever, or as informed, as I do."

"[I]n case you were wondering how many times you had to go see There Will Be Blood just to get out of the house (I'm up to four viewings, myself), rejoice in the knowledge that springtime is finally here, the Academy Awards have already been forgotten and a whole crop of new movies just might be worth your while." A preview of the season from Sean Burns in the Philadelphia Weekly. More from S James Snyder has one for the US in the New York Sun; and the Observer looks ahead to the spring season in the UK.

Also, Jon Savage recounts hunting down rare footage of Joy Division for Grant Gee's documentary.

Paranoid Park is a contemporary standout, but the genre's heyday was back in the 80s. At Fanzine, Benjamin Strong offers "A Brief History of Skateploitation Cinema."

"A subtly interconnecting mosaic of staged vignettes, non-fiction footage, archival prints, and found film excerpts, Alexander Kluge's The Power of Emotion is an organic, densely layered meditation on the intangible (and often irrational) essential mechanism of human emotion," writes acquarello.

Sujewa Ekanayake on Texas Snow: "Highly recommended for those who can withstand being reminded of the lows and highs of young love."

Michael Wood in the London Review of Books on Bertolucci's The Conformist: "The question of normality gets cleared up by a resort to an old Italian movie myth, also dear to Rossellini and Visconti: homosexual guilt."

"Ying Liang's slyly subversive second feature, The Other Half, takes awhile to coalesce, but once it does, it becomes an intriguing exercise in juxtaposition," writes Neil Genzlinger. "It's also a fairly assured example of how to start out droll and end up somber."

Also: "Fade follows Arthur (David Connolly) as he deteriorates in the grip of fatal familial insomnia, a rare genetic disorder that is just what it sounds like, though for more than half the film, the only way you would know what he's battling would be if you had read the press notes." More from Julia Wallace in the Voice.

And also in the New York Times:

• "Hollywood loves the heartland, but only to a point. Movie crews perennially drop in, dazzle the locals, then pack up their stars and head back to Los Angeles or New York when they've soaked up enough color. But the local folks can find it hard to end the affair." Michael Cieply reports on how Greenville, South Carolina is prepping its own premiere for Leatherheads.

• "A Japanese university plans to return about 250 pieces of original animation art to the Walt Disney Company that were mislaid in storage after traveling to Japan nearly five decades ago." Charles Solomon reports.

• Advertising columnist Stuart Elliott counts the brands clamoring to promote the Sex and the City movie.

• Eric Konigsberg on Omaha's first art house ever.

• Notorious, "a film biography of [Christopher G] Wallace who, when he died at 24, was the champion of East Coast rap whose rivalry with the West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur, shot to death six months earlier, helped drive an ugly East-West feud," has started shooting. Michael Cieply reports.

Back in the Voice: Aaron Hillis on The Hammer: "Former Loveline and The Man Show co-host Adam Carolla brings his self-deprecating, improvisational, regular-dude deadpan—as well as his former Golden Gloves status—to this semi-autobiographical comedy with ambitions so low that one might call it charmingly mediocre." More from Nick Schager in Slant.

And Jim Ridley on Doomsday.

Anne Thompson issues a "Judd Apatow Alert: Four Comedies Coming." Meanwhile, the Playlist is tracking the less-than-enthuasiastic reviews of Drillbit Taylor.

"Girls Rock!, the new documentary from (male) filmmakers Arne Johnson and Shane King, which opens in Austin on Friday, is not simply a portrait of a camp where girls go to write songs and learn to play rock & roll; it is also an inadvertent testament to the sometimes harmful impact of media, men, and mean girls on the young female psyche." Yvonne Georgina Puig in the Austin Chronicle.

For the Los Angeles Times, Noel Murray has three questions for Tony Kaye about Lake of Fire.

Joe Leydon remembers Ivan Dixon, "who earned his place of honor in the pop-culture pantheon as groundbreaking co-star of Hogan's Heroes and under-rated director of the sub-zero-cool Trouble Man." More from Brandon Harris, Glenn Kenny and Phil Nugent (ScreenGrab).

A list from Hugo Lindgren at Stream: "The 7 Best Books For Filmmakers That Aren't About Filmmaking."

Online glance. "Hollywood Hopefuls: 1925" at Shorpy.

Online scrolling tip. "Once were palaces," from shahn.

Online viewing tip. T Takes is a "12-part series of short films starring Hollywood's bright young things."

Online viewing tips, round 1. "On Valentine's Day, Titmouse Inc, the Hollywood-based animation studio, announced that their animation staff would have the entire workday to create whatever they wanted." Thanks, Jerry!

Online viewing tips, round 2. From Mubarek Ali: "Marcel Hanoun has made several of his films available for online viewing."

Posted by dwhudson at March 20, 2008 12:11 PM