Shorts, 4/8.

Bollywood star Aamir Khan blogs: "I request those of you who have asked me to stay away from the Olympic Torch Relay to understand that when I do run with the torch on the 17th of April it is not in support of China. In fact it will be with a prayer in my heart for the people of Tibet, and indeed for all people across the world who are victims of human rights violations."

"'Freedom of expression and secularism were once the hallmark of our own cultural heritage,' Samir Farid, one of Egypt's leading film critics, told Al-Ahram Weekly." Gamal Nkrumah gathers an array of responses to Fitna.

"A landmark decision to ban a film showing Christ being caressed on the cross on the grounds that it was blasphemous could be reversed after almost 20 years," reports Jamie Doward. "The 1989 ruling by the British Board of Film Classification to refuse a release licence for Visions of Ecstasy, a low- budget film depicting the 16th-century Spanish mystic St Teresa of Avila caressing the body of Jesus on the cross provoked a national furore." Mark Kermode commented on the case back in February 2006.

Also in the Observer: "Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey met with mixed reactions when he became artistic director of London's Old Vic in 2004," writes Katie Toms. "Recently, however, he has become beloved among the arts establishment." And Philip French outlines the career of Jean Simmons.

"Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the memoir section, questions are being raised about the nonfictional status of another best seller," blogs Jennifer Schuessler at Paper Cuts. "In a story in Sunday's Boston Globe Ideas section, Drake Bennett writes that Ben Mezrich's 2002 book Bringing Down the House - a tale of whiz-kid gamblers from MIT that was the basis for the new Kevin Spacey movie 21 - is so heavily embellished as to verge on fiction."

For Slate, Juliet Lapidos cuts "straight to the good parts" of that supposed screenplay for Oliver Stone's W. floating around out there.

"Robert De Niro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell are set to star in the Kirk Jones-directed Everybody's Fine," reports Michael Fleming for Variety.

"I was first introduced to the work of Carlos Atanes via his short film compilation DVD Codex Atanicus, which featured a trio of surreal shorts filled with wild characters, garishly colored sets and non sequitor plots, all produced with an intense manic energy," writes Mike Everleth. "However, Atanes's first feature film, FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) - released in 2004 - is a complete stylistic turnabout.... I found Atanes's first feature a much more thought-provoking and satisfying experience."

"I was mesmerized by Olivier Assayas's Boarding Gate (2007), a delirious thriller about sex and lust and murder, money and business, and the international flows of capital," writes Steven Shaviro. "Where demonlover envisioned the postmodern world as an enormous pornographic videogame, with proliferating fractal levels and self-reflexive loops, and ultimately imprisonment and bondage, Boarding Gate rather presents the world of global capital as a place of lateral connections."

More from Dennis Harvey at SF360 - and from AS Hamrah, who comments on a handful of other recent releases as well for n+1.

"Reading 'Camp' as Liberation and Salvation in Splendid Float: Negotiating Queer Space in Taiwan Cinema." Siu Yan Xavier Tam in Film International.

George Clooney "is America's national flirt, a pitchman on talk shows and red carpets who, against the background hum of the world's lust and envy, is lightly ironic, clever, and self-deprecating, with furrowed brow and bobbing head, and a gyration in the lower jaw suggesting something being moved around under his tongue," writes Ian Parker in the New Yorker. "[H]e is the fellow at the end of the bar, who, on a scale running from James Stewart to Jack Nicholson, has found an enviable midpoint of courteous roguishness."

Ty Burr has a looong talk with Martin Scorsese for the Boston Globe.

In the Telegraph, Benjamin Secher talks with Catherine Breillat and Daisy Garnett meets Clémence Poésy.

Liz Hoggard talks with Daniel Craig for the Independent. Also: "In his time, [Harvey] Weinstein has seen off many heavyweight directors, including Martin Scorsese, but even he has to listen when faced with the new force in Hollywood - film fans." Kaleem Aftab tells the tale of a formation of a "rebel alliance" between Fanboys fans and Star Wars fans.

Sheri Linden talks with Daniele Luchetti about My Brother Is and Only Child for the Los Angeles Times. Also: "The age of the singular critical voice is ending - people prefer the wisdom of a community." Patrick Goldstein elaborates; David Poland comments.

The Independent asks "three filmmakers fresh off self-distribution success to explain how they pulled it off."

Scott Weinberg is about to conduct... "The Hammer Horror Xperiment!"

For those who have seen (or for those like me who would very much like to see) The Cool School: You'll definitely want to know about Lorraine Wild's Design Observer entry on Mason Williams's Bus, co-conceived with Ed Ruscha in 1966.

Thomas Groh's made a movie blogs aggregator.

It's on: Pitchfork.tv.

Online listening tip. Megan Cunningham talks with Jackie Reem Salloum about Slingshot Hip Hop.

Online listening tips. Via Pacze Moj, ten albums of Italian film music from the 60s and 70s at experimental etc.

Online viewing tip. "Now, for the first time, a feature length movie is premiering on YouTube. While films like Four Eyed Monsters found audiences there in the past, they wound up online only after a festival run failed to yield a decent theatrical deal. The guys behind a quaint little comedy called The Cult of Sincerity, however, have opted out of that process, skipping forward and debuting the feature-length film today with YouTube's stamp of approval." Eric Kohn interviews the team for Stream.

Online viewing tips. IFC and Nerve team up for a YouTuberific list: "The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time."

Posted by dwhudson at April 8, 2008 3:29 PM