Shorts, 4/29.

"João César Monteiro directed 21 films from 1969 until his death in 2003," writes Craig Keller. "Most of them are masterpieces, even of the supreme sort. I'd like more people to know him, and to pursue seeing and showing his work, so over the next few years I'm going to write on Cinemasparagus about all of his movies."

Just up at First Monday: Michael Z Newman on "Ze Frank and the poetics of Web video."

"Steven Soderbergh will direct The Girlfriend Experience, a feature that focuses on the world of prostitution from the vantage point of a $10,000-a-night call girl," reports Michael Fleming in Variety.

Michael Cunningham, author of The Hours, has told Tim Murphy that he's working on screenplay for a biopic of Dusty Springfield - to be played by Nicole Kidman.

Congrats to the Iron Sky team on its grant from the Finnish Film Foundation!

Acquarello in the Auteurs' Notebook on Jean EustacheMes petites amoureuses: "Rather than a chronicle of the serial misadventures of a wayward young hero, Eustache's penchant for distilled naturalism and rigorous attention to detail suggests even greater affinity with Maurice Pialat, a shared aesthetic that is further reinforced through Pialat's appearance in the film as a visitor who challenges Daniel on his academic knowledge (placing great importance on learning the fundamentals that also reflects their like-minded approach to filmmaking)."

"A College Woman's Confession is Shin Sang-ok's big hit of the 1950s, and indeed the film that established his commercial career," writes Darcy Paquet. "Aesthetically, Confession contains accomplished acting, an effective use of suspense (despite the slow manner in which it unfolds), and a keen feel for image and sound during an era when technical challenges dominated the filmmaking process." Also at Koreanfilm.org, Adam Hartzell on Lump of Sugar: "Although I can't say the film is a stellar piece of work, I resolve to let the film be what it is, a decent film within the young adult, coming-of-age genre."

In the New York Times:

• Elizabeth Vincentelli reports on the various reactions in France to the phenomenal success of Bienvenue Chez les Ch'tis (Welcome to the Sticks): "Many pundits have interpreted the praise of small-town living in an unglamorous, untrendy region as a rebuke to [President Nicholas] Sarkozy's pro-capitalist politics and his flashy lifestyle. Indeed, the movie is laying bare fault lines running through a France anxious at the prospect of losing its identity and cultural roots to a dehumanizing globalization closely linked to America.... Curiously, the few expressions of dissent in the sea of love have come from the intellectual left, which usually has no problem railing against big money and Hollywood."

• "Grand Theft Auto IV is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun," writes Seth Schiesel. "It calls to mind a rollicking R-rated version of Mad magazine featuring Dave Chappelle and Quentin Tarantino, and sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts. It is by far the best game of the series, which made its debut in 1997 and has since sold more than 70 million copies." And the Guardian's Bobbie Johnson reports that "the suits in Hollywood are anxious that it may dent the profits of their summer blockbusters." Andrew Osborne comments at ScreenGrab and, via the House Next Door, Adam Rosenberg reviews the game for UGO.

• "Kate Phillips, who played mostly supporting roles on Broadway and in more than 50 films in the 1930s and 40s and who later was a co-writer of the 1958 horror film The Blob, died on April 18 in Keene, NH," writes Dennis Hevesi. "She was 94." Related, at Slate: "In 2007, Torie Bosch attended Blob Fest and talked to Phillips about theories that The Blob represented America's battle against communism."

"The recent news that the board of Minnesota Film Arts has finalized a deal to sell the Oak Street Cinema to a developer isn't surprising, but it sure is heartbreaking," writes the Minneapolis Post. "The Oak Street was always a cinema of the heart, a cinéaste's equivalent of Hemingway's clean, well-lighted space. Its demise hurts." Comment here.

"If recent studio acquisitions are any evidence, then the fastest way to get a movie deal these days may just be to turn your next Big Idea into a graphic novel," writes Jay A Fernandez. "In a faddish frenzy, no fewer than 22 film projects born of graphic novels or comics have been announced in the last six weeks."

Also in the Los Angeles Times: "How many nonagenarians, even those with their health, still consider glamour, grace and fantasy to be among the most important things in life?" Emili Vesilind on Hats Off, Jyll Johnstone's documentary portrait of Mimi Weddell.

"A funny thing happened while I was watching Shine a Light," writes DH Holm for the Vancouver Voice. "I got bored."

"I came across a stack of albums that represented five years in the life of one [Bette] Davis admirer," recalls John McElwee. "She'd maintained them between 1938 and 1942.... Coverage in these scrapbooks was exhaustive. You look through such labors of adoration and realize just how important movie stars once were."

Nathaniel R is celebrating Michelle Pfeiffer's 50th.

It's another "Supporting Actress Smackdown" at StinkyLulu's, and the year is 1953.

"Is Gus Van Sant the most consistently adventurous director in America?" asks Ryan Gilbey. Also blogging for the Guardian, Mark Hooper reminds us of "Cinema's greatest controversies."

"Juan Lopez Moctezuma's Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (1975) is one of those movies you watch and, after mentally cataloging all the things wrong with it, realize how cool it really is... mostly because of all the things you thought were wrong with it," writes Arbogast.

Troy Patterson in Slate: "You can contrast [Amy Poehler's Hillary with her far more acute SNL impersonations of Dennis Kucinich (a twinkling elf) and Britney Spears (gum-baring, gum-snapping). Those are projections of her core comedic identity, which is puckish, slightly feral, and not in any great rush to be house-trained."

Michael Guillén talks with Chen Shi-Zheng about Dark Matter.

In the Observer, Philip French looks back on the career of Walter Matthau; and Katie Toms gets a few quick words with Morgan Spurlock.

James Mottram has a long talk with Marianne Faithfull for the Independent Magazine.

There was a lot more to Bebe Barron than Forbidden Planet, Ed Halter reminds us at Rhizome.

"Amy Winehouse is working on a theme song for the forthcoming James Bond film with Mark Ronson, the producer has confirmed to the BBC."

Online fiddling around tip. Like riddles? Jonathan Lapper has a game for you.

Online listening tip. Rob Davis and J Robert Parks discuss the films of Michael Haneke.

Online viewing tip. Nick Dawson: "In 1965, Samuel Beckett wrote his one and only film script, an 18-minute short called, very simply, Film." Starring Buster Keaton.

Online viewing tips. Cineleet's "Directors' Cameos in Films," via Coudal Partners.

Posted by dwhudson at April 29, 2008 4:01 PM