Shorts, 5/24.

"Process art was alive and kicking last Sunday, when Regen Projects in Los Angeles had no trouble persuading over six hundred art-worlders to a baking-hot spot an hour south of town to be extras in the filming of Ren, the first of a series of unique performances to be staged by Matthew Barney and his longtime collaborator, composer Jonathan Bepler." Linda Yablonsky reports and snaps lots of pix for Artforum.

"I was saddened by the news first relayed by Wise Kwai that Tartan USA had closed down," writes Peter Nellhaus.

"It feels like the correct time to be reminded of an ancient tradition that has always served civilization well, that of the independent, truth-telling poet provocateur." That's Tilda Swinton in an email to Dennis Lim, who looks back on the work of Derek Jarman (Isaac Julien's Derek will screen at MoMA from June 9 through 16 and Zeitgeist will release a DVD box set on June 24): "His poetic sensibility owes a debt to the outlaw lyricism of Jean Cocteau and Jean Genet. His taste for the baroque calls to mind British filmmakers like Michael Powell and Ken Russell (who hired him as a set designer). There are also kinships with the bad-boy iconoclasts he memorialized: Caravaggio, the painter who revolted against the refinement of the Renaissance, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, the philosopher who regarded the academy with hostility."

Also in the New York Times:

• "In You Don't Mess With the Zohan (opening June 6), [Adam] Sandler plays an Israeli assassin who flees to the United States to become a hairdresser," writes Dave Itzkoff. "Trailers for the film promise plenty of broad farce, physical comedy and at least one lewd dance routine. What the ad campaign for Zohan does not emphasize is that the film also attempts to satirize the continuing tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and provide humorous commentary on one of the least funny topics of modern times with a comedian who is not exactly known for incisive political wit."

• "The Japanese obsession with cavorting ninjas, cunning hardware and comely young avengers in abbreviated plaid skirts reaches some kind of climax with The Machine Girl, a riotous blend of arterial spray and grindhouse glee," writes Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times. More from John Lichman at the House Next Door: "I promise you won't find a better splatter film for the next few months."

• Also: "A Hollywood weepie snuggled inside a humanitarian tribute, The Children of Huang Shi molds the true story of the English reporter George Hogg (played by the Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers) into a chaste love triangle given urgency by the Japanese invasion of China." More from Fernando F Croce (Slant), Grady Hendrix (New York Sun), Tasha Robinson (AV Club) and Nick Schager (Cinematical). Related online listening: Director Roger Spottiswoode is a guest on the Leonard Lopate Show.

"When François Truffaut's Jules et Jim was released in 1962, it was an instant hit with girls like me, francophile, penniless and non-monogamous," writes Germaine Greer. "Catherine seemed a woman after our own hearts, who followed her desires rather than the rules." Looking back now, though, she realizes Truffaut "would have been horrified to be told that he was in any way a misogynist. Yet all the women in Jules et Jim are grotesques."

Also in the Guardian: "[T]he political Oliver Stone has been on hiatus for a long while, and it'll be interesting - and probably infuriating and exasperating - to have him back," writes John Patterson. And Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case "exerts an awful grip," writes Peter Bradshaw. "It's certainly a wake-up call to those who believe that Russia is not as relevant in the 21st century."

"Regurgitating Mad Magazine, South Park and Borat into what he believes may be some sort of comedic super-barf, German fauxteur Uwe BollBloodRayne, Alone in the Dark, In the Name of the King, et al), yet manages to be as toothless as he is tasteless," writes Aaron Hillis in the Voice. More from Bill Gibron (PopMatters), Eric Kohn (New York Press), Nathan Lee (NYT), John Lichman (House Next Door), Martin Tsai (NY Sun) and Scott Weinberg (Cinematical).

Related: In the NYT, John Schwartz reports on the man "often referred to as the worst filmmaker in the world," talking, for example, with Dave Foley: "Boll is 'like a quintessential German intellectual artist who has almost taken film arbitrarily as the medium he's going to work in. The art form is, almost, in being hated,' Mr Foley said. Comparing him to the comedian Andy Kaufman, he added, 'It's his relationship with the audience that is his creation, his relationship with the critics, more than the movies.'" And Andy Klein talks with Boll for the LA CityBeat.

And Andy Klein also talks with Arthur Dong about Hollywood Chinese, while Brent Simon talks with Danny McBride about The Foot Fist Way.

"What Makes a Movie Sexist?" Lisa Kansas on Iron Man.

Kaleem Aftab profiles Ben Affleck in the Independent.

Adam Ross's interviewee of the week: Marilyn Ferdinand.

Online listening tip. An On Point roundtable on Vertigo.

Online viewing tip #1. The trailer for David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

Online viewing tip #2. Well, everyone's doing it, so here we go: Wheezer's "Pork and Beans."

Online viewing tips. DVblog has the trailer for and a clip from Andreas Troeger's Kill the Artist.

Posted by dwhudson at May 24, 2008 12:40 PM