Shorts, 6/9.

At Slate, Kim Masters explains why the ending of Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, that is, the version airing tonight on HBO, differs from that seen at Sundance and Cannes. Related: director Marina Zenovich is interviewed on NPR.

"By focusing only on the Ferus artists and by minimizing the disagreements among them, The Cool School offers a somewhat one-dimensional narrative of the city's art scene, even as it provides a lively and clear account of that seminal group," writes Cécile Whiting for Artforum. More from Time's Richard Lacayo.

For the Los Angeles Times, Desmond O'Grady reviews Federico Fellini: The Book of Dreams: "As a child, Fellini could not wait for bedtime, when he would close his eyes and see absorbing spectacles. He had named the four corners of his bed after four cinemas of Rimini, his birthplace on the Adriatic coast. True to his childhood self, he later was to regard his films as dreams on celluloid. His sketchbooks were partly a record of possible film ideas. One sketch has the worried annotation, 'Have I just let a film idea escape while engaged in my usual neurotic masturbatory fantasies?'"

"The Movies of My Life has an appealing conceit: the narrator, Beltrán Soler, recounts his life in fifty movies, describing when he first saw specific films as well as the surrounding circumstances as a way of recounting his childhood and youth. There's obviously a good deal of potential in this sort of presentation of a life-in-films, but Fuguet doesn't go all out with it." The Complete Review presents its dossier on Alberto Fuguet's novel.

"For much of the past century, the job of imagining the worst possible outcomes of [architects and city planners'] good intentions - of assessing the radically dystopian implications of urban progress - has fallen to film directors and production designers," writes AO Scott in the New York Times Magazine. "They invent the city of the future not as a model but as a cautionary tale; and their future is the only future we know firsthand." Considered: Metropolis, Alphaville and Blade Runner.

Glenn Kenny writes an open response to Michael Atkinson's remarks in Vincent Rossmeir's piece for the Brooklyn Rail, "Where Have All the Film Critics Gone?"

Michael Tully talks with Will Oldham about The Guatemalan Handshake and more; also freshly posted at Benten Films is a sneak peek at Kentucker Audley's Team Picture, due in August.

The New York City Opera has commissioned Charles Wuorinen to compose an opera based on Annie Proulx's short story "Brokeback Mountain," reports the BBC.

Leonardo DiCaprio will produce and star in a biopic about Atari founder Nolan Bushnell. Tatiana Siegel reports for Variety. Also: Reese Witherspoon and Ben Stiller have signed on to a romantic comedy to be directed by Cameron Crowe and produced by Scott Rudin.

Larry Gross's 48 Hrs diaries, continued. Also, Bryan Burrough at VF Daily: "By 2:30 am my duties as an extra were long over. Over by the Biograph's famous alley, Michael Mann was walking the actors through the climactic shot of the week, the killing of Johnny Depp's John Dillinger."

"Chak De! India, a big-hearted minority sports film whose title means 'come on India,' was the appropriate winner at the Indian International Film Awards Sunday," reports Patrick Frater for Variety. "The pic about a tarnished (field) hockey player who redeems himself as coach to the Indian women's team, was named best film, saw helmer Shimit Amin named best director and Shah Rukh Khan elected best actor."

Joe Leydon talks with Stephen Rea about Stuck for the Houston Chronicle.

IndieWIRE interviews On the Rumba River director Jacques Sarasin.

With Ed Halter's piece on microcinemas, FilmInFocus launches a four-part series on exhibition.

"David Price's The Pixar Touch is clearly an unauthorized history, written from an outsider's point of view," writes Charles Solomon in the San Francisco Chronicle. "Lacking direct access to the key people, he has to rely on previously published accounts, secondary sources and interviews with more minor players who have left the studio.... In contrast, Karen Paik's To Infinity and Beyond: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios, which was written in conjunction with Leslie Iwerks's lively documentary The Pixar Story (2007), is a studio-approved insider's account."

"[D]espite its enduring legacy as one of Hollywood's most legendary movie studios - and a seemingly stubborn refusal to disappear - MGM hasn't fit the profile of a full-fledged production company in years." But as David M Halbfinger reports in the New York Times, despite "a daunting pile of debt and other financial challenges," the studio's hoping to turns its fortunes around.

"Bob Anderson, who played the young George Bailey in the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life, has died. He was 75." The AP reports.

September Industry's "Cinematyopgraphy" (update), via Jason Kottke.

Online listening tip. Hitchcock and Truffaut discuss Under Capricorn and Tom Sutpen's got the audio.

Online viewing tip. "A new short (unsigned?, untitled?) video by Jean-Luc Godard premiered on the Swiss television channel TSR in May." Andy Rector's got it.

Posted by dwhudson at June 9, 2008 2:17 PM