Shorts, 7/7.

"This was the paradox of Israeli cinema: Jews had achieved so much in film industries elsewhere in the world, yet took so long to do much of anything within their own state. That the wait is now over seems unquestionable." So, in Nextbook, Stuart Klawans addresses a few questions: "Why was Israeli film so slow to develop? And what conditions had to be satisfied before it could flourish?"

"For this, our first column about where queer cinema's at, and possibly where it's headed, we could think of no better place to start than the films selected for this month's slate of LGBT festivals (from San Francisco's recent Frameline and last month's NewFest in New York to Los Angeles's upcoming Outfest)." Michael Koresky and Chris Wisniewski open indieWIRE's "Queer Cinema Notebook."

Each of the shorts by Apichatpong Weerasethakul that Brian Darr has seen has "brought up rhymes, resonances, and questions from at least one of the feature-length works I've seen from Apichatpong's filmography."

"We admire Naruse for his realism - both psychological and social - and for his pessimism, pushing farther than Ozu's melancholy or Mizoguchi's tragedy, about human relationships in a world driven by money. Yet perhaps Naruse's often elaborate stories are more than anything excuses to explore the breadth of variety and humanism, not to mention inhumanity, in the expressions of actors in front of the camera." Daniel Kasman in the Auteurs' Notebook on Untamed.

Paddy Johnson finds The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not For Sale, premiering tonight on HBO, to be "a series of excruciating episodes composing an inconsequential look at an artist whose time has come and gone."

In another fine roundup, Girish includes a bit from Adrian Martin's column on the death and occasional afterlife of film magazines.

"A new wave of British horror directors and writers are reanimating the genre, washing away the blood and the ham acting to produce complex psychological chillers," reports Andrew Johnson in the Independent. "At least 15 horror movies are in production in Britain and due to be released later this year. Such is the boom that the annual Film4 Frightfest festival in London's West End next month features an unprecedented number of British films, making up a quarter of the showcased movies."

Ben Slater collects reviews - raves, mostly - for Helen following its premiere in Edinburgh.

"[Mia] Zapata's stage presence was remarkable," writes Sam Adams, introducing his interview with Kerri O'Kane, director of The Gits Movie ((currently held over at Seattle's Northwest Film Forum). "Wearing a tank top and with her dreadlocks pulled back in a rough ponytail, Zapata seems lost in a trance until she snaps into focus and unleashes a full-throated wail that is equal parts Patti Smith and Janis Joplin. Despite the power of her voice, her lyrics are fraught with vulnerability, a tension that gives the Gits' songs their edge."

Also in the Los Angeles Times, Susan King, briefly, with Ellen Burstyn.

"[I]t's time once again to gather up in digest form my favorite answers from the most recent quiz, Professor Brian O'Blivion's All-New Flesh for Memorial Day Movie (and TV) Quiz." Dennis Cozzalio rounds up the fun stuff.

In the New York Times, a travel tip from Adam Begley: "I believe that if you love the novel (or the movie), you should start planning your trip right away, not because you'll find Lampedusa's Sicily waiting for you when you touch down (you won't, believe me), but because the bitter, resigned romantic nostalgia that pervades The Leopard is also the sensibility that savors the decaying grandeur of an island burdened with layer upon layer of tragic history — and blessed also with startling beauty, much of it perpetually waning."

At Slate, Troy Patterson finds TCM's Elvis Mitchell: Under the Influence "warm, insightful, and only about 30 percent too snazzy for its own good." On a related note, James Wolcott tells the tale of a show you will not be seeing on TCM.

Chrissy Iley talks with Julianne Moore for the Observer Magazine.

For the Scotsman, Siobhan Synnot talks with Gurinder Chadha about her new film, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. Via Movie City News.

For Filmmaker, Shari Roman talks with Patricia Rozema about Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.

The Edge of Heaven is about to open in the San Francisco Bay Area, so Robert Avila's called up Fatih Akin for SF360.

Cinema Strikes Back interviews Lee Myung-se.

2008 so far...

• Nathaniel R highlights five favorite performances in six categories from the 50 movies he's seen so far this year.

• Despite the name, the folks at the Playlist "kind of hate lists." Even so, they've gone and listed the "Best Films of the Year... So Far."

• Scott Weinberg takes the month-by-month approach at Cinematical, listing the best and the worst.

• More at Screengrab: Paul Clark and Andrew Osbourne.

The Guardian introduces a Bollywood blogger: Nirpal Dhaliwal.

The AV Club lists "13 memorable films set during heat waves."

Online listening tip #1. Hitchcock and Truffaut discuss Rear Window at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger...

Online listening tip #2. Matt Singer and Alison Willmore ask, "Is the Sky Really Falling on Independent Film?"

Online viewing tip #1. The trailer, probably NSFW, for Ozploitation doc Not Quite Hollywood, via Matt Riviera.

Online viewing tip #2. Cartoon Brew has video of Disney animators (including Tim Burton) and producers facing off at the volleyball net in 1980. Thanks, Jerry!

Online viewing tip #3. The BBC's Tom Brooks talks with Quentin Tarantino about Inglorious Bastards. Via the SXSW News Reel.

Online viewing tips, round 1. "In 2003, there was an exceptional touring program of short films that made its way across North American theaters," writes Listener Jim, introducing a collection at WFMU. "How To Be Eccentric: The Films of Richard Massingham was a program of short films made between the 1930s and the 1950s by Richard Massingham, a man who trained for a medical career but ended up making a better name for himself from his part-time hobby of amateur filmmaking." Via Coudal Partners.

Online viewing tips, round 2. "The Art of the Tracking Shot," a compilation at Laboratory 101, via Andrew Sullivan.

Posted by dwhudson at July 7, 2008 4:06 PM