Short shorts, 9/28.

"For this issue Offscreen casts its eyes on French cinema, both new and old." Featuring editor Donato Totaro on Inside (A l'intérieur) and a "Rebirth of French Horror"; Daniel Garrett on Jean Renoir: Interviews and The Rules of the Game, as well as Catherine Deneuve's diaries, Close Up and Personal and the collection, The Cinema of France; Jason Mark Scott on "Marital Discord and Film Making in Jean-Luc Godard's Le Mepris"; and Simon Laperrièrie's homage to Alain Robbe-Grillet.

"How The New Truly Free Filmmaking Community Will Rise From Indie's Ashes": indieWIRE runs producer Ted Hope's keynote address at at Film Independent's Filmmaker Forum.

"Bruce was irascible and lovable. There were times when he drove me crazy, and I know I wasn't the only one. But Eve and I loved Bruce and we weren't about to be driven away." John Yau offers a personal tribute to Bruce Conner.

Also in the September issue of the Brooklyn Rail: Tim Bracy and Elizabeth Nelson on Lou Reed's Berlin; Makenna Goodman on Vicky Cristina Barcelona; Lu Chen on The Edge of Heaven; Camila de Onis on WALL•E; Mary Hanlon on VH1's I Love Money; David N Meyer on Classes tous risques, Help Me Eros and The Furies.

As luck would have it, Der Baader Meinhof Komplex opened in Germany on the day I left for New York, so it'll be a few more days before I get to see it for myself. In the meantime, Neal Ascherson, the Observer's correspondent in Germany in the 60s and 70s, presents a fine and succinct summation of the background story and reaction to the film so far. See, too, a few pieces from the archive: May and June 1972 and a 1987 assessment of the impact of the RAF (as well as a review of Stefan Aust's book, on which the film is based).

Related: "'Complicated' is the word I kept coming back to as I was trying to write this review of Everybody Talks About the Weather... We Don't: The Writings of Ulrike Meinhof," writes Johannah Rodgers in the Brooklyn Rail. "Of course, it may very well be the applicability of that adjective to both the writings and biography of Meinhof that explains not only the recent publication of a selection of her writings in English, but - more than thirty years after her death - the attention she continues to attract as an icon of, contingent on your point of view, political activism or terrorism."

For the Los Angeles Times, Lewis Beale talks with screenwriters about how very tough it is to adapt a good book - and Chris Lee profiles Toby Young as How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, based on his memoir, approaches theaters.

"Why does this novel have such a tenacious hold on the imagination, even of people who have never been to England or never visited a country house?" Christopher Hitchens on Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. Also in the Guardian: Nicholas Lezard on David Thomson's Have You Seen...? and a few interviews: Will Lawrence with Jeff Bridges and Rebecca Greenstreet with Julie Walters.

Dana Stevens (Slate on Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story.

Charles McGrath profiles Kristin Scott Thomas for the New York Times.

Hannah Eaves (SF360) presents a guide to "free feature films on the web."

Local Sightings, "a film festival for the Northwest," runs October 3 through 8 in Seattle.

"In both an e-mail message and a telephone interview this week, [Sylvain] Chomet [The Triplets of Belleville] - who was fired as the director of [The Tale of Despereaux] more than two years ago - accused both the studio and the film's producers, Gary Ross and his wife, Allison Thomas, of using his designs and concepts in the movie without acknowledging his contribution. It is a claim the filmmakers strenuously dispute." Michael Cieply reports in the NYT.

Posted by dwhudson at September 28, 2008 7:45 AM