Shorts, fests, etc, 10/6.

"The result of [Lisa] Dombrowski's laborious paper-trail is that she is able vividly to describe and place much of [Sam] Fuller's career firmly in the context of the Hollywood film-making business," notes Tom von Logue Newth in his review of The Films of Sam Fuller: If You Die, I'll Kill You! for Film International. "Her grasp of the structure of distribution, the place of B pictures within the Hollywood system, shooting conditions and what was expected/required of the sorts of films that Fuller was making is excellent, and the section on each film typically ends with a close examination of how that particular picture's pattern of distribution, reception by press and public, and financial success (or not) affected the immediately subsequent course that Fuller's career was to take. It cannot be underestimated - although it is all too often overlooked - how the economics and accepted practices of the business shaped the path of many film-making careers, and to some extent, shaped even the films themselves."

"He is remembered as the obsessive love interest of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, but Leslie Howard should also be recalled as a British secret agent who died returning from a clandestine war mission, claims a Spanish author." Giles Tremlett reports.

Also in the Guardian: Hadley Freeman doesn't think three Coco Chanel biopics, another on Vivienne Westwood and yet another on Kate Moss are going to amount to anything good: '[F]ashion rarely does well on screen, because filmmakers parody it beyond credibility, or they swoon so much at its glamour that the movie becomes unwatchably sycophantic."

In 1998, Sean Axmaker spoke with Janet Leigh and Charlton Heston about Touch of Evil.

"So well-enshrined is Carole Lombard's reputation as one of the funniest women ever to appear in films that is easy to forget she was also one of the most beautiful." A centennial tribute from Josh R. Update: More from Sarah Churchwell in the Guardian.

"Has film criticism entered its decadent phase?" asks Adrian Martin in Filmkrant. Via Girish.

"The Telegraph today are reporting that Disney are using quotes from IMDb message boards on posters for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Ambrose Heron sorts through the implications.

Roger Ebert chats with Andy and Larry Wachowski about The Godfather and 2001.

Kevin Maher talks with Charlie Kaufman for the London Times.

James Mottram profiles Michael Caine for the Independent.

The London Film Festival opens on October 15 with Frost/Nixon and runs through October 30; the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw picks ten must-sees. Related: "Tony Blair, David Frost, HG Wells, Kenneth Williams, Brian Clough, Mozart, Caligula - the roll call of parts that Michael Sheen has played resembles a version of the parlour game known as Fantasy Dinner Parties." A profile from Ryan Gilbey in the Observer. And Cristy Lytal talks with Toby Jones for the Los Angeles Times.

Recent fests and events:

• "Woodstock this year isn't the upstate whirlwind The Reeler experienced as a rookie in 2007," writes ST VanAirsdale, "when a mid-Friday arrival gave way to a panel/screening marathon that remains one of my great festivalgoing experiences. This time around brings a 36-hour sojourn, all back roads and bad cell reception, perfectly fine in every way but the one that allows for revelation. It's over before it begins when you do it this way, bleary-eyed and bittersweetly counting too few rewards while mainlining coffee at the Colony Café. So! Memo to self (and to you by extension): Next time, give yourself three days."

• More from Michael Tully ("The list of major award winners at the 2008 Woodstock Film Festival reads like a greatest hits from [Hammer to Nail's] inaugural year"), Sarah Coleman in the Independent and the Film Panel Notetaker on Blind Spot. Update: More from Eric Kohn in indieWIRE.

• The New Yorker Festival has just wrapped; the magazine dispatched its writers to blog about various events. For example: Roger Angell on Tommy Lee Jones, Lizzie Widdicombe on Clint Eastwood, Zachary Kanin on Matt Groening and Lynda Barry, Macy Halford on Mary-Louise Parker, Kanin on Steve Colbert, Andrea Thompson on Paul Rudd and Halford on the Young Shakespeareans panel.

• At indieWIRE, James Israel reports on the just-wrapped Reykjavik International Film Festival.

"The movie executives Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Stacey Snider have formally severed their ties with Paramount Pictures, ending a sometimes stormy three-year relationship and clearing the way for a new film company they have had in the works for months." Michael Cieply's got details in the New York Times.

Online voting tip. Help VF Daily rank the top 25 documentaries of all time.

Online listening tip. Scott Kirsner: "FreshDV just posted a podcast with filmmaker Tiffany Shlain, who is part of the team putting on The Conversation later this month in the Bay Area."

Online viewing tip #1. Matthew Clayfield has the trailer for the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (Mike Everleth has the lineup). October 9 through 19.

Online viewing tip #2. The Story of Randy's, "a documentary about the Chin Family and the golden age of the mythic Randy’s Studio. This film features some rare archive footage and interviews with legendary artists like Lord Creator, Ken Boothe, Stranger Cole, Derrick Harriott, Niney The Observer, Johnny Dizzy Moore, Jah Stitch, Big Youth, Sly Dunbar, Earl Morgan (The Heptones) and Pat Kelly." Via Coudal Partners.

Posted by dwhudson at October 6, 2008 9:07 AM