Shorts, fests, etc, 10/8.

"In Tokyo, Takahiko Iimura read about the American underground film movement, the work of avant-garde artists like Jack Smith and Stan Brakhage. He couldn't see the films, but he began making experimental works based on what he'd read. Soon he was a leading experimental filmmaker." Michael Barrett watches his work for PopMatters.

Just up at kino fist: a series of texts on the theme of "Apocalypse."

"Except for The Terminator, none of the mid-80s Armageddon movies has had as much enduring influence as 1984's Red Dawn," argues David Plotz in Slate. "The film is beloved of American military types. In 2003, the Army named its operation to capture Saddam Hussein 'Red Dawn' and dubbed the two Saddam safe houses it was raiding 'Wolverine 1' and 'Wolverine 2.' Recognizing that we're again living in an age of existential dread, MGM recently announced plans to remake Red Dawn. With the Russian army having run rampant over Georgia and the Kremlin hissing over American plans to base a missile defense system in Poland, this seemed the right moment to revisit Red Dawn. I could think of no better way to recall the anxieties of the Cold War than to cheer on the Wolverines again. But Red Dawn did not conjure up the chest-swelling patriotism I felt as a 14-year-old. Instead, it turned out to be disturbing in an entirely unexpected way."

"David Cronenberg and Denzel Washington: those are two names we'd never figure we'd hear in the same film together. An odd pairing, no? Well, Cronenberg is in talks to direct, a political thriller called, The Matarese Circle for MGM according to Variety." Check the Playlist.

"Julie Taymor is gathering blue-blooded Oscar winners and up-and-comers for her big-screen adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest." The Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit: "In a gender-defying twist, Helen Mirren will reign over the magical island. Although the play centers on Prospero, an exiled duke-turned-sorcerer, Taymor - who likes to take an experimental approach to her stage and film projects - has rechristened the lead character Prospera so that the Oscar-winning star of The Queen can take on the role. Mirren will be surrounded by Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Ben Whishaw and Felicity Jones. Geoffrey Rush is in negotiations to join the cast."

Related online viewing from Bryant Frazer: "A look at the opening credits sequence of Prospero's Books, including some of the paintings that inspired director Peter Greenaway's visuals."

Ben Child: "Forest Whitaker is to play Louis Armstrong in an officially sanctioned biopic of the great jazz singer and trumpet player which the Oscar-winning actor will also direct." Also: Kate Winslet will not be playing Vivienne Westwood.

And also in the Guardian: "[E]ven as a former cinephile and film critic, I share the anxiety of many dramatists that theatre's current craven dependence on well-known movie titles poses a real threat to new plays," writes Michael Billington.

Fests and events:

• "[H]ere are some snapshots from a superb two weeks and an aggregate of over forty movies between us." Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell file another dispatch from the Vancouver International Film Festival.

• "It can take over four hours to drive from Mexico City to the capital of Michoacan de Ocampo for the Morelia Film Festival," writes Eric Kohn for indieWIRE, "but the vibrant town in question lies several more metaphorical miles away from recent newspaper headlines. It was only a few weeks ago that Morelia became the focus of an international media scare following the devastating terrorist bombing that took the lives of eight people on September 15. However, the attack, which coincided with local festivities for the Mexican War of Independence in Plaza Melchor Ocampo, hardly made a dent on preparations for the festival's sixth year."

• "This month is absolutely crammed with film festivals here on Frisco Bay." A roundup from Brian Darr.

• "Surely there was some local equivalent to French Cinema Now before San Francisco Film Society hatched it?" Dennis Harvey asks out loud in the Bay Guardian. "Non? Quelle horreur." Today through Sunday.

"[I]t's possibly premature to rank [Shane] Meadows as Britain's next great filmmaker," concedes Neil Young. "But, realistically, who else is there? Among active directors under 50, the majority of plausible candidates have only one or two features under their belt: the pick of the bunch being Joanna Hogg (Unrelated) and Xiaolu Guo (How Is Your Fish Today?)." With Somers Town, "Things have, it would seem, started to go 'amazingly well' for Shane Meadows. About time too."

Also in the Auteurs' Notebook, Daniel Kasman on Bogart in The Big Sleep: "Finally, the mask falls and anger like a muzzle flashes in the gloom of the Warner studio, our hero forcing a solution - and the merciless killing of a man - for the sake of a single breath of control, as if Bogart was finally pulling the strings, before the clouds of obfuscation close back in, the movie dissolving to black before even our hero has the chance to kiss Bacall."

Salon's Andrew O'Hehir supposes Pasolini might have been "mordantly pleased to learn that in the age of worldwide nonstop consumerism and media overload, of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay, the deepening nightmare of Salò has a strange new resonance."

"[I]n the memoir X Films: True Confessions of a Radical Filmmaker, [Alex] Cox recalls with candor and humor the success and strife of making 10 features over a 30-year career, during which he has been alternately lauded, disdained and ignored." A review from Steve Ryfle in the San Francisco Chronicle.

"[W]hat struck me about last week's Vice-Presidential Debate was the subtle structure that emerged, which is a tribute not to Gwen Ifill and the debate sponsors, but to its two primary authors Biden and Palin and their anonymous co-writers." Tom Stempel takes an unusual opening tactic in opening his current "Understanding Screenwriting" column at the House Next Door.

"Good Dick a strange kind of romcom with characters whose neuroses and imperfections are drawn from the gritty side of reality." For Filmmaker, Nick Dawson talks with director Marianna Palka "about being penniless in New York, the meaning of 'good dick,' and watching Wajda and Kieslowski movies as an embryo."

"In the feminist fable Delwende the African filmmaker S Pierre Yameogo tackles social injustice in present-day Burkina Faso with grace, economy and exquisitely controlled anger," writes Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times.

In the Voice:

• "When conservative watchdogs snarl about the ugliness of gangsta rap," writes Tim Grierson, "Talento de Barrio might be what they picture in their head - a vile, stupid, violent-crime drama that would be laughable if its content wasn't so toxic."

• Aaron Hillis on La León, "Santiago Otheguy's gratuitously slow-burning debut, remarkable only for its silvery, black-and-white HD lusciousness. At its pragmatic best, the film serves as a litmus test for one's patience with decidedly minimalist cinema."

• "The story of Syracuse running back Ernie Davis - the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy, in 1961, two years before he succumbed to leukemia - is absolutely worthy of a big-screen retelling," writes Robert Wilonsky. The Express, though, "succumbs to the worst sorts of sports-movie clichés."

• "[F]or all the potential of this coming-of-age/political-awakening tale, Choose Connor undoes itself with an egregiously sordid turn," writes Kristi Mitsuda. "Aren't politics depraved enough without the filmmaker resorting to a sex scandal that rivals that of the Catholic Church?"

"The world of independent film distribution has changed more in the past few months than in the past five years," writes George Rush at SF360. "[T]here are a lot of new opportunities—some beneficial, some nearly fraudulent—for the independent filmmaker who is looking for an audience. The strange fact is that as distribution gets cheaper, it's harder to make any money off your film."

VF Daily posts another poll: "25 Best Films About New York."

Online listening tip #1. Noah Forrest talks with Penélope Cruz.

Online listening tip #2. At the Wexner Center for the Arts, "Media Coordinator Tim Fulton discusses the David Lean Retrospective with our Film/Video Curators."

Online listening tip #3. Aaron Aradillas talks with Peter Hyams about the 30th anniversary Special Edition DVD of Capricorn One, 2010, critics, and working with actors like Hal Holbrook, Roy Scheider and Gregory Hines."

Online viewing tip. From Karina Longworth in the SpoutBlog: "Yeast will debut on DailyMotion on Friday night, where it will be available for free streaming for one weekend only. You'll be able to find the film at the Cinema DailyMotion page. For more info, check out our review from SXSW, and our interview with [director Mary] Bronstein, and co-stars Greta Gerwig and Amy Judd."

Online viewing tips. David Knight assesses the "State of the Music Video" for Creative Review.

Posted by dwhudson at October 8, 2008 2:07 PM