Shorts, 10/14.

The AFP reports that the Le Monde Group is in negotiations with Phaidon, which bills itself as "the world's leading publisher of books on the visual arts," regarding the sale of Cahiers du cinéma.

Claudette Colbert "had a seamless sort of technique which she learned through years on the stage in the twenties, and that technique is what makes her both a bit predictable and finally a little mysterious," writes Dan Callahan at the House Next Door. "A new biography of the star has just been published, Claudette Colbert: She Walked in Beauty, by Bernard F Dick, and I read it eagerly; unfortunately, instead of clearing up some of Colbert's mystery and giving us a sharper picture of her as a person and an actress, this biography creates nothing but confusion."

"He's already been banned from China after his film Seven Years in Tibet upset the communist authorities," notes Ben Child. "Pretty soon it's likely Jean-Jacques Annaud won't be too popular in certain parts of the subcontinent: the Oscar-winning French director's next project looks likely to be the terrorism thriller Kashmir, set in the disputed region on the border of India and Pakistan."

Also in the Guardian, Lizzy Davies: "It was billed as the big-budget film that would bring hope and prosperity to one of Paris's most notoriously troubled suburbs. But shooting of Luc Besson's From Paris with Love, starring John Travolta, has been cancelled after 10 stunt cars were set alight during a night-time rampage."

The Deutschland 09 project is now officially on. Inspired by Deutschland im Herbst, a 1977 omnibus film for which eleven directors associated with New German Cinema each addressed some aspect of the standoff between the government and the Red Army Faction, 09 will offer twelve takes on the present moment. Der Tagesspiegel's got the list of contributors: Fatih Akin, Wolfgang Becker, Sylke Enders, Dominik Graf, Christoph Hochhäusler, Romuald Karmakar, Nicolette Krebitz, Angela Schanelec, Hans Steinbichler, Isabelle Stever, Tom Tykwer and Hans Weingartner. If all goes as planned, the world premiere will take place at the Berlinale in February.

Kimberley Jones and Josh Rosenblatt are debating screenwriters at the Austin Chronicle's Picture in Picture.

"William Claxton, a photographer of the famous who used his charm to lure jazz musicians from their dark, smoky natural habitat to pose on sunny beaches and carousels, then made stunningly intimate images of legendary loners like Steve McQueen and Frank Sinatra, died on Saturday in Los Angeles," writes Douglas Martin. "He was 80."

Online viewing tip #1. "You want to take a quick trip through cinema history?" asks Todd Brown. "Not a lot of better places to start that Quebecois filmmaker Olivier Asselin's Un Capitalisme Sentimental." Twitch has the trailer.

Online viewing tip #2. From Ambrose Heron: "George Stroumboulopoulos of CBC's The Hour interviews James Cameron about his career and they also discuss his upcoming film Avatar."

Online viewing tip #3. The trailer for the Arts Engine Ten Year Anniversary Collection.

Online viewing tip #4. The NYT's AO Scott on the seductive powers of Wall Street.

Posted by dwhudson at October 14, 2008 3:21 PM