Shorts, 10/23.

"One of the most spectacular episodes in the early lives of the writers who went on to become the novelists and poets of the Beat Generation is coming to the screen," notes Shawn Levy, who's very much looking forward to the Christine Vachon-produced Kill Your Darlings, which tells that story.

Next week, Criterion releases the collection 10 Years of Rialto Pictures, so Glenn Kenny "recently spoke with Bruce Goldstein, the repertory programmer for New York's Film Forum and a co-founder of Rialto, about the company's beginnings, high points, and why the box contains the titles it does."

"Are there filmmakers, scattered around the world, who nevertheless seem to share certain close affinities?" asks Girish. "One example might be the trio of Jim Jarmusch, Aki Kaurismäki and Wim Wenders."

Michael Guillén talks with Albert Serra and Mark Peranson about Birdsong.

"Rare is the film that embodies a certain hysterical style while dealing with hysteria as its actual subject," writes Dennis Cozzalio. "But in the late 70s, a trio of movies written by the young screenwriting team of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale did just that - I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) and Used Cars (1980), directed by Zemeckis, and 1941 (1979), directed by Steven Spielberg, are among the best comedies of their generation, serving up a classically framed, goosed-up examination of American obsession, desire and panic."

Gomorrah, you'll remember, is based on the book by Roberto Saviano. In openDemocracy, Geoff Andrews lays out five ways in which the book is "groundbreaking."

The life of Jacques Mesrine, "Parisian super-criminal is to be retold in an epic two-part biopic, the first tranche of which opened in French cinemas yesterday to widespread critical acclaim and not a little controversy." Lizzy Davies reports on Jean-François Richet's Mesrine: L'instinct de mort.

Also in the Guardian:

• Andrew Pulver reviews In Prison My Whole Life, a "well-meaning but unfocused documentary attempting to bring new attention to the long-running (but hardly unremarked) controversy over the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal."

• Alex von Tunzelmann on the historical (in)accuracy of Enemy at the Gates.

• William Leith admires Richard Gere.

• Ronald Bergan remembers playwright and screenwriter Luther Davis.

"Javier Bardem will star in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful, the Mexican helmer's first project after his much-publicized bust-up with former screenwriting partner Guillermo Arriaga," reports Anna Marie de la Fuente for Variety.

Fernando F Croce at Slant on Eclipse's Kenji Mizoguchi's Fallen Women: "While majestic, late-career period pieces like Ugetsu and Sansho the Bailiff posit a sense of spiritual transcendence to alleviate the characters' plight, the earlier social exposés offer little relief from a society erected on female oppression and its ensuing double standards and loveless relationships. Far from romanticizing the figure of the suffering woman, these are radical works that cry for nothing less than revolution."

"Dreamy images are very much a part of [Lee Myung-Se's] later films, sometimes seemingly replacing any hint of a connecting narrative," writes Adam Hartzell at Koreanfilm.org. "Although Gagman [1989] is nowhere as visually appealing as those films since production values of South Korean cinema in the 1980s weren't up to the level they are now, you can see the seeds of Lee Myung-se's later realized vision in this debut."

"The Four Feathers [1939] is so entertainingly phony, so gloriously fake, in fact, that it transcends the history it depicts, turning bloody battles and murderous routs into bloodless spectacle and narrow escapes," writes James Rocchi. "It's fake, and either culturally insensitive or purely racist, but it's also spectacular, stirring and enthralling."

Those matinees that allow parents to buy cheap tickets and bring their babies, who, of course, get in free? David Bordwell does the math and figures they actually pay off.

In the Independent, Geoffrey Macnab considers the Moon in movies.

Sam Adams has a DVD roundup in the Philadelphia City Paper.

"The Missouri Review invites all writers and writers/producers to participate in our second ever Audio & Video Competition."

Online gazing tip. Gabe Klinger presents a "visual essay on Steve McQueen's Hunger."

Online listening tip. Aaron Aradillas and Glenn Kenny discuss Jean-Pierre Melville.

Online viewing tip #1. Via Darren Hughes, the "Palin Song."

Online viewing tip #2. Ray Pride asks Ballast director Lance Hammer why he's optimistic about independent film.

Online viewing tips. The Guardian's Kate Stables goes for an "autumnal" theme.

Posted by dwhudson at October 23, 2008 2:57 PM