Shorts, 11/7.

At Moving Image Source, Adrian Martin marvels at the DVD for India Song, "which deserves its reputation as [Marguerite] Duras's greatest cinematic work: every single shot in the film - some of them lasting several minutes, it's true - gets its own chapter! Moreover, each chapter number comes with a reproduction of the corresponding page in Duras's very literary découpage (in French) of the piece." Just an example of the "world of possibilities that has scarcely been touched by the producers of DVDs, even among the most distinguished and scholarly labels."

"The Oscars academy has restored a rare print of a controversial film by India's famed director Satyajit Ray that was banned by Indian censors for glorifying monarchy in a Himalayan kingdom that acceded to India," reports Sujoy Dhar for Reuters. "Made in 1971, Sikkim was about the Himalayan redoubt of the same name ruled by the Chogyals before it acceded to India in 1975 amid some criticism that New Delhi had browbeaten its tiny neighbor. China opposed India's claim on Sikkim until 2005."

"John Landis is getting back in the saddle with a clutch of feature projects in the pipeline," reports Ali Jaafar for Variety. "First up will be Burke and Hare, a true-life black comedy about the two eponymous grave-robbers in 19th century Edinburgh." And then there's "Ghoulishly Yours, a biopic of Mad magazine and EC Comics publisher William Gaines; The Bone Orchard, which the helmer describes as a Western with Chinese vampires; and The Rivals, based on the Restoration play by [Richard Brinsley] Sheridan."

Vince Keenan revisits Norman Mailer's Tough Guys Don't Dance, "a borderline-camp frenzy of purple prose, Byzantine plotting and gay panic."

"A lettriste of almost preternatural power and erudition, [Georges] Perec not only mastered pretty much every literary form he tackled, he invented a number of new (and daunting ones)," writes Glenn Kenny in the Auteurs' Notebook. "Perec's 1967 novel Un homme qui dort is, by Perecian standards, a relatively straightforward work - its most noteworthy stylistic feature is its unfailingly beautiful use of the second person singular.... In the early 70s Perec and his friend Bernard Queysanne, a filmmaker whose experience had heretofore been as an assistant director, teamed up to make a film of the book. While much of the film's narration—which comprises the entirety of the film's verbal content; there is no dialogue—is taken directly from the novel, Perec jettisoned the book's linear structure in favor of, Bellos explains, 'a mathematical construction....' It's this structural sophistication that makes the 77-minute film so peculiarly compelling."

And while Glenn gets the Guardian's Danny Leigh thinking about what is and what isn't "unfilmable," Denis Seguin reports that "Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie's panoramic 1981 allegory of the birth of modern India, is heading for the big screen. Deepa Mehta is to direct and co-write the adaptation with the author, and the film is expected to start production in 2010.... With its bravura mix of historical events and inventive flights of fancy, the 650-page novel has long been seen as unfilmable." And Emma Pearse talks with Mehta for New York.

Also in the Guardian:

• "Steven Spielberg and Will Smith are planning to collaborate on a remake of Park Chan-wook's Oldboy," reports Ben Child.

• Death of a Salesman, "which premiered in 1949, nailed once and for all the idea of the travelling pedlar as a perfect vessel for the American dream," writes Andrew Pulver. "If you want a genuinely Millerian cinematic experience, the best way to go is to get hold of Salesman, a 1968 documentary made by Albert and David Maysles, along with Charlotte Zwerin. Though the Maysles are best known for their hippy-era music docos Monterey Pop and Gimme Shelter, as well as the opaque weirdness of Grey Gardens from 1975, Salesman stands as the movie where they really found their voice as leading American proponents of the 'direct cinema' aesthetic."

• "It's unlikely to go down as the best Bond ever, but Quantum of Solace wins hands down when it comes to best architecture," argues Steve Rose. Then he turns to the earlier films and notes that the "association between evil and modernism runs through many Bond movies."

• "What is indie cinema?" Richard Vine asks Tilda Swinton, Michael Winterbottom, Paul Andrews Williams and Quentin Tarantino.

• "Every now and then, every national or local film theater reckons it's time for another season of 'Jazz and the Movies,'" writes David Thomson, but "there may be a deeper, rhythmic bond between film and jazz that surpasses the silly screenwriters' notion that jazz is 'hot' or 'cool' or ripe for melodrama. I'm thinking about a season that digs into that deeper resemblance, and the wandering soul of improvisation."

• Peter Bradshaw on Easy Virtue: "A Noël Coward adaptation needs some brittle wit, but this is about as brittle as a month-old piece of parked chewing gum." More from Wendy Ide (London Times), Trevor Johnston (Time Out New York), Derel Malcolm (Evening Standard), Anthony Quinn (Independent) and Tim Robey (Telegraph).

• And a call for votes: "it's the Guardian First Film and First Album awards!"

Roderick Heath on Citizen Kane: "The fact that Rosebud still has multiple meanings as a symbol is once again a denial of simple resolution, part of what [Joseph] McBride called the 'constant ironic undercutting of the audience's search for a solution.' Such meditations invest the film's 'attack on the acquisitive society' (as Welles described it for Cahiers du Cinema in 1966) with force beyond simple political morality. It's an enquiry into the degree to which any human is shaped by circumstance, and left unshaped, into free will itself."

FilmInFocus runs an extract from Simon Louvish's forthcoming book, Chaplin: The Tramp's Odyssey.

"The literary version of having a movie-critic friend intent on convincing you that there's a movie of which you've never heard but must see, The B List offers up mostly irresistible essays by the National Society of Film Critics about their favorite guilty pleasures." A review from Mae Anderson for the AP.

"Antonio Banderas is in talks about playing the lead role in a forthcoming Salvador Dalí biopic, sparking a rivalry between the Spanish actor and another Hollywood giant, Al Pacino, who is playing the surrealist painter in another film," reports Chris Green. "Meanwhile, Robert Pattinson will also play Dalí in a third film, Little Ashes, which will chronicle the artist's early life and development."

Also in the Independent:

• Rachel Shields on another three-for-all: "As the woman who popularised the little black dress, the trouser suit and bobbed haircuts, [Coco] Chanel's style legacy is unrivalled, and now, her personal narrative is up for grabs, with three biopics of the great designer currently either completed or in the pipeline."

• "Turks venerate Ataturk, the founder of the republic and architect of arguably the most successful social modernisation program of the 20th century," writes Nicholas Birch. "How much they really want to know him is questionable, however, judging from the furore that has erupted since a new documentary on his life was released in cinemas last week. Directed by Can Dündar, a leading documentary-maker with an until now spotless secularist record, Mustafa is the first Turkish film to emphasise the private side of the man whose stern features preside over public buildings across the country."

• And Gill Pringle interviews Russell Crowe.

Jason Guerrasio checks in on five independent films currently in production. Also in indieWIRE, Eugene Hernandez: "Amy Rice and Alicia Sams' untitled documentary about US President-elect Barack Obama has been acquired by HBO. Produced by Edward Norton and his company Class 5 Films, Stuart Blumberg and Bill Migliore, the film was made with unique, exclusive access to Obama even before he began his historic campaign."

"Serious-minded Americans traditionally love to idealize the French movie industry, but as French cinephiles tend to see it, it's their own filmmakers, unlike those in the United States, who shy away from tackling head-on tough issues like contemporary French politics, scandals and unrest," writes Michael Kimmelman.

Also in the New York Times:

• Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa "is good enough in patches to make its distracting star turns, storybook clichés and stereotypes harder to take than they would be in a less enjoyable movie," writes Manohla Dargis. More from Alonso Duralde (MSNBC), Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times), Ann Hornaday (Washington Post), Charles Mudede (Stranger), Michael Phillips (Chicago Tribune), Tasha Robinson (AV Club), Nick Schager (Slant), Eric D Snider (Cinematical) and Robert Wilonsky (Voice).

• "In The World Unseen, a trembling soap of racial oppression and lesbian longing, three Indian women endure South African apartheid in the 1950s with strategies as diverse as their personalities," writes Jeannette Catsoulis. "Unfortunately, only the South African scrubland is cooking." More from Jay Antani (Slant), David Chute (Voice) and Sara Vilkomerson (New York Observer). And indieWIRE interviews Shamim Sarif, who's directed the film based on her own novel.

• "Saffron Burrows, a willowy actress whose beauty and bearing suggest a more delicate Angelina Jolie, brings a measure of grace to The Guitar, an arty parable that suggests a New York bohemian variation on the odious Bucket List," writes Stephen Holden. "As her unfortunately named character, Melody Wilder, slinks around a loft in Lower Manhattan in various states of undress, she is a visually arresting wraith gazing into the void." More from Ed Gonzalez (Slant), Mark Peikert (New York Press), Nick Pinkerton (Voice) and Andrew Sarris (New York Observer). And Michael Alan Connelly talks with director Amy Redford for Vulture.

• Bill Weber remembers Milton Katselas.

"Declan Recks's Eden, with a script adapted by Eugene O'Brien from his own play, is the latest from the producers of the exhilarating Once, and that, along with a couple commendable acting turns from Aidan Kelly and Eileen Walsh as Billy and Breda Farrell, an Irish couple with two kids who find their marriage stagnating after a decade, is pretty much all it's got going for it," writes Lauren Wissot in Slant. "Simply put, Eden is like knockoff Leigh or Loach, unfocused kitchen-sink realism." More from Andrew Sarris in the New York Observer.

Tim Lucas introduces new books from Video Watchdog contributors: Tom Weaver's I Talked with a Zombie and David J Schow's Gun Work.

In the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Matt Sussman meets kino21 founders and organizers Irina Leimbacher and Konrad Steiner, while D Scot Miller talks with Medicine for Melancholy director Barry Jenkins.

Roy Frumkes runs his 1997 Films in Review interview with Kenneth Anger.

"I've lost count of the number of times I've seen Battleship Potemkin over the years; familiarity with Eisenstein's editing patterns probably does lessen the impact of those classic sequences as much as I still appreciate them." Ian Johnston at Not Coming to a Theater Near You: "But what really struck me with this viewing (particularly in a version that looks this good) was the film's less remarked-upon moments of moody lyricism."

Darrell Hartman revisits A Woman Under the Influence and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie for Artforum.

For Vue Weekly, David Berry talks with Nina Davenport about Operation Filmmaker.

In the Houston Chronicle, Joe Leydon talks with Carl Deal and Tia Lessin about Trouble the Water.

Bilge Ebiri talks with Wayne Coyne about Christmas on Mars for the Vulture. So does Phoebe Greenwood for the London Times.

At Movie Morlocks, Richard Harland Smith talks with Larry Blamire about The Lost Skeleton Returns Again.

"B-movie maestro Al Adamson explored many genres when he was churning out films in the 60s and 70s including horror, blaxploitation and sexploitation," writes Kimberly Lindbergs. "Satan's Sadists (1969) was his early entry into the biker genre which became extremely popular during the late 60s. Adamson made Satan's Sadists in just one week on a shoestring budget and it shows. But if you're in the mood for some good b-grade biker fun, the movie is worth a look."

Martyn Palmer profiles Leonardo DiCaprio for the London Times, where Kevin Maher talks with Martina Gedeck about The Baader Meinhof Complex.

Cineuropa's new "Film Focus": Rumba.

"As a relatively responsible movie-going parent, I've always been curious as to how much of an influence our children's responses to the movies we take them to works to color our own," muses Dennis Cozzalio. Also, thoughts on Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Let the Right One In.

The latest addition to Scott Tobias's "New Cult Canon" at the AV Club: Near Dark.

"Whatever you say about filmmaker Michael Moore, we should consider ourselves blessed to have such a professional agent provocateur running amuck in our national media circus, raising the heartland's consciousness and making the fat cats furious," argues Michael Atkinson in In These Times, though he is disappointed in Slacker Uprising.

"More Charles Burnett than Hughes brothers, Ballast is a tone poem that joins the landscape of the Mississippi Delta, where natural beauty and ex-urban ugliness mingle without prejudice, to a calibrated catharsis that will cause three souls adrift to shift course," writes Ella Taylor in the LA Weekly.

For Sam Adams, writing in the Philadelphia City Paper, Synecdoche, New York is "an aggressively bewildering conceptual sprawl that defies easy, and perhaps any, explanation. It sucks in the world like a black hole, letting nothing emerge. Its center is dense, but its pull is irresistible." But for the Philadelphia Weekly's Sean Burns, it's "all too meta and deliberately wretched to leave much of a mark."

More from Roger Ebert: "Like Suttree, the Cormac McCarthy novel I'm always mentioning, it's not that you have to return to understand it. It's that you have to return to realize how fine it really is." And more from Stuart Klawans in the Nation.

Tom Stempel's 10th "Understanding Screenwriting" column is up at the House Next Door.

How's Twilight going to do at the box office when it opens on November 21? Probably pretty well, and maybe even very, very well. Variety's Anne Thompson explains. Related: Ambrose Heron talks with Cam Gigandet.

"One of India's most respected filmmakers, BR Chopra, who was behind a string of classic movies released in the 1950s and 60s, died Wednesday," reports the AFP. "He was 94." More from the AP and the BBC.

Online listening tip #1. "One of the few bright spots in a bleak year for movie distribution has been the launching of The Film Desk, a micro-releasing outfit founded by BAMcinematek programmer Jake Perlin." Nathan Lee talks with him for WNYC. Related: David Fear in Time Out New York and Glenn Kenny in the Auteurs' Notebook on The Wild Child.

Online listening tip #2. The Observer's Jason Solomons talks with Ari Folman about Waltz with Bashir.

Online listening tip #3. An all-classics edition of the SpoutBlog's "Film Couch."

Online viewing tip #1. Dennis Cozzalio has Pablo Fernandez's "little gem of animation," Hollywood.

Online viewing tip #2. Jamie Stuart's In Spring is back online. On a related note, Jamie's written a letter to Roger Ebert, "Bless me, father, for I don't get Scorsese."

Online viewing tip #3. The 39 Steps for free at Jaman.

Online viewing tip #4. New York's Bilge Ebiri introduces a short by Kurt Kuenne (Dear Zachary), Rent-A-Person, "a business epic in miniature" and "a hilarious musical pastiche about a young, lovesick men's-room attendant who decides to become a visionary entrepreneur."

Online viewing tip #5. The cinetrix has a teaser for Tara Wray's Cartoon College, noting, too, that Manhattan, Kansas will be out on DVD on November 18.

Online viewing tips, round 1. Amanda McCormick lists a "Top 10 song-film matches."

Online viewing tips, round 2. "Dominick Dunne is not everyone's idea of a great writer - much less a reliable journalist - but he's terrific company, and he sure does have a story to tell," writes JJ Berzelius, introducing a series of clips at the Daily Beast. "The new 85-minute documentary After the Party leaves out vast chewy chunks of that story, and the lacunae really show - but no matter. This is an improbably riveting, improbably touching movie, and even if you've never read the compulsively readable Dunne - or, alternatively, never read him without a giant dollop of skepticism - you will come away cherishing him."

Posted by dwhudson at November 7, 2008 4:39 PM