Brooklyn Rail. Nov 08.

"Over the course of 50-plus films, [Andrzej] Wajda has delved into difficult, painful and politically revealing issues in Poland's history," and Alan Lockwood talks with him about Katyn and his pre-1989 productions for Polish television.

This year's New York Film Festival "ran into trouble when it reached out too eagerly to Hollywood, but otherwise presented a true omnibus, a comprehensive report from the world - the entire world - of movies." A roundup from David N Meyer.

"Known best by the name of a character he portrayed on record, film and in nightclubs - Dolemite - [Rudy Ray] Moore's death represents the end of an era, the Chitlin Circuit days of roadhouses and inner city nightclubs, places where respectable citizens just didn't go." A remembrance from Brother Cleve.

"Charm School is VH1's new shameful display and exploitation of a posse of skanky cougar-strippers with pink streaks in their hair scratching each other's eyes out while wearing next to nothing, or, if its elimination night, sexy schoolgirl uniforms with white thigh-highs." And Mary Hanlon actually liked Rock of Love.

"Without [cinematographer Robert] Richardson's unconventional lighting and multiple camera angles on one scene, W. is as dry in style as it is in substance," writes Melina Neet.

"Rachel Getting Married deals with how dysfunction can hurt and how it can charm," writes Camila de Onís. "The film's underlying optimism is infectious."

"Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy is a short but tedious read, punctuated by frequent mentions of famous admirers and friends whose soulless clinging to JT for the 'authenticity' he provided is only matched by [Savannah] Knoop's and [Laura] Albert's unapologetic exploitation of their need," writes Sierra Feldner-Shaw.

"The opening of EMPAC (Electronic Media Performing Arts Center), a 200-million-dollar, 220,000-square-foot glass, steel, and cedar building is a massive step forward in developing the intersection of technology, media, and the performing arts," reports Ellen Pearlman. "Its wizardry includes such one-of-a-kind technical innovations as an adjustable fabric ceiling, a 70-foot fly tower, computer-controlled rigging and my personal favorite, a circular metal floor coil underneath each patron's seat that remotely adjusts heating and cooling to the individual's body temperature. Digital media has always been the reluctant stepchild of visual arts. Part of the reason has been the enormous computing power necessary to seamlessly present work outside of small computer screens or laboratory test sites. EMPAC put its money where its mouth is and wired more than 800 inputs into RPI's CCNI supercomputer, the seventh biggest in the world and the largest at any American university."

"Summer's over, but Rothko (Tate Modern), Bacon (Tate Britain), Warhol's television and films (The Hayward), and new Gerhard Richters (Serpentine Gallery) have all arrived in London." A dispatch from Sherman Sam.

Posted by dwhudson at November 16, 2008 7:50 AM