Shorts, 11/22.

Jonathan Yardley reviews Sinatra in Hollywood for the Washington Post and notes that author Tom Santopietro's "enthusiasm is admirable, but no one who knows Sinatra's films is likely to find it infectious or persuasive. Yes, Sinatra did appear in a remarkable variety of movies and roles, and occasionally - especially in On the Town, From Here to Eternity, Suddenly and The Manchurian Candidate - he was very good, but of those 71 movies, these four are the only ones likely to be of much lasting interest. Unlike most actors, who come to the movies without reputations and are able to shape their cinematic identities over time, Sinatra came to Hollywood a full-blown celebrity, one of the most recognizable people in the country if not the planet, and he spent the rest of his movie career playing himself, which is to say that his movies may be varied in subject, mood and theme, but the character whom Sinatra plays in them is always Frank Sinatra."

For the San Francisco Chronicle, Reyhan Harmanci talks with Stefan Kanfer about his biography Somebody: The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando.

Wellesnet and Penny Blood collaborate to present generous excerpts from Harvey Chartrand's interview with Orson Welles's late cinematographer Gary Graver.

"The new issue of Paracinema Magazine has just become available and it's a doozy!" exclaims Kimberly Lindbergs.

AO Scott looks over what's left of the fall season and finds The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Adam Resurrected, The Reader, Valkyrie and Defiance: "The near-simultaneous appearance of all these movies is to some degree a coincidence, but it throws into relief the curious fact that early 21st-century culture, in Europe and America, on screen and in books, is intensely, perhaps morbidly preoccupied with the great political trauma of the mid-20th century. The number of Holocaust-related memoirs, novels, documentaries and feature films in the past decade or so seems to defy quantification, and their proliferation raises some uncomfortable questions. Why are there so many? Why now? And more queasily, could there be too many?"

Also in the New York Times, Michael Cieply sees a "conundrum" facing Focus Features as gay rights activists draw Milk into their protests against California's Proposition 8: "How do they honor their movie hero's feisty brand of confrontational politics without being consumed by them? To join the fight could turn off some of the viewers Focus needs to make Milk a broad-based hit. But to sidestep it might disappoint a core audience that has begun to see the film as a rallying point." Related: Kirk Faulkner at FilmCatcher on why this whole idea of boycotting Sundance is "just crazy-town." And in Variety, Ted Johnson considers a few lessons the No on 8 campaign might have learned from Harvey Milk.

"Oscar-winning documentarian Rob Epstein recently had a chat with The Advocate, about his legendary documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk," notes Matt Dentler. Of Cinetic. Who have made the doc available on Amazon VOD.

More Milk: At FilmInFocus (the studio's zine and blog collection), Peter Bowen interviews Gus Van Sant and Joshua Gamson examines "how integral music - and dance music in particular - was to gay movements in Milk's time."

Tilda Swinton is heading for 50, and having it all without having compromised one iota. Crazy, she says. Unimaginable. 'What's gone wrong?' She grins. 'It's all gone badly wrong.'" A profile from Simon Hattenstone. Also in the Guardian, Rosanna Greenstreet interviews Steve McQueen.

The Barefoot Contessa? Scott Marks suggests: "For a superior take on Hollywood talent in exile, visit Vincente Minnelli's Two Weeks in Another Town, his sordid 1962 followup to The Bad and the Beautiful."

"The Anderson Tapes is underrated in Sidney Lumet's resume," writes Larry Aydlette. "It deftly balances paranoia thriller, heist flick, character comedy and romance. You'll want to eat it up."

"Christian theology refers to Christ as being simultaneously divine and human, a dual nature known as the hypostatic union," writes David Carter at Not Coming to a Theater Near You. "Greaser's Palace deviates from Christian theology on practically every issue it addresses but manages to create a hypostatic union of its own."

"Expectations do the darndest things," writes James Van Maanen. "A supposed 'classic' [Le Doulos] can leave you cold, while a little trifle like Garden Party, which ought not to rate too high on any scale, manages to surprise and entertain while providing a sometimes silly but very pleasant 90 minutes."

"One of the greatest, most inventive creators in all of filmdom was Chuck Jones," writes Marilyn Ferdinand. "In 1965, during his fruitful later years with MGM, Jones created an illustrated literary adaptation running approximately 10 minutes that won him his only Academy Award. The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics showed the kind of sophistication that Jones and his frequent codirector Maurice Noble used to appeal to both children and adults."

Flickhead owns up to enjoying The Gamma People, "a quasi-science fiction, quasi-political quasi-comedy from Warwick Films," and points to Wrong side of the art, a fun collection of horror, sci-fi, exploitation, cult, trash and B-movie posters.

"The area of South Delhi known as Hauz Khas village is a window-shopper's delight, a haven of quiet but expensive arts and antiques shops, restaurants and galleries," writes Andrew Buncombe in the Independent. "Nothing beats diving into one of the shops that specialises in the promotional posters for Hindi-language movies. These posters - vibrant, powerful, often amusing - represent art and advertising combined in one."

"[T]he fact that DVD sales have basically stayed flat should be seen as something of a triumph," argues James Surowiecki, who not only sees that "the flattening out and eventual decline of DVD sales had to be completely anticipated" but also doesn't see Blu-Ray coming to the rescue.

Online listening tip #1. Listen to a Movie, via Cinematical's Erik Davis.

Online listening tip #2. Nathaniel R talks with Jenny Lumet and Rosemarie DeWitt about Rachel Getting Married.

Online listening tip #3. Aaron Aradillas hosts a two-part Back by Midnight special devoted to The Sopranos: Parts 1 and 2.

Online viewing tip #1. Ted Hope presents the trailer for "Our New Film!," Adventureland.

Online viewing tip #2. Peeping Tom: A Very British Psycho.

Posted by dwhudson at November 22, 2008 1:06 PM