Shorts, 12/2.

"What is it about the film Vertigo that compels people to pay $585 to take a ten-hour tour of the remaining landmarks and locations from that film (or, if they're on a budget, $285 for a five-hour tour)?" asks Caveh Zahedi in FilmInFocus. "According to tour guide Jesse Warr, Vertigo fans from overseas will contact him to schedule a Vertigo tour and make their travel plans based on his availability: 'Some people are very into this movie. It's almost a spiritual journey. It's not just sightseeing.'"

Johnnie To and Johnny Hallyday, Alan Mak and Felix Chong. Grady Hendrix has news of what's up and coming from Hong Kong.

"Almost two years ago, it was announced that Guillermo Del Toro and Alfonso Cuarón would be taking on an update of Roald Dahl's The Witches, and it was originally reported that Cuarón was going to direct," writes Jessica Barnes at Cinematical. "Now, though, it seems like things have changed, and Empire has broken the news (in an interview with Cuarón) that Del Toro has not only finished the screenplay, but will also be taking the helm for the fantasy update."

On a roll lately: Pacze Moj.

"He began with stories of people pushed onto extreme precipices by monomaniacal obsession - films that never quite decided if the characters were ruining their lives or perfecting them. Later work charted the subtle process by which little rents of moral compromise stretch open, the inevitable betrayals forced by binary ideas of Good and Evil." Nick Pinkerton surveys the career of Barbet Schroeder at Moving Image Source.

"Punk rock and the apocalypse go together like a hamburger and fries even, apparently, in Berlin," writes Mike Everleth. "Julia Ostertag shot her feature Saila in an abandoned, demolished and culturally forgotten industrial wasteland in East Berlin. The debris-strewn and crumbling structures in which the action of the film takes place looks as big as a city in and of itself, which I don't know if this is a creative use of camera framing or reality. In either case, the movie looks like it was shot on another planet."

"Simultaneously seductive and irritating, raunchy and precious, Israeli filmmaker Yair Hochner's Antarctica reinvents the city of Tel Aviv as an erotic pleasure dome for gay men - and as a folkie coffeehouse that never closes for their lesbian sisters." Andrew O'Hehir in Salon: "It's a little silly to talk about a 'new queer Israeli cinema' when what you mean to this point is three directors and, at most, half a dozen films. Still, it's true that the explosion of new movies from Israel has included a distinctly gay mini-wave."

"Now I know a lot of people have been chortling over the sight of Meryl Streep in her nun's wimple and granny's granny's spectacles in the publicity shots from and trailer for Doubt," writes Glenn Kenny. "But let me assure you,in the film itself, just a couple of minutes with her character, Sister Aloysius Beauvier, will wipe that smirk or whatever it is right off of your face.... I should say this was not a picture I was particularly excited about seeing. Especially given the last Much-Bruited-Miramax-Sponsored-Film-Adaptation-Of-A-Broadway-Hit-Drama, the limp noodle Proof. No, Doubt beats that dog in a leisurely walk. But it's better than that, even."

"But oh, what lovely morose sadness!" Gabriel Shanks on Revolutionary Road: "Roger Deakins's cinematography is as luxurious as velvet, and Albert Wolsky's costume radiate period glamour. But Revolutionary Road is, in the main, an actors' showcase for its iconic duo... and both have grown impressively since they last swooned shipside."

Barry Michael Cooper talks with Spike Lee for Interview.

Catching up with Milk: Jonathan Kiefer and Andrew Schenker.

Via Coudal Partners, "A Daily Dose of Architecture's annual Holiday Gift Book Recommendations. I'll take the Bruce Mau designed reissue of Le Jetee please."

James Sullivan (The Book Design Review) chooses his "Favorite Book Covers of 2008."

Mr Skin lists the "Top 20 Celebrity Nude Scenes of 2008." Via Scott Weinberg at Cinematical.

"53 foreign language films have been qualified for 'The 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards' consideration honoring 2008 achievements, it was announced today by Jorge Camara, President of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association." Peter Knegt has the list at indieWIRE.

Ed Howard calls for an Early Hawks Blog-a-Thon to run from January 12 through 23.

In German: New issues of Film Dienst and Ray.

Offline reading tip. "In the new issue of n+1 there's a 24-page essay by AS Hamrah about war-on-terror movies that had me gasping and laughing out loud all the way through." The Looker posts a taste.

Online gazing tip. The cinetrix posts a "Frontrunner for best star memoir cover art ever."

Online leafing, reading and viewing tip. For Triple Canopy, filmmaker Marc Vives "visits the Holy Land Experience theme park, where Christ is crucified twice a day."

Online viewing tip. From Bilge Ebiri at Vulture: "Antonio Campos's The Last 15 is a harrowing little family drama that perfectly illustrates Alfred Hitchcock's dictum that a card game becomes more suspenseful if you show a bomb ticking under the table in advance - in this case, substitute 'family dinner' for 'card game.'"

Online viewing tips. Creative Review "attended the British Television Advertising Craft Awards last night and witnessed Fallon's Play Doh ad for Sony Bravia win in no less than four categories: Best Animation, Best Direction, Best Model Making and Best Use of Recorded Music (joint winner with Here Come the Girls ad for Boots by Mother)." Clips ahoy.

Posted by dwhudson at December 2, 2008 2:35 PM