Movie City Indie

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June 30, 2005

Fingered: When Toback met Jacques

In LA Weekly, James Toback interviews Jacques Audiard about The Beat My Heart Skipped, his remake of Toback's Fingers. Audiard: When I approached the idea of remaking "Fingers," there was a literal sense in which it appealed to me—the themes of inheritance, of being somebody’s son, of creating your own identity. But there’s also a sense in which the film belongs to certain cinematic territory—the American films of the 1970s—that nourished my own filmmaking... I’m wondering if today, in the American independent cinema, there is territory that has the same qualities as those films of the ’70s—that energy, that independence of spirit and also that view of society? Could there be a new form of filmmaking in America—a New Wave or a New New Wave? Is that still possible today? I don’t think so. I think that the independent movement today is a glorified audition to be co-opted by corporate benediction. It really started with Paramount and my dear, late friend Don Simpson—this idea that the poster is the movie, the concept is the movie. That thinking has had—and I say this with due respect to Don, whom I loved—a devastating effect. It created a world in which every movie must be viewed in terms of how it will be marketed and what the distribution concept will be.... [To get a film] distributed and to get any attention is extremely hard—the seduction, the idea of directing a $100 million movie, is too strong for most young filmmakers to resist. I don’t think the power of conglomerate corporate distribution stops movies of originality from being made altogether, but what it does is stop careers of real originality from being noticed and developed... We’re now in a corporate culture where the idea of money and a materialistic notion of life are so widely taken for granted that you’re considered naive if you don’t genuflect beneath it. Whereas, in the ’70s it was the reverse. It was the idea of subverting those values that, if you had any self-respect, you took for granted. That was your price of admission."

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A clean young man: editing Ebert

At Poynter Online, former Ebert colleague Gregory E. Favre snacks on the past: "[Ebert} was one of the easiest people to deal with in the newsroom. Maybe it was because his copy was always clean and crisp and on time. And unlike a number of critics, he not only didn't mind doing interview pieces and profiles, he excelled in them. I also don't want to forget this terrific perk of being the Sun Times managing editor: Every once in a while, Roger would invite me to join him for a screening of a new film. First thing would be a stop at the popcorn shop�to purchase a bag of caramel corn, even though I am sure the new slim Roger who walks 10,000 steps each day doesn't do that anymore.�Then we went to the private screening room above the beautiful Chicago Theater with those big seats and no one talking during the movie. Just Roger and Gene taking silent notes. Now that's a movie lover's dream come true." [More such post-Walk of Stars talk at the link.]

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Domino teary: what new line's next

The Guardian's Aida Edemariam embroiders the death earlier this week of the subject of New Line's Richard Kelly-penned, Keira Knightley-starring, Tony Scott biopic of bounty-hunter Domino Harvey: "They've already had to re-shoot the ending once. They may have to do it again-not to mention reconsider such cod-profound, Hollywood-judgment lines as "There's only one conclusion to every story. We all fall down." On Monday night the makers of Domino, a new film starring Keira Knightley scheduled for release in the autumn, must have been somewhat discomfited to find that the 35-year-old inspiration for their $30m action flick - about a beautiful, public school-educated English girl turned gun-toting LA bounty hunter - had provided one last plot twist: she was found dead in her bath in West Hollywood, suspected drowned after a drug overdose." [More sorry at the link.]

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June 29, 2005

Team America goes Calcutta: David Rockwell and Pantaloons

The design firm of ace set-meister David Rockwell (who did the itty-bitty puppet sets of Team America), the Rockwell Group, is going to town in India. Reports Subhro Saha in Calcutta's Telegraph, "The Kodak Theatre in Hollywood... America’s largest retail complex, Meadowlands Xanadu in New Jersey... and now, retail and entertainment space in Calcutta. The New York-based Rockwell Group is set to rock the city with its unique “storytelling style”. Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd has tied up with the US design and architecture major for its upcoming Central in south Calcutta, as well as another 300,000-sq-ft-plus mall that will be independent of the Pantaloons brand... A 3-member Rockwell team is on a reconnoitre tour of the country. It studied the city’s retail racks on Tuesday, meeting some prominent players in the industry as well. “At this point, they are here primarily to understand the way Indian consumers shop, eat and celebrate, so that our malls can emote local sentiments,” said Kishore Biyani, managing director, Pantaloon Retail. “Our style of articulating a brand through storytelling is an entirely new concept. We use architecture as the DNA to grow the brand, delving deep into our scenic design competence, since architecture and movies have such a wonderful chemistry,” said Mark Patricof, president and CEO of the Rockwell Group... The new mall in Calcutta, funded by Kshitij and designed by Rockwell, will “enable ordinary people to buy what only the rich could afford”, promised Biyani.

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Greetings from Asbury Park: remembering Jersey shores

Filmmaker Christina Eliopoulos is putting her money where her home is, documenting the epic shifts in her Asbury, NJ, hometown: "Eliopoulos has tracked down images of Asbury Park in newsreels from the 20s, several works by Thomas Edison, and a number of early commercial films including The Suburbanite, a popular film about the perils of moving into suburbia that was filmed in 1911. She is using 16-mm film for the project rather than video, even though it costs her $400 just to open a can of film.“Film is the best medium I know that can combine historic, scholarly and personal perspective... We’re talking about a town that had a huge reputation and was mythic in a way... Film does that justice, and I don’t think video does. Film is an imagistic medium, video is not. Video to me feels like a voyeuristic kind of tool. Film feels like it lives beyond the frame. … When you shoot something in film, it’s almost like you can see through it; you sort of feel you are looking into it. Video has a kind of flatness. It’s purely an artistic choice."

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Mad Hot music rights: in the clearance

A case study of how doc makers have to struggle to get music cleared, even in the smallest measures: There's a scene where a woman's cell phone rings and she has the "Rocky" theme ringtone. I noticed that you even cleared that! I would have thought that could be an example of fair use. "I thought so too. It's only 6 seconds! But our lawyer said we needed to clear it. So I called Sprint, which owns the ringtone master rights, and they gave it to me for free because they saw it as product placement. But then I called EMI, which owns the publishing rights and they asked for $10,000. I said no way—even the classics weren't getting that much. Luckily, we were able to get it for less." [See the writer's follow-up post, too.]

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Slump dump: Manitoba loves movies

And they've got a good reason: "Pat Marshall, spokeswoman for Cineplex Galaxy LP, said she figures the weather drives Manitobans to the movies. "Winnipeggers are used to extremes," said the former 'Pegger, who now lives in Toronto. "If it's super hot in summer, they need a break with air conditioning. If it's super cold in winter, they need some heat."

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Sundancer's New Heroes role

Robert Redford talks to MSNBC about "The New Heroes," his collaboration withJeff Skoll, co-founder of eBay and head of the Skoll Foundation: "What we do at Sundance, at the nonprofit suit at Sundance focusing on independent film, is to raise the voices of independent people around the world, to increase diversity, as some areas might be shrinking. For me, the idea of using film—I mean, Jeffrey is a social entrepreneur. And he's bringing the idea forward of social economics and social responsibility and putting it in a form. The role that I would play would be to do what I do. I'm more on the art end or the content end. That is to use film in a way other than just something as restrictive as just straight-out entertainment. Saying, is there a way that we can take these people, who need to be celebrated, their voices need to be heard, and who can be so inspiring to other people when they see the courage and the commitment that they exhibit around—from an impoverished position, sometimes against incredible odds of corporate greed and corruption? But that's the reason that I'm involved, because it ties to a lot of things I've tried to do over 30 years in my work and particularly in the environment to raise awareness about what's at stake. That's my role in this."

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Bolllywood rebound? How indie is it?

"The last six months have been an unusually happy phase for Bollywood with a wide variety of unconventional films managing to attract both crowds and critical accolades, writes Saibal Chatterjee for the Hindustan Times, running down a list of recent releases. "The fact that [unconventional movies] have held their own in the marketplace is clear proof that the Hindi moviegoer is indeed beginning to change. Ruin-of-the-mill [sic] potboilers no longer hold him in thrall. His demands have metamorphosed. But has Hindi cinema reached a point from where it can make the long-waited leap to the next level?" Along with noting that "the peripatetic Shekhar Kapur is poised to begin work on a sequel to Elizabeth," Chatterjee asks, "But where, pray, is the promised indigenous film that can wrest a place alongside the best, biggest, and most successful international films?"

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Model behavior: Bresson's Pickpocket

The Age talks a bit with filmmaker Babette Mangolte about her documentary, The Models of Pickpocket, about three non-actors who appeared in Robert Bresson's 1959 movie.

"Is it possible to confuse a film with real life? At the beginning of her engrossing documentary... we see Babette Mangolte, a cinematographer who has directed several films, ... provoked to ask the question when she meets an elderly man at a party. He looks familiar, and she thinks he may have been one of her university teachers. "Perhaps you saw me at the cinema," he says. Decades earlier, he tells her, he had appeared in... Pickpocket.... This is the beginning of a search for Mangolte: having met Pierre Leymarie, now the director of a genetic research laboratory, who played a character more than 40 years earlier in a compelling, austere masterpiece, her curiosity is piqued..." [More at the link.]

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June 28, 2005

MiraBattsek

LA Times' Claudia Eller reports who the new Miramax chief might be, someone who once worked for Steve Wooley's Palace Pictures, which produced The Crying Game: "Walt Disney Co. is expected to soon name Daniel Battsek, who runs the British arm of its international movie operation, as the new head of Miramax Film Corp., three executives familiar with the situation said."

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June 27, 2005

Napoleon's army: I'll take Idaho

Pocatello-Blackfoot-Idaho Falls Newschannel 6 KPVI rolls text and footage, reporting an influx of tourists to Preston, Idaho: "Since January of this year, Preston has already seen over 10,000 Dynamite fans who are not only adding thousands of dollars to the local economy, but some are even moving to the small town." [More factoids and claims at the link.]

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I'll draw Manhattan: indie animators in NYC

New York City is seeing new opps for indie animators, writes Joe Strike in Animation World Magazine: "New York may never become an animation mecca to rival Los Angeles, but its homegrown cartoon industry has [had] a sustained growth spurt... Established companies, recent startups and a growing pool of freelance talent are all benefiting from an increased demand for animation. Lowcost desktop technology, new distribution platforms, New York-based ad agencies and cable channels have all contributed to the boom." [Anecdotal evidence at the link.]

Posted by at 02:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Broken windows: if this is Monday, it must be Variety

Variety's Ian Mohr examines a few shards of broken windows in this week's version of where the industry is headed: "One studio honcho admits that when he and his colleagues see a pay-per-view boxing match earn $55 million to $100 million in one evening, they start talking about simultaneous bigscreen and PPV launches" but ""A movie like 'Napoleon Dynamite' can run eight or nine or 10 weeks in release," says one studio subsid exec. "The time that's allowed for these films to reach the windows increases value. If you collapse the windows, can you still do that?" [More from Markcubantoddwagnermagnolia2929landmarkhdnet and some other guys at the link.]

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Everyone in this atrium of the Park City Marriott has had sex, right?: Miranda July

The limits of representing teen sex in movies is the subject of a Sunday takeout by the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram's Christopher Kelly, who discusses Mysterious Skin and talks to Miranda July about the squeam and the ish of Me and You and Everyone We Know: "When I watch a movie [about teen-age sexuality], if it's done right, then it brings up all kinds of things... Not just the discomfort but also the thrill of it, when you're just beginning to be sexual." ... July agrees that it's puzzling that adult moviegoers wouldn't be more open to... frank portraits of teen-age sexuality. "Everyone in this atrium has had sex, right?" she says, pointing at the dozens of people shuffling through the Park City Marriot, during an interview at the Sundance Film Festival. "That was an amazing thing [for them] at one point." ... "There's certain things you can't have children say," she explains. "The girls weren't even allowed to read the signs that are placed in the windows. We had to change the word 'nipples' to 'nickels.' " In other words: The impulse to "protect" kids has become so all-consuming in American society that we've projected them straight into a fantasy world that bears no resemblance to the one teen-agers actually live in."

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No, honestly, please, dear God, don't, I beg you, please, Don't Look Now

Yes, the producer of Hard Rain, Paulie and The Patriot, Mark Gordon, is remaking Don't Look Now, reports the Reporter's Gregg Kilday. When the new guys came on board at Paramount, they started rifling the library. Says Gordon's senior vp Josh McLaughlin, "I've always been a big fan of Don't Look Now and we thought it was a movie that could be updated. We owe a lot to [the screenwriter] who... hit the ground running with the movie's ideas of death and life and looking for something just beyond life." The original film, Gordon added, "was very much of its time, with a lot of atmospherics that wouldn't necessarily work today. But it has a great idea and a wonderful backdrop and setting. We hope to take the feeling of the story, continue to set it in Venice and make it contemporary." (Okay, where's that claw hammer when you need it most?)

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June 26, 2005

Herzog: I hated it, it just looked like kitsch

Werner Herzog tells some tales about telling 3 tales this summer to the Christian Science Monitor's David Sterritt: "It's one of the most amazing nature shots ever: a single drop of water clinging to a leaf, refracting the upside-down image of a nearby waterfall. It's also one of the most bogus nature shots ever.

The drop isn't water, it's glycerin (which refracts light better) and the image was painstakingly concocted, not spontaneously caught [by a] cinematographer working with filmmaker Werner Herzog in Guyana on "The White Diamond," one of 3 documentaries by Mr. Herzog being released in the US this summer.... It's obvious that Herzog loved the shot, fabricated or not, or he wouldn't have included it in his documentary. Right? Wrong. "I hated it... It just looked like kitsch... and I knew I didn't want it in my film. And yet I knew it had to be in the film. I knew if I created the proper context, that would [override] the kitsch and make [the shot] great."

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I am not God, but...: Antonioni

Actor Peter Bowles revisits his time on the set of Blow-Up: "When I came to my first close-up with Antonioni, we went through one take, then another take, then another take. He'd say, "Cut. Now Peter, that was good. But it was not so good as take five. Although it was better than take seven. So, we go again."He wanted me to use an upward inflection on my line, which didn't make any sense to me at all, but I was trying to do it. I have never had such close coaching from any other director, and many actors wouldn't stand for it. Finally, on take 13: "Cut. Print. Good. Peter, come with me." So he took me off set and said to me, "Peter, I understand. You wish to show the world what a fine actor you are." He got that right. "When you work with other directors you give them your performance and they film it. Not with me, Peter. You see I have chosen you for how you look. I have chosen all your clothes. If I move my camera 6 inches, I would ask you to do that line in a different way." Upon this, he put his arms around me and held me close to him and said, "Peter, believe in me. Trust me. I am not God, but I am Michelangelo Antonioni."

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A pocketful of Posel: remembering an arthouse pioneer

In the Philadelphia Inquirer, Carrie Rickey celebrates a Philly "art-cinema force" upon his passing: Ramon L. Posel, the film showman and real estate developer who cultivated community at his Ritz Theaters and shopping malls across the region, died yesterday... He was 77. A tenacious man with the physical presence of Russell Crowe, the intellectual force of William Rehnquist, and a pompadour that looked good only on him and Ronald Reagan, Mr. Posel gave the impression that he could outmuscle any comer. When naysayers told him he'd lose his shirt trying to bring quality retail to North Philadelphia or quality movies to Center City, he persevered, turning a forlorn parcel into the bustling Station Center at 2900 N. Broad St., and the Ritz Five into a local chain that Sony Pictures executive Tom Bernard ranks as "one of the best in the country." [Much more of a full life at the link.]

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Confessions of an ex-Woody Allen fan

Notes from an ex-Woody fan in the Forward, by Andrew Heinz, author of "Jews and the American Soul: Human Nature in the Twentieth Century": An ex-fan never gives up hope. That's what makes him, or her, different from a fair-weather fan, who loves for a time and easily moves on... My theory about Allen's fate has two premises: First, an artist cannot write beyond his personal maturity; and second, an artist cannot always tell where his true talent lies... The other conspicuous problem of Allen's private world—his long-lived preoccupation with teenage girls—is not one that I, as a loyal ex-fan, want to dredge up. Suffice to say that he produced some of his best work while involved with a talented contemporary, Mia Farrow, and some of his worst while living with the post-adolescent Soon-Yi Previn. But aside from the artistic consequences of an artist's maturities and immaturities, there is another important question: Does Allen understand the nature of his own talent?" [Heinze briskly (and insightfully) runs down the list of bad and good at the link, with an emphasis on Broadway Danny Rose.]

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Stalking Terry

Terrence Malick apparently lives down Austin way; the American-Statesman's Chris Garcia does a bit of the old semi-stalk: "There he was only 2 years ago at Jo's coffeehouse on South Congress Avenue, perched in the shade with a yellow legal pad and cell phone, wearing a tropical-print shirt and a Panama hat. Only thing missing was a mai tai to complete the picture. Malick appeared to be doing light business, and in fact he was. Actor Benicio Del Toro was in town to meet with Malick about "Che," the Che Guevara biographical feature they were developing that Malick would co-write and direct and Del Toro would star in." [More tracking at the link.]

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Hacking Netflix

"Hacking Netflix" turns out to be a surprisingly comprehensive news and commentary page, devoted to all things NetFlix, with a close eye on biz issues.

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Baby, it's cold inside: Are the movies dying?

While ticking off the factors that make him believe that theatrical exhibition is basically already dead, The Boston Globe's Ty Burr has a few misguided notions of his own, suggesting that the one-man movie festival is part of the future: "Cheap, high-quality 3-D and live concert feeds are suddenly within an exhibitor's reach, and so is the as-yet-unexplored notion of theatrical movies on demand. Think about it: Since you can theoretically download any film to a digital projector's server, why not program your own night at the movies, invite your friends, and split the proceeds with the theater owner? Pull your favorite classic out of mothballs, screen that underrated horror film, arrange a weeklong festival the way Amazon puts up user guides."

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June 25, 2005

Wasn't that a line from The Conversation?: Harvey's new guy asks

Derailed director Mikael Håfström gets a neat intro in the Guardian, plus a chance to extol The Conversation: "At a corner table in a busy London bar, cradling a strong black coffee and blinking in the light like a mole just emerged from the undergrowth, sits Harvey Weinstein's new favourite director. You may not know his name—nor does anyone in the room appear to recognise his amiable, bearded face—but if the cigar-chomping founder of Miramax has his way, Mikael Håfström will soon become the most famous Swedish director since Ingmar Bergman." ... When he started out as a writer and director of cop dramas for Swedish television in the early 1990s he would "steal loads of stuff" from Coppola's leanly compelling dialogue. "I could always identify a real cinephile," he admits with a guilty gulp of coffee, "when he would come up to me after seeing my show and say 'Wasn't that a line from The Conversation?' "

Posted by at 03:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Avant and avast: is LA more indie than NY?

The Guardian's John Patterson argues the case for Los Angeles being more "indie" than NYC: "I come fresh from reading David E James' majestic new book, 'The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles,' which upsets many previously held notions of the primacy of [Manhattan's] East Village as ground zero for radical film-making, and establishes LA - home of Machine Hollywood, satanic TV production, and the San Fernando flesh-factories - as a major and pioneering locale for dissident film-making of every stripe. James, a professor at USC... [makes the case] —what he refers to as his "extravagant claims", though they are anything but... that LA may even have the edge on Manhattan in terms of iconoclastic cinema." There's more from Patterson at the link, including comparisons to Thom Andersen's magnificent, masterful essay, Los Angeles Plays Itself.

Posted by at 03:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Foxed: Eucalyptus set sits, still not paid for

"They've had the set for Eucalyptus in their back paddock for more than 5 months," writes the Sydney Morning Herald's Christine Sams, "but Sylvia and Athol Preston haven't been paid a cent by the American film company that owns it. The Prestons, who live in the small village of Gleniffer near Bellingen in northern NSW, were set to play host to [the picture when the] $20 million film project was suddenly cancelled in February... American executives from Fox Searchlight films said the set would remain in northern NSW until the film was ready to be made... Mrs Preston [says] she has no idea how long the set will remain on her property... "We've had no word since the afternoon it was called off, we've had no contact whatsoever... So we're as in the dark as anybody else actually, to be quite honest." Mrs. Preston's largest concern? Their "farm stock are unable to graze on that patch of land."

Posted by at 03:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Thai star: "murdered in the most sadistic and photogenic fashion"

Bangkok Post's Kong Rithdee has the lovely lede of the weekend talking to a leading Thai stuntman: "Kawee Sirikhanaerat has long learned to accept the inevitable: In every single film he appears in, his character is destined to suffer a brutal death, usually being murdered in the most sadistic and photogenic fashion. One of his dearest memories was in Lara Croft Tomb Raider 2, in which he plays a disposable baddy who's crushed to death by a giant Doric pillar in an aquatic city. "The earth splits and the roof crumbles," he says. "It's quite a death, isn't it?" [More at the link.]

Posted by at 03:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ratings game: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

They really do make this stuff up as they go along, like Joey Nickels in Annie Hall: "This film is rated 'PG' for quirky situations, action and mild language." "This film is rated 'PG' because Tim Burton stepped on the set"? What are they saying?

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June 24, 2005

Wu woo and bagel blockers: self-promoting Saving Face

Writer-director Alice Wu is chronicling the release of her tart, comic debut, Saving Face, to friends on her email list: "A friend of mine who will remain nameless (Jeff Yang) exhorts me to continue my weekly emails but pepper them with personal anecdotes, because that—he feels—is doubtlessly the way to pull in the masses. Earnestness is out—Sizzle and f'shizzle are in. So here, in my effort to give it up like a cheap whore, I say to you:
"On Tuesday, during my shift at the Park Slope Food Coop, I was stocking the bagels when I got totally called out by a lady in her 80s. I had been surreptitiously (and rudely) trying to answer a call from my producer, and simultaneously slam bagels into the bin at warp speed, when I got a tap on my shoulder. The Squad Leader—heavy-jowled, morose—pointed to a very irate old woman. "This lady has filed a formal complaint against you." The lady busted out: "She was totally BLOCKING THE BAGELS! She kept stocking the plain ones, and NONE OF US COULD GET THROUGH TO THE POPPYSEED!" Boy, she was pissed. I apologized weakly and hung my head. "Sorry, I never take calls at the co-op, this one was just kinda important." She glared... a few more moments, then left grumbling. Once she'd gone, the Squad Leader asked, "So what was so important?" I started to explain about the film, and the challenges of trying to get the word out for these smaller pictures, getting people to the theater, blah blah blah. "I'll go support the film", piped up a random woman who had stuck around after the public shaming. "Me too," said the woman next to her. "You should put something in the Coop Gazette" said the Squad Leader. So there you have it. My shame is the film's gain. I guess that's what makes this country great. Everyone gets a second chance, even if they block the bagels. (Though if you see an old lady outside the theater protesting my film (or really, me)—perhaps with a big X through my face and the words "BAGEL BLOCKER" in angry letters below, steer clear. She means business.)...
As always,
Alice
p.s. Another funny thing: I was having coffee in Soho yesterday when a woman came over and asked, "Are you Alice Wu? I was eavesdropping on your conversation, and I just wanted you to know that I loved your movie." Turns out she's Laura Flanders from Air America Radio! She asked if I'd go on her show tomorrow eve (Saturday) for the last half hour while she's interviewing Sarah Jones (super-celebrated smartypants award-winning one-woman show monologist), so we can all talk about the issues. So I have to go now so I can read up on the issues. (If anyone has hints on what they are, please send them.)"

Posted by at 12:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Where credit is due: Marlon Brando

On June 30, Christie's in New York auctions the bric and the brackish from Marlon Brando's estate, including this pile of plastic among the 330 lots, described thusly�: "A collection of bank and credit cards for personal and business accounts, comprising: two American Express cards, one gold, one platinum, both in the name of Marlon Brando Jr., one signed on the reverse by Brando in blue ballpoint pen; one Bank Of America platinum card in the name of Marlon Brando; two Wells Fargo cards, one platinum in the name of Marlon Brando, one gold business card in the name of Marlon Brando/Penny Poke Farms; Wells Fargo platinum card in the name of Frangi Pani; and a Pacific Bell calling card in the name of Larry Duran." That prompts a swell vision of Brando on a sunny Sunday afternoon, motoring down Mullholland to the Beverly Flats, wafting into a shiny storefront in a muumuu to buy Frango mints, bearing a Wells Fargo platinum card signed "Frangi Pani." Or, as Brando memorably asked in The Formula, "Milk Dud?" [More photographs of the leavings appear on the bid forms of each lot at the site.]

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June 23, 2005

Casino: I feel equally strongly both ways

Joshua Land's second take on the dreadful Casino, from the Voice's online DVD extra, in its entirety: "Rightly or not, this Vegas mob drama has been one of Martin Scorsese's more maligned efforts, and a decade after its original theatrical run, it might be due for reconsideration. This edition features deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes material."

Posted by at 05:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Eurodigioptimism: could broadband bring foreign films to the US?

The Beeb reports on a conference to digitize Euro cinema distribution: "Calls have been made for Europe's independent film-makers to come up with a joint plan to exploit the growing movie download market. Indie music companies' success in internet sales should be emulated, a conference on the future of film in London was told... "If the independent film catalogues were put together, they would be very formidable," said one attendee. ".European cinema currently has a 26.5% penetration inside Europe - and only makes a 3.3% chink in the US market. By digitally delivering film with a new initiative, the 35% market share that independent music enjoys in North America could be achieved with cinema," it's asserted optimistically.

Posted by at 04:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Fantastic Korea: film festival mitosis

Korea's Chosunilbo reports on the orderly division of a film festival into two near entities: "Korea will see two competing fantasy film festivals next month, each presumably more fantastic than the other, after a spat with management drove the original organizer of one of them away. The Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) will last for 10 days from July 14 to July 23, but the Real Fantastic Film Festival will threaten its supremacy from Seoul." [Details on each at the link.]

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Entitled latecomer's Crash moment

An Oprah Winfrey spokesperson brings Paul Haggis' movie into the language, saying that the billionaire "will discuss her 'crash moment' when her show returns from hiatus in September." (It's unlikely to be as splashy as Tom Cruise's 'War of the Worlds moment' on her talkshow.) As CNN.com reports, "Luxury store Hermes [turned Winfrey] away last week... The store said the incident occurred on June 14 around 6:45 p.m., about 15 minutes after the store closed." A spokeswoman for Hermes "said Winfrey came to the store 15 minutes after closing and a security guard informed her the store was closed and gave her a card, telling her she could come back the next day. Surveillance videotape of the encounter supports the store's account..." Of course, that's not good enough. Maybe this was the "crash moment": The spokesperson said that "the CEO of Hermes has called Winfrey's people to explain "the situation" and invited her to come back to shop in the store."

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The Kingdom of the Dunes Cinema: Robert Fisk in Beirut

Stalwart journo Robert Fisk writes about catching Ridley Scott's latest at a Lebanese cinema: "It was certainly a revelation to sit through Kingdom of Heaven not in London or New York but in Beirut, in the Middle East itself, among Muslims—most of them in their 20s—who were watching historical events that took place only a couple of hundred miles from us. How would the audience react when the Knights Templars went on their orgy of rape and head-chopping among the innocent Muslim villagers of the Holy Land, when they advanced, covered in gore, to murder Saladin's beautiful, chadored sister? I must admit, I held my breath a few times. I need not have bothered. When the leprous King of Jerusalem—his face covered in a steel mask to spare his followers the ordeal of looking at his decomposition—falls fatally ill after honourably preventing a battle between Crusaders and Saracens, Saladin, played by that wonderful Syrian actor Ghassan Massoud—and thank God the Arabs in the film are played by Arabs—tells his deputies to send his own doctors to look after the Christian king. At this, there came from the Muslim audience a round of spontaneous applause. They admired this act of mercy from their warrior hero; they wanted to see his kindness to a Christian." [More at the link.] [Via GreenCine.]

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Very independent branded: AOL's "Project Greenlight"-Lite

Who needs a patron? Inexperienced filmmakers or AOL? The NY Daily News' biz section reports on a branding fiesta: "AOL has scored its first big advertiser since going free on the Web. Ford's Mercury Milan has signed on as the sponsor of a new AOL program, the Moviefone Short Film Festival, a "Project Greenlight"-like competition set to go live next week at Moviefone.com, [per] AOL and Ford ... Ford is paying AOL about $1 million, sources said... The contest will solicit short films from up-and-coming filmmakers... The winner, to be named in October, will receive a $5,000 cash prize and an all-expense-paid trip to Los Angeles to meet with senior execs at AOL sister company Warner Bros."With the Mercury Milan, we're targeting different customers than the traditional Mercury," said Sudhir Sahay, national marketing manager for Lincoln Mercury. "They are young, tech savvy and very independent-minded."

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Fast times off Cameron's high: sneaking Elizabethtown

Do the MPAA rules on the length of coming attractions apply to the internet? This seven-minutes-lus collection of rainy-day clips from Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown would suggest not. Via Scott Macauley at Filmmaker.

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Guy Maddin, man behind the curtain

A report from the latest sojourn to the US by Winnipeg's favorite son is up, over at Pride, Unprejudiced. It was the sophomore presentation of his own on-set stills, a succession of 600 images, entitled "Like a Waking Dream."

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Me and You and comforting oneself: Miranda July

Miranda July and interviewer Eli Horowitz share a couple of light moments in The Believer: My ideal life is just lounging around the house and every once in a while I’ll kind of write something, and then I’ll leave and eat something and masturbate or whatever—just this very fluid life of comforting myself, you know. And somehow out of that, I end up with a screenplay. Actually, there are kids’ books that are basically 99 activities for a rainy day and things like that. That’s true. And I’m always the kind of friend or girlfriend who suggests, when there’s some cataclysmic problem in the relationship, I’m like, “Well, maybe we can come up with a creative activity that will help us out.” I’m like, “Let’s get out the pens! Draw a picture of how much you hate me!”

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Scat, fat cats & 4-letter words: Starting Aristocrats' sell

The Aristocrats starts its sell with a profile by the NY Time's Sharon Waxman, who carefully steps around any interpretation of the joke's punchline being about class issues: "They're telling their versions of a joke that involves every imaginable form of sexual perversion in graphic detail, including but not limited to incest, scatology, bestiality and sadism... Basically, it's this: a guy walks into a talent agent's office and says he has a terrific family act. The act, the guy explains, involves a husband who comes out onstage with his wife and 2 kids. [This is] the point at which each comedian in the film cuts loose in a can-you-top-this exercise in pornographic oratory. Cut to the kicker... the talent agent asks, What's the name of the act? The answer comes: the Aristocrats. The point of the joke, and the film, may be freedom of expression, or self-censorship, or what happens among professional comedians behind closed doors. But for practical purposes, the joke is so absurdly obscene that the viewer is shocked into hilarity, or deep offense. Or possibly both." Waxman lets ThinkFILM's Mark Urman wax dependably purple: "To give it the same rating as films that have completely disrobed bodies writhing and throbbing is misleading and could turn off a lot of people who have no problem with language, who hear it and use it all the time." But a gentleman first identified as "one conservative commentator" is quickly disrobed as dependable morals quack Michael Medved "I don't see it as an assault on anything, because it's not a film anybody's going to see, it's not a film that anybody cares about..." Outraged, the conservative radio host gives further quote: "What we're seeing here is a desperate attempt to get attention for a project by outraging people, and I stubbornly refuse to be outraged."

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Me and You and Zombies and Georges A. & W.

Political allegory rears a bloodied head as George A. Romero and Scott Foundas talk up the Dead in LA Weekly: Michael Moore notwithstanding, it still seems risky to make a movie this political in what is effectively a risk-averse Hollywood climate. I’m thinking particularly of those scenes where we see captive zombies turned by their human captors into Abu Ghraib–style sideshow freaks. "I’m not sure if you showed this movie at the White House that anybody would get it, except when the money burns at the end—then they might feel a little pang of sadness... John Ford, after 150 films, probably had a bag full of tricks. I’m still learning them."

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Brave new porn: You are going to see a beautiful girl and the title, and you will decide whether to buy

Well, at least it's a distinct and clever technical innovation. Wired News reports that "A trip to the adult section at the video store is about to get spicier. Vivid Entertainment, one of the leading suppliers of adult entertainment, has licensed a system that will let shoppers preview racy trailers on their camera phones just by scanning the bar code on the box." While browsing, "the phone takes a picture of the bar code, which includes an embedded URL, and the phone's screen is redirected to a website that hosts the clips." Wired quotes Steven Hirsch, co-chairman of the porn producer. "You are going to see a beautiful girl and the title, and you will decide whether to buy."

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June 22, 2005

"Cellywood" in Canada: it's the pictures that got smaller

An ugly notion parsed in bleagh language: "Thumb-sized screens may not be where every filmmaker dreams of debuting their masterpiece, but the newest technology trend - being dubbed Cellywood by some Asian and European producers - is giving directors a hip venue to get noticed," reports Canada's National Post. [More word choices like "flicks" and "goofy" at the jump.]

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Welshing at the show: what's IFC's food like?

After all the thinkpieces about the merits (and many synergies) of the new IFC Theater complex
in Greenwich Village, Gothamist digs in, touting the Welsh Rarebit even for those not out to see a pic. [More photos at the link.]

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Initial after Infernal: what Lau and Mak make now

Infernal Affairs directors Alan Mak and Andrew Lau tell Channel NewsAsia about their adaptation of Japanese comic Initial D: "As Hong Kongers adapting one of Japan's most successful comic series, there is even greater pressure on Mak and fellow director Andrew Lau. Since its launch in 1995, Initial D has sold more than 39 million copies, spawned 39 episodes of anime (Japanese animation), 23 novels and even a PS2 game. "The Japanese hold Initial D in high esteem. So, it's an honour to make a movie about it," Lau said during production." [More at the link.]

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I'm French, you can hear my accent: on "reality" in movies

At Reverse Shot, Kings & Queen director Arnaud Desplechin talks about why "reality exists only in movies: "I’m French—you can hear that because of my accent—and I’m used to thinking of this idea of “reality” as just a great tool in moviemaking. I love to shoot on location, to do research and create dialogues with real doctors, or violin players and so on. I love to use natural light. Reality is a tool that belongs only to cinema. It doesn’t belong to theater or literature—it belongs to the popular arts. But at the same time, I believe my role is to create fairy tales. When I began to think of Nora’s journey and the adventures of Ismaël, I thought about two fairy tales. One Shakespearean and one based on something like the short stories of Hawthorne. They’re two fairy tales firmly grounded in reality. And that’s why I like to go see movies—to see fairy tales that could have happened in the real world."

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Before Bottle Rocket...

.... there was this short version from Messrs. Wilson, Wilson and Anderson. [RealMedia Player file.]

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Michael Atkinson loved it: Bewitched and the black smoke of burning truck tires

"The original show, lovable and aggressively innocent though it was... is far too hokey to be considered "high concept," Michael Atkinson writes in "Oh, the Nora, the Nora: Every Little Thing She Does Is Tragic". "...Our new heroine is a chipmunk-falsettoed, apricot-cheeked Nicole Kidman, who's so sheeny with digital airbrushing she's got the unearthly vibrance of a newborn... As always a fool for wealth porn, Ephron also jams her scenes with swatches and memorabilia from the old show—postmod!.... The film is airy and weightless, not like, say, chiffon, but like the black smoke of burning truck tires. In an ideal world, [Penny] Marshall and the Ephrons should have to sharecrop, for all the good they've done for the culture."

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Seen-ography: Sally Potter's yes

"To underscore the cultural tensions plaguing Yes' affluent London scientist and her Lebanese immigrant lover, writes Laura Sinagra in the Voice, "director Sally Potter periodically employs surveillance camera footage of the pair, caught in a restaurant lobby or arguing in a parking garage. "London... has the highest concentration of surveillance cameras in the world. The average person is photographed 350 times a week. It's shocking." In the film, the resulting strobe effect suggests a tentative mating dance. "I think the aesthetic of the surveillance camera is very beautiful," says Potter. "And of course it's part of the theme of who is looking at who."

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T.O. tips its hand

The first hint of September's Toronto Film Festival is out, drawing "16 North American premieres among 20 films that bowed at rival festivals," including the Dardennes' L'Enfant, Michael Haneke's Hidden , Alexander Sokurov's In the Sun, Hou Hsiao Hsien's Three Times, Lars Trier's Manderlay, Wim Wenders' Don't Come Knocking, Tsai Ming-Liang's The Wayward Cloud, Carlos Reygadas' Battle in Heaven [click here for a nice piece from CInema Scope online about the controversial pic]. Other titles include the Romanian Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr. Lazarescu; click here for a stirring piece by Argentine critic Quintin.

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Jerusalem Dogme?

The lede of the afternoon, at the very, very least: You might not expect to see two young, Orthodox mothers at the cafe of the Jerusalem Cinematheque, discussing how much their film adheres to the tenets of Dogma 95, the Danish film movement dedicated to heightening realism in the movies, but for Michal Brunschwig-Levi and Rivka Imbar, it's perfectly natural. The Jerusalem Post reports that their short, Birkonim, is "a light-hearted but affecting look at a young Orthodox woman, abandoned by her husband, who becomes obsessed with collecting and destroying the... booklets of prayers and songs many Jewish couples give out as souvenirs of their weddings."

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Landmark Sundance Cinema puff

There's PR in the air: SF Chronicle's Hugh Hart takes in the wind about the freshly-touted Sundance Cinemas: "We are actively looking for appropriate locations throughout the country that provide opportunities for Sundance Cinemas to integrate into the existing cultural fabric of communities," [Sundance Cinemas co-honcho Paul] Richardson says in full talking-to-the-press mode. Not to be out-jargoned, [co-honcho Bert] Manzari added, "Drawing on our collective long-term relationships in the independent film and festival communities as well as those in the realm of distribution, we feel Sundance Cinemas will be highly successful in crafting a new and different experience for audiences."

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June 21, 2005

Nomarket: Picturehouse pulls up stakes

Bob Berney's taking his Newmarket crew to his new concern: "Picturehouse president Bob Berney has pulled in [six] key members from his former company Newmarket to head up his new distribution team," reports the Reporter. [Details at link.]

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Raging Marty: where IFC began?

Newsday traces the origins of the Independent Film Channel back to one film-fond director: "Martin Scorsese was on the phone, and he was angry. If you're trying to be a player in the movie business, you don't want the acclaimed director... on your case. Scorsese complained to Jonathan Sehring, the executive then in charge of programming for the Bravo network, that it had stopped showing uncut movies. "Jon, what are you doing?" Sehring recalls the director saying. "Why are you editing these movies?" ....Bravo, a break-even channel that survived only because of [Cablevision owner Chuck] Dolan's enthusiasm for it, was morphing from pay cable to basic, and needed to tone down its R-rated films to win over viewers and advertisers. Scorsese and Dolan urged Sehring to start a new channel to show the films uncut. The result: the Independent Film Channel, which launched in 1994 under Cablevision's umbrella. Today it has 35 million subscribers and [is now] also an exhibitor of films - at its $8-million-plus remake of the old Waverly Theater in the West Village." [More at the link.]

Posted by at 02:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Incitement to art: UK banning "religious hatred"?

Madness of King George director Nicholas Hytner raises concerns over religious hatred bill: "Hytner, the director of the National Theatre, said that the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill proposed by the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, would be "grievously damaging" to his industry. Mr Hytner was among a group of prominent figures, including the comedian Rowan Atkinson, the Booker prize-winner novelist Ian McEwan and cross-party MPs who urged the Commons to reject the bill at its second hearing today. He said it was theatre's job to question, "undermine and sometimes ridicule the beliefs that others hold dear".... Mr Clarke argues that the bill, which is backed by some religious groups, including the Muslim Council of Great Britain, is needed to tackle racists who have targeted Muslims since the 11 September terrorist attacks. He says it will end an anomaly under which Jews and Sikhs are protected against incitement to racial hatred, while other religious groups are not.

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Musically Head-On: Crossing the Bridge: the Sounds of Istanbul

A nice making-of on German-Turkish director Fatih Akin's latest: "Akin had been dreaming of this film for a long time. The shooting for his award-winning drama Head On which partly took place in Istanbul, is what gave him the final impulse. Together with Alexander Hacke, the bass player of the German avant-garde band Einst�urzende Neubauten, Akin returned to the Turkish cultural capital to find out what makes Istanbul a city of dreams and love songs, and above all, a musical metropolis. Kitted out with a laptop and hi-tech equipment, the two men made their way through the loud, hectic and hot city in order to portray the musicians that lend Istanbul its musical identity." [More at the link.]

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Knowing Dick: Kirby on DVD distrib

In the LA Times, Elaine Dutka examines some case history on the potential of self-distribbing on DVD: "In his Oscar-nominated documentary Twist of Faith, airing on HBO on June 28, Kirby Dick put a camera in the hands of a man who was abused by a priest as a child. And in Chain Camera, he employed a similar technique, giving equipment to 10 high school students. They recorded their lives for a week, then passed the [Hi-8] cameras to 10 friends. Over the course of a year, 200 stories emerged. "The cameras were a tool of expression, a way of empowering the students." ... The first film that gave cameras to people in a comprehensive way, it sidestepped not only the studios, but in some aspects the director as well. "The portrayal of Angeleno youth is far more realistic than the one served up by mainstream shows such as 'Beverly Hills, 90210,' " he adds. "And the Internet jumped all over it because it was made with teens — heavy users of the Web." Funded by HBO's Cinemax, Chain Camera cost slightly more than $100,000, in part because the two producers and director worked for free. They'll be reaping money from DVDs, however, which will be distributed by Zeitgeist Films.... "There's less at stake with DVDs," said Dick. "That frees you from the 90-minute or 120-minute mind-set and leads to experimentation."

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