Film cynic David Thomson hates film festivals: like banquets held to prevent world hunger

Late-career movie elitist, hater of Kubrick and Welles, and adopted resident of Baghdad-by-the-Bay David Thomson banks a few bob as he insists the popularity of film festivals is a very bad thing. “Something has to be done about film festivals – they begin to haunt us, like banquets held to prevent world hunger… Do not rule out the possibility that as the quality of [American] movies declined, so the habit of festivals came into being… [N]obody interested in films is falling for this mania. The best we can do is try to ignore it… [T]he culture has slipped into a surfeit of movies. In 1974 there was really no such thing as video yet, let alone the profusion of outlets that now prevail, along with the chance to see movies on the internet. Every kid is his own film festival, and so festivals begin to be antiquated events, a focus and a forum where no such needs are felt… I urge a moratorium on festivals, a Cromwellian meanness about them. It’s the only way we’ll rediscover the heady fun of Restoration.” [The extended comments do a fine job of taking on Mr. Thomson’s self-regarding pecksniffery, including from “franzbiberkopf” of a passage not quoted: “This is—seriously—about the zillionth article DT has written that lists “some good films from 1974″ in place of reasoned argument.”]

Decay's Perfume: sniffing death with Patrick Suskind

As Tom Tykwer‘s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is about to be released outside of Germany, in Guardian Books, novelist Patrick Süskind considers death lit as sex lit from the perspective of writers like Goethe and Kleist, as well as Wilde and Mann. “We understand both attitudes: the one seeking death as the only possible liberation from the unbearable pain of love, and the other, as it were chivalrous attitude, accepting death as a necessary risk taken in pursuit of the erotic quarry, particularly at times and in societies where swords and pistols were swiftly drawn. Neither can be described as exemplary and worthy of imitation, both may be regarded as a deplorable aberration of the erotic drive, to be ascribed to its frenzied and indeed pathological nature, but we can understand such things, that is to say, we can put ourselves in the place of human beings who kill themselves or die for love. If it were not so, how could we read “The Sorrows of Young Werther,” “Anna Karenina,” “Madame Bovary” or “Effi Briest” unmoved? Yet the point where empathy and understanding end and interest wanes, giving way to outright repugnance, is reached when Eros throws himself violently into the arms of Thanatos as if to merge with him, when love seeks to find its highest and purest form, indeed its fulfilment, in death.” In Spiegel, Urs Jenny has a long take-out on the movie’s making, including this sum-up: “A special edition of the novel is being published in time to coincide with the film’s release, along with an audio book version, two books about the film itself and, finally, a CD of the film’s bombastic score, performed by none less than the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle. But the real piece de resistance has to be an item that couldn’t possibly be interpreted as anything but a parody of the usual marketing paraphernalia. It’s an exclusive “Thierry Mugler toiletry bag of the finest red velour,” which contains 15 delicate little bottles of an “olfactory interpretation of the film.” Unfortunately, the item isn’t available at movie theaters, but only in “authorized perfumeries.” The filming of the book, apparently, has led to its theme being used to market perfume.” [Official site here.]

Coy toy: Tony Scott reads Fuck

Friday’s NY Times has an extended, favorable review of a film called ****. “Just to clear up any confusion: the four stars in the box accompanying this article do not represent a rave review,” A. O. Scott writes, “though I did quite enjoy the movie in question. Really, what sort of a critic do you think I am? Certainly not one who resorts to nonverbal, quantitative means of expressing opinions. This just isn’t that kind of newspaper. Nor, however, is it the kind that will permit me to print the title of Steve Anderson’s rowdy and contentious new documentary, which consists of a single, highly versatile English word. I have been known to use the word in mixed company and even, I blush to admit, around my children — but only pedagogically, to call attention to the laxity of other drivers on family car trips. Never in front of the readers, though.” [Further whimsy at the link.]

Moo Velvet: David Lynch and a cow on an LA corner

Pull quote: Casino Royale's Mads Mikkelsen and Caterina Murino

Tidbits from Monday morning interviews: Danish star Mads Mikkelsen (Open Hearts), who plays the bad guy in Casino Royale, as well as in Pusher II, part of the upcoming DVD release of The Pusher Trilogy, isn’t a big believer in Method acting; “In order to play a victim of rape, you don’t necessarily have to be raped… To want to hit somone hard is a feeling I know.” Playing Solange, a woman married of a Bond adversary and who strikes sparks with 007, Caterina Murino says, in a deliciously baroque Italian-Spanish-French-Caterina accent, her role is a modern woman: “[Women] used to be fucked, but we fuck now. Just from the touch of James Bond, she has an orgasm. She loved to be fucked by him.” Murino says “I am really happy to be part of the European cinema,” since other scripts she gets, “They just give me the role of beautiful, dangerous and sexy. I always reject a role with my beauty [as the only draw].” Solange is different because “she is not there to make seduce, seduction of James Bond.” The 29-year-0ld Sardinian veteran of sixteen features wanted to be a doctor, failed entrance exams twice and became a model, but now after traveling to Africa, she’s become part of a foundation, and “to hold those childen with SIDA [AIDS], I have been given a second chance to help the children in a different way, thanks to James.” [Murino’s own website is here.]

Don't You Forget About Me: burning 16 candles for John Hughes

Macleans’ Shanda Deziel reports on a doc stalking reluctant subject John Hughes and trying to divine why the 56-year-old King of Teen hasn’t shot a pic since 1991’s Curly Sue. “According to a new documentary, Don’t You Forget About Me—which examines the lasting impact of Hughes’s movies—today’s teens also cite those films as the ones that best represent the way they look, feel and act. According to the filmmaker, [28-year-old] Matt Austin, “All the teens we interviewed said that they can’t relate to any of the movies that have come out for them in the last decade.” So Austin had the teens send a message to Hollywood and to Hughes. “To Hollywood…. they gave the finger and to Hughes they said, ‘Come back.’ ” Hughes “hasn’t given an interview since the ’80s (even then, they were few and far between)and is thought to be living in Chicago or maybe Wisconsin. He’s the J.D. Salinger of [movies]. But it’s become Austin’s mission to get the recluse on camera… After many dead ends, the filmmakers finally made a connection with Hughes’s lawyer. “He’s on our side…. but even he says, ‘Good luck, John Hughes just doesn’t do interviews.’ ” So Austin is putting together a… reel of people he’s talked to— teens, actors, filmmakers inspired by him—all saying, “Thank you” or “Come back.” Austin plans on giving that video to every single person who might be able to get it to Hughes. “Right now, I’m very hopeful that we’re going to get him. My genuine feeling is we’ll get a call.”

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UPDATED: The unbelievable truth: Adrienne Shelly murdered

“Prosecutors have charged a man with murdering actress Adrienne Shelly, who was found hanging from a shower rod in her West Village office last Wednesday,” reports NYC’s WCBS-TV. “Police have charged 19-year-old Diego Pillco, of the 300-block of Prospect Avenue in Brooklyn, with second degree murder. Pillco allegedly punched the 5-foot-2 actress after she complained about the noise he was making in the West Village apartment building where her office is located, killing her. He then allegedly admitted to dragging the body up to her office, and positioning her in the shower to make her death look like a suicide. EARLIER: Aw, just fuck. The New York Post reports on writer-director-actress-Hal Hartley muse-90s indie icon Adrienne Shelly’s apparent suicide at 40. Shelly radiated a twerpy intelligence onscreen in her too-few roles; she embodied my long-held belief that smart, petite women are a special kind of goddess. The Post reports with unsavory tabloid gusto: “The body of a beautiful, talented actress was found hanging from a shower rod in the bathtub of a Greenwich Village apartment by her horrified husband, who cried out, “Why? Why?” cops and witnesses said. Adrienne Shelly, 40, who was also a director and screenwriter, apparently killed herself, cops said…”

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Recent reviews: Borat, Babel, Tideland, Marie Antoinette and more

Reviews of recent movies, including Babel, Borat, Old Joy, The Prestige, Shortbus, Tideland and a few words with Sofia Coppola about Marie Antoinette. (Remember that one?)

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Film is close to Esperanto: González Iñárritu's Babel

The Globe & Mail’s Rick Groen gets hot quote from Alejandro G. I. “Images don’t need translation, because they trigger universal human emotions. Film is as close to Esperanto as it gets.” But silence? “Of course. Silence is hugely important. I use silence to fight against the tyranny of noise, the fucking noise of TV and… even movies. In silence, the seeds of profound things can grow.”

Going to Towne: MI:II's performance art

In the Sydney Morning Herald, Robert Towne puts his work-for-hire for newly-minted United Artists majordomo Tom Cruise in perspective: “While Mission: Impossible 2 was filming in Sydney, Towne was holed up in a Double Bay hotel rewriting scenes…. “It’s a different kind of experience. I guess you’d call it performance art. It’s certainly a lot of pressure. One good thing about it is you know the script is being made… Given the circumstances under which we did it, it turned out about as well as could be expected. I actually did that on the first movie, too. They were certainly commercial successes.” As for Chinatown‘s continuing reknown? “It was a very complicated script, complex to work on. A lot of difficulties to overcome. There was a point where we didn’t have a score …Initially, all I could see were all the things that had gone wrong. I failed to see the things that were right.”

Jesus Camp figure fingered: UPDATED Haggard says he's guilty

Evangelical mega-church leader, close confidante of President Bush and vitriolic anti-gay activist Ted Haggard, whose toothy excess is one of the more frightening of the many scary parts of Jesus Camp, recently disowned that movie, but is also stepping down this afternoon as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and leader of the Colorado Springs-based New Life Church after allegations were mounted, with voicemail recordings presented for verification, of a three-year homosexual affair involving drugs. Haggard denies the assertions, and blames his exit from his ministry to the Denver Post as being the fault of the messenger, stating that he could “not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations made on Denver talk radio…” Continues the Post, “Haggard’s lawyer, Martin Nussbaum, emphasized that Haggard has not admitted to the affair. Nussbaum said the church’s bylaws state that if an allegation of immorality is made, the proper action is for Haggard to step down and put himself on leave.” A colleague of the Rev. James Dobson, of the equally homophobic Focus on the Family, defended the Rev. Haggard’s faith this afternoon: “He has shown a great deal of grace under these unfortunate circumstances, quickly turning this matter over to his church for an independent investigation. That is a testament to the character I have seen him exhibit over and over again through the years.” Haggard’s Colorado Springs church, “with 14,000 members, is the largest New Life congregation in Colorado.” The contentious response to Mr. Haggard’s allegations from the makers of Jesus Camp is after the jump. [On Friday, Pastor Haggard admitted many of the allegations: “Pastor Ted Haggard came out of his house Friday morning and admitted to 9NEWS that he bought meth from a gay escort in Denver… after contacting him for a massage.”] Here’s a brief clip of Mr. Haggard in action from Jesus Camp:

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Giuppy Izzo is Renee Zellweger: dub's rub

In the Guardian, movie star dubbers tell their own tale, including Mexico’s Kirsten Dunst, France’s Angelina Jolie, China’s Tom Cruise, Germany’s Julia Roberts, India’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, and taly’s Renee Zellweger: Giuppy Izzo. “I was born into the business. My teacher was my father. He had four daughters and most evenings at dinner he would try to teach us something about intonation. He had a saying: “Your voice is the soundtrack of your life.” One of my sisters also entered the business and is now a dubbing director as well as a dubbing artist. It was a bit like growing up as a circus child, really. My first job was as the 10-year-old daughter in The Goodbye Girl. I’ve no idea how many other films I’ve dubbed since then. I’ve voiced Renée Zellweger in both her Bridget Jones movies and several others. I’ve studied her diction, her movements and her breathing so much that I feel I know her. We’ve not met, though – the only actor I’ve both dubbed and met is Ellen Pompeo, the star of Grey’s Anatomy. She came up and hugged me at a conference in Milan in the summer.”

D. W. Griffith, Bingham Ray and Tom Cruise walk into a bar…: relabeling United Artists

The most recent incarnation of the United Artists identity animation used before the no-longer-dormant distrib is pretty strange: a chromium edge turns to reveal the UA logotype, accompanied by a few stings of dark music that come to a sudden crescendo. Still, I’ve always found it oddly thrilling, even beyond the company’s stellar heritage. (My reaction was never as extreme as Martin Scorsese’s to the United Artists Classics logo after his split with Isabella Rossellini, when he told Roger Ebert something to the effect that he couldn’t see a film with that logo at the front: it would only remind him of Rossellini, who had been in a UA Classics pic a few months earlier.) A couple of moments of vamping to figure out what to say about this head-scratcher: Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner are packing up their equity finance and heading to the intricately leveraged private equity-driven Church of Kerkorian, MGM, to run the Little House founded by Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks, and in later years by the likes of Arthur Krim, Rober Benjamin, and Bingham Ray. The complete PR is below, including this quote: “”This is a great opportunity for Tom and me to re-establish the United Artists brand and to work closely with the creative community,” stated Wagner. “As studio partner-operators, we will provide a supportive environment and infrastructure for filmmakers that will allow them to do their best work.”

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Indie returns on Thursday