Movie City Indie Archive for January, 2008
Michel Gondry's craptastic "Sweded" trailer for Be Kind Rewind
And he seems like such a quiet young man.
I was robbed last night at one of the best parties I've been to in a long time: Arin Crumley seeks balance.
Four-Eyed Monsters co-creator Arin Crumley would like to report a crime, and also to restore Balance. This is a peculiar video. [Photographic evidence and more here.]
In honor of Rambo 5, here's Aki Kaurismaki's Rocky 6
Harvey Weinstein got on the blower with somebody or other and said there’d be another Rambo… Let’s see what Aki can do.
Once, more
Two fresh comments from David Carr‘s Carpetbagger blog regarding the Oscar fortunes of “Falling Slowly” (all punctuation, etc., in the original): “I was lucky enough to have been peripherally engaged with the shooting experience of the Irish film ‘once’. The song contested, ‘falling slowly’ was written for the film, albeit a number of years before the film began actually shooting, but without going into long winded specifics I can assure all concerned that I was witness to the truth in this ridiculous matter. The song was written for the film. I have read alan’s material that his link provides. His presupposition that doubt should be cast upon the authenticity of the songs authors is bizzare to say the least. Certainly the fabric of his article has no argument to support his doubt. It is quite obvious that the true element of concern to the Academy in this issue is the fact that Glen Hansard had the gall to preform his composition before the motion pictures eventual release. Discussions that strive to debate the genesis of the song’s authorship are facile and to this observers mind without any merit or reason. I truly hope this great event for contemporary independent cinema is given the chance to gain a small degree of the recognition it truly deserves on the hallowed stage of the Academy, free from the impotent claims of falsehood of the aforementioned journalist and his ilk… — Posted by Paula R.” And: “The song Falling Slowly had been banging around Frames gigs for a couple of years in different guises and Glen said at these gigs that the song had been written for a film that his Friend John had written that at the time had been called Buskers and the name was then changed to Once. Glen has always stated that that particular song had been written for the film project his friend was working on, and this was back in 2002, about the same time that Glen and Mar started writing music together.
— Posted by Toni”
Sundance wraps imminently…
Overview, reviews. photos, video… from a world with working WiFi and crossed eyes.
[LOOK] Which candidate would you like to have a beer with?
An ad for a Senate campaign that answers the question, “What candidate would you like to have a beer with?” [His name is Steve Novick.]
Sundance on Ice (day seven)
Michel Gondry. [Interview, Four Seasons Hotel, Chicago.]
Peter Wintonick, documentary director, producer and Agora advocate. [Main Street.]
Wait list. [Yarrow I, Yarrow Hotel, Park Avenue.]
Sundance on Ice (day six)
Night skiing. [Above Park Avenue, across from Albertson’s, Park City.]
Filmmakers’ Lodge. [Main Street.]
Filmmakers’ Lodge. [Main Street.]
Event parking. [Park Avenue.]
Highlightering.
Main Street, dusk.
Sundance wifi follies…
More photos, reviews and some video, soon, if there’s a cup of wifi to be found anywhere on the side of this mountain…
PR: Sam Mendes, Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida are Untitled
OSCAR-WINNING DIRECTOR SAM MENDES TO HELM UNTITLED CONTEMPORARY COMEDY WRITTEN BY DAVE EGGERS AND VENDELA VIDA;Old media sends another suicide note # 117: LA Times
Does anyone copyedit these ledes or are there editors who despise columnist Jay A. Fernandez? “You can’t throw a skim latte in L.A. without hitting a writer who has a screenplay that’s been stuck in the system since grunge was breaking.” What the fuck is this guy talking about?
Heath Ledger singing: 10 Things I Hate About You
Sundance on Ice (day five)
“The Gloves Of Park City.” part 1. [Main Street.]
Snow day.
Enter stage left: the shuttle. [Park Avenue, across from Albertson’s.]
Promo piece for Baghead. [Festival headquarters.]
Entrance. [Egyptian Theater, Main Street.]
Wait list. [Egyptian Theatre, Main Street.]
Cricketing: David Sterritt tosses a manifesto at Kent Jones
Reviewing Kent Jones‘ “Physical Evidence: Selected Film Criticism” at PopMatters, fellow cricket (and admitted colleague and drinking pal of Jones) David Sterritt offers a modest manifesto at the end: “Given [Jones’] gift for perceptive film-critical thought, I wish Jones would now address himself to a problem that few critics (including me) have tackled with the care, energy, and resourcefulness that it demands: the predisposition of nearly all film critics to approach their subject(s) in terms that value the emotional over the intellectual and the descriptive over the intuitive. Good movies touch our feelings, of course, but that isn’t the only thing that makes them good; and while Jones knows this—hence his high praise for masters of film-thought like Hou Hsiao-hsien and Abbas Kiarostami, for instance—he too falls into the commonplace pattern of privileging the feelings that good films give him, and signaling his reactions in telegraphic ways that won’t mean much to people who aren’t equally familiar with the film or filmmaker in question.” He continues: “What’s needed today is a new paradigm of readily accessible yet rigorously thoughtful prose combining theoretical analysis with intuitive ideas about cinema and the aesthetic world it creates. Jones is one of the few writers who might actually be able to work out an innovative model along these lines. Start down the road, Kent, and you’ll be surprised how many will join you on the path.”
Wajda on Katyń's Oscan nom
“I received the great and very important news of the nomination of my film Katyń in Warsaw this afternoon,” comments Wajda. “Polish directors are no longer behind a wall and no longer have to use coded messages to communicate with their audiences. The Academy Award® nomination gives Katyń an additional opportunity to reach international audiences worldwide. It’s even more significant to me as Katyń is certainly the most personal film of all the films I have made. Katyń is the place where I lost my father, Captain Jakub Wajda who was murdered there by the Soviets. I also witnessed my mother’s desperate and hopeless efforts in search for my father and her discovery of the truth about his fate. Katyń still remains an unhealed wound in Polish history, the secret story which has been told for the first time on the screen in my film. Once more, I would like to stress how happy I am that the Academy® honored Katyń giving it such a distinctive recognition.”
