Movie City Indie Archive for February, 2010
An hour with William Friedkin
William Friedkin discourses across his career for an hour on February 24 of this year, via Fora.TV, recorded at The Hudson Union Society.
D.C.'s Dupont Circle snowball fight, arranged on Facebook
What if you threw a snowball fight and 3,000 people came? Blake Edwards might smile. Or Nuri Bilge Ceylan…
James Cameron's "Reach," a rock video starring Kathryn Bigelow
Via HDVision, a French DVD magazine.
What if famous filmmakers directed the Super Bowl?
Unexpectedly good. More work from writer-director Andrew Bouvé here.
Making Of's Martin Scorsese directing reels on Shutter Island
Parry vs. Fischer: Notes on the latest film crickets' circular firing squad
Post-Park City, is there something in the air in film journalism? Black powder after white powder? Recriminations after accusations? Naming names to make a name? (That’s just standard operating procedure.) Swinging at mosquitoes with sledgehammers? This could get… interesting. As @palacefilms, the Twitter account of the Australian distributor noted on Wednesday afternoon, “[p]ull up a chair, grab some popcorn and settle in for Film Critic Fight Club. Extra fun when both Aussie expats!” In the Vancouver Sun, online editor, elaborates, with parallel examples, on accusations of plagiarism by a face and figure familiar to film festivalgoers and press day participants. In a piece headlined “Uproarious hacktackular!”, Parry wrote on Tuesday, “[A] film reviewer who has made a name for himself being quoted in movie marketing materials is accused of plagiarizing large chunks of his film reviews—from movie marketing materials. Widely-quoted film critic Paul Fischer has supplied [studios] with favourable quotes for… years. When he called Steve 
Martin’s 2006 remake of The Pink Panther “a wonderfully funny comic gem,” you could almost hear the collective thud of a thousand… critics slamming their heads on their desks as a million movie fans performed a world record spit-take.” Parry offers examples drawn from the Sundance Film Festival’s own promotional materials and what appears to be Fischer’s ever-so-slight rewordings for websites such as Moviehole and Dark Horizons. It looks damning; at the link, Parry gets commentary from Sundance and a bit from the publishers of Fischer’s work. That was followed by Salt Lake Tribune’s “Film Cricket,” Sean P. Means, finding Fischer in his own uncanny valley with more examples, as well as this remark: “The Cricket himself has occasionally shared an interview roundtable with Fischer, a self-important troll with an Australian accent as thick as his overbearing manner. The Cricket often came away from the experience relieved that he didn’t have to work junkets every weekend and hang around with Fischer and his ilk.” Notably, Parry is no stranger to controversy; in summer 2009, Parry tangled with posters at the Free Republic website over his perceived bias in at least one thread that ran to over 2,000 comments. (The dread word “DailyKos” was among the inflammations.) There are at least two prior critical crusades notched in his belt as well. In the summer of 2006, at efilmcritic, Parry indicted another reviewer, the notorious-if-only-to-journalists Earl Dittman, running 4,500 words under the hed, “Hyperbole For Sale: How Earl Dittman And The Studios Have Destroyed Film Criticism.” Thrusts Parry, ” I am speaking… about the War on Film Criticism. And the Osama Bin Laden of the War on Film Criticism is Earl Dittman… Hollywood studios – you’re on notice. Use Earl Dittman in your advertising ever again, and we’re coming after you. We can’t stop you from using Bregoli or Edwards or Fischer or Zwecker, but you can be damn sure, with 80 writers on our staff, over a dozen radio hosts, our own internet radio station, and a very functional fax machine that sends press releases to hundreds of other film critics – film critics that CARE about their craft – we’ll hurt you if you do not heed our demand.” (Parry footnotes Erik Childress’ perennially-contentious Criticwatch series for background.) In 2007, also at efilmcritic, Parry devoted 2,800 words to the apparent offenses of a University of Missouri, Kansas City, student, under the hed, “Death of a Plagiarist: A word thief burns as his editors deny all responsibility.” Parry wrote, “Patel’s long, meandering, barely comprehensible writing in this instance gives you an insight into why he might have spent so much of his journalism career stealing the work of others; “We are still a student newspaper, subject to our own fiscal limitations. Thus, we decided to immediately provide an extremely necessary insert, so as to clear the innocent party named in the article.” No, Mr Patel. What would have cleared that innocent man’s name would be scrapping the issue entirely, not publishing lies about him in blazing headlines, alongside a flyer saying “Whoops!'” Somehow, it seems “Whoops!” is the tiniest, tiniest increment of what Parry is expecting to hear in the immediate future from Fischer and his editors. Ten paces, gentlemen…
ADDED: This 2004 piece by Parry at efilmcritic offers even more context, parsing the pair’s past jockeying in 4,000 words or so: “Paul Fischer and I have a history. He, a sad, clueless junketeer who gives his writing away for free, and I, a sad, clued-in non-junketeer who doesn’t subscribe to the ‘famous is better’ theology that seems to rule entertainment journalism these days, have tangled in the past in ways that saw Fischer become a laughing stock in his home country of Australia. I take great pride in having driven Fischer out of town once, and ladies and gentlemen, I’m about to do it all over again… Knuckles cracking, let’s take apart the fat man… again.”
Prawn shop: Neil Blomkamp on "Life On Other Planets and the Future of Human Civilization"
The future, pre-Oscar nominations, from the director of District 9. “I actually don’t have any credentials to do this,” Blomkamp says with a laugh at the opening of an engaging 13 minutes from an independent event drawn from the terrific TED talks. (There’s a wealth of them here.)
Obligatory Generic Oscar Nomination Report
Banal lede setting up The Hurt Locker vs. Avatar. Obligatory remark on former marital status. Inevitable and noncommittal response. Diffident pun, like “battle of the exes,” inadvertently revealing lack of buffering layer of editors. Lazy comparison of Biblical small man opposing giant ogre. Team Na’vi vs. Team Bomb Squad. Blue vs. Green. Ten Best Picture nominees are too cold, ten Best Picture nominees are too hot, ten Best Picture nominees are just right. Spreading the wealth. Gratitude expressed that The Hangover and G-Force were not nominated. It was the best of years, it was the worst of 
years. Supplied quotes embedded in narrative. Generic transitions hastily constructed for rapid web posting. Directors exclaim on how they’re all buddies in the clubhouse. Lee Daniels says “Girlfriend.” Allusions to prior references to Inglourious Basterds and A Serious Man as anti-Semitic, or conversely, or perversely, “good for the Jews.” Obligatory hint that the writer considers Avatar a sweeping allegory, a wizened tract, the rebirth of the moviegoing experience or the death of cinema, coupled with The Hurt Locker as anti-war film, as pro-war film, as failed screencraft or as transcendent filmmaking, or as a dazzling feat of balancing all, or none. Anecdote relayed of being awakened or of being unable to sleep or preparing right this minute for a nap. Resignation feigned over odds-on favorites Waltz and Mo’Nique. Mention of nods the writer would have preferred, such as bright Stanley Tucci for Julie & Julia instead of dark Stanley Tucci in Lovely Bones. Gnashing over Moon‘s eclipse or Summer Hours‘ tabling. Staid rendition of “How ’bout that Sandra Bullock?” Invocation of personal déjà vu, ennui or anomie over the plethora of preceding award events. Attempt at oblique implication that the writer is above it all, or intrigued only by how wrong everyone else is, or how the awards are now more populist or not quite yet populist, or it’s what my editors think you, dear reader, most want to wallow in or feel superior to. Wry footnote noting Oscar 2011 is only thirteen months away.
Trailering The Secret of Kells
The Canadian theatrical trailer for the Irish animation, offering some evidence of why the film got its surprise Academy Award nomination this morning. Producers Cartoon Saloon are selling signed DVDs (region 2) at their website.
Below: the 3:45 promo trailer.
At the Sundance Producers Roundtable: Vachon, Hope and more
Christine Vachon and Ted Hope talk with three younger producers, Thomas Woodrow, Liz Watts and Jonathan Schwartz. In this segment: do you make the director’s film or the best one possible?
Parts one and two are below.
