Authors — Scott Macaulay

CAN INDIE DIRECTORS EVER REALLY ROCK OUT?

Producer Ted Hope sent in the below rumination on indie film and rock music for the blog. It was presumably prompted by two projects. Hope produced Hal Hartley’s latest, Fay Grim, which opened this weekend. As Hope notes, Hartley has made a “true rock gesture” in all of his films; he’s a director who seems to follow current music, incorporate it into his films, and, through his forays into music video, actively approach it on its own terms.. Also, this week Hope announced The Passenger an Iggy Pop bio-pic set to be directed by Nick Gomez and star Elijah Wood […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 20, 2007
A HIGH BAR TO CROSS

Today Anthony Kaufman revives memories of Cannes past with the below clip of Robert Bresson and Andrei Tarkovsky being presented with prizes by Orson Welles: … which gives me an excuse to post an amazing Tarkovsky shot from The Mirror. And then this brilliant sequence from Bresson’s Pickpocket.
by Scott Macaulay on May 18, 2007
GRIM TIMES

If you’re used to checking out this blog and not the main page, surf over there for Nick Dawson’s interview with Hal Hartley, whose Fay Grim opens today. An excerpt: I’m one of those people who doesn’t think the world has changed any at all since 9/11. It just seemed to be almost inevitable, something like that. That’s one of the reasons why the backstory of Fay Grim goes all the way back into the ’80s. I was trying to sketch out the continuity of all this hanky-panky between the security agencies of the world. I think you’re right in […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 18, 2007
MUSIC FOR FILMS

As guitar player for the band Interpol, Carlos D must be prepping for the release of their third album, Our Love to Admire, in July. But, as Pitchfork reports, he is also seriously and quite publicly pursuing a career as a film composer. He’s got a separate site to promote his scoring skills where you can hear what he would have done had he scored The Devil Wears Prada and Ice Age 2. From the bio on the site: Carlos is an aspiring film and tv composer in addition to playing bass and keyboards in Interpol. His understanding of harmonic […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 18, 2007
FLAVORFUL

Over at the main page check out Howard Feinstein’s just-posted interview with Wong Kar-wai about his My Blueberry Nights, the opening night film at Cannes.
by Scott Macaulay on May 16, 2007
FACE OFF

Via Movie City News comes this fascinating story from BBC news: An Austrian filmmaker has come up with a novel way of avoiding the costs of creating a movie – by making her film entirely from images of real life captured by CCTV cameras. Called Faceless, the film is the project of London-based Manu Luksch, who is both the star and director and describes it as a “science fiction fairy tale”. By taking CCTV of herself and blocking out the faces of anyone else captured on it, she created a story set in the future, in the “faceless world” – […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 15, 2007
CULTURE CZARS

The long-running French film journal Cahiers du Cinema recently launched an online English-language edition. In the current issue there’s a provocative article by the editors entitled “12 Objectives for Cinema in France” that I’ve been meaning to comment on. Written before Sarkozy’s victory — a prospect Cahiers clearly considered when drafting the article — the piece is interesting for what it says to some of us American fans of French cinema as well as for its implications on our own American indie film. (For more on the possible repercussions of Sarko’s win and what his promised “break with the past” […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 14, 2007
MOTHERS AND KIND WORDS

Thanks to the folks over at Screengrab for the nice words about the new issue of Filmmaker. (And also for catching our over use of the phrase “a perfect storm” twice in one issue — honestly, we didn’t know it was going to be the title of George Tenet’s book.) There’s a bunch of good stuff over at Screengrab, including, for Mother’s Day, their list of the worst movie mothers in film history. Click on the link above to check it out.
by Scott Macaulay on May 13, 2007
RED ON RED

Actress Evan Rachel Wood seems to be the go-to-girl for ambitious music videomakers. First there was her starring role in Green Day’s anti-war “Wake Me Up when September Ends” video: And now she joins reported new b.f. Marilyn Manson in “Heart Shaped Glasses,” an NSFW homage to David Lynch (plenty of red curtains), David Cronenberg and, perhaps, Hermann Nitsch. (Oh yeah, if you’re under 16 you’re not supposed to watch this.)
by Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2007
THE WRITING ON THE WALL

Below I blogged about the L.A. Weekly piece, “Double Cross at the WGA,” which was an explosive account of the Writer’s Guild of America’s policy of collecting and not always paying foreign levies on behalf of member and non-member writers. It’s a complicated story but well worth following for several reasons, not the least of which is what it says about our current and possibly future system of copyright. Now there’s more on the story. Stefan Avalos has written a long and nuanced piece about the scandal at Fade In Online. (The story begins on the website’s front page and […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 12, 2007

Cookie	Duration	Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
cfmrk_cic		Used by Cloudflare to route user traffic for this Site.
sparrow_id		Installed by Cloudflare. Used to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not store any personal identifiable information.

Cookie	Duration	Description
OAGEO		Installed by the Revive Ad Server. Used to cache geolocation (session, deleted when closing the browser)
OAID		Installed by the Revive Ad Server to distinguish users.