| Filmmaker Magazine

TRUTH IN MARKETING

I am very much looking forward to New Line’s thriller Snakes on a Plane for one reason: the title. In this day of bland, would-be exciting one-word movie names — Derailed, Havoc — there is something refreshingly straightforward and old-school about the title of this Sam Jackson movie about, well, poisonous snakes let loose on a plane. Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels this way. Today Dave McNary has a piece in Variety about the buzz for the pic created just by its title: “Though New Line has done no publicity and the thriller is eight months away […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 11, 2005

RICHARD PRYOR, 1940 – 2005

Richard Pryor died today of a heart attack in California. To those old enough to remember his stand-up routines and many TV appearances preceding his string of hit movies, Pryor was both a cultural pioneer, the comedian who made so many other careers possible, as well as an entirely original and never imitated cultural voice. Even at his angriest and most sardonic, a vulnerability and hurt laced his stage persona, a pain that cut against his outrageous satire and made it all feel sometimes too real. Over at Firedoglake one linked commentator (I”m sorry, the blog doesn’t make clear who) […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 10, 2005

BLOGGING FROM SYRIANA

Syriana director Stephen Gaghan is blogging over at the Huffington Post. From his inaugaral post: “What’s the way in? My first blog. You only get one first time at anything. I’m on a plane. I’m drinking bad coffee. I’m promoting a new film, Syriana, that I’ve spent the last three and half years writing and directing, cutting and scoring, agonizing as recently as three weeks ago over details like the font and point size of the end-title scroll — I chose Highway Gothic, considered in some circles to be the new Helvetica. Since this is an inaugural blog and it’s […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 9, 2005

THE NEW ORDER OF MARIE ANTOINETTE

Any confusion about the kind of movie Sofia Coppola has been making about the life of Marie Antoinette can be rectified by watching the New Order-scored trailer.

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 9, 2005

CINEMA POVERA

Filmmaker Sujewa Ekanayake posted below in the comments section about Caveh Zahedi and his Gotham win. Over at his blog, Filmmaking for the Poor, Ekanayake talks with filmmakers working with tiny budgets — like this conversation with Zahedi — as well as offers his own DIY advice. Check out the blog in general and this entry on on how to set up a digital editing system for less than $1,500.

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 8, 2005

THE RATING GAME

A year ago at Sundance Kirby Dick (Sick, Derrida, Twist of Faith) talked to me about his new documentary, promising that it would blow the lid off some very powerful forces within the film industry. He wouldn’t directly tell me what it was about, though. It was one of those “if I tell you I’ll have to kill you” things. Now, the film, This Film is Not Yet Rated, is headed for Sundance and then broadcast on IFC. And it’s about, yes, the MPAA. Over at Ain’t It Cool News Moriarty posts the press release detailing the film’s own twist […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 8, 2005

MORE MUSIC FOR FILMS

The music-related Pitchfork Media is one of my favorite websites, and below I’ve linked two pieces from the site that have something to do with music and film. I thought I’d make it three with this link to a story up today about the U.K. band Underworld, whose “Born Slippy” was a big song on the Trainspotting soundtrack. The site reports that the members of Underworld are collaborating in an interesting way with Anthony Minghella on the soundtrack to his upcoming Breaking and Entering: “Furthermore, the lads have teamed up with acclaimed film director Anthony Minghella and composer Gabriel Yared […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 7, 2005

MORRICONE IN THE ’70S

Let’s make it two Pitchfork links in the row. I went to buy this 2CD compilation of the great Italian film composer Ennio Morricone’s 1960s and ’70s work for a variety of crime and other genre movies this weekend, and it was sold out everywhere. So, my review will have to wait, but here’s Pitchfork’s Joe Tangari with his take on Ennio Morricone: Crime and Dissonance, the album compiled by Allan Bishop and Mike Patton. An excerpt: “More than setting the tone for Western scores for a generation, Morricone’s greatest legacy is perhaps the way he used sound elementally, largely […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 7, 2005

THROBBING GRISTLE RETURNS

Many years ago I remember feeling queasy at a Throbbing Gristle event at the old Danceteria. While music from the proto-industrial group played, a series of medical autopsy films screened in the background. Now, of course, this stuff is de rigeur on CSI, but that night, it was fairly unsettling. Now, the British band has reformed, reports Pitchfork Media, and this time the film hook is a live score to Derek Jarman’s 1980 film In the Shadow of the Sun the band will perform in Berlin on January 2. The following month Mute Records will release the band’s first record […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 7, 2005

ANTHOLOGY HITS 35

New York’s Anthology Film Archives has a fantastic program this weekend to celebrate its 35th anniversary. Three New York luminaries will present three nights of classic arthouse cinema. On Friday director Peter Bogdanovich will introduce a screening of Jean Renoir’s Rules of the Game and Buster Keaton’s Neighbors. On Saturday, poet and rock star Patti Smith will introduce Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar preceded by Kenneth Anger’s Rabbit’s Moon. And on Sunday producer Christine Vachon will screen Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie’s Pull My Daisy as well as Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures. Thanks to Altoids, the screenings are free. Click […]

by Scott Macaulay on Dec 6, 2005

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