Writer Dennis Cooper has a lively blog with well-composed daily postings and interaction with a community of over 50 active posters and respondents. Today Cooper does one of his periodic celebrations of great cultural figures with “Jacques Tati Day,” a collection of links to such items as the original trailer for Playtime, a Spanish-language dubbed scene from Mon Oncle, Tati’s amazing official website, an excerpt from Forza Bastia 1978 ou l’ile en fete, a controversial unfinished film purportedly by Tati, and much, much more. Further on down the blog page there’s a bunch of other film stuff, including a fascinating […]
Caveh Zahedi scores a scoop on his website with what could be the first footage of JT Leroy (aka Laura Albert) after the various newspaper and magazine exposes. He ran into Albert at the San Francisco premiere of The Puffy Chair, filming her from his camcorder as he was introduced to her. He says she asked him to stop filming but then changed her mind when Zahedi showed her the footage, which he has now posted to his site.
Filmmaker‘s Managing Editor Matt Ross has just written and directed a new short, Lola, and he’s got a MySpace page already and a website too. Dubbed “a short film about a long night,” the film stars Cordelia Reynolds, Daniel Sauli and Dean Wareham. Both sites contain clips — check them out.
Bill Condon may have turned sex researcher Alfred Kinsey into a mainstream movie figure, but underground filmmaker Bret Woods has turned to a slightly more esoteric source for his latest film. According to its new website, Psychopathia Sexualis “dramatizes case histories of turn-of-the-century sexual deviance, drawn from the pages of Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s notorious medical text. Among the cases are a sexually repressed man who discovers an unhealthy appetite for blood; a homosexual man who submits himself to a doctor who promises to ‘cure’ his condition; and a masochist who hires a pair of corseted prostitutes to enact a most […]
The Independent Feature Project is offering a membership special offering. In addition to receiving all the usual IFP’s member benefits — and a subscription to Filmmaker, those who join by May 31 will receive the IFP’s 100-page Industry Directory, complete with contact info and bios of 300 different production and distribution companies, and also five hours of audio material, panel discussions on the following topics: Working With First-Time Filmmakers: Michelle Satter (Sundance) and Holly Becker (IFC) What Distributors Look For: Tom Quinn (Magnolia) and John Hodges (Focus Features) Building a Career: Dylan Leiner (Sony Pictures Classics) and Mike Lubin (Paradigm) […]
Despite the subject matter, it was always going to be a little dicey premiering Sofia Coppola’s deliberately stylish, English-language, Yank-directed and anachronistically scored Marie Antoinette in Competition at Cannes, where, even on a normal day, audiences can resemble an angry lynch mob. And, from a business point-of-view, distributor Pathe’s opening of the film in France simultaneous with the Cannes premiere creates an interesting situation for U.S. distrib Sony Pictures who will have to either springboard off the film’s European performance or else actively ignore it when it debuts the film here in the fall. This morning the Drudge Report linked […]
CineVegas has announced its very interesting line-up. Check out the website for the films, news of the panel discussions and tributes, and trailers for a bunch of the titles. The fest takes place June 9 – 17th at the Palms Casino Resort.
The Reeler checks in on the Sunday afternoon panel, “Four Independents who Turned the Tide,” over at BAM as part of the recent Sundance series there and transcribes some great quotes. The panel was moderated by Janet Maslin and featured Hal Hartley, Alison Anders, David O. Russell and John Waters. From the piece: “I wanna really stick up for Sundance,” Waters said. “I don’t understand today when people say it’s often too commercial. What is the problem if you’re a kid and you go there and someone overpays for your movie? You’re bitching about that?” “I think it’s the free […]
I took a pass on Cannes this year, so I’m here Stateside just like you guys — checking the internet sites a few times a day to see what’s hot. And it appears as if Alejando Gonzalez Innaritu’s Babel may be the film to beat for the Palme’ d’Or. Here’s Jeffrey Welles: “It’s an incredibly shrewd and brilliant film about all of us…about frailty, interconnectedness, aloneness and particularly parents and children. It exudes compassion and acute precision with every frame, shot, edit and line of dialogue. I fucking loved it.” And here’s Ray Bennett in The Hollywood Reporter: “Tense, relentless […]
Below I posted about the new fines for “indecency” being levied by the FCC against broadcasters for “unnecessary” content. In today’s Variety, William Triplett reports on a related story: the Senate’s passing of a bill that will increase indecency fines for broadcasters by a multiple of ten, to $325,000 per infraction. The bill was jammed through the Senate by assumed presidential candidate and Majority Leader Bill Frist, who engaged in the rare parliamentary practice of “hotlining” the bill, quickly pulling the bill from committee review and putting it before the Senate for objection. If no Senator objects, the bill passes […]