I'll admit that it initially seemed a little weird when news broke that Todd Haynes's I'm Not There would be opening on two screens at the Film Forum and also at Lincoln Plaza in late November. Decently budgeted (reportedly $13.5 million) and starring Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere and others, it hardly, as this piece by John Anderson in The New York Times points out, seems a likely candidate for a small arthouse opening.

But, it is a Todd Haynes film and the Film Forum is a great venue that carries cultural weight. I think, then, in the end there's something refreshing about the choice, and I actually like Harvey Weinstein's quotes and positioning of the film in Anderson's piece:

But Harvey Weinstein, the company’s co-chairman, said the slow rollout was the best way to nurture an unconventional, nonlinear movie like “I’m Not There,” in which the above-mentioned stars play Mr. Dylan at particular stages of his life. Shot in styles that correspond to each Dylan epoch, “I’m Not There” sometimes looks like “A Hard Day’s Night,” elsewhere like “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” with Mr. Dylan’s life being imbued with mythic American qualities.

“With a movie like this you have to build it,” said Mr. Weinstein, who founded the company with his brother, Bob, two years ago after an acrimonious split from the Walt Disney Company saw them relinquish control of Miramax. “I don’t think you can go out on 500 screens. The reason for Film Forum is you go where the best word of mouth is on the movie. I like the movie; I think it’s adventurous. The audience is going to have to work — work in a good way.”

For me, it feels like a nice throwback to the days when art films were a little bit special and not something to be decided upon while in line at the megaplex. In the meantime, here's the trailer:

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/21/2007 10:36:00 PM

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One of the fun things about going to film festivals is that you get to meet old acquaintances, and this has certainly been the case in the last few days at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Yesterday, I bumped into Mike White, who is here in support of his directorial debut, Year of the Dog, which I talked to him about a few months ago. We had a brief catch-up chat, and I was amused to notice that he was wearing exactly the same ski jacket as the cold spring day we had spoken in New York. (The Edinburgh weather has not been at its best, as the summer has seemingly still not arrived in the U.K.)

White was also at the Writing Comedy interview with Judd Apatow (above), part of the festival's writing theme this year. The two former Freaks and Geeks collaborators greeted each other warmly before proceedings began, and later on in the event White was given a microphone so he could contribute to a discussion of the cult TV series. Apatow was typically charming and self-effacing in front of a very obviously appreciative audience: at one point, one of the audience questions was "Can I come and hug you?" Apatow obliged, and then pledged that he was now going to "hug every one of you motherfuckers before this is over!"

Later, I caught up with Apatow, who I also interviewed recently, at the party to celebrate the highly successful festival screening of Knocked Up - as well as, unofficially, Superbad being the current U.S. box office champ. We talked about Hal Ashby and Charles Bukowski, and he joked about a possible Best Actor Oscar nomination for Seth Rogen, who was also in attendance. (Quite bizarrely, while we were talking a man of Apatow's age came up to me, and said, "Judd?! Judd, is that you?" I had to sheepishly say, "No, that's Judd next to me..." It turned out that he was an old college mate of Apatow, and left me all the more certain that my festival fuzz beard does indeed need a trim.)

Another amusing incident came during Apatow's Q&A session when, seeing a woman fleeing the theater, he upbraided the audience member asking the question, saying, "Your question is so bad that she's leaving!" The young lady making a quick exit to fulfill interview obligations was none other than one of our 25 New Faces Jennifer Venditti, the director of the excellent Billy the Kid, which has been a favorite among the EIFF festivalgoers. Another of the New Faces, Alex Holdridge, director of the excellent In Search of a Midnight Kiss , was also here a few days ago. I got talking to him while we were both checking our emails, and he told to me that the Swingers analogy I made when writing about his film was the biggest compliment he could have hoped for. Last night, I saw Teeth (above), the extremely likable Sundance hit starring New Face Jess Weixler and, completing the circle, I am now off to have dinner with yet another New Face, Hope Dickson Leach.

# posted by Nick Dawson @ 8/20/2007 01:52:00 PM

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If you're not in the habit of regularly checking out the main page, head over there now for this interview by Nick Dawson of Superbad director Greg Mottola. His debut feature, Daytrippers, was a great no-budget indie, and now, years later, he's having a spectacular second act with the number one movie in America (and a smaller indie film just about to shoot). While you're there, click on the RSS feed so all of Dawson's interviews are sent directly to your feed reader.

A brief excerpt:

Filmmaker: You worked closely with Judd on Undeclared, but at what stage did he first talk to you about Superbad?

Mottola: We did a table read of a version of the script in 2001 or 2002 with all the people from Undeclared. Seth Rogen was reading the lead, and Jason Segel the other lead. I've always had a hard time wanting to direct other people's writing, but this was one of the scripts that I immediately heard and said, “If you guys get this going, think of me as the director.” So I stayed in touch with Judd and we talked about the project over the years. Then one day last spring, Judd called me here in New York and said, “Do you remember Superbad? I think Sony is interested in making it. Would you still want to do it?” I started to launch into a kind of pretentious explanation as to why I thought I was the perfect director for it, and why it really suited me, and Judd was like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, OK, we're going to fly you to L.A. next week.” We went through some rewriting hoops to make the studio happy, and then we were going, and by and large left alone by them. Well, supported but not really hassled.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/20/2007 10:32:00 AM

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One of the biggest challenges facing a documentary filmmaker is finding the right way to tell their story. One of the great strengths of LYNCH, the new documentary about David Lynch is that the film's innovative style perfectly meshes with Lynch's own aesthetic. (It is also fittingly mysterious that the film's director is unknown, as the director's credit goes to one “blackANDwhite”, an anonymous figure who some people believe is in fact Lynch himself.)

LYNCH has a variety of different visual styles — crisp black-and-white, grainy black-and-white, muted color, strong color, and others in between — and the sound design is often more akin to that of an art installation, as voices fade in and out, than a conventional documentary film. The editing too is impressionistic rather than literal: there are just as many telling snippets of Lynch as there are actual scenes, and sometimes the images onscreen veer intriguingly away from what the audio would lead us to expect. While of all of this could have been arty in an elitist way, what it actually does is provide the perfect vehicle to convey the essence of Lynch. LYNCH is ostensibly about the director as he is in the process of making Inland Empire, yet it strays away from any conventional narrative format and instead jumps around from Lynch on set, to him making his art at home, then photographing old factories in Poland, and then telling anecdotes in his office. The order comes across as haphazard, and yet there is just enough formality to the editing for us to feel not only satisfied at the end, but also that we have gained a significant insight into the multifaceted life of David Lynch.

Two other American docs playing arguably do not quite share the elusive blackANDwhite's ability to frame his story in such an apt manner. Marlo Poras' Run, Granny, Run (about a lovable grandmother, Doris “Granny D” Haddock, who runs for Senate) and Rob VanAlkemade's What Would Jesus Buy? (which focuses on ranting Reverend Billy and his Church of Stop Shopping choir) are in the current vein of docs following in Michael Moore's footsteps by approaching serious, political subjects from a quirky, semi-comic angle. In Run, Granny, Run, the issues are the state of the political system, its intrinsically flawed relationship with big business, and the false belief that anyone can succeed in the political system without personal wealth. With What Would Jesus Buy?, it's the dual evils of rampant American consumerism and globalisation.

Both films are entertaining and enjoyable, but what leaves one feeling slightly short-changed is that the directors present the offbeat characters' stories without ever really addressing the issues the films' protagonists are so passionate about. In What Would Jesus Buy?, there's the odd illuminating soundbite from experts, yet VanAlkamade never does anything more than briefly touch on anything outside of Reverend Billy's experience. In Run, Granny, Run, there's not even those soundbites, and the story is told without it ever being put in a broader context.

As a result, both films feel a little bit like wasted opportunities. It's a shame that neither filmmaker was brave enough to use their oddball characters — as one suspects Moore or What Would Jesus Buy?'s producer Morgan Spurlock would have — as a launchpad to look at the genuine issues at hand, rather than simply leaving their films as narrow portraits of passionate, larger-than-life personalities.

# posted by Nick Dawson @ 8/18/2007 12:22:00 PM

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Matt Dentler came up with a great concept to help get the word out about Joe Swanberg's Hannah Takes the Stairs, which begins a theatrical run Wednesday, August 22 at New York's IFC Center. He's done interviews with Swanberg and the film's other principal collaborators and parceled them out to a number of different film bloggers.

Here's the Filmmaker segment, and thanks, Matt, for including us.

JOE SWANBERG INTERVIEWED BY MATT DENTLER

On the eve of the theatrical debut of Joe Swanberg's SXSW 2007 hit, Hannah Takes the Stairs, I wanted to check in with each of the film's principal collaborators. The film has been documented as a successful collaboration between acclaimed film artists from around the nation, each one offering their own trademark influence on the
final film. "Hannah Takes the Stairs" will open at the IFC Center in New York, on August 22, as well as be available on IFC VOD the same day. As part of an ongoing series you can find throughout the film blogosphere, here is an interview with "Hannah" director Joe Swanberg (also the writer/director of LOL, out soon on DVD):

Dentler: How did you first get connected to Hannah Takes the Stairs?

Swanberg: I met Anish Savjani at SXSW after the premiere of my second film, LOL. He wanted to know what I was working on next, and I told him about a few of the ideas that I was kicking around. The idea for Hannah really appealed to him, so we started talking more seriously about it. We were both excited about the new HD technology and the new channels of distribution opening up, and we thought that this was an interesting story to tell, so we decided to go for it. I started casting right away, and he went to work putting the production together. Four months after our first meeting, we were shooting the film.

Dentler: What do you remember most about the shoot in Chicago?

Swanberg: I remember everything really vividly from the shoot. It was an amazing experience for me. There was so much good energy, and the sense that we were all working together to create something special. Every few days a new person would arrive and add some new flavor to the dish. We did everything together as a group, and it's like we were living in some magical world that we had created. Because nobody was from Chicago, and I wasn't staying at my apartment, the "Hannah" house became this weird other place for all of us. I have a feeling that if I went back it wouldn't be there. Like maybe we just imagined it all. Some particular highlights are (in no particular order): Kent doing penis tricks, Kevin cooking delicious meals, the Duplass and Bujalski "Breakout" rivalry, the Rohal and Bujalski actor look-alike rivalry, no air conditioning, Greta getting really drunk and talking about theater, watching "School Ties" and trips to Cookie Dough Creations.

Dentler: How did the production process differ from your own other projects, or projects you've acted in before or since?

Swanberg: This was a really big change for me from Kissing on the Mouth and LOL. I was able to be a full-time filmmaker for the first time, so my level of focus was much higher. I was able to pay everyone on the film, which made me feel really nice and gave the production a level of professionalism that I appreciated. I had the help of a co-producer, which was amazing. Anish went really far out of his way to make sure that I could focus all of my energy on the artistic aspects of the production and not get bogged down by the logistics. It was also my first time working with experienced actors, which allowed me to use some extended takes that give this film a different feel from my others. The whole thing was a huge learning experience, as a filmmaker and as a person.

Dentler: What are your thoughts on the issues of sex and relationships that come to the forefront of the film?

Swanberg: I think it's important to realize that no one person is going to fulfill every need and desire in your life. If you're
looking for that person, the way Hannah seems to be, you are going to be dissatisfied. I have an addictive personality, and I recognize that in Hannah. I get really into people, and I focus a lot of energy on them, and it's really intense for a period, and then that energy and attention shifts to someone else. I'm trying to balance that a lot more in my own life, and that's my hope for the character in the film. Whether she is figuring that out or not at the end is up to the viewer to decide.

Dentler: Ever been in a love triangle?

Swanberg: I am currently involved in a love triangle with my wife and the Internet. Sometimes we have a threesome and it's great, but other times my wife gets jealous of my time with the Internet. Sometimes I get jealous of my wife's time with the Internet. It's really complicated, but we are committed to working it out.

Dentler: Did you ever work with "the stairs?" Any thoughts on why they didn't make the cut?

Swanberg: As far as I know, Hannah took the stairs before the production ever started, so I never saw them. I think the stairs decided that they were going to take some time and focus on their music, so they're letting acting take a back seat right now.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/17/2007 12:56:00 PM

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IFP Documentary Rough Cut Lab – November 6 – 9, 2007, NYC

The IFP Documentary Rough Cut Lab is a national program connecting mentors and projects before they are submitted to festivals. The Lab aims to identify 10 high quality independently produced documentaries each year that can benefit from the support and expertise of experienced film professionals. The key creative teams of these projects receive feedback from a range of professionals in editing, scoring, post delivery, outreach, marketing and publicity, sales representation and festival strategy. The 2007 Documentary Lab Leaders: the documentary production team of Arts Engine, Inc.: (Election Day, Deadline, Arctic Son, Nuyorican Dream).

As part of IFP’s ongoing commitment to diversity, the Documentary Rough Cut Lab seeks to ensure that at least 50% of the participating projects have an inclusive range of races, genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities and physical abilities in key creative positions. Key criteria: the Lab is for first-time documentary feature directors who have at minimum a full rough assembly for consideration. Full criteria and submission procedures are available at http://market.ifp.org/newyork/labs/

Submission deadline: September 10.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/17/2007 12:50:00 PM

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Over at Movie City Indie, Ray Pride posts a long interview with Tim Kinsella, a musician with dozens of albums under his belt who is turning to filmmaking using the same DIY energy he previously applied to the recording business. His debut feature, Orchard Vale, premiered at the Chicago Underground festival yesterday.

Two excerpts:

RAY PRIDE: Is the disintegration of the music industry because of evolving technology one of the reasons you decided to explore filmmaking?

TIM KINSELLA: I don't get the impression it was ever very easy to make a living as a musician. By the late nineties, I saw my life as potentially fitting into the historical archetype of traveling bard far more so than any aspirations towards rockstardom. I think I had a pretty realistic idea at a relatively young age that those ambitions would only end in bitterness and a sense of personal failure. So to a large degree, I feel I have been able to exist outside the music industry and whether the alt-fad that year is electro-clash or folk, I wouldn't really be fazed. I guess the music-industry life lesson that enabled me to embark on this Orchard Vale pit would be more a matter of internalizing the DIY ethics of my formative punk rock years and extrapolating that approach from hanging your own flyers to making a movie....

PRIDE: You've gone from the music industry, and now to narrative filmmaking, the industry support of which is being eroded, even demolished economically by the same technology that puts it into the hands of almost anyone. Is this out of the frying pan and into the deep fryer?

KINSELLA: The economic reality of it is, I'm a bartender. That frees up a lot of mental space regarding popular reception of an idea I may want to pursue, like nudging a note over here and there and straightening out the structure of this song just a teeny-weeny bit might make it more palatable to the masses and then I can pay my rent easier or whatever. But I don't need to worry about that because I am a bartender. For years I had this small bit of money I was able to move around from project to project to kick-start different things and then when it paid itself back, I could move it into the next thing. But this was never to be confused with the money I lived on. But since record labels discontinued the old tradition of paying royalties and after making Orchard Vale, this small bundle has dissipated.

Read the whole interview at the link above. And here is the trailer for Orchard Vale.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/16/2007 09:59:00 PM

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"The ambiguously desirable New York Ghost," as the eccentric PDF blog is dubbing itself this month, reviews what they imagine to be the soundtrack to Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Express. Only, they haven't seen the movie. And, Ghost, hate to break it to you, but I saw the movie the other night and your ten-song tracklist prediction is 0 for 10.

Still, there is something kinda cool about such preemptive critical thought. Here's the Ghost on track one:

1. Talking Heads, ‘Born Under Punches’ (as by a blind Sikh beggar). Train tracks. Dust. Oppressive sunlight. Sublimely penurious farmers wash garments in a dying creek. An eyeless supplicant sits cross-legged beside the train tracks, wheezing like a set of antique billows, moaning: ‘Take a look at these hands/Take a look at these hands/The hand speaks/The hand of a government man.’

A train approaches. The blind man is unmoved. It rushes by, drowning out his dirge.

Sounds of attractive young white men arguing.

As train passes the beggar, sound of fist hitting face.

Pair of aviator sunglasses flies out window, landing on the blind man’s face.

Shot of train exiting the scene: ‘The Darjeeling Limited.’ The blind man stands, wobbling toward the horizon, singing all the
while: ‘And the heat goes on.’

Click on the link above to subscribe to New York Ghost.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/16/2007 09:28:00 PM

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Gregg Goldstein in The Hollywood Reporter writes about an innovative film marketing class based around John Sayles's Honeydripper.

From the piece:

"Stomp the Yard" producer Will Packer and Emerging Pictures founder Ira Deutchman are teaming with Clark Atlanta University to launch a film marketing and distribution course for African-American college students across the country.

The class will be based around the marketing plan for John Sayles' upcoming musical drama "Honeydripper" starring Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Stacy Keach, Mary Steenburgen and Sean Patrick Thomas. Lectures will be organized by Clark Atlanta marketing professor Charles W. Richardson Jr., led by industry professionals, (including Rainforest Films' Packer) and distributed on the Internet.

Before Emerging Pictures releases the Sayles film in New York and Los Angeles on Dec. 28, select students from participating schools will help develop and implement a grassroots marketing campaign with their professors and the film's distribution team. It will continue throughout the platform release in Atlanta and Chicago on Jan. 18 and a wide release the following month.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/16/2007 09:07:00 PM

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A couple of posts below I discussed the deal that a dozen A-list writers made at Fox in which they'll each write a spec for the studio and, in return, receive a low up-front payday but good money as well as creative controls if the film gets made.

One of the writers, John August, has more on his blog. Here's an excerpt in which he explains the rationale for the deal:

So. Will it work? Will it change anything?

I don’t know. I think it’s best to classify it as an experiment. We’re each committing to one script, so if it simply doesn’t work out, no one is particularly worse off. And it’s hard to say whether the basic idea could (or should) be expanded to include the other kinds of movies screenwriters are hired to write: adaptations, sequel, remakes, and everything else that relies on underlying property. Without the ability to take the project back, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for a writer to reduce his upfront money. Even among this group, most scripts don’t become movies. The gamble might not make sense.

What I will say is that as an A-list screenwriter, it’s become increasingly difficult to set up an original project at the studios, who (understandably) want to save their development budgets for the movies they’re pretty sure they’re going to make — largely sequels, adaptations and remakes. I’m very excited to write an original for Fox, a movie not based on anything other than what I think would be great idea. So while this deal is largely about rights and money, I think it has the potential to lead to some better, more original movies. If so, that’s a win for everyone.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/16/2007 08:28:00 PM

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With an abundance of high-profile premieres and buzz films to see, there's always the danger that in going to a festival you miss out on the diversity of the programming. The Edinburgh International Film Festival has always provided a range of delights for cineastes, and this year is no exception. There is a focus on authors and screenwriting at EIFF '07, including a retrospective of films written by the inimitable Anita Loos. Though probably most famous for her involvement with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Women (which is currently being remade), Loos also contributed intertitles to D.W. Griffith's seminal Intolerance, which screened today.

Seeing Griffith's classic was a rare treat, especially given that it was the original roadshow version of the film, now reconstructed, with live piano accompaniment. Though Intolerance has inevitably aged somewhat in the 91 years since it was first released, it still packs an incredible punch. Griffith tells tales of, yes, intolerance in four stories across the ages: the destruction of Babylon, Jesus Christ's crucifixion, the massacring of the Huguenots, and a contemporary story of misguided reformists. Though it is impossible not to comment on the scale of Griffith's film - the huge, extravagant sets, the thousands of extras, the huge historical sweep, and the epic three-hour running time - what is most fascinating to filmwatchers today is the magnificent modernity of Griffith's editing. Rather than tell the four stories in sequence, he tells them all simultaneously, letting thematically similar moments sit side by side. Because audiences at the time were less sophisticated, the parallels are often stressed rather heavyhandedly in the intertitles (with the word "intolerance" appearing all too often), yet as the film progresses the integration of the story strands becomes seamless. As the film reaches its climax, the two main stories - the modern reform story, and the fall of Babylon - sometimes combine to become one. At one point we see a train thundering down the track, carrying the hero's stay of execution, as a sea of Persians descends on Babylon, intent on destroying the city. Juxtaposing good and ill, Griffith unites the two images, two unstoppable waves, and it's magic to watch.

Canadian director Catherine Martin's in the cities is the kind of film you stumble across at film festivals, are transfixed by, but usually never get to see again due to the current state of distribution. But the reason film buyers aren't turned on by films like Martin's is exactly the same reason it is so powerful and compelling: it is understated, original, and refuses to sugarcoat its message.

Martin essentially eschews a conventional narrative approach, instead choosing to organically move from one small incident to another, with the emotions slowly building one on top of the other rather than the usual progression from plotpoint to plotpoint. The four characters, a tree surgeon (Hélène Florent), a blind man whose hobby is photography (Robert Lepage), a depressed bookstore clerk (Ève Duranceau) and a unmarried old woman (Hélène Loiselle), all live lives of quiet desperation, failing to truly connect with anybody. In the course of the film their paths cross, yet rather than them being able to meaningfully help each other, their contact seldom makes anything but a fleeting impact.

Though the characters are depressed, the film itself is not depressing. Shot with restrained beauty, its images and emotions are transfixing. Martin has previously made documentaries, and there is an intimacy and an ability to capture the humanity in small moments that has carried over into her fiction filmmaking. The performances from the actors are so heartfelt and unmannered that we never feel as if there is a scrap of artifice to what they are doing. in the cities is symphonic, transformative and ultimately deeply moving; though a poetic and innovative approach to cinema may not be thriving in the mainstream, Martin's film gives us hope of its survival.

# posted by Nick Dawson @ 8/16/2007 11:06:00 AM

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The Edinburgh International Film Festival starts tonight with writer-director David Mackenzie's Hallam Foe. The movie is a natural choice for the opening slot as Mackenzie is one of the most prominent Scottish directors around and the film is not only set in Edinburgh, but captures the beauty of the Scottish capital with reverent affection. Audiences' appreciation of the film, however, will primarily rest on their response to the eponymous character, a goodhearted pervert played with gusto by Jamie Bell, and their ability to buy into the moments where plausibility is tested.

The action starts in the Scottish countryside where we find wild boy Hallam spying on fornicating teenagers from the treehouse he has retreated to since his mother's death a few years previously. He is the quintessential lovable fuck-up: he wears a badger's head hat, spies on all the neighbors with binoculars, picks locks and clambers over rooftops. He also hates his stepmother, Verity (Claire Forlani), the woman who has replaced his beloved mother in his father's (Ciarán Hinds) affections, and believes she was the person behind his mother's supposed suicide. Verity, sick of Hallam being around, uses her wiles to force him out of country estate where he has spent all of his life. He flees to Edinburgh, hoping for a new start, but finds himself homeless and penniless, and unable to put his voyeuristic habits behind him. He wanders around the city's historic city center, where he spots Kate, a woman (Sophia Myles) who is the spitting image of his mother. He compulsively stalks her, then gets a job working with her, and it's not long before the two are engaged in an impossibly complicated romantic entanglement.

Whatever reservations one has about Hallam Foe — and some people may have many — it has a quirky charm, stemming primarily from Bell's spirited performance, and is well-directed by Mackenzie. Myles continues to suggest she has genuine star quality, there are likeable supporting turns from Scots Ewen Bremner and Maurice Roëves, and the strong indie-alternative soundtrack solidifies the film's offbeat feel. However, the characters' actions too often seem implausible when, one suspects, they made more sense in the novel by Peter Jinks that the film is based upon. Rather like Mackenzie's debut, The Last Great Wilderness (which is also about the intersection between Scotland's primal connection with nature and unorthodox sexual proclivities), Hallam Foe is fascinating and fun despite its flaws and continues to show signs of Mackenzie's potential to be a genuinely important director.

In Search of a Midnight Kiss, the third feature from American writer-director Alex Holdridge (who is currently one of our 25 New Faces), has interesting parallels with indie classic Swingers. In 1996, Jon Favreau and Doug Liman's crossover hit told the story of a young man who, after his girlfriend has broken up with him, relocates to Los Angeles in the hope of making it in comedy, but instead ends up struggling to get any work and mired in his own heartbroken depression. Just over a decade on, Holdridge's movie takes the exact same central idea, but takes it in a new direction.

While Swingers focused on the protagonist's slow withdrawal from his introspective fug, with his “money" friends helping him get to a place where he might find love again, in In Search of a Midnight Kiss Holdridge instead puts his downtrodden hero, Wilson (Scoot McNairy), on a recovery crash course as he tries to find a last-minute date so that he can have someone to kiss as the New Year bells chime. The answer, of course, is to get on the internet and, more specifically, Craigslist. He chooses to meet up with the first girl who responds to his ad, Vivian (Sara Simmonds), but the signs aren't good at all. She chainsmokes, slugs vodka from the bottle, is belligerent and brutally callous, treats men with disdain and seems out to manipulate everyone and everything as much as she can. It seems impossible that she will tolerate Wilson's company for literally five minutes, let alone be his midnight kiss, yet slowly her layers of aggression and resistance begin falling away and we see her cautiously begin to open herself up to the possibility of romance.

If Swingers is an inspiration to Holdridge, both in his appropriation of its plot and a similar attempt to capture the current state of relationships, then so also is Woody Allen. Breathtakingly shot in crisp black-and-white photography that recalls Allen's Manhattan, Holdridge treats L.A.'s Downtown area as if it were a miniature New York, as his unlikely couple wander the streets, take the subway, and stumble across beautiful old buildings — all of which are antithetical to L.A. life — and uses them to capture the moments that bring Wilson and Vivian closer together. In Search of a Midnight Kiss is due for release in the U.S. next year, and it is so well-written, charming and beautifully photographed that it is inconceivable to think of audiences not falling in love with this little gem.

# posted by Nick Dawson @ 8/15/2007 02:48:00 PM

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Michael Fleming has a noteworthy story in Variety today reporting that a dozen screenwriters with strong commercial track records have joined together in a collective called Writing Partners which is making a deal at Fox. Offering a stark contrast to the cliche of the abused Hollywood writer, the Fox deal offers the scribes real incentives to bring spec projects to the studio.

From the piece:

The writers, who'll take small upfront payments and will only get their usual fees on films that go into production, will also be guaranteed input as producers, and protection from being rewritten without their permission.

Fox is backing a venture called Writing Partners, which is comprised of Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio ("Pirates of the Caribbean," "Shrek"); Michael Arndt ("Little Miss Sunshine"); John August ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"); Stuart Beattie ("Collateral"); Michael Brandt and Derek Haas ("3:10 to Yuma"); Tim Herlihy ("The Wedding Singer"); Simon Kinberg ("Mr. and Mrs. Smith," "X-Men: The Last Stand"); Craig Mazin ("Scary Movie 3 and 4"); and Marianne & Cormac Wibberley ("National Treasure 1 and 2").

The venture marks the third time this year that a collective of writers have banded together with the goal of making them real partners in the creative process, but Writing Partners breaks ground as the first to align directly with a major studio, and the first to spell out that the scribes will be paid gross as writers.

Fleming goes on to speculate that the deal is an attempt by Fox to deal with the upcoming strike by ensuring that it has dibs on the quality specs that could emerge from the writers' enforced downtime.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/14/2007 09:26:00 PM

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Pitchfork Media reports today on the soundtrack for Todd Haynes's upcoming I'm Not There. The film is now slated for release on November 21 and the soundtrack will be release three weeks earlier, on October 30.

Artists who will cover Dylan on what sounds like a fantastic disk include Karen O., the Hold Steady, Sonic Youth, Tom Verlaine, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Yo La Tengo, Antony and the Johnsons and many, many more. A complete track listing can be found at the link.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/14/2007 01:59:00 PM

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Over at Boing Boing, Cory Doctorow reports on the Mission:Impossible-like self-destruction of videos legally purchased from the Google Video Store. He quotes this letter from Google sent to the purchaser of a Star Trek episode:

As a valued Google user, we're contacting you with some important information about the videos you've purchased or rented from Google Video. In an effort to improve all Google services, we will no longer offer the ability to buy or rent videos for download from Google Video, ending the DTO/DTR (download-to-own/rent) program. This change will be effective August 15, 2007.

To fully account for the video purchases you made before July 18, 2007, we are providing you with a Google Checkout bonus for $5.00....

After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased or rented videos.

Before issuing a class-action call-to-arms, Doctorow offers this analysis of the Google move and studio-DRM strategies in general:

This is a giant, flaming middle finger, sent by Google and the studios to the customers who were dumb/trusting enough to buy DRM videos. How many of these people will trust the next DRM play from Google (no doubt coming soon from YouTube) or the studios?

The terms that Google sold its video on were similar to those laid down by other downloadable video "stores," like Amazon Unbox. These stores claim to "sell" you things, but you can never truly 0wn the things they sell -- they are your theoretical property only, liable to confiscation at any time. That's the lesson for DRM: only the big motion picture companies, search giants and other corporate overlords get to own property. We vassals are mere tenant-farmers, with a precarious claim on our little patch of dirt.

Scott Kirsner at CinemaTech has more on Google's decision to discontinue downloads, linking to this piece by Michael Liedtke in the Washington Post.

Here's Liedtke:

The move provides the latest indication that Google has become more willing to pull the plug on services that aren't gaining traction, something that its management rarely did until the past year. Last November, Google abandoned a service that hired researchers to find answers to specific questions posed by users.

And Kirsner:

The three biggest problems: Google never had a wide range of content for purchase. Google invented its own DRM system, so videos wouldn't play anywhere but Google's site. Google didn't let independent creators sell their content - only big media companies. And Google didn't promote the paid content; it was extremely tough to find.

And for some dumb reason, consumers will no longer be able to play purchased videos. You're telling me that Google, which spends about $1 billion on employee lunches every day, couldn't keep the necessary software up and running - to do right by the people who supported this service while it existed?

I still believe that people will pay for excellent content online. Google just made too many mistakes with this initiative.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/13/2007 01:46:00 PM

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Via A Reminder comes word that the exceptional Sigur Rós are to release Heima, a film of their 2006 tour of small towns Iceland, on November 5, the same day as they put out Hvarf-Heim, a double album of live recordings. I made a pilgrimage to see them play in their home town of Reykjavik, but it looks like the songs and the scenery in Heima are even more stunning than what I experienced.

I'm embedding the Youtube version of the trailer below, but for ultimate impact you should check out the pristine version on the film's official site with, of course, the volume turned up to max.

# posted by Nick Dawson @ 8/13/2007 11:40:00 AM

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The always titillating Camille Paglia dedicated her monthly Salon column to what she considers to be an era with no art films.

Here's an excerpt:

On the culture front, fabled film directors Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni dying on the same day was certainly a cold douche for my narcissistic generation of the 1960s. We who revered those great artists, we who sat stunned and spellbound before their masterpieces -- what have we achieved? Aside from Francis Ford Coppola's "Godfather" series, with its deft flashbacks and gritty social realism, is there a single film produced over the past 35 years that is arguably of equal philosophical weight or virtuosity of execution to Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" or "Persona"? Perhaps only George Lucas' multilayered, six-film "Star Wars" epic can genuinely claim classic status, and it descends not from Bergman or Antonioni but from Stanley Kubrick and his pop antecedents in Hollywood science fiction.

Tragically, very few young people today, teethed on dazzling special effects and a hyperactive visual style, seem to have patience for the long, slow take that deep-think European directors once specialized in. It's a technique already painfully time-bound -- that luxurious scrutiny of the tiniest facial expressions or the chilly sweep of a sterile room or bleak landscape. What my generation was passionately responding to in European films was their sexual candor and their low-budget protest against the peachy Technicolor artifice and forced jollity of mainstream Hollywood filmmaking in the Marilyn Monroe/Rock Hudson/Doris Day era, with its postwar myths of ever-imperiled virginity and ideal marriage.

I'm not sure who, if anyone, still views moviegoing as a quasi-mystical experience. As a college student in the mid-'60s, I saw the movie screen as a door into another world. When Roman Polanski's hypnotic "Knife in the Water" was shown in my very first week at Harpur College (the State University of New York at Binghamton), life seemed to change overnight. Jean Cocteau's "Orphée," a surreal modernization of the Orpheus legend in existential Paris, sent me staggering out speechless under the twinkling upstate stars.

Other indelible memories: the grinding of the collapsing stone balustrade in the baroque gardens of Alain Resnais's "Last Year at Marienbad." The night wind eerily stirring the spray-painted green trees in the London park of Antonioni's "Blow-Up." The column of army tanks ominously rumbling through the city street in the unknown land of Bergman's "The Silence." The life-giving waters of the Fountain of Trevi suddenly stopping in Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita," stranding Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg mid-kiss.

Here's the link.

# posted by Benjamin Crossley-Marra @ 8/11/2007 10:46:00 AM

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The IFP's Filmmaker Conference has announced the names of some of the panelists who will be taking the stage at the Puck Building in New York City next month from Sept. 16 - 21. Filmmaker Magazine’s Managing Editor Jason Guerrasio and I will be moderating a number of conversations, including those with producer Jon Kilik (Julian Schnabel’s upcoming The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Babel), former Artisan co-founder Bill Block of QED Intl., an LA-based financing, sales and production company, and former tech investor and entrepreneur Tony Liano of Cracker Content, a streaming entertainment network. Over the course of the six days, there will be an opportunity to hear from indie pioneers such as John Sayles and Maggie Renzi discussing their Toronto bound Honeydripper, along with a number of familiar indie producers, including Lee Daniels, Sarah Green, Ted Hope, Peter Saraf and Lydia Dean Pilcher. The DIY and tech scenes will be represented with Cinema Tech’s Scott Kirsner, filmmakers Lance Weiler (Head Trauma), the Four Eyed Monsters duo of Susan Buice and Arin Crumley, Todd Rohal (Guatemalan Handshake), and internet phenomenon M Dot Strange, one of Filmmaker’s recent 25 New Faces from the summer issue. The Conference ends with two days worth of doc focused panels. Also on tap will be Moby, Participant Productions’ Diane Weyerman, casting director Avy Kaufman and many more.

For a complete list of confirmed panelists to date, click here.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/09/2007 03:48:00 PM

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Over at the website for his film, Tom DeCillo is posting a very funny series of video podcasts in which he parodies the insanity involved in promoting an independent film -- in his case, Delirious, which opens August 15th.

Here DiCillo is at an early marketing meeting... and what's scary is that I've been at marketing meetings only slightly less crazy than this one.



And here's the latest, in which DiCillo tries to get star Gina Gershon to do some viral marketing in a clip with the Google-friendly name of "Gina Gershon Sex Tape."

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/08/2007 02:11:00 PM

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Over at his Indiewire blog, Matt Dentler posts about the planning for next year's panels at SXSW and includes this link to a stream of the 2007 panel, "Building an Online Fan Base."

I attended this panel, which featured Lance Weiler (Head Trauma), moderator Scott Kirsner (CinemaTech), David Straus (Without A Box), Ian Schafer (Deep Focus), Scilla Andreen (IndieFlix), and thought it was a great and stimulating discussion on challenges and solutions for indies in the internet marketing space.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/08/2007 12:14:00 PM

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There are 30 days left before the start of the Toronto International Film Festival. If you want to attend, online distribution/online community Jaman may be your last hope. It's currently holding a "Win A Trip For Two" contest to TIFF. If you register to Jaman by August 17 you'll be in the running. Grand prize winner receives: round-trip coach airfare for two, 3 nights stay at the Sutton Hotel, 2 tickets to the Closing Night Gala, 6 tickets to be redeemed for your choice of films, 1 programme book and film schedule, and 2 festival t-shirts. Click here to register.

# posted by Jason Guerrasio @ 8/07/2007 11:40:00 AM

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Boing Boing points to this hilarious, jauntily scored piece of media analysis in which the folks at iTulip annotate Jim Cramer's CNBC meltdown yesterday in which he begged Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke to cut the discount rate tomorrow. "We have Armageddon!" he shouted, fearful that the current credit squeeze will decimate the financial industry. The iTulip people (who I know little about) provide a populist critique, wondering if free market free falls are only allowed to happen to aging industrial companies and not financial services.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/06/2007 03:48:00 PM

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Mutable Cinema is an interactive movie installation which allows people to personalize and create their own viewing experience. An audience watches as a player edits movie clips in real time and generate new narrative sequences from a database of pre-formatted audio/visual content. The player interacts with the Mutable Cinema Interactive Engine by choosing clips to play on the big screen, organizing them, and selecting different point of views. Since this action takes place in real time, the player sometimes struggles and scrambles to keep up, just barely assembling a meaningful story.

Mario Marquez, a Mexican independent producer, is the main creator of this new media installation art piece. The Mutable Cinema project is showing next at the Second International Conference on Digital Interactive Media in Entertainment and Art in Perth Australia this September. Visit www.mutablecinema.com for more information.

# posted by Michal Zebede @ 8/06/2007 03:31:00 PM

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Andrew McPhillips’ animated short, Blood Will Tell, is a unique six-minute science fiction horror film set in 16th century Holland. A mysterious visitor who is hopelessly sick attempts to hide from death in a dark, mosquito-infested well. But the darkness can’t hide him for long…blood will tell.

With a background in film and photography, Andrew reproduced the look of early “tin-type" Victorian photographs (like those of Edward Steichen) in the film, using a new animation technique based on the tin-type photographic process. Music by Icelandic band Sigur Ros complements the melancholic, disturbing, and sometimes beautiful images.

The film will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this September.

# posted by Michal Zebede @ 8/06/2007 02:16:00 PM

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In Variety Todd McCarthy has penned a personal take on the death of Bergman and Antonioni that begins by rightly recognizing the privileged place they held in 20th century cinema:

Are there any directors today made of such stern stuff as were Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni?
As a matter of fact, there are -- the likes of Hou Hsiao Hsien, Abbas Kiarostami and Bela Tarr come to mind. But the miracle of Bergman and Antonioni, who died on the same day, July 30, at the ages of 89 and 94, respectively, is that, while making films expressive of bleak, even despairing world views, they commanded the attention, not just of critics and film buffs, but of the entire cultured world, and in the process developed a sufficiently wide public to sustain commercially viable careers. Their work was demanding and often forbidding enough to be off-putting. But in forcing a sizeable international public to confront and try to digest their films on their own terms, these artists deepened and enriched the idea of what films might aspire to and accomplish.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/04/2007 05:14:00 PM

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Over at his blog, Sujewa Ekanayake takes his experience self-producing a one-week run of his feature Date Number One in an alternative venue and breaks it down into the hard numbers. He talks about staffing, projector rentals, sound and the advantages of setting up a projection space in a non-traditional venue rather than renting a theater.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/04/2007 03:53:00 PM

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At it's heart, the independent film movement is driven by private equity -- both the expansiveness of your college buddies or parents' (or proverbial dentist's) portfolio, or the adventureousness of private hedge funds looking for new investment opportunities. But the distance between macro economic goings on and the money hitting an indie filmmaker's LLC is so vast that we often don't consider how the broader economy is affecting our own.

Here, then, is a clear and sobering article from Agonist that explains the current sub-prime mortgage mess, the possible contagion resulting from it, and both its best and or worst case scenarios.

Is it directly relevant to indie film right now? No... but it might be soon.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/04/2007 03:06:00 PM

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IGN has just posted online the trailer for Joe Swanberg's Hannah Takes the Stairs, which Alicia Van Couvering wrote about in Filmmaker as part of her article on the so-called "mumblecore" movement.

The film is getting a release through the IFC First Take series and plays at the IFC Center in New York as part of The New Talkies: Generation DIY series beginning August 22.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/04/2007 01:28:00 PM

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The forthcoming fall issue of Filmmaker marks the magazine's 15th anniversary, and, as I was having lunch the other day with Lance Weiler, he had a great idea about how you can help celebrate it with us. If you're a long-time (or even short-time) Filmmaker reader and any particular article or interview we've published has helped you or informed you in any way in your filmmaking work, let us know. Write a paragraph or two about the situation and reference the original piece. We'll edit together the best responses and run them next issue.

You can send your thoughts to me at scott@filmmakermagazine.com and please include "Filmmaker's 15th" in the subject line.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/04/2007 01:06:00 PM

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Over at Cinemad, Nick Russell interviews filmmaker Betzy Bromberg, who is also the Director of the Film/Video Program at CalArts. Among other things Russell talks with her about her latest film, A Darkness Swallowed, which took six years to make. He describes the film as "an astrological exploration of the mind and what we call 'memor'” as we gradually experience a slow fall, into a funnel. Using primarily close-up imagery that seems abstract at first, Bromberg creates an overall experience of distorted enclosure that lasts for days."

An excerpt:

Cinemad: Do you normally give yourself plenty of time without the constraints?

Bromberg: Yea! I like to finish work because you don’t get to the next place until you complete something. But honestly, when I was younger I wanted to make films faster. I think now about “God, wouldn’t it be great to be able to knock out films every two years?” to keep people present with your work. But honestly, it’s really about the process. It you want to make long films, that process takes longer. I’ve never pressured myself that way. I’ve never rushed a film out to make a screening or a deadline. It takes as long as it takes, as long as you can stay with that process.

Cinemad: Sometimes certain filmmakers will base the speed of the process based on a deadline or a grant.

Bromberg: Some people need that motivation. I see that in students too. A deadline is a great thing because it motivates them to get it done. I believe that staying on something for a long period of time actually deepens the experience of making it.

Cinemad: There’s some sort of great adrenaline rush to watch the visuals rush in when you’re making a film.

Bromberg: It’s such a great process. It’s wonderful to have this thing in your mind working all the time. Even when you’re not working on the film. You know, driving, for instance and you’re still thinking about it. I like being in that process.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/04/2007 12:59:00 PM

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Great news for those who have been concerned about the proposed new rules regulating film shooting and photography on the streets of New York. The Mayors Office of Film and Television has announced that they will be redrafting these regulations following feedback from the community.

You can read their announcement here.

Here's a key passage from the press release:

Among other things, the re-drafting phase will focus on meaningfully addressing concerns that sections (b)(ii) and (b)(iii) affected individuals who were not engaged in the type of activities traditionally regulated by MOFTB. These are the sections of the proposed rules that defined the conduct which triggered the requirement for a permit from MOFTB and included such considerations as the number of people involved and the duration of the activity. The redrafted proposed rules will then be published, a new 30-day comment period will be provided, and a public hearing will be held to consider the new proposal.

“We are dedicated to fulfilling our obligation to create film permitting rules as mandated by the City Charter,” said Commissioner Oliver. “We appreciate the feedback and collaboration of the production community in the City, and look forward to revising our proposal. Our office remains committed to providing our customers with expedited coordination of their film location work in the safest manner possible, so that the City’s film and television industry can continue to flourish, free speech is protected and all parties can continue to film, photograph and enjoy the greatest City in the world.”

Picture New York, the grass roots organization that organized the protest against the rules, has more.

This is really a great move by the Mayor's Office. Those of us in the production community have felt a little weird during this whole episode because, in truth, the New York City Mayors Office of Film and Television has historically been supremely helpful and sensitive to the needs of independent filmmakers (most of whom, by the way, get permits and buy insurance and thus wouldn't have been affected by the proposed rules). What we've all been advocating for during this process is actually the right of street photographers, artists, tourists, amateur filmmakers and others to engage in a more informal filmmaking practice that is equally valuable and relevant but which, I think, doesn't need to be regulated by this office.

Apparently new rules will be drafted and there will be another 30 day review period. In the meantime, though, thanks to the Mayors Office for listening to the people on this one.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/03/2007 03:54:00 PM

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Here's the trailer for a music doc I'm excited to see -- Adam Bhala Lough's (whose Weapons I really liked at Sundance this year) and Ethan Higbee's film on Lee Scratch Perry.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/02/2007 11:05:00 PM

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Tomorrow, August 3rd, is the ending date for the public comment period concerning the proposed new rules regarding street photography in New York City. If you haven't signed on yet, you can here, and if you want to know more about the proposed changes, visit the Picture New York website where the various arguments against the changes are laid out.

After a relatively short period of time during which opposition to these filming changes was mobilized, the issue has really jumped into the general public and broader media consciouness. This morning I saw posts on a site completely unrelated to film and the arts urging its readers to protest and sign the petition, and the other night, Keith Olbermann on his "Countdown" show named Julianne Cho, a staffer at the New York Mayor's Office for Film and Television, as "the worst person in the world" for her role in devising what he sees as plainly unconstitutional regulations. ((You can watch it here.)

So, if any of this protest proves effective -- and I hope it does -- there will undoubtedly be some kind of forthcoming process by which new, Constitution-friendly regulations get drafted. What should those regulations be? That's what I was asked recently by someone who wanted some constructive advice rather than more "fight the power" blog postings. I said that I thought that the ad hoc method that has been place for years has been working fine. When a filmmaker needs permits because he/she has to rent equipment and fulfill insurance requirements, receive New York's most excellent free film shoot police, block off parking spaces, and control a public space, etc., he/she gets one. Artists, amateurs, tourists, street photographers, etc., who operate more unobtrusively and just tend to "capture life" with the public barely noticing them more or less do their own thing.

For me, then, the reasons the city would want to have rules are purely public safety ones. At what point does a filmmaker create a potential problem in a public space by virtue of his or her shooting? I think that in the world we live in, filming has become an activity that is natural to many people. Someone documenting something on the street with their cell phone or handheld DV camera is the equivalent of a reporter jotting notes on a notepad years ago. I don't think there's anything inherent in the filmmaking act that demands regulation. What does need to be regulated is the introduction of elements that might disrupt a public space or require the shut down of a public space. For me, it's all about the filmmaker's impact on the
surrounding environment and not how long he/she is standing there filming or who might be with him/her.

What about those who say that in this post-9/11 era, some kind of regulatory framework needs to be placed around the act of filmmaking due to concerns of terrorists mapping our infrastructure? (Yes, some perfectly reasonable people have made this argument to me recently.) Aside from the fact that cameras are near-ubiquitous these days and any attempt to truly enforce these regulations would be inherently selective, one has to ultimately acknowledge, like I said above, that we are in a world in which everything is being documented and, when its done by citizens, this is mostly a good thing. (Note my qualification; I am not wild about surveillance cameras on every corner.) In fact, the accessibility of citizen-controlled video equipment has played an important role in the documentation of human rights abuses across the globe. (This activity is documented and promoted by the non-profit organization Witness.)

I hope in the next go-round the essentially positive and democratic value of enabling our citizens to photograph the world around them is acknowledged and that the debate settles back into issues of public safety which I'm sure we'll all be able to agree on.

# posted by Scott Macaulay @ 8/02/2007 07:58:00 PM

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