Archive for March, 2004
Tuesday, March 30th, 2004
There was interesting news in Variety today — Rick Linklater has been greenlit by Warner Independent Pictures and New York’s Thousand Words to film his adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s great A Scanner Darkly, which will star Keanu Reeves in his first post-Matrix trilogy project. An earlier script was penned by Charlie Kaufman, and the good folks at Muse Productions had the option once — and still list a Chris Cunningham-directed version on their website. Now, however, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney’s Section 8 are producing the current project with Thousand Words. Most interesting is the note that the movie will be done in the same filmed animation style as Linklater’s earlier Waking Life.
While you wait for the Dick adaptation to hit the screen — or perhaps after you digest Kaufman’s current homage to both Dick and Annie Hall, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Heart — check out the Sine Fiction series, digital online MP3 downloads of electronic musicians “scoring” famous science fiction novels. The Strutgarski Brothers’ Roadside Picnic, filmed by Andrei Tarkovsky as Stalker, has been scored by Jos Smolder, and Galactic Zeit “scores” Dick’s last official novel, Radio Free Albemuth. Click on the titles above to download the scores.
Thanks to the folks at Disquiet.com for these links.
… Read the rest
Sunday, March 28th, 2004
Sorry for the lack of blog postings, but the Filmmaker staff has been busy crunching on the next issue of the magazine, which is slated to go to the printer this week.
In the meantime, I got this interesting press release from the folks at Feral House, the scabrous L.A. publisher who can always be counted on for ghoulish esoterica. However, given the various marketing tie-in’s — plastic stakes? — that The Passion of the Christ has already produced, the reissue described below seems almost tame.
“Feral House, publisher of The X-Rated Bible and Apocalypse Culture,, issued the gruesome Catholic martyrology, Tortures and Torments of the Christian Matyrs, back in 1989. This irreverent release, complete with illustrations by contemporary artists and murderers, also contained a medical investigation into the Crucifixion (reprinted with permission from the Journal of the American Medical Association), a scholarly article evidently appropriated by none other than Mel Gibson for his bloody meditation on Jesus.
“Says Peter J. Boyer in the 9/15/03 issue of The New Yorker: ‘Gibson seems to have relied heavily upon On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ, which describes the Roman tools of punishment, the choreography of the infliction, and its severity. All these elements are directly reflected in Gibson’s film.’
“In recognition of The Passion of The Christ, Feral House has re-released the bloody martyrology, complete with On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ, the entirety of the 16th-century martyrology with its original engravings, combined with illustrations executed specifically for the Feral House edition by fine artists, underground cartoonists, tattooists and murderers.
” ‘Blasphemous and obscene… [caters] to the gags-and-whips crowd… Something to offend almost everyone.’ — Los Angeles Times
“More information available at Feral House.”
… Read the rest
Sunday, March 21st, 2004
With his purchase of the Landmark Theatres and Magnolia Pictures and his creation of production company 2929 and the high definition cable network HDNet, which boasts an NYC-based production arm run by Open City Films’ Jason Kliot, Dallas Maverick-owner Mark Cuban has quickly announced himself as one of indie film’s key players.
For those who want to know more about Cuban, check out his weblog, which boasts regular postings about the Mavericks, Godsend, the Robert DeNiro/Rebecca Romijn-Stamos movie Cuban produced with Todd Wagner, and Mamma.com, the search engine he just picked up stock in.
Regular reading might help you figure out how to get on Cuban’s good side so he’ll finance your film… or perhaps bequeath you the $1 million he’s promising to give away to a complete stranger as part of his upcoming ABC reality TV show The Benefactor.
… Read the rest
Saturday, March 20th, 2004
When Canada’s entertainment conglom Alliance Atlantis announced a few months ago that it would be shuttering its film production and sales divisions, independent filmmakers wondered where its Managing Director of Motion Picture Sales Charlotte Mickie would wind up. Throughout the ’90s, Mickie has been a reliable and accessible presence on the scene, picking up many noteworthy American indies and often propelling them to solid international sales. Among the many titles in her Alliance Atlantis catalog are Bowling for Columbine, The Station Agent, Welcome to the Dollhouse, and In the Company of Men.
So, we were happy to hear yesterday that Mickie has joined Celluloid Dreams, the Paris-based outfit run by Hengameh Panahi, the astute and charismatic Iranian-born sales agent. Mickie will be a Managing Director of the company and will remain in Toronto where she will undoubtedly increase Celluloid’s connections with Canadian and American filmmakers. Over the years Celluloid has dabbled in the American indie waters but has built its reputation on the sales of films by such current art film gods as Abbas Kiorastami, Francois Ozon, and Takeshi Kitano.
Commented Panahi in a written press release, “I am delighted that Charlotte Mickie will be deploying her considerable skills and network of relationships on behalf of Celluloid Dreams. Her blend of artistic sensibility, intelligent risk-taking and sharp business acumen will serve us well in years to come. We are also particularly pleased to expand our activities from a base in North America.”
The release also notes that Celluloid’s Pierre Menahem will be leaving to start his own company.… Read the rest
Friday, March 19th, 2004
Ice Floes of Franz Joseph Land
For the past few years, Los Angeles-based Catherine Sullivan, 36, has created works that combine performance, video installation and traditional theater techniques.
In both her live and filmed performances, the dramatic processes employed by the actors to re-create a scene is itself the subject of the work.
Sullivan’s enigmatic, multiscreen epic Ice Floes of Franz Joseph Land, currently on view at the 2004 Whitney Biennial, is based upon the Russian musical Nord Ost — adapted from the classic Russian novel, Two Captains, about the real-life search for a lost expedition in the Russian Arctic — that was being performed when Chechen terrorists burst into a Moscow theater in October 2002.
“This event struck me as a very brutal example of the real confronting the ideal, and a system of combat (terrorism) which appropriates the desires of the dominant class and uses the surpluses of these desires against it,” says Sullivan. “Insofar as we can consider all of the individuals involved as representative,” this event drew together participants of a very different order: the Moscow leisure class seeking pleasure and entertainment, and the Chechens using this same spectacle to assert their political demands. The encounter ultimately created a new spectacle which would transcend the occasion of the musical Nord Ost and simultaneously feed the theater of terrorism which currently enjoys a global audience.”
The theatrical artificiality of the actors (from Chicago’s Trap Door theater company) is as jumpily powerful as that found in Expressionist film of the 1920s — which Ice Floes, shot in B&W with Russian dialogue and projected without subtitles — consciously emulates.
“The installation creates a kind of strange visual echo with our own time,” wrote one critic,” as if the past were observing the horrors of the present — or the play were watching the audience.”
As in the work of playwright Richard Foreman or the films of Kira Muratova, Sullivan also uses juxtaposition, fragmentation, dislocation and repeated appearances in varying guises to emphasize the distinction between performer and the part he or she plays.
For … Read the rest
Tuesday, March 16th, 2004
89 Seconds at Alcazar is a new project by 42-year-old film/video artist Eve Sussman that brings Diego Velazquez‘s 1656 painting “Las Meninas” (“Maids of Honor”) to life in High Definition digital video.
The 12-minute video, which premiered at the 2004 Whitney Biennial (March 11 – May 30), is a 360-degree Steadicam recreation of the salon of the Alcazar (the Palace of the Hapsburgs).
“With actors in full costume on a set that reproduces the room in the painting, Sussman imagines the activity — bristling with the tensions of the royal household, which seem to affect even the long-suffering pet dog — that might have preceded and followed the split-second arrangement of Velazquez’s virtual photograph.
“It’s a superb concept, one that reflects our hunger for back story and sequel.
“The little infanta, Margarita, her attendants and the artist himself, busy at his easel, pause to acknowledge her parents, Spain’s Philip IV and Queen Mariana, who have just entered the room and are reflected in the mirror on the far wall in the backdrop. But since the king and queen occupy the position we do — that is, of observer coming upon the scene — it’s as if Margarita and the court are acknowledging us.
“Or maybe not. Perhaps Margarita and company are actually looking in a mirror, and that’s what Velazquez is painting, the king and queen being nothing more than an image on the wall. Either way, it’s a fabulous conceit.”
The video was shot over four days in May 2003 in a garage studio space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in HD24p by d.p. Jeff Blauvelt and Steadicam operator Sergei Franklin, and required a month of set and costume design.
Blauvelt — an Emmy Award winner and principal of HD Cinema — co-produced the HD24p high definition digital video production, editing and exhibition of 89 Seconds at Alcazar with Eve Sussman, Jen Heck and Cheryl Kaplan.
Equipment used for the production was a Sony HDW-F900 CineAlta HD 24p capable camera, recording1920x1080 pixel images at 24 progressive frames per second, mounted on a Steadicam.
The HDCAM footage was captured uncompressed … Read the rest
Wednesday, March 10th, 2004
The Independent Television Service has published a 51-page guide, Digital Futures, downloadable free-of-charge as a PDF from the organization’s Web site.
Funded by the Ford Foundation, and presented by ITVS and the Center for Social Media at American University, the guide includes a glossary and explanation of digital technology terms; an analysis of today’s distribution, funding and legal landscape — including issues affecting copyright and fair use, digital piracy, media concentration, bandwidth and the growth of wi-fi; as well as a directory of resource organizations for independent producers.
… Read the rest
Wednesday, March 10th, 2004
Um, is anyone else out there following the very scary goings on at the FCC these days? I know there’s been a lot to write about — the Oscars, The Passion of the Christ — but the collective entertainment blogosphere has been awfully quiet when it comes to Congress’s proposed changes to the FCC charter.
From the Howard Stern/Clear Channel ban to some of the measures detailed in this Washington Post article, risk-taking programming is under siege at the moment. Note the article’s last paragraph: by only one vote, a Senate provision sponsored by Senators Byron Dorgan and Trent Lott was defeated that would have extended the FCC’s indecency rules to cable and satellite programming.
One vote.
The independents won, for the moment, against the MPAA in the screener ban. But what will be the economic ramifications of some of these new rules — or, the even harsher rules that will be enacted down the line after another televised nipple baring — on independent films as they try to recoup in the ancillary marketplaces?
… Read the rest
Monday, March 8th, 2004
Vincent Gallo fans — and perfectionist filmmakers with money to spare — must check out this eBay page in which Gallo sells the camera, lights and sound package used to create The Brown Bunny. (Being a fan, I hope this doesn’t herald a retreat from filmmaking for Gallo.) The package contains two Aaton 16mm cameras, Super Baltar lenses, the last Nagra 4 STC made by the company, and an Angeniuex zoom purchased from the Kubrick estate!
Writes eBay seller nbvbn, who, by the way, has a seller rating of 76 with 100% positive results, “Vincent Gallo, the director of Buffalo 66 decided after completing Buffalo 66 that for his next film, The Brown Bunny, he would own all his equipment. He would not rent a thing. He would own everything he would need to make his next feature film. In putting this production package together, he spent a year of researching and testing equipment. Afterwards, he would spend 6 months designing the package and another 2 years purchasing, customizing, testing and tweaking the gear. The goals were as follows: to be lightweight, compact, versatile, reliable and cost effective. The package would have to include everything needed to make the film: 2 cameras, a high quality and comprehensive lens collection, mobile yet sufficient lighting, sound equipment that could integrate with the cameras so as to avoid slating, a mic assortment that would never need backup, and a ton of extras that would meet the needs of his flexible and spontaneous production style, and last but not least, an extremely secure transportation case system. 100 hours of case design alone was needed…. All in all, Gallo put more effort into this production package than the whiny Wes Anderson, the sputtering Spike Jonze, the un-darling Darren Aronofsky have put into their whole lives.”
Bidding for the camera package ended on March 8. With the current bid listed as $86,800, the reserve had not been met.
A hat tip to Movie City News for picking up on this link.… Read the rest
Monday, March 8th, 2004
With Lars von Trier’s Dogville set to open March 26 via Lions Gate in New York and Los Angeles, the second installment of his “USA Trilogy,” Manderlay, begins production today through May 1 at Film i Vast in Trollhattan, near Gothenburg, Sweden.
The $15-million film, produced by Vibeke Windelov for Zentropa, deals with the issue of slavery in America’s deep South. “But since the film is taking place in the ’30s,” says von Trier, “and, as you know, slavery was not legal then — it’s kind of… aaah… it’s a little bit more… funny. It’s kind of a comedy!”
Ron Howard’s 21-year-old daughter Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village, Book of Love) was cast as Grace, the film’s lead, after Nicole Kidman opted out of the remaining installments of the trilogy, reportedly due to scheduling conflicts. The film also stars Danny Glover, Issach De Bankole, John C. Reilly, Jeremy Davies, Lauren Bacall, Chloe Sevigny, Jean-Marc Barr and Udo Kier.
The third of a series of film cycles begun in 1984 with the “Europa Trilogy” (The Element of Crime, Epidemic, and Zentropa — which takes its name from an imaginary, huge rail network created in 1912 by the Hartmann family in Germany) about Western Europe after World War II, and continuing with the “Gold Heart Trilogy” (Breaking the Waves, The Idiots and Dancer in the Dark), inspired by a sentimental children’s book from von Trier’s childhood about a little girl who is always ready to sacrifice herself to help others, von Trier’s “USA Trilogy,” set in the Great Depression of the 1930s, “could be described as a depiction of a woman’s development to maturity,” says the director.
With Manderlay, von Trier intends to continue to employ the Brechtian style he employed for Dogville, using as many as 100 cameras to film on soundstages with theatrical props instead of traditional movie sets or exteriors. The film is being lensed by Anthony Dod Mantle.
Zentropa is also developing Dear Wendy, the fourth feature from Dogme 95 co-founder Thomas Vinterberg … Read the rest
