GOING MOBILE

By Jason Guerrasio

If you’ve picked up our Spring issue you may have read the sidebar in our “Option Overload” Line Item (“Cell Capture”) where Dutch filmmaker Cyrus Frisch describes how he made his latest film Why Didn’t Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad In Afghanistan with a cell phone. Which as far as we know is a first.

It goes without saying that this is a shooting format that’s probably a decade before its time (at the least), but after seeing the film at the Tribeca Film Festival (it made its World Premiere at Rotterdam) the other day, this extremely experimental film running 70 minutes long with almost no dialogue is one of the most creative things I’ve seen done with cinema in quite some time.

Frisch plays a troubled Dutch soldier living in Amsterdam who is a prisoner in his own mind as the war has scared him to the point where it’s a struggle just to leave his apartment. Using a Sharp 903 cell phone with a 3.2 megapixel camera, Frisch records what he sees from his second-floor balcony: kids roughhousing, construction workers, a drunk screaming in the middle of the night. To the viewer it may not be much, but for the Frisch character it brings horrible flashbacks to when he was on the frontlines.

Now I’ll be honest, it’s quite a challenge to watch the film. If there isn’t enough natural light the shots are hard to see and you are forced to use your imagination to understand what’s going on. But when the light is just right and the camera phone is steady, Frisch is able to accomplish some beautiful images. One that sticks out in my mind is when he’s walking outside and stops to stare at a steam pipe. Ever so slightly Frisch moves the phone towards the sky and suddenly the steam turns into a helicopter. We learn quickly that the camera (his mind) can flashback to the war at any moment.

Before going into the screening I talked to Frisch, who said using the cell phone “Is the only way this … Read the rest

ORPHANS SCREENS IN MEMORY OF LILY WHEELWRIGHT

By Scott Macaulay

Sad news that arrived shortly after this year’s SXSW Film Festival was the sudden death of actress Lily Wheelwright, who starred in Ry Russo-Young’s Orphans. Wheelwright gave a tough and honest performance in the film, which won a Special Jury Prize at the fest.

Here’s what writer/director Andrew Bujalski had to say about the movie:

“A sensitive & peculiar pastoral, Orphans manages to derive as much compelling energy from its locations & spaces (of the wide open & claustrophobic variety alike) as from its two terrific lead actresses, a rarity these digital days.

The film will receive a special screening in memory of Wheelwright at New York’s IFC Center on Monday, April 30, at 10pm. To purchase tickets click here. And here is the film’s trailer.… Read the rest

RAY LAWRENCE, “JINDABYNE”

By Nick Dawson

GABRIEL BYRNE AND LAURA LINNEY IN RAY LAWRENCE’S JINDABYNE. COURTESY SONY PICTURES CLASSICS.

Ray Lawrence pulled one of world cinema’s most surprising disappearing acts. His debut film, Bliss (1985), an adaptation of Peter Carey’s novel co-written by Lawrence and Carey himself, played in competition at Cannes, garnered rave reviews and dominated the Australian film awards. Lawrence joined Peter Weir, Fred Schepisi and Bruce Beresford as an Australian director worthy of global attention – but then did not make another film for 16 years. However, when his sophomore effort, Lantana, finally came out in 2001, it cemented Lawrence as one of the most important and distinctive voices in contemporary cinema. The movie featured superb performances from Geoffrey Rush, Anthony LaPaglia and Barbara Hershey, and utilized the format of a slow-burning murder mystery to examine the emotionally dysfunctional lives of a group of people connected to the homicide.

In Jindabyne, Lawrence’s latest film, the director returns to the themes of death, guilt and emotional conflict in a transposition of the Raymond Carver short story ‘So Much Water So Close to Home’ (which was also one of the strands of Robert Altman’s 1993 Short Cuts) to a one-stop town in the Australian outback. The discovery of a young woman’s body by Stewart (Gabriel Byrne) and his friends on a fishing trip leads to a schism in the local community. The lines are drawn between men and women, white and Aboriginal, as the characters are forced to face up to the ghosts of the past. Uniformly strong acting by the whole cast, Beatrix Christian’s nuanced screenplay, David Williamson’s beautiful cinematography and assured direction from Lawrence combine to make Jindabyne an powerful and affecting film, and one of the most emotionally rewarding moviegoing experiences of recent times.

Filmmaker conducted an email interview with Lawrence in which he discussed Jindabyne, his years in the wilderness, and being beaten to the punch by Altman.

RAY LAWRENCE FILMING JINDABYNE WITH LAURA LINNEY. COURTESY SONY PICTURES CLASSICS.

Filmmaker: You had a huge success in 1985 with your first film, Bliss, but then … Read the rest

HERE’S TALKING TO YOU

By Scott Macaulay

Over at The Street.com, Jonathan Blum goes to NAB to discover “the future of media.” He lists three developments. The first, that Apple with its Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Studio is turning amateur filmmakers into pro-quality producers, is not so new and interesting. The second, that local broadcast television will be feeding itself to your cell phone in about a year’s time, is a little bit more newsworthy. But the third, dealing with HD radio, told me something I didn’t know. He says to forget all the news about XM and Sirius and to concentrate on the untapped potential of HD radio networks.

From the piece:

Why is HD radio so cool? First off, ignore the radio industry’s complete misbranding of the technology. Yes, HD radio can be high definition. It can provide excellent sound quality. But what is far more important is that HD radio is digital radio.

Just like cell-phone networks that made the transition from analog to digital in decades past, new digital broadcast networks will provide a full range of new services. Conditional access will allow for highly targeted radio feeds to groups as little as a few hundred. Forget KROK. You’ll get YourROK.

Your radio will learn what you like to listen to and feed you that content. There will be content tied to positional information such as GPS systems and in-car navigation. There will be graphics, links to Web content and probably most important of all, coupons. Discounts will be fed on the fly to listeners as they approach, say, a McDonalds.

Factor in that radio penetration is 100%. There are easily 1 billion radios in U.S., and billions more worldwide. Everybody has a radio. Imagine what happens when they all go digital — which is only a matter of time — think of the reach of even the most basic discount coupon promotion.

Drive by this McDonalds. Get a $1 off a Big Mac if you are within a 10-block radius. Can anybody say that is not marketing gold?

… Read the rest

RE-SHOOTING THE BLADE RUNNER SHOOT-OUT

By Scott Macaulay

Merrick over at Aint It Cool News posted a very fun piece of geek-out film news: Ridley Scott has completed reshoots of the Joanna Cassidy replicant shootout scene for the upcoming DVD final “director’s cut” of Blade Runner. He links to Film Ick, which provides details:

The shots are for the sequence in which Cassidy’s character Zhora is chased through the streets. In the original film, the chase shows Zhora in flat boots but previously we saw her put on heels – the reshoots feature heels; the control wires for the squib that released Zhora’s blood was previously visible – not any longer; a wound make-up that was missing in some angles is now in place; Zhora gets a second shot in the chest now, whereas she didn’t before; the lighting is much improved; several new angles have been taken and, depending on the edit, the sequence could end up looking rather different overall.

A subsequent posting clarifies that the material does not consist of replacement shots but “replacement shot elements” and that Cassidy re-suited in her clear vinyl outfit for the scene.

The story gives AICN the opportunity to link to a bunch of cool Blade Runner stuff, including a rarely seen deleted scene and, in multiple links, the British doc On the Edge of Blade Runner in which the filmmakers discuss whether or not Deckard is a replicant.

For now, I’ll leave you with the original Joanna Cassidy scene:

… Read the rest

THOUGHTS ON CENSORSHIP; OR THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT

By Admin

A number of things that have dominated the news recently – most notably the tragic events at Virginia Tech and the death yesterday of former MPAA honcho Jack Valenti – got me thinking about censorship and the perceived effect of films on viewers.

If we are to believe the news media, Park Chan-wook‘s Oldboy is (at least partly) to blame for the VT killings, a claim that not only reeks of sensationalism but, as Dave Kehr said, is “faintly racist.” Sky News has said that Cho Seung-Hui “repeatedly watched [Oldboy] in the days leading up to the massacre”, something which in turn reminded me of an incident in my native Scotland back in 2002.

After killing his life-long friend, Thomas McKendrick, Allan Menzies pleaded diminished responsability – despite admitting that he “drank his blood and ate a bit of his head …and I buried him up the woods.” The excuse Menzies gave was that he had watched the film Queen of the Damned (based on Anne Rice‘s vampire novel) over 100 times and that Akasha, a character from the film played by the late Aaliyah, had told him that McKendrick and another friend were planning to kill him, and that if he murdered someone he “would be made immortal in the next life – a vampire, basically.”

Pointing the finger at films like Queen of the Damned and Oldboy may make for a good story, and “explain” to some people the root of certain horrific events, but ultimately it only distracts from the fact that anything can trigger the psychotic actions of severely disturbed people. Queen of the Damned, for example, had a 15 rating in the U.K., and no one voiced the opinion that it was legitimately to blame for Menzies’ deeds. And any attempt by censors to try and anticipate the effect of similar Hollywood vampire moives on the insane would be ridiculous.

But when it comes to sane minds, censors are second-guessing and “protecting” audiences – with unfortunate results. Shane Meadows‘ latest film, This Is England, is released … Read the rest

FEMALE MASHERS

By Admin

Over at the The Chutry Experiment, Chuck Tyron is soliciting cyber help on a paper he’s researching on gender and film mash ups with an interesting inquiry:

I know that slash fiction, for example, is more frequently done by female authors, but I’m wondering if fake trailers are more commonly identified with male producers. The reason I ask is that I see these trailers as participating in the ongoing process of canonization of certain films by well-established directors. Of course, the parody wouldn’t work if audiences were unfamiliar with the original film, so maybe these choices reflect a canon that has already been established.

The responses to the question are as intriguing as the original inquiry, and none more so than Karina Longworth at Newteevee . After “looking for female created and/or female genre-dependent trailer mashups” she admits she was ultimately “disappointed.” So many of the supposedly “female” films set up for parody are ultimately masculinized either through genre or tone.

Two of note are Rocky Queen (a smash up of The Queen with the very male boxing film) and the more famous “Scary Mary Poppins”:

But ultimately, for Longworth, the question remains a good question to ask:

So why do mashups––and, really, all subgenres of comic online videos–tend to skew masculine? Maybe it’s partially indicative of the general paucity of media made for women today; obviously, pop culture parody makers can only mine what the mainstream media gives them to work with. But I also agree with Tryon that a good mashup incorporates a basic affinity for its source, and a lot of the pop culture that is produced expressly for women is often so inherently silly that there’s a sense that it doesn’t need to be subverted, as if the joke is already on anyone who takes it seriously.

… Read the rest

JOE SALEH, 1934 – 2007

By Scott Macaulay

I received this email of an obituary that Jackie Raynal wrote for Joe Saleh, who died at 73 last week of complications from a stroke in Paris. Saleh produced many Merchant-Ivory movies and also founded the Angelika movie theater.

Joseph J.M. Saleh who produced many of the Ivory-Merchant movies, created and founded the famous Angelika movie theater multiplex in New York, died in Paris last wek.

Saleh financed the documentary STREETWISE which received the 1985 Academy Awards Nomination. He was also resposible for the developing the first network election night forecasting system in 1964.

He was born January 18th,1934 in Hamadan, Iran and came to New York in the 40′s. After graduating from Colgate University he did graduate work in sociology at Columbia University.

He became an associate Director of Research at CBS, Where he had the opportunity to develop the first network election night forecasting system in 1964. He later had a position with Columbia Pictures as Director of Research.

In the 70′s he produced four feature films,including BOMBAY TALKIE and SAVAGES with the filmmaking team of James Ivory and the late Ismail Merchant.

He was also a successful real estate developer during the 1980′s. It was during this period that he created and build the first multiplex Movie Center in Soho that showcased independent films and created a social climate for exhibitions and “Cafe Dialogue”.

Together with his booker, Jeffrey Jacobs, he helped launched such commercial hit as DRUGSTORE COWBOY, THE CRYING GAME and PULP FICTION at the Angelika Theater.

Mr. Saleh was also responsible for the distribution of over 70 films in the US. among them: SWEET LORAINNE, THE SUICIDE CLUB (he produced and financed those two films ) and the Italian classic masterpiece WE, THE LIVING. He also distributed ON VALENTINE DAY,1918 (written by Academy Award Wnner Horton Foote), LIQUID SKY and END OF THE LINE among others.

In 1994 he received an award from the City of New York as Cinematic Entrepeneur of the Year.

He is survived by his daughters Jessica and Eva Saleh,his first wife Angelika, his sister Angela, his mother Naima Saleh

… Read the rest

JAMAN BRINGS TRIBECA TO YOUR DESKTOP

By Scott Macaulay

Adam Dawtrey in Variety has a piece up today noting that digital download service Jaman is offering for free download six films screening at the Tribeca Film Festival.

From the piece:

Under the pact with Tribeca, six films screening at this year’s fest, which opens Wednesday, will be offered simultaneously for free download by users anywhere in the world for a period of seven days.

Deal is believed to mark the first time a major festival will have given online exposure to part of its full-length feature program at the same time the movies unspool at the fest….

The six films available for download are Russian/Uzbek doc “Between Heaven and Earth,” Hungarian animation “A Guest of Life,” Serbian drama “The Optimists,” classic French crime movie “The Pelican,” experimental U.S. feature “Razzle Dazzle” and Argentine doc “The Tree.”

Jaman signed another deal with the new Dream Machine (the merger of Celluloid Dreams and Hanway) to present a number of their titles:

Meanwhile, Jaman has acquired U.S. Internet rights to an initial batch of 42 films from Dreamachine, the company formed from the merger of Celluloid Dreams and HanWay Films.

Pics in the deal, which is intended to be the start of a longer-term relationship between the companies, include works by directors such as Walter Salles, the Dardennes brothers and Takeshi Kitano.

Jaman, based in San Mateo, launched to the paying public in February after a year in development. It’s a peer-to-peer service using proprietary technology to deliver world cinema in what it describes as “better than DVD quality.” It also aims to be a social networking site for fans of arthouse movies.

It has accumulated a library of around 1,300 films, which it offers either to rent for $1.99 or to buy for $4.99. It offers some titles free in a promotional effort to attract users. Jaman carries no advertising on its Web site as part of its strategy to present itself to filmmakers as a high-quality environment for their work.

Its proprietary P2P technology is attracting favorable reviews both for quality and level of security. Execs at both Tribeca and

… Read the rest

LIFE, ART, AND JIM LYONS ON THE CRAFT OF EDITING

By Scott Macaulay

In the comments section of my post on the passing of Jim Lyons, Josh Apter notes a podcast he’s put up of Lyons at the website for the Manhattan Edit Workshop. Click over to the site and into the section on Jim and you can download a podcast of him discussing the craft of editing. And here’s what Apter wrote in his post:

Jim’s viewpoint and candor were always refreshing, and his commitment to process had a devilish enthusiasm. Whether screening an ancient 16mm copy of Jean Genet’s Un Chant d’Amour or deconstructing Roland Barthes’ essay on Greta Garbo’s face, his methods were curious and his curiosity endless.

I hope to share some of Jim’s insight through the lectures he gave at the Motion Picture Editors Guild. Though only a fraction of the man in person, Jim’s take on the craft of editing is full of vitality, humor and honesty.

With the belief that anything you do can be elevated to an art form, Jim’s life was his art, both in the way he lived it and how fully he shared from it.

… Read the rest