I’m listening to the composer Vijay Iyer and poet/rapper Mike Ladd discuss their collaborative song cycle, “In What Language,” on WNYC’s Soundcheck. It explores the inner lives and thoughts of people in international airports, and it rocks.
Iyer and Ladd composed the multi-layered, improvisational music/vocal suite in response to the experience of an Iranian filmmaker who was detained, harassed and deported at JFK a couple of years ago.
The first scene of my first short, Souvenir (November 2001), is in Charles deGaulle, where the new security rules spur the story into action (such as there is). Clearly, I’m pre-wired to like “In What Language,” which was first performed in May at the Asia Society, and is out on CD, the launch of which is being celebrated at Joe’s Pub Jan. 20.
Author: greg
Fake Documentary-making in The Court of The 5th Baron of Saling-in-Essex
Christopher Guest talks at length with the Guardian‘s Richard Grant about the incredible levels of authenticity required for making fake documentaries.
Hilarious anecdotes from This is Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind ensue. If Grant’s right when he calls it “the funniest film ever made,” the DVD of Spinal Tap is twice that funny; the outtakes and deleted scenes are easily as long and as good as the original version. A Mighty Wind opens next week in the UK.
Oh, and Jamie Lee Curtis says she gets better dinner reservations when she calls herself Baroness Haden-Guest. I’m sorry, but is that something you actually call yourself? Isn’t that why you employ a herald? I need to check with some titled friends on that and get back to you.
will delete post for multi-picture deal
So this is what you get if you don’t buy New York magazine. On Monday, Elizabeth “The Kicker” Spiers plants a swift one right in Harvey Weinstein’s buttcheek. Fearing that Peter Biskind’s new book, Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film, was not getting the attention it deserves*, Spiers posted excerpts where Wenstein went all Kurtz on a pair of NY Observer reporters in Nov. 2000. Apparently, Headlockee Andrew Goldman was so traumatized by the encounter he, um, went to work for Talk Magazine. The Horror, The Horror, indeed.
Well, Spiers needn’t have feared. D&D‘s getting decent attention; The Observer reviews it, but without mentioning their employee’s cameo appearance in a Weinsteinian headlock. And over at GreenCine, David puts the book–and Biskind’s career–in compelling context. He also points to IndieWIRE’s review, by Eugene Hernandez, who uncovers the essence of D&D by contrasting it with Biskind’s earlier history of the 70’s, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls:
…Those familiar with Easy Riders, Raging Bulls will notice a different approach to this decade. It is not about the films, it is about the business of the movies, that’s the story that, according to Biskind, defined the 90s. “This is a distribution and marketing story.
Net net: buy it for the in-depth insight gleaned from hundreds of interviews, read it for the tawdry gossip.
* Update: Some crank named Frank Rich writes about Down and Dirty Pictures in the NYT A&L. And via GreenCine, Sean Means safely predicts that the book’ll be “prime topic of cocktail-party conversation at the [Sundance Film] Festival.” I think he means the coverage of the book.
Yet Another “Largest Film Ever Edited on Final Cut Pro”
On another site, the headline would read, “Walter Murch edits Cold Mountain, but on MacCentral, the headline is “Final Cut Pro used to edit Cold Mountain.”
Posthouse DigitalFilmTree set Murch up on four full FCP stations and several PowerBook-based “satellite stations, ” which they used when there was massive amounts of footage. DVD Studio Pro was used to burn and distribute the dailies to everyone, and special effects went back and forth for review via Quicktime.
Apple, thankfully, lets Murch–who is an editing legend, if for no other reason than surviving the year-long torture that was editing Apocalypse Now–do most of the talking. If you like that interview, you should definitely read his book, In the Blink of An Eye, which recounts some Apocalypse Now tales while exploring the theory of why editing works in the first place.
Related: Murch also praised FCP for enabling him to give his assistants experience editing professionally shot material. In a sidebar on Apple.com and an article at Post Magazine, he explains how he’d create tutorials with dailie and his notes, and let the kids have a go at it. Nice work if you can get it.
And if that’s not enough for you, check out Millimeter’s detailed article on Cold Mountain‘s workflow, including putting 600,000 feet of film into the shared storage/access system; creating change lists and synching FCP with post-production sound tools (both challenges which the new FCP4.0 addresses handily. time to upgrade, I guess); and color-correcting. After all that, you, too will be able to finish a $130 million Romanian epic. But by the time you raise the money, the whole process’ll be available on a laptop.
New film weblogs: just add water?
[via BuzzMachine] Jason Calacanis (I can’t believe I just typed that) has launched three new film-related weblogs, or Weblogs, Inc’s: a Sundance-related blog, a documentary blog, and an independent film blog. So far, the operating premise seems to be, “We read IndieWIRE so you don’t have to,” but let’s give them a chance.
WTC WTF?
According to Herbert Muschamp, he has discovered the way to “liberate the site from the clutches of politicians, architects, their publicists and other unqualified figures who have presumed to speak in history’s name. And it could slow the breakneck redevelopment timetable imposed by Gov. George E. Pataki.” That, or he’s completely lost it.
On the day when the LMDC Jury is set to announce the “winning” Memorial design, Muschamp waxes poetic–without any actual facts or reporting to back up his excitement–over what’s called a Section 106 Review, a federally mandated evaluation of the WTC site’s historical significance. Part of the National Historic Preservation Act, the review must be completed before federal money can be spent on the site. Muschamp sees this as a saving act: “Architectural preservationists are coming to the rescue one more time,” he says. [Q: Are you counting the Main St USA-style streetlamps on the West Side Highway as the first time, Herb?”]
Here are some Section 106 facts, from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, which administers the law:
1. There was already at least one WTC-related Section 106 review, which dealt with a damaged landmark 1905 office building by Cass Gilbert. The ACHP case study praises the way in which the Sec. 106 process was adapted and “streamlined” so as to not get in the way of other activities on the site.
2. When Section 106 was invoked to preserve the 18th c. Negro burial ground discovered during the construction of the Foley federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, GSA listened politely, then ignored ACHP as it built. It then declared itself in compliance with Sec. 106.
3. I’m sure it means nothing, but the two presidential appointees of the ACHP are from Houston–and Albany.
If the Times were the 1/9 train, Muschamp would be the guy who gets on at 103rd, whose jabberings scare the passengers boarding downstream into other cars.
On the Bush in 30 Seconds Finalists
I rated 6 of the 15 finalists (and they still made it. cue rimshot) in the earlier phase, but the best are all ads I hadn’t seen before: Polygraph , In My Country. Army of One needs polishing, but it has the greatest potential to reach people currently beyond the sway of MoveOn.org, a more useful goal than simply stoking existing rage against the Bush machine. Actually, the ingenious Desktop should be the best, but it suffers from a fatal flaw: it’s an Apple desktop. When it comes to computers on TV, the bad guys always use a PC.
Buy a floor ticket for the final judging on Monday, you cheap monkeys. George Soros can’t carry this all himself, you know
Ugh. Maya Lin Strikes Again
The worst design of the worst set of finalists was just chosen for the World Trade Center Memorial.
Michael Arad’s barren, sunken pools, “Reflecting Absence,” was a favorite of Maya Lin, according to an unnamed LMDC source who was heavily spinning the NY Post’s William Neuman against the design Sunday.
The only positive aspect of the proposal: it was the only finalist to call for alterations to fellow Israeli Daniel Libeskind’s proposed cultural buildings, including eliminating that one museum from above the North Tower footprint. The LMDC says there’ll be extensive changes to the design, which I hope renders it essentially unrecognizable.
Ultimately, I’m troubled that I, a fervent fan of minimalist art–including Michael Heizer’s works at Dia: Beacon which this is most reminiscent of–am so put out by a half-baked minimalist memorial.
[update: at my WTC discussion page, I added a follow-up on Peter Walker, the just-announced-today new partner in the WTC memorial design. He’s a veteran minimalist landscape architect who’ll probably fill the barren plaza with grids of “teeming groves of trees,” as one juror put it.]
Film Club
David Edelstein’s hosting Slate’s Film Club, and it’s as entertaining as reading long emails could possibly be. While you could keep reading all week to see what new fabric these five critics can weave from the threads of last year’s films, I’m sticking around to see if the Voice‘s J. Hoberman gets picked to be on Martha Stewart’s jury. [I non-watched Runaway Jury on the plane back from LA. Dustin Hoffman, John Cusack, Gene Hackman, but I’d never heard a peep about it; when did it come out? A rhetorical question, because I so don’t care.]
Anyway, Vogue‘s Sarah Kerr coined a term for the huge crop of formulaic movies, including indies I’ve long since lost my sense of obligation to see, merely because they’re indies: Situation Tragedies. I like it. I mean, I hate it.
Also in the Times, or You Flog ‘Em, I Blog ‘Em
1. “A Past of Fear and Pain for First-Time Filmmaker”: Dear Vadim Perelman, if you really don’t want people to know about your pseudo-criminal past, don’t put it in your press kit and chat up The New York Times about it.
2. Ruth La Ferla’s favor-repaying article asks how hot the trend of men’s jewelry is. The answer? v.v.v. hot, if you ask the right people. Like, for example, men’s jewelry store owners, men’s jewelry designers, an industry newsletter, and the editors of two soon-to-launch men’s shopporn mags.
Still wonder if it’s just a phase? Well, how about the jewelry designer’s husband, “a dapper hedge fund manager who rarely leaves the house without his platinum wedding ring, wide as a cigar band.” [“Honey, I’m just going for a long walk, um, through the East Village without my wedding ring. Don’t wait up.”]
Subtext? “‘The word metrosexual is not going to appear in this article, is it?’ [the mercifully Google-proof] David Matthews asked, his voice rising warily. For good reason [since the Style Section outed you mets in the first place.]” See Gawker for Details recent metrosexual re-closeting.]
On Learning from The Battle of Algiers
First, Peggy Siegal, take a lesson from Pontecorvo’s publicist, who got such excellent blurbs from the Pentagon screening of The Battle of Algiers, who cares if the people giving them wouldn’t know credibility if it blew up underneath their Humvee:
“How to win a battle against terrorism and lose the war of ideas!”
“Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range!
“Women plant bombs in cafes!”
“Soon the entire Arab population builds to a mad fervor. Sound familiar!?”
But no, when it comes to the newly struck prints of The Battle of Algiers opening in cities this weekend, the The Nation‘s Stuart Klawans wants you to read it for the articles.
And what are the filmmaking lessons we can learn from BofA? Newsreel/documentary-style camerawork lends a sense of immediacy (which Klawans compares to Citizen Kane). Shooting on location makes for killer production design (look, the bulletholes are still fresh!) and saves money to boot. When a producer with money asks you to shoot his script, the proper response is, “I LOVE it!” even if you find it “”awful, and with a sickeningly propagandistic intention.” Then, after rewriting it beyond all recognition, cast your producer as your star. And finally, whenever possible, get Ennio Morricone to do your soundtrack.
Hmm. Replace Morricone with Theremin, and these could be The Lessons of Watching Ed Wood. Still, whether you’re with Rumsfeld, or with The Nation, go see The Battle of Algiers this weekend.
Update 1/12/04: I did see it, and it did rock, even if it has a rather fantasist ending. This Slate article has one more bit of life-imitates-art from the set. Apparently, when two factions of the FLN attacked each other in 1965, Algiers residents thought it was additional shooting for the film.
2004-01-12, This Week in The New Yorker
Issue: 2004-01-12
Posted: 2004-01-05
The Talk of The Town
COMMENT/BEST OF THE “BEST”/ Louis Menand on the art of the Top Ten.
COLLECTORS/ SQUISHED/ Ben McGrath on the dangers of hoarding. [no, you didn’t read this story yet. You read the Times‘ story on the dangers of hoarding. Collect’em all!]
FOSSIL DEPT./ HERE TODAY/ Nick Paumgarten on a department departing the Museum of Natural History.
INK/ STILL HAPPENING/ Adam Green meets the last of the great press agents.
THE FINANCIAL PAGE/ ARMY INC./ James Surowiecki on privatizing the military.
SHOUTS & MURMURS/ David Owen/ 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Ex-Wife
PROFILES/ Mark Singer/ Running on Instinct/ How far can Howard Dean go?
FICTION/ Chang-rae Lee/ “Daisy”
THE CRITICS
DANCING/ Joan Acocella/ Taking Steps/ Savion Glover at the Joyce Theatre.
A CRITIC AT LARGE/ Daniel Mendelsohn/ Why the battles over ancient Athens still rage.
THE CURRENT CINEMA/ David Denby/ Living in America/ “House of Sand and Fog” and “The Cooler.”
by David Denby
Springtime for Cuban
Indiewire has a slightly puffy, but factoid-filled article on 2929 Entertainment, Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner’s growing independent film empire, which the Broadcast.com billionaires are positioning for the impending all-digital future. In the semi-digital present, it’s still fairly compelling: Landmark Theaters; Rysher, Magnolia Pictures, and a stake in mega-indie Lion’s Gate; and HDNet, a digital production company and cable channel (look for it around ch.500). “We want to be known as THE place that directors and producers want to come to have their movies produced and distributed in the specialty/independent marketplace,” Wagner told indieWIRE.
From the message board comments, some independents are, inexplicably, touting open, competitive independence over Cuban’s vertically integrated independence-for-him. No fear, though: Steven Soderbergh/George Clooney’s Hard Eight produced a film with 2929. And everyone connected to Hogan’s Heroes is on board; the company holds syndication rights to the Nazi sitcom and is wrapping Godsend, the latest film from Greg “Bob Crane” Kinnear.
WTC Memorial: And then there were two, or three, or…
On the last day of the year, the Times‘ reporter on the World Trade Center beat, David Dunlap, shared a byline with Herbert Muschamp to report that the Jury has narrowed their choices to two or three final designs for the Memorial.
The reported choices:
“Passages of Light,” by Gisela Baurmann, Sawad Brooks and Jonas Coersmeier, aka the “Memorial Cloud,” and “Garden of Lights,” by Pierre David, Sean Corriel and Jessica Kmetovic, aka the apple orchard/prairie.
Michael Arad’s barren “Remembering Absence” is also favored by some jurors, it seems. If Muschamp’s suddenly getting involved in what has been essentially Dunlap’s story, it must be because he’s been talking to one or more of the jurors. For the first time, we hear about “politicking and debates among jurors, who are conscious that prominent figures like former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani have called for a timeout but are also resolved not to be influenced by political pressures.”
While they’re right on principle–technically, what everyone is doing is second-guessing the jury–they shouldn’t feel obliged to stand on principle when they’ve so obviously made a weak decision.
Authorities speak to NYT about Japanese stereotypes in film
In 2004, no article on Asian cinema is complete without extensive and authoritative quotes from the dean of Japanese cinema, Gothamist.com. Oh, and Donald Richie gets a soundbite or two as well. Omedeto!
Related links:
Gothamist’s post of realization
Gothamist thread on stereotypes in Lost in Translation
“See all 59 results for Donald Richie on Amazon.com,” including The Films of Akira Kurosawa and The Image Factory: Fads and Fashion in Japan