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
If taxi drivers had record players
What timing. I dust off my taximusic idea, and the NYT runs a primer on ripping analog-to-digital music, and provide a handy list of audio tools. Of course, they focus primarily on LPs and on cleaning up the noise that bothers some people.
Related: LP3, my attempt to add analog sound quality to a CD music file.
warning: 350pp of the new Cervantes novel
has me talking/writing like a knight. I.e., half Quixote, half medieval times. oh, and all posts will be 900 pages long.
ahhh wrapped in the sweet …
ahhh wrapped in the sweet sweet embrace of cell phone signals once again. The ONE surprise effect of a cruise: ur actually glad to come to LA.
cruise update, day 8:
there’s a moment when ur no longer on a cruise; ur sitting on a boat in san pedro harbor.
LAX: total amateur hr.
also, the must-stop trend of ’04: board shorts and wool caps. If it’s warm enough to take ur shirt off, it’s warm enough to take ur hat off.
Puerto Wal-Marta*
Felix Ano Nuevo. If you find yourself docked in Puerto Vallarta on New Year’s Day, forget going into el Centro. All the internet cafes are closed, and the only attraction–besides the empty hulk that was Planet Hollywood, which still features the handprints of celebrity/shareholders like Gov. Schwarzenegger on its decaying facade–is the Queso Pie at McDonald’s. Who’da thought?
No, stay near the ship like you’re supposed to. Sharkey’s got wi-fi for free, although it only reaches halfway to Deck 4. And to maximize your in-port entertainment, cross the street to Wal-Mart (and, if you’ve got a VIP card, the exclusive, member’s only Sam’s Club). The parking lot’s full of traficante M-classes and Cayennes, and all the cabrons are sporting freshly shined alligator cowboy boots in an orgy of colors that’d do an NBA expansion team proud.
* Update: my sister informed me that Bingoboy–who I knew only by his embarassingly enthusiastic announcements which regularly interrupted the poolside reggae band–calls it Puerto Wal-Marta. I cannot in good conscience take credit for this coinage.
It’s Lost in Translation meets The Love Boat
My new movie idea for 2004: Call it Lost at Sea, a poignant exploration of the strangely intense bond that forms with people trapped on a cruise ship for 7 days and 6 nights.
An Orange County surfer dragged along for his grandparent’s 50th anniversary meets a 50-ish divorcee from the Valley with a fondness for slushy drinks. There’d be way too much karaoke, insulated excursions at each port of call to inject some local color, and plenty of poolside scenes (cue the Baywatch bikini montage). The supporting cast could include a sympathetic bartender, a hapless purser, a coked up cruise director, and a comically lecherous ship’s doctor.
When the boat returns to LA, the sunburned lovers exchange AIM usernames. but the audience knows it’s over. Not because the divorcee’s custody agreement limits her AIM time to alternate weekends, but because it’s just too damn far to maintain a relationship between Orange County and the Valley.