Berlinale: "In The Electric Mist", de Bertrand Tavernier (The Auteurs)

By Daniel Kasman

Like a bullet deflected, Bertrand Tavernier's In the Electric Mist lands close to target, but is ultimately repelled. The end hilariously, ingeniously, quotes the final shot of The Shining; the film's references to the American Civil War, to slavery, to segregation, to Vietnam and finally to Katrina in this Louisiana-set detective tale indeed aims more directly at America's bloody past than that most allusive of Kubrick films, but despite the ambition and the plot's mobility, the film cannot seem to find itself.

Sneaky, wandering, and unfocused in the swamp water where Jean Renoir was amazed and cautiously compassionate with his American actor-heroes, In the Electric Mist is perhaps no less true to the atmosphere of its Louisiana locations, even if the latter shot his Swamp Water on a stage and Tavernier gets access to Southern locations. A foreigner in a guilty, blood-soaked land, Tavernier expectedly brings that vagueness that most European directors shooting in the States somehow conjure up (count the clichés that mobilize the plot: a Chandler detective, a red convertible, a movie production, old skeletons in swamps...), but who said precision was the goal of cinema? The incongruities are fun; I'm happy hearing the sheer variety of "local" accents spoken by character actors and regional actors alike; and everyone has the charming habit of chatting while sitting, as if Chandler's characters were getting on and had to rest during their inquiries.

The mise-en-scene—the swampland—stretches out almost to infinity, like those videogames where you leave the left side of the screen only to enter back around on the right side: the roads, towns, houses and bars of In the Electric Mist aren't on any map, are unanchored by geography and float free in Tavernier's world of anguished guilt that detective Tommy Lee Jones thinks he hallucinates his way through. And perhaps that's the film's best framing device. Jones wanders around trying to solve a serial killing, gets mixed up in a movie production and suspects a crooked millionaire, but when he finally starts seeing visions of an affable Confederate general giving weary, kindly advice about loss and greed, that's not when In the Electric Mist takes it too far but rather when the film finally puts its entirety, its Euro-ambivilance, into an exciting form: hallucination. Were not Philip Marlow's pathways through L.A. any less happenstance and imaginative than a "trip"? Was Kubrick's Overlook not a place where time and space had no meaning? And are these devices of genre and of subjectivity not perhaps one of the most expressive ways of digging into the devices American cinema uses to color and disguise national history? Strange questions, to say the least, but In the Electric Mist is a strange film, which says something. It is a curoisity, with a sting lurking somewhere within, but the film twists and turns so much, Tavernier dodging something, I know not what, that the gun's sight never lines up exactly, and the bullet just can't seem to hit the target.

"Slumdog Millionaire" y "Milk" ganan los premios de los guionistas

La película "Slumdog Millionaire", del cineasta británico Danny Boyle, continuó con su racha de premiaciones en Hollywood, al recibir el sábado por la noche, 15 días antes de los Oscar, el
premio a adaptación del sindicato de guionistas (WGA).

Mientras, la película "Milk" ganó el premio a 'guión original'.

Rodada en Bombay, "Slumdog Millionaire" cuenta las aventuras de un joven analfabeto que contra todos los pronósticos gana un concurso de televisión que lo convierte en millonario. La película, que ya le valió a Boyle el Golden Globe como mejor realizador el 11 de enero, cuenta con 10 nominaciones para los Oscar, que se darán a conocer el 22 de febrero. Los premios del WGA son considerados como un indicador fiable respecto a lo que puede pasar en los Oscar.

Berlinale: Trailer de "Días de Mayo", de Gustavo Postiglione (Work in Progress)

El niño pez/The Fish Child, de Lucía Puenzo (Variety)

El Nino Pez
(Argentina - Spain - France) A Distribution Co. release (in Argentina) of a Historias Cinematograficas presentation and production, in co-production with Wanda Vision, MK2. (International sales: MK2, Paris.) Produced by Luis Puenzo, Jose Maria Morales. Executive producers, Fernando Sirianni, Miguel Morales, Claire Dornoy. Directed, written by Lucia Puenzo, based on her novel.

With: Ines Efron, Mariela Vitale, Pep Munne, Arnaldo Andre, Carlos Bardem, Diego Velazquez, Julian Doregger, Jeronimo Perassolo.

By BOYD VAN HOEIJ

A churning maelstrom of events that includes theft, murder and imprisonment threatens to swamp two girls in love in "The Fish Child," from Argentine helmer Lucia Puenzo. Sophomore effort, based on helmer's own novel, might at first seem radically different from her languid but powerful debut "XXY," though it does reteam Puenzo with its gamine protag Ines Efron. "Child's" fractured, fast-paced narrative always holds the audience's interest, even if at times it feels like there are enough twits onscreen to last a telenovela scribe for years. Pic should be a natural for LGBT fests and beyond.

Though focusing on two gals rather than two guys, the movie has a lot in common with Marcelo Pineyro's queer cult hit "Burnt Money." In both films, a couple against all odds turns to crime to realize their dream of being together, and though their stories start in Buenos Aires, Argentina, they soon detour to neighboring countries. A tendency to prefer visual panache to narrative fluidity is clear in both, as is a simmering erotic tension that constitutes a large part of their appeal.

Teenager Lala (Efron), the daughter of a Buenos Aires judge (Pep Munne), is in love with Ailin (Mariela Vitale), the 20-year-old Paraguayan maid of the household. They steal anything they can lay their hands on to save for their planned escape to Lake Ypoa in Paraguay, where Ailin grew up. But because of events involving Lala's dad that only gradually become clear, Ailin ends up in prison while Lala finds herself at Lake Ypoa alone, where she investigates her lover's dark past.

On the surface, pic is miles away from "XXY," but still Puenzo -- who's had to change many things from her novel, starting with the fact it was narrated by the girls' dog -- seems more concerned with atmosphere and rhythm than precise plot points. Grainy 16mm lensing feels just right, and editing by Hugo Primeiro is primarily concerned with balancing action and suspense with overall clarity.

The skinny, light-haired Efron ("Glue," "The Headless Woman") has a knack for finding offbeat projects, even though she hasn't shown much range and here again plays an awkward, wayward girl who seems to swallow her words.

Voluptuous, dark-haired newcomer Mariel Vitale was clearly cast as a contrast to Efron, but easily holds her own. Puenzo's unobtrusive insistence on what separates the girls, from their class status to their physical appearance, makes their being together feel more deserved, even though a prolonged shouting match in prison in which they thrash out all their issues is not as involving as it should be.

Pic's title is a reference to a fish child said to reside in Lake Ypoa. It gives Puenzo an excuse to indulge in a wonderfully conceived scene with magical-realist touches in which Lala dives into the lake for an encounter with the title character.

Camera (color, 16mm-to-35mm), Rodrigo Pulpeiro; editor, Hugo Primeiro; music, Andres Goldstein, Daniel Tarrab, Laura Zisman; art director, Mercedes Alfonsin; costume designer, Julio Suarez; sound (Dolby Digital), Fernando Soldevila; associate producers, Marin Karmitz, Nathanael Karmitz, Charles Gillibert; assistant director, Fabiana Tiscornia. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Panorama Special), Feb. 6, 2009. Running time: 95 MIN.

Jon Crosby - Generica: Special Edition (2009)

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Crosby was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Humboldt and Sonoma counties in Northern California, raised by a single mother from an upper class family who owned a record store in Fortuna, California. His great-grandfather was John C. Crosby, a congressman from Massachusetts and his ancestry on his mother's side is English and Native American. It is speculated that his father, who was a lounge guitarist whom he never met, may have been partially Japanese. At the age of 13, he was profiled in Guitar Player magazine and Shrapnel Magazine as a rising young star. He developed a love for classical music after watching the film Amadeus. When he met a girl named Michelle in 6th Grade, he learned to play The Beatles' hit "Michelle" on guitar to impress her. This sparked his interest in The Beatles, and in rock music in general. Crosby's other influences include Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, U2, and Depeche Mode. He formed VAST in 1993, at the age of 16, after moving to Petaluma, CA with friends Mike Alioti and Dimitri Katzoff, formerly of ska-band The Conspiracy, though that line-up was short-lived and would be frequently supplanted. He played few early shows, mainly at the famed Phoenix Theater, where many early acts -- like Green Day -- got their first big break. At 19, Crosby's manager/ex-girlfriend took him to New York, along with ex-members Daniel Alva and Stephen Garver, for the purpose of shopping his demo tapes through Shiva Baum, former manager for Opiate for the Masses, and a bidding war broke out; he then signed with Elektra. Two albums were released by Elektra - Visual Audio Sensory Theater in 1998 and Music For People in 2000. In 2002, however, Crosby left the label. 2003 saw him break new ground when he released two digital download albums, Turquoise 3.x and Crimson 3.x. He then moved on to Carson Daly's 456 Entertainment, where Nude was released in 2004. In 2003 he started his own record label, 2Blossoms Records & Media. Late 2007 and early 2008, Crosby released five download-only EPs, under the collective title Generica, which was to be "an exploration of people, places and American music." The first three volumes were solo acoustic guitar songs, while the last two were recorded along with VAST band members under the name "Jon Crosby And The Resonator Band". Crosby stressed the difference between this outfit and VAST: “When we put out "April" we were toying with the idea of releasing it as a JCRB album because the style was such a departure from previous VAST music. But then I thought, just because the music is different that doesn't mean it has to be a side project. Plus, a side project with the same members seemed a little bizarre. As we were recording the songs that would eventually go on Generica five we planned on putting them on a VAST album. Commercially it would have made more sense because people have heard of VAST but most people have not heard of JCRB. But to me, this music isn't VAST.”

Berlinale: "When You're Strange", de Tom DiCillo (Screen Daily)

Dir.Tom DiCillo.

US, 2009, 90 minutes.

By David D'Arcy

With archival footage from The Doors set against scenes of the violence of their times, When You're Strange tracks the brief rise and fall of the band whose sound helped define the era's altered state. Tom DiCillo's debut feature-length documentary after six comedies has a built-in audience of fans who bought Doors recordings and those who still buy them today. The film also has Jim Morrison, a bona fide martyr/star with Caravaggio looks, to add to the sheer novelty of Doors footage after all these years. Home video sales in particular should be very healthy.

DiCillo's film has a small window in which to tell its story, Morrison's short life which ended in 1971 at the age of 27 in Paris, where the singer had gone to write poetry after leaving the band. The Doors formed in 1965 when Morrison and keyboard player Ray Manzarek teamed up with jazz drummer John Densmore and Robby Krieger, who had played guitar for all of six months. (Light My Fire was the first song Krieger wrote). They were sacked as the house band of the Whisky a Go-Go in Los Angeles, but not before a record executive saw them.

In the studio, a memorable sound emerged from their three instruments. Soon the hits rolled out, thanks to the iconic Morrison as much as to the music.

When You're Strange relies mostly on footage of the band and its performances shot by Paul Ferrara, a friend of Morrison's from their days at UCLA Film School. Often hallucinatory, it will win over anyone who doubts the intensity of Morrison's appeal. Woven through are news video clips of the crises of the time - Civil Rights demonstrations, bloody student unrest, and the Vietnam War. Bookending the film are unidentified scenes from Morrison's own 1969 film, HWY: An American Pastoral, a solemn, meditative journey through the desert.

Besides its archival richness, the strength of DiCillo's documentary is that it is genuinely cinematic, a visual journey. Magnificently edited by Mickey Blythe and Kevin Krasny, it captures the seductive mood of Doors concerts, which often collapsed into anarchy as Morrison improvised and the band just kept playing. In Miami in 1969, when a drunken Morrison threatened to expose himself, the camera caught the chaos that followed.

When You're Strange observes but never penetrates the mystery of the US Navy admiral's son who became the rebel of his generation. Other mysteries are more problematic. We are never told clearly where the Morrison film footage at the beginning and end comes from, or if the bearded figure who looks something like Morrison is indeed the man himself.

A utilitarian voice-over narrative by DiCillo spoon-feeds information, presumably to those who were born long after Morrison died. And the director's solemn efforts to link Morrison's destiny to his cataclysmic era through news footage don't say much more than that it all happened at the same time.

Heartless Bastards - The Mountain (2009)

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Fat Possum Records is excited to announce that the Heartless Bastards are set to release their third record on January 20, 2009. The record is called The Mountain and was produced by Mike McCarthy (Spoon, Trail of Dead, Patty Griffin). The Mountaindelivers the swamped-up rock howl that fans have come to love from the critically acclaimed Heartless Bastards, but it also weaves in an adventurous sonic evolution, expanding their three-piece rock palate by adding pedal steel, mandolin, banjo and strings, all in support of Erika Wennerstrom's transcendent voice that Rolling Stone once described as "channeling all the swagger and spit of a young Robert Plant." Already on tour for all of September, October dates continue with Langhorne Slimand Dead Confederate. In November they'll be touring with The Broken West.

The Comedy of Ineptitude, Political Division (The New York Times)

Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Will Ferrell is making his Broadway debut in "You're Welcome America. A Final Night With George W Bush," at the Cort Theater.

THEATER REVIEW | 'YOU’RE WELCOME AMERICA. A FINAL NIGHT WITH GEORGE W BUSH'

By BEN BRANTLEY

The 43rd president of the United States, who is known for his gift for instant nicknames, is generously sharing his talent these days with audiences at the Cort Theater, home to “You’re Welcome America. A Final Night With George W Bush.” Toward the end of this largely unsurprising, uh, celebration of one man’s life and accomplishments, Mr. Bush, reincarnated by the comedian and movie star Will Ferrell, asks theatergoers to tell him their occupations, so he can give them the gift of his own pet names.

“Occupational therapist,” called out one woman at the performance I attended. “Helen Keller,” answered Mr. Ferrell as Mr. Bush, without pausing to think. “Bike messenger,” said another person. “I’ll call you Lance Armstrong,” responded Mr. Ferrell. But the coup de grâce came when a voice (not mine) yelled, “Reviewer,” and the man onstage answered, with the impact of a thrusting sword, “Obsolete profession.”

Touché, Mr. President. Or more to the point: Touché, Mr. Ferrell. The days when criticism of Mr. Bush could be censured as unpatriotic may be long gone, but Mr. Ferrell arrives on Broadway armed with the deflector shield of his sky-high popularity. In “You’re Welcome America,” written by Mr. Ferrell and directed by Adam McKay, the actor provides a critic-proof demonstration of the art that has endeared him to millions of fans around the world: the art of acting stupid, shrewdly, for fun and profit.

Some might say that this is a talent shared by the man Mr. Ferrell impersonates. But the George W. Bush of “You’re Welcome America” — which officially opened Thursday night but has already been doing near-capacity business in previews — is just stupid, without the shrewdness.

He’s a cocky but bumbling fellow, trapped forever in puberty, always eager to play and eternally armored in the self-assurance that often goes with a lack of self-knowledge. He is given to jaw-dropping malapropisms and misinterpretations, and he has a raunchy exhibitionist streak. He is, in other words, a typical leading man from a Will Ferrell comedy. And his life and times, as portrayed here, are not unlike what might happen if the middle-aged adolescent played by Mr. Ferrell in his recent film “Step Brothers” (directed by Mr. McKay) were, by some bizarre fluke, thrust into the American presidency.

Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon inspired stage satires cast in the mold of Shakespearean and Greek tragedies. Mr. Bush gets a comedy of ineptitude.

By these standards you might say that in cultural terms the George W. Bush of “You’re Welcome America” is exactly the right leader for his time: a man who translated the most enduringly popular movie archetype of the last two decades — the clueless doofus — into the most powerful political position in the world. Further expanding and exaggerating that archetype (as many satirists and op-ed columnists have done), Mr. Ferrell now presents George W. Bush in the White House as the ultimate sequel to “Dumb and Dumber.”

Mr. Ferrell had already forged his vision of Mr. Bush in sketches on “Saturday Night Live,” and much of what he does here is a retread of those impersonations. (It seems right that the show will be presented live as an HBO special.) Unlike Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin, Mr. Ferrell’s Bush is less exact imitation than loopy extrapolation. And the show feels freshest when he goes off on surreal tangents that transport his blundering hero into the ether of pure absurdism.

There is comic genius in riffs that take Mr. Bush into an abandoned mine shaft with his father and brother, whence they are delivered by a Homerically heroic Barbara Bush, and to a secret military base in North Carolina, where he supervises the training of monkeys with spear guns (meant both to destroy insurgent Iraqis and to entertain children). This is the stuff of inspired stand-up, when a comedian follows a corkscrew logic into strange, scary and wondrous lands that feel truer than the truth.

Some set pieces are only for titillating shock effect, like the one in which Mr. Bush speaks of a homoerotic idyll with a man he met while participating in a foursome (which he thought was a threesome, math being one of his many weak suits). Parents with Ferrell-loving kids should know that the show features a giant projected photo of what is said to be Mr. Bush’s penis. “That’s what I call shock and awe, right there,” Mr. Ferrell says, pointing to the image.

As you may have gathered, Mr. Ferrell does not go out of his way to avoid the obvious. “Wipe that smirk off your face, do you hear me?” he says to a man in the audience. “I was a cheerleader at Yale.” He refers to opening “the anals of history.” There are jokes about freedom fries and Dick Cheney as a devil worshiper. And, yes, a shoe or two will be thrown before the production’s end.

Mr. Ferrell’s Bush makes gloating reference to Americans’ short attention spans, an affliction this show’s creators seem to know is shared by many Broadway theatergoers. So they have provided vaudevillian diversions, including a break-dancing Secret Service agent (Patrick Ferrell, brother of Will) and a Condoleezza Rice reimagined as a red-hot lap dancer by Pia Glenn. There is even, in the crowd-pleasing tradition of “Mary Poppins,” an entrance from the heavens.

Mr. Ferrell and Mr. McKay have enlisted a first-rate production team that includes the estimable Eugene Lee (sets) and Brian MacDevitt (lighting). The show looks slick, and Mr. Ferrell has an ace comedian’s knowledge of how to keep the audience with him, even when his material is spotty. Occasionally the production slides into solemnity, with catalogs of the consequences of the Bush administration’s dealings with war and the disaster of Hurricane Katrina.

“You’re Welcome America” dips into these pockets of darkness only long enough to suggest where Mr. Ferrell’s political sympathies lie. I suppose the show might provide some cathartic value to anti-Bushites who feel they never really got to snort goodbye to their departed commander in chief.

But ultimately this production is less about the legacy of George W. Bush than it is about the comic persona that has been perfected by Will Ferrell. “You’re Welcome America” is a lot like Mr. Ferrell’s more middling movies, not quite on a level with “Blades of Glory” or “Talladega Nights.” Sometimes it’s really funny, and sometimes it sort of sags. I laughed, I yawned.

YOU’RE WELCOME AMERICA.

A Final Night With George W Bush

By Will Ferrell; directed by Adam McKay; sets by Eugene Lee; costumes by Tom Broecker; lighting by Brian MacDevitt; sound by Peter Fitzgerald; video design by Lisa Cuscuna/Chris Cronin; choreography by Matt Williams; production stage manager, Charles Means; flying effects, Flying by Foy; technical supervisor, Hudson Theatrical Associates; general managers, Stuart Thompson Productions/David Turner; executive producer, Jessica Elbaum; associate producers, Michael Fillerman and Seth Traxler. Presented by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Steve Traxler and Home Box Office, in association with Gary Sanchez Productions, Bat-Barry Productions, Ken Davenport, Ergo Entertainment, Ronald Frankel, Jon B. Platt, James D. Stern, the Weinstein Company, Tara Smith/b. Swibel, Dede Harris/Sharon Karmazin and Arny Granat. At the Cort Theater, 138 West 48th Street, Manhattan; (212) 239-6200. Through March 15. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes.

WITH: Will Ferrell (George W Bush), Michael Delaney (Dr. Scott Blumeth), Patrick Ferrell (Secret Service Operative), Pia Glenn (Condoleezza Rice) and Adam Mucci (Pilot).

De malos guiones y de buenos actores

"The Killing of a Chinese Bookie", de John Cassavetes

El otro día, viendo un video de una entrevista a dos críticos de cine en el programa de televisión norteamericano de Charlie Rose me quedé pensando en una frase dicha por A.O. Scott, el crítico de The New York Times que participaba en esa mesa junto al bastante impresentable David Denby. Si bien no coincido con todo lo que dijeron, al menos se puede decir que lo de "Tony" (le dicen así) Scott estaba muy bien fundamentado y articulado.

Casi al final de la "mesa redonda", Scott dijo algo que yo vengo pensando en este último mes, en el que estuve viendo casi todas las películas nominadas y candidateables al Oscar (algunas quedaron, otras no). Decía, más o menos, que era un año de películas con pésimos guiones y muy buenas actuaciones que las lograban sacar a flote. No incluía a su favorita, "Milk", si bien me parece un ejemplo claro de eso: una película con tres grandes actuaciones (Sean Penn, James Franco y Emile Hirsch; no tanto Josh Brolin para mí) y un guión que no está a la altura de las circunstancias y que achata todo lo bueno que logra, de vez en cuando, Gus Van Sant.

Pero lo mismo pasa en "Revolutionary Road": los dos actores salvan una película inflamada y pomposa, con un guión limitadísimo. Y "Frost/Nixon" vive gracias a la tensión que le dan los actores, especialmente Langella (la película es eficiente, lineal, nada del otro mundo). Y ni hablar del guión de Eric Roth para "Benjamin Button" (aunque aquí, me parece, si algo la salva un poco no son los actores sino el director). Y creo que la fotografía y la música hace digerible la andanada de trampas y trucos emocionales que es "Slumdog Millionaire" (no, los actores tampoco...)

A "The Reader" no la salvan ni actores ni guión ni dirección. Y aún cuando es la película que más me gusta de todas estas, creo que "The Wrestler" vive gracias a su elenco y a lo que el director consiguió de ellos. Tengo la impresión que si tomamos el guión como tal, nos quedamos con una serie de clichés y lugares comunes de películas clásicas de perdedores que buscan una segunda oportunidad.

Puedo seguir con "Frozen River" (sí, la peli está bien y el elenco mejor, pero la última media hora... no me hagan hablar!) y hasta con "Gran Torino", un guión que en otras manos podía haber terminado convertido en una película muy menor.

De todas las películas que estaban "en la conversación" para los Oscars creo que las dos que tienen mejores guiones (aunque no excelentes, ambas tienen sus problemas, en especial al final) son "The Dark Knight" y "Wall-E". La intrincada trama del filme de Christopher Nolan (toda una costumbre en él) tiene algunas arbitrariedades, pero en el contexto de una película de acción, pasan bastante desapercibidas. Y la primera hora de "Wall-E", casi sin palabras, es monumental.

El fin de semana decidí hacer un corte con el cine reciente y me puse a ver en DVD la versión larga (de 135 minutos), de "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie", de John Cassavetes, versión que nunca había visto. Sólo verla, dejarme llevar por sus desvíos narrativos, por su profundización en los personajes a costa de la "fluidez" de la trama, por su libertad visual, fue como enredarme en un cine que ya casi no existe, al menos no en los Estados Unidos. Un cine libre, inasible, que encima parte de una premisa policial clásica (un hombre que se mete en deudas y debe cometer un asesinato para pagarlas) pero la subvierte por completo convirtiéndose en otra cosa, y luego en otra, y luego en otra.

No quiero sumarme a la queja llorosa de los que dicen que ya no se hacen películas como antes. Pero, al menos lo que Hollywood considera lo mejor de 2008, está muy lejos de ser gran cine. Pero, claro, en 1976 tampoco premiaban a la película de Cassavetes. Premiaban "Rocky". Que, sin animo de ofender a nadie, está mucho mejor que la mayoría de las películas de este año...

Peter Adams - I Woke With Planets In My Face (2008)

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Whenever I get a press release in the mail that describes a band as sounding like The Beatles or Radiohead I sigh to myself and consider not listening to the album. It seems like whenever rock musicians are asked to describe what they sound like, somehow one of those bands is mentioned almost every single time. If you play a guitar, you sound like the Beatles. If a keyboard: Radiohead. So, imagine my chagrin to receive Peter Adams’ album in the mail the other day, accompanied by a brief description citing Adams as sounding like both The Beatles and Radiohead. Don’t get me wrong, I love both bands. But in my experience when rock groups claim one or either as “defining their sound,” it usually isn’t the case.

And it certainly isn’t with Cincinnati’s Peter Adams.

While Adams’ I Woke with Planets in my Face could certainly cite both bands as influences, he doesn’t sound like either. What he does sound like, however, I happen to like a lot.

The album opens with “In the Great Green Room” a slow building instrumental track that starts off with some twinkling keyboards and violin before diving headlong into dirge territory with an eerily spooky accordion. The short introduction to the record almost sounds like it belongs in the soundtrack of a spacey fantasy movie – the kind of song during the opening credits of the film that seems innocuous but actually contains tiny elements that foreshadow the weird thrills to come.

The rest of I Woke is a journey around ghostly acoustic folk, dancing gypsy violin, and across the ivory (keyboard) keys with Adams as your guide. He’s a starry eyed whisperer who is as comfortable singing about astronomy as he is relationships. While his voice seems constantly affected with a sense of melancholy, in a Sufjan Stevens way he isn’t depressing to listen to. Probably the cheeriest track on the album is “Annabel Lee” an accordion and kazoo laced love song that actually ends quite badly (Annabel dies). The mood, however, is optimistic with Adams vowing heartily to “pierce the sun and speak the ancient tongues,” amongst other things. The meaning of his lyrics isn’t always immediately apparent, but like the lyrics of Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Magnum (another of Adams’ listed influences) they merit a deeper inspection.

“Ziggurat” is an interesting jam. It begins like an Eighties inspired synthesizer track and adds in some fluttering violin to guide the song through sonic peaks and valleys. At its most intense there is something almost demonic about the frantic sawing at the violins, but before it all goes over the top Adams’ reigns it all back in with a plaintive wail that turns the heat down. This dichotomy of turning it up and back down shows up time and again throughout the rest of the record. In one of the better tracks, “The Observatory” it almost sounds like Adams’ has a whole orchestra at his disposal and is guiding their enthusiasm along like a maestro, pulling it forth and sending it back with a wave of the hand. Even when the intensity is relatively staid, as it is in the shanty “Ghost in the Fen,” the complexity of the instrumentation is such that the listener never gets bored.

Adams is coming to the Twin Cities on November 7th to play at both St. Paul’s Turf Club as well as Minneapolis’s Clapperclaw Festival on the 8th. Attend the show if you want to hear something beautiful, something orchestral, and something with enough pop to taste sweet. But don’t come expecting The Beatles and Radiohead. CULTURE BULLY

Berlinale: "Ricky", de Francois Ozon (Variety)

(France) A Le Pacte release of a Eurowide and Foz presentation and production, in association with Teodora Film. (International sales: Le Pacte, Paris.) Produced by Claudie Ossard, Chris Bolzli. Co-producers, Cesare Petrillo, Vieri Razzini. Directed by Francois Ozon. Screenplay, Ozon, Emmanuele Bernheim, inspired by the short story "Moth" by Rose Tremain.

With: Alexandra Lamy, Sergi Lopez, Melusine Mayance, Arthur Peyret, Andre Wilms, Jean-Claude Bolle-Reddat.

By BOYD VAN HOEIJ

Its eponymous protag may sprout wings, but Francois Ozon's latest, "Ricky," never really takes flight. Baffling tale of a baby who literally can't wait to fly the parental nest starts off as a kitchen-sink drama before moving into an uneasy mix of comedy and the grotesque, with character development replaced by airborne action in the second half. Some might detect an elaborate parenthood metaphor, but most auds will simply shrug their shoulders. "Ricky" opens in Gaul Feb. 11 on the heels of its Berlinale preem, but is unlikely to make the trek across the Atlantic.

Though inspired, like Ozon's previous pic, "Angel," by an English literary work -- in this case a Rose Tremain short story -- "Ricky" has more in common with some of the helmer's earliest efforts, including his feature debut, "Sitcom," in which the arrival of a freaky newcomer (a rat) throws a family into disarray.

On a council estate in the Seine-et-Marne region, just east of Paris, single mom and factory worker Katie (Alexandra Lamy) has to be dragged out of bed by 7-year-old daughter Lisa (Melusine Mayance), who has effectively taken the role of the mother hen. Things change when Katie falls for a Spanish co-worker, Paco (Sergi Lopez), and they have a love child, Ricky (Arthur Peyret).

But suspicious marks on the baby's back lead to false accusations, and Paco temporarily departs the household before the marks grow into wings. Screenplay toys with concepts of leaving, losing and letting go in a family context, but the ideas are upstaged by the freakshow aspects of pic's second half. Ozon plays some of the practical problems the wings pose for the tot and his mother for laughs --what should he wear? how to keep an eye on him when he's likely to fly off? -- for laughs, but not without a disturbing undercurrent. Absent feathers, the wings give the baby an alien appearance rather than an angelic one.

But strangely enough, the parents never seem particularly fazed by their offspring's extra appendages. Because Ozon doesn't develop his characters once Ricky shows his true nature, the movie's slightly overcooked working-class realism quickly morphs into a grotesque -- and admittedly funny -- story of a mutant baby. There's almost no exploration of the psychological impact on Katie or the others, and a media frenzy that descends on the family likewise feels perfunctory. The film's two halves feel almost mutually exclusive.

Lamy, better known in Gaul for her comedic roles, acquits herself admirably in a more dramatic turn (especially early on), and Lopez, so scary in "Pan's Labyrinth," is a warm yet temperamental presence here. But both thesps suffer from extremely underwritten parts. Little ones playing Lisa and Ricky are appropriately reactive and cute.

Jeanne Lapoirie's lensing is functional, and the effects work is alright in context of pic's modest aspirations. Score by Phillipe Rombi -- one of the few men on the crew list -- adds some fairy-tale gloss.

Camera (color), Jeanne Lapoirie; editor, Muriel Breton; music, Philippe Rombi; production designer, Katia Wyszkop; costume designer, Pascaline Chavanne; sound, (Dolby Digital/DTS), Brigitte Taillandier; visual effects supervisor, Georges Bouchelaghem; visual effects, BUF; special effects supervisor, Pascal Molina; assistant director, Hubert Barbin; casting, Sarah Teper, Leila Fournier. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (competing), Feb. 5, 2009. Running time: 89 MIN.

Entrevista a Lucía Puenzo (Clarín)

Link

Christian Bale se disculpa

Les reenvío el e-mail enviado por Sony Pictures con las disculpas radiales de Christian Bale. Esto es lo que se llama, en la industria, "spin control": tratar de que el asunto no se vaya al carajo.

A mí, de hecho, me dio más ganas de ver la película. Qué mejor para el personaje de John Connor que un actor pasado de rosca...

Estimados periodistas,

les reenvio el link para escuchar el audio original de la disculpa pública que hizo Christian Bale respecto de su exabrupto en el set de Terminator: la salvación. Su declaración fue realizada en el programa de radio de Los Ángeles KROQ 106.7 con Kevin & Bean.

http://www.kroq-data.com/

Anni Rossi - Rockwell (2009)

New Link

Anni Rossi's debut full-length, Rockwell, is out this March 2009. From Minnesota via Los Angeles and now based in Chicago, 23-year old Anni is a most exciting prospect. Having been classically trained since three years of age, she is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and has been performing as a solo artist for the past few years. She has already extensively toured around Europe and the US (including support slots with The Ting Tings and Electrelane as well as being a member of Carla Bozulich’s band) and has slowly gained herself both a great reputation and dedicated fanbase.

Anni signed to 4AD in mid-2008 and headed straight to Chicago’s Electrical Audio studio to record Rockwell with Steve Albini. The results show it to have been a wise move. Mostly using tracks from her existing set (Machine, Ecology, Wheelpusher), the energy, depth and eccentricities of her live show have all been successfully translated onto record and where traditionally the viola formed the centerpiece to her music (often being the only instrument used), more come to the forefront here. What will surprise listeners most is the unlikely cover version of Ace of Base’s ‘Living Danger’, a cover so sublime you wouldn’t know what it was unless told. The first mp3 off the album is Ecology, a song that perfectly showcases Anni’s unique voice and talent. REMOTE CONTROL RECORDS

Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios (The New York Times)

By BRIAN STELTER and BRAD STONE

On the day last July when “The Dark Knight” arrived in theaters, Warner Brothers was ready with an ambitious antipiracy campaign that involved months of planning and steps to monitor each physical copy of the film.

The campaign failed miserably. By the end of the year, illegal copies of the Batman movie had been downloaded more than seven million times around the world, according to the media measurement firm BigChampagne, turning it into a visible symbol of Hollywood’s helplessness against the growing problem of online video piracy.

The culprits, in this case, are the anonymous pirates who put the film online and enabled millions of Internet users to view it. Because of widely available broadband access and a new wave of streaming sites, it has become surprisingly easy to watch pirated video online — a troubling development for entertainment executives and copyright lawyers.

Hollywood may at last be having its Napster moment — struggling against the video version of the digital looting that capsized the music business. Media companies say that piracy — some prefer to call it “digital theft” to emphasize the criminal nature of the act — is an increasingly mainstream pursuit. At the same time, DVD sales, a huge source of revenue for film studios, are sagging. In 2008, DVD shipments dropped to their lowest levels in five years. Executives worry that the economic downturn will persuade more users to watch stolen shows and movies.

“Young people, in particular, conclude that if it’s so easy, it can’t be wrong,” said Richard Cotton, the general counsel for NBC Universal.

People have swapped illegal copies of songs, television shows and movies on the Internet for years. The slow download process, often using a peer-to-peer technology called BitTorrent, required patience and a modicum of sophistication by users. Now, users do not even have to download. Using a search engine, anyone can find free copies of movies, still in theaters, in a matter of minutes. Classic TV, like every “Seinfeld” episode ever produced, is also free for the streaming. Some of these digital copies are derived from bootlegs, while others are replicas of the advance review videos that studios send out before a release.

TorrentFreak.com, a Web site based in Germany that tracks which shows are most downloaded, estimates that each episode of “Heroes,” a series on NBC, is downloaded five million times, representing a substantial loss for the network. (On TV, “Heroes” averages 10 million American viewers each week).

A wave of streaming sites, which allow people to start watching video immediately without transferring a full copy of the movie or show to their hard drive, are making it easier than ever to watch free Hollywood content online. Many of these sites are located in countries with lackluster piracy enforcement efforts, like China, and are hard to monitor, so media companies do not have a clear sense of how much content is being stolen.

But many industry experts say the practice is becoming much more prevalent. “Streaming has gotten efficient and cheap enough and it gives users more control than downloads do. This is where piracy is headed,” said James L. McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research. “Consumers are under the impression that everything they want to watch should be easily streamable.”

Some of the first fights over video piracy on the Internet involved YouTube, the Google-owned Web site that introduced many people to streaming. Some legal disputes between YouTube and copyright owners remain, most notably a $1 billion lawsuit filed by Viacom, but the landscape “has improved markedly,” Mr. Cotton said. YouTube uses filters and digital flags to weed out illegal content.

But if media companies are winning the battle against illegal video clips, they are losing the battle over illicit copies of full-length TV episodes and films. The Motion Picture Association of America says that illegal downloads and streams are now responsible for about 40 percent of the revenue the industry loses annually as a result of piracy.

“It is becoming, among some demographics, a very mainstream behavior,” said Eric Garland, the chief executive of BigChampagne.

The files are surprisingly easy to find, partly because of efforts by people like Mohy Mir, the 23-year-old founder of the Toronto based video streaming site SuperNova Tube. The site, run by Mr. Mir and one other employee, allows anyone to post a video clip of any length. As the site has grown more popular, SuperNova Tube has become a repository for copyrighted content. On a recent day, the new movies “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Taken” could easily be found on the site by following links from other sites, called “link farms,” which guide users to secret stashes of copyrighted content spread around the Web.

Mr. Mir says he did not know these files were there and that his company promptly responds to any request from major rights- holders. He also says that piracy is actually his largest problem — advertisers flee when they are alerted to infringing material — and that he is constantly removing files at the request of Hollywood studios.

His reluctance is seemingly belied by his site’s name, which is based on the popular SuperNova BitTorrent hub, and its slogan: “We Work with uploaders, not against them.”

The piracy problem, however, does seem to weigh on him. He removed a copy of the movie “Twilight” from his site after a reporter pointed it out to him recently. “I think about getting sued every day. If that happens it will definitely take us out of business,” he said.

Mr. Mir has reason for concern. In December, the motion picture association sued three Web sites that it said were facilitating copyright infringement by identifying and indexing links to pirated material around the Web.

John Malcolm, the association’s director of worldwide antipiracy operations, said that although the group does not sue individuals for watching pirated videos, other lawsuits against Web sites are forthcoming, and he acknowledged that the challenge is stiff.

“There are a lot of very technologically sophisticated people out there who are very good at this and very good at hiding,” Mr. Malcolm said. “We have limited resources to bring to the fight.”

With so much pirated material online, Hollywood is turning to technological solutions. Perhaps most important, media companies are learning from the music industry’s mistakes and trying to avert broader adoption of piracy techniques. The No. 1 lesson: provide the video on the platform that users want it.

Mark Ishikawa, BayTSP’s founder and chief executive, sees a correlation between the availability of content through traditional legal channels and their popularity on pirate networks.

“When DVD releases are postponed, demand always goes up, because people don’t have an authorized channel to buy,” he said.

Partly in response to the piracy problem, a cornucopia of video Web sites now feature the latest episodes of virtually every broadcast TV show. Movie studios are experimenting with video-on-demand releases and other ways to offer films on demand. Legal alternatives, the companies hope, will stifle the stealing. The music industry, by comparison, waited years to provide legal options for online listeners.

“That’s how you start to marginalize piracy — not just by using the stick, but by using the carrot,” Mr. Garland said.

Lightning Love - November Birthday (2008)

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On Lightning Love’s debut disc, November Birthday, the Ypsilanti-based band combine sweet, childish sounds with themes about growing up and growing pains. This subject is laid bare right at the beginning on opener on “Work Today”, when singer Leah Diehl, accompanied only by some lonely keyboards, dreads the thought of going to work and admits she still needs someone to pick up after her. The song seamlessly blends into a slice of bouncy bubble-gum called “Everyone I Know”, where she lampoons the boring adults around her for all being “no good at nothing at all”. It’d be almost Holden Caulfield-esque if Diehl weren’t so likeable.

Comparisons to Ann Arbor’s Charlie Slick– who Lightning Love shared a bill with for their CD release show– are sure to abound, with Lightning Love attempting a similar take on minimalist 80’s-style electro-dance on a few songs like “Girls Are Always Wrong” and especially the fake-handclap driven “Boys Who Are Taken”. And while Charlie Slick and Lightning Love both take on the themes of growing up on their latest records, ultimately Lightning Love do so in a much more sweeter way, with an emphasis on slower, faux piano-heavy instrumentation.

A couple songs are even boosted by some cello and accordion accompaniment. November Birthday isn’t all adulthood resistance, however. Despite the backlash at the record’s beginning, when Diehl sings about staying out late and smoking cigarettes on “I Think We’re Alright” you almost wonder if you should call her parents and tell on her– that is, if the way she sang it didn’t make it sound so fun. MOTORCITYROCKS

Miss Emily Brown - Part Of You Pours Out Of Me (2008)

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MISS EMILY BROWN invites you to disappear into the hush of her creation. Using autoharp, guitar, pianet and music boxes, she creates an intricate fog for verse to lose its way. Lyrics read like notes dropped on the sidewalk, letters from a cowgirl, entries from a grandmother’s diary. These haunting, minimalist compositions will make you forget that you have heard everything before.

Miss Brown’s equally weighted background in folk and jazz, combined with her enthusiasm for electronic music and improvisation, give her performances a notably innovative quality. As part of a diverse arts community from across Canada, she is often joined by her talented friends on cello, fiddle, electronics, upright bass or slide guitar.

Miss Emily Brown’s recordings range from unprocessed, live-off-the-floor tracks such as Moose Along the Tree Llne or Break to electronic montage pieces like Rainbows, Djs and Paper Moon. Admirers are enjoing her first full-length album, Part of You Pours Out of Me, released April 2008.

Along the banks of the St. Lawrence River, in her hometown of Iroquois, Ontario, Emily began skipping school in tenth grade to write songs. She ventured to Victoria, BC, in 2002, to study poetry, then began performing folk-pop shows with local bands. After independently releasing her first album in 2004, Miss Brown relocated to Nelson, BC, where she became a resident singer at the Baker Street Live Jazz Club. She released two more independent albums in 2005 and 2006, while studying vocal jazz composition at Selkirk College.

BETA MALE: The Auteurs’ Efe Cakarel interviewed by Paul Fileri (Film Comment)

PAUL FILERI: Roughly how many people have signed up as members in the social network?
EFE CAKAREL: We have 40,000 members on The Auteurs and 30,000 monthly active users of Movie Theater, our Facebook application.

How many films are now available for viewing by video stream? How many of these are unavailable elsewhere on DVD/video? Evidently, some are available in certain territories but not in others at this point.
We are adding new films every day. As of this moment, we have about 60 films available to stream in a variety of territories. As for what films we are showing that are unavailable on DVD, that is a difficult question to answer, as the distribution status of films in the large number of territories we exhibit in is varied. For example, we are showing Philippe Garrel’s Le Vent de le nuit in the U.S., where the film is currently unavailable on video, although it is available on DVD in France. We are proud to say we are showing a number of films in a number of territories where they were previously unavailable to watch, including Claire Denis’s Vers Mathilde.

As the founder, how did you bring together the group of seven that now runs the site? Were you already a friend or contact of each of these people or did you go out searching for collaborators?
We believe in small teams. Small teams reduce mass—there is less formality, less fear; more flexibility, more change. We also embrace constraints—fewer resources means better use; less time means better time.

With this philosophy in mind, I brought together our team one by one. Kamer, our creative director, was a friend of mine in Istanbul. He’s the best designer I’ve ever met, so I flew him to Palo Alto. I found Gabe and Jatinder, our developers, through open source based on their contributions to the Ruby and Rails core. Gabe was in Minnesota and Jatinder was in Pune, India. I moved them both to Palo Alto. I found Daniel, our editor, through a friend at Zeitgeist Films who told me about “‘this intern from NYU who was the best writer.”‘ I met Halim, who’s in charge of content, through a very close friend, and Melissa, who’s in charge of user experience, is a friend of mine from Stanford that I wanted to bring in for more than a year since she’s so good. We also worked with very talented individuals who contributed greatly to our effort: Chris with Flash Player, Adam and Matt for front end, and Alessandra in marketing.

We hire very rarely; and we try to hire the best in the world in whatever they do. That’s the way to build an organization. Because A+ people hire A+ people, B people hire C people.

Your online bio [studying electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, then obtaining an MBA at Stanford, working at Goldman Sachs and also becoming involved in the continuing negotiations between the EU and Turkey advising the Vice President of the European Parliament] of course does not fit the typical picture of a “‘cinephile,” dedicating one’s time to the appreciation and study of cinema. It’s safe to say Silicon Valley/Palo Alto is not a historical mecca of cinephilia either. I’m wondering if you could talk a bit about your relationship with film and filmgoing over the years, both in personal and business terms? Have you always been something of a passionate filmgoer, a frequent attendee of festivals? Did you become interested only recently in the possibilities of online media distribution or have you been following the world of international film distribution for a longer time?
I have a confession to make: I only became a cinephile after I founded The Auteurs. Yes, I loved Chunking Express and Band of Outsiders, but I’ve never followed Cannes or Berlin, or passionately hunted down obscure films. I also knew absolutely nothing about film distribution. But I knew two things really well: 1) how to build Web applications, from concept to interface design to programming; and 2) how to do deals.

Last May, I saw a very big market opportunity: nobody offered a good selection of movies, and the right user-experience, online. It was unbelievable; that story about me wanting to watch In the Mood for Love online in Tokyo is real. I would have paid anything for that, and nobody was offering it to me.

I was especially excited to start this company because everybody that I talked to, especially from the industry, told me that I’d fail. They told me that not even Apple could get Criterion’s films. They told me that I simply don’t understand how this industry works, and that whoever had tried to build such a platform in the past had failed. But one thing I learned as an entrepreneur is that there are two reasons people tell you why something is going to fail: 1) it’s been done before and 2) it’s never been done before. It was a no brainer for me: big market opportunity, nobody was doing it right, everybody thinks it will fail. I founded the company at Coupa Café, a coffee shop in Palo Alto, where I worked for two months before Kamer joined me from Istanbul and we got an office, and I never looked back.

After having taken shape in the latter half of 2007, the site launched in February 2008 with a media announcement at the Berlin Film Festival. Then there was the short Flip Video contest at Cannes, and the site has developed further over the course of the year, with The Notebook regularly producing content along with more streaming videos made available. Now in November, the Criterion partnership has been announced. What would you say have been the significant developmental milestones, so to speak, in the site’s short history so far. Anything further to say about when you intend to take the site out of “public beta”?
You have pinpointed many of our milestones. After founding the company in May 2007, we built and deployed our Facebook application—the Movie Theater—in November 2007. Over the winter, we partnered with Celluloid Dreams not only to acquire content globally but also to create The Auteurs Europe to localize and launch The Auteurs in key European countries. We have a similar partnership with Costa Films, an early investor in The Auteurs, to launch The Auteurs Latin America in 2009 starting with Brazil. In February of 2008 we launched a private beta of The Auteurs during the Berlin Film Festival; and in Cannes 2008 we held an official short film competition called Cannes à la Flip in association with Short Film Corner, Festival de Cannes [www.theauteurs.com/competitions/1].

Over the summer, we partnered with the Criterion Collection in order to design and build their online cinematheque and have them program a monthly online film festival at The Auteurs. At the end of the summer, we were proud to host all of the Telluride Film Festival’s short films programs online, as well as partner with Criterion in an online tribute to the Telluride Film Festival, featuring clips, trailers, and feature films from the festival’s history all viewable online for free at The Auteurs [www.theauteurs.com/festivals/20/tribute].

Finally, in November 2008 the Criterion cinematheque opened for the public, and likewise our closed beta has moved to an open beta, letting anybody—whether they are coming from the cinematheque or finding our site another way—access The Auteurs.

The Auteurs will move out of beta and launch during Cannes Film Festival in May 2009.

The site has been striking and distinctive partly for its clean, eye-catching professional design and well-planned media strategy—sponsored events at Berlin and Cannes—right from the beginning, as well as for the promising partnerships it has secured with some very prominent players with high reputations like Celluloid Dreams and Criterion: can you talk a bit about how these notable connections came about so early on for the project? Have specific individuals been key contacts/liaisons in helping The Auteurs as an initiative make this entry into the industry.
When I started the company in May 2007, a week before Cannes Film Festival, I wrote a personal letter to the director of the Festival saying that Cannes should embrace start-ups like The Auteurs in order to be at the cutting edge of film distribution. That miraculously got me accredited as a “Film Buyer” with no money in the bank, no films ever bought, and nobody I knew in the industry. I remember being so nervous when I arrived at the Palais that I couldn’t enter it for more than an hour. It’s amazing that only a year later we were organizing an official film competition there.

Then I started meeting people. You know how Cannes is—I met a Romanian actress from that year’s Camera d’Or winner who introduced me to the producer of that year’s Palm d’Or winner over dinner who took me to the boat of a film financier for an after party where I met two very important distributors. The week went on like that. I met a lot of people but nobody was willing to give me their films. I quickly figured out that I had to meet the person whom I heard to be one of the most forward-looking, intelligent, and powerful in the industry: Hengameh Panahi, Founder and Chairman of Celluloid Dreams. I knew Hengameh—who has access to the most significant producers, and the distributors in the world—could solve my content acquisition problem overnight. At the time, Hengameh did not answer my e-mails or returned my calls, so I postponed my meeting her until the next film festival rolled around.

After Cannes, I spent months writing to every important sales agent and distributor around the world explaining my vision and asking for their films. By Toronto, after four months, I did not have a single film. In Toronto, knowing that I simply had to meet Hengameh, I just strolled into her office, walked in the door, and demanded that I see her. They kindly walked me out of the door, but took my business card. After what seemed like the longest 18 hours, Hengameh called me and said I have 15 minutes. I said I need only 10, and went to her office to meet her. The rest is history. Hengameh immediately got what we are trying to do, and realized the vision is so fresh and strong; I was in Paris three weeks after working and brainstorming with her. Then we met Tom Luddy, director of the Telluride Film Festival, who loved the vision and have become our informal advisor ever since. He introduced us to Dieter Koesslick, director of Berlinale, who initiated partnership discussions between us and Berlinale. In Berlin, I was introduced to Peter Becker, president of Criterion, by Eduardo Costantini, who was our investor and guardian angel. A few weeks later, I was in New York meeting Peter Becker and Jonathan Turrell, CEO of Criterion. I went there to license a few films. I walked out with a multi-year partnership where we design and build Criterion’s website and power it going forward, Criterion curating a monthly festival on The Auteurs, and Criterion taking an equity stake. Since then Peter and Jonathan have been my mentors and have tremendously helped me bring The Auteurs to where it is now.

Who do you see as the site’s intended audience in online English-language film culture versus the still developing audience it’s attracted at this stage? Those who are interested in the journalistic film coverage don’t necessarily overlap with those attracted to the social networking/forums and those attracted to the online video content.
Our goal is simply to become an online destination point for film lovers—anybody who loves film. The Auteurs is a place for cinephiles as well as those just beginning to become interested in film. From our private beta to the early days of our public beta, the community we have attracted are varied but all have one thing in common: an ardent passion for film. We hope in the future to attract those who haven’t yet found their passion but are willing to try. We are providing a varied experience: come to watch, come to read, come to discuss, come to discover. We have built a social network platform that spreads interest in and awareness of smaller films to a wider audience; and our platform gives our audiences a wide range of activities that can cater to different levels of interests and involvement in film, and encourage them to expand both. Those who come to talk about their favorite movies might read about something new or intriguing in our Notebook, or take a chance on one of the many films our site offers to watch for free. The ideal community would be a comprehensively active one: people who come to do everything: they watch, they discuss, they read, they write, they spread the word.

What’s your thinking behind the prominent framing of the site’s subject as “auteurs” and “auteur-driven cinema,” which of course places the emphasis on one particular facet of world cinema, the cinemas of the world as a whole, in all its genres and nationalities? For instance, is it the particular creativity, innovation, status/prestige of “auteur cinema” as a niche identified with film festivals that’s framed as the center of the project?
We have framed our site under The Auteurs moniker not because we are strict auteurists or wish to only view cinema from this angle, but because it represents our dedication to cinematic artistry. We want to show only distinctive, visionary films, whether their inspiration comes from the single mind of a director, or from a star, subject, country, culture, or any other deciding factor. Our niche is in using online distribution as a means to show these distinctive films, many of which, like those of Philippe Garrel, are tremendous works of cinematic art but which have trouble finding distribution in the current conservative climate.

The library has been expanding, especially with Criterion now onboard. In what directions do you see or hope to have the offerings grow? What has the challenge been like to negotiate for Internet distribution rights with other distribution companies or the filmmakers themselves? Will you be proceeding by finding other well-established operations with which to partner, or will The Auteurs act as a distributor directly?
We want our library to grow, of course, but we have always conceived The Auteurs as being a curated selection of cinema. I’m pleased to announce that just this week, one of the most respected programmers in the world, Marie-Pierre Duhamel Muller, who was in the selection committee for this year’s Venice Film Festival, joined The Auteurs as a programmer to help us select the most significant films ever produced. The last thing we want is to befuddle those who are coming to the site and are open to trying these films with an overwhelming, video store like barrage of films. We are going to carefully choose great films from those that played at film festivals, those that have already been released, and those that have never been released—we are dedicated to showcasing the best of cinema, wherever we can find it, and make it available to whomever we can. The goal is not only to acquire these films, but then to be able to show them to as many audiences around the world as possible.

A principle challenge has simply been to convince rights holders that Internet distribution is a viable business. This is neither theatrical distribution nor video distribution; the Internet, as a social platform, makes the availability of media work in a far different way than those arms of traditional distribution. That making films available online is as much a viral way of marketing films as it is source of tremendous income is something that few rights holders have been far-seeing enough to recognize. We are overjoyed that two of the very best film companies in the world—the Criterion Collection and Celluloid Dreams—share our vision for using the internet as a way to make films accessible to audiences in ways they never have been in the past.

For the future, we conceive The Auteurs as an open platform with a broad set of partnerships globally. The vision is no less than to become a global cultural hub for cinema. Just to give you an idea about what we are up to, we are in partnership discussions with an advertising agency in U.K., a publishing house in Italy, a consortium of distributors in Spain, and film-financing company in Japan.

What shapes the editorial vision behind The Notebook? Is it largely an autonomous entity, set free to cover the film festival scene, DVD releases, and film culture in general with an independent critical eye, from many writers’ perspectives? What kind of coverage do you want to see? Do you see any publishing ventures as models or online outfits as ones that share a similar vision about film criticism and debate? What is the relationship between this critical project and the film library where content has to be promoted?
The Notebook is our online journal that has grown spontaneously through outreach to Internet-based contributors. It operates autonomously, and focuses on one of the prime goals of The Auteurs project—to explore and discover international cinema. We have selected a group of writers not through traditional sources but through online networks of film criticism—blogs, magazines, review sites, etc.—mirroring not just the way The Auteurs as a company was formed, but also emblemizing the mission of the company to unite disparate film viewers around the world. For the most part, we give our writers independence to find their own subjects, be it reviewing, festival coverage, film theory, in-depth criticism, or image essays. The key was to find a talented and varied set of voices and give them a space to explore film in their own way. We hope to expand our criticism towards a more multi-media based approach: more images, more video, video essays, excerpts from films, etc. The subject of inquiry will always remain the same: cinema new and old, obvious and obscure—helping new readers discover these works and veteran readers push deeper into film.

Because The Notebook is running in tandem with The Auteurs as a broader conception of an online movie social network, it has no exact equivalent online, but there are a great many online publications which have a quality of criticism that we hold up as ideal—for examples Senses of Cinema, Reverse Shot, and Rouge, as well as dozens of smaller, more personal websites. Perhaps the closest example of an ideal we are pursuing is Girish Shambu’s blog, which unites astute critical discussion of film with a large and active community of readers.

Our desire is for the most part to keep The Notebook as a critical publication and our library separate. If we write on films in our library is solely from a critical standpoint and not a PR move.

Algunas ideas sueltas sobre "Benjamin Button"

Volví a ver, la otra noche, "El caso curioso de Benjamin Button". Viniendo de un cineasta que, en general, suele gustarme, me daba la impresión de que merecía una segunda oportunidad, e igualmente cinematográfica como la primera (sólo que esta vez con subtítulos, lo cual ayuda tomando en cuenta el gangoso acento de Louisiana de muchos de los personajes).

Y siguió sin gustarme. Al menos, no del todo.

Me parece que Fincher se deja dominar por el guión de Eric Roth y que su interés está más puesto en las proezas técnicas (maquillajes, efectos digitales, reconstrucción de época) que en la de insuflarle algo de vida que no sea del todo artificial a la película. Tengo la impresión, también, de que hay una buena película escondida en toda esa épica de peripecias "forrestgumpianas", pero que nadie se atrevió a tomar el toro por las astas y limpiar de un plumazo todos los sobrantes.

Digo, tras una primera media hora simpática en la que la sola existencia de un personaje como Benjamin Button, con su proceso de envejecimiento puesto en reversa, da pie para que prestemos atención a las curiosas situaciones que se presentan, la película entra en un recorrido incierto, moroso, contado con el tono de cuentito de cuna y que tampoco mejora con la cara de susto permanente que tiene Pitt maquillado de viejo. Al contrario, todo se torna sedativo, insulso, lleno de esas pequeñas moralejitas-Roth (el colibrí, "you don't know what's coming to you", el sentirse "bicho raro" entre los demás, la mujer bella e inalcanzable a la que tendremos pero perderemos, los viajes en barco, los amigos "raros") que ya hemos visto, bueno, ya saben cuándo. Y eso que yo me reconozco fan de "Forrest Gump". O al menos lo fui en aquel momento: no volví a ver la película desde entonces.

Y ni hablar del mal gusto oportunista de enredar todo en el huracán Katrina: una utilización repulsiva de un desastre nacional sólo para aportar una ligera metáfora sobre la fugacidad de las cosas, la impermanencia de todo, etc, etc.

Promediando la película me parece que surge una historia que vale la pena contar, una en la que la metáfora del crecimiento inverso de Button cobra fuerza. Y es la relación de él con Daisy, una vez que Benjamin regresa de sus viajes y la reencuentra. Me parece que una historia de "crecimientos inversos" en una pareja es mucho más aplicable como metáfora a experiencias que todos atravesamos, que supera el jueguito anecdótico de la edad física de cada uno de los personajes. No importa que uno envejece y el otro rejuvenece: allí hay una historia para contar sobre dos personas que van hacia lados diferentes en la vida. Y un par de escenas del filme --Pitt reconociendo que se tiene que ir y dejarla, ella reconociendo finalmente, y con dolor, la imposibilidad de seguir juntos-- en el que se siente que esa otra película podría haber estado bien, y que las metáforas acerca de "aprovechar el momento" y "disfrutar mientras dura", tendrían algo más de sentido emocional y menos de sermón.

Hay momentos de belleza y emotivos, aquí y allá, en la película. Pero uno no puede evitar sentir la sensación de oportunidad perdida, de película empantanada en el fárrago de 160 minutos de los cuales tal vez hasta una hora sea innecesaria. Una pena...

Dum Dum Girls - Dum Dum Girls (2008)

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MySpace is the gift that truly keeps giving (though it would be nice if they had not completely fucked up the music player and made downloads impossible), and this week they’ve given me Dum Dum Girls! Reverb? Yes! Fuzz? Yes! Catchy melodies? Yes! Dum Dum Girls – who I’m assuming are named after the Talk Talk song – is actually the project of just one Dum Dum Girl – a Librarian from L.A. named Dee Dee. Dum Dum Girls are already being compared to their contemporaries, Vivian Girls, but even early on I think Dee Dee’s catchy melodies are leaving the other Girls in the dust. For reference, think buzzsaw electric guitars and moody female vocals ala Johnny Johnson or Tracy Tracy (basically any female vocalist with similar first and last names!). I’ve been listening to the songs on the MySpace quite a lot for the past couple days, and I’ve decided that if both Knight School and Dum Dum Girls were on Match.com, they would end up a very happy couple. I just ordered the Dum Dum Girls’ debut EP from Zoo Music and I think you should, too!!! You can do that HERE! SKATTERBRAIN

Crítica de "Caja cerrada", de Martín Solá (Clarín)

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El Festival de Mar del Plata: ¿una nueva etapa?

El asunto es más o menos así. Digamos que desde hace tiempo que uno puede sentir, como decía cierto escritor clásico, "que algo huele a podrido en Dinamarca". Marchas, contramarchas, caras largas, fastidios comentados por lo bajo. Aún antes de la realización de su última edición, no todo marchaba sobre ruedas en el Festival de Mar del Plata. Pero esto se puede decir de cualquier festival: todo puede estar tremendamente mal en su interior, pero si la sensación que la gente se lleva del festival es positiva, todo eso se olvida rápidamente, o se esconde bajo la alfombra.

Acá no fue tan así, ya que el festival no salió del todo bien. Una de las medidas que se decidió tomar (y de las que habla Liliana Mazure en esta nota que publiqué hoy en "Clarín") fue la de dar una mayor participación en la organización a Mar del Plata, ya que daba la impresión de que la ciudad le había dado la espalda al festival. Los reales motivos no los sabremos nunca (internas políticas, cuestiones personales, de dinero), pero lo cierto es que todo terminó en un clima algo triste, con varios miembros del equipo fastidiados, sin concurrir a la ceremonia y recibiendo señales de que no iban a ser tenidos en cuenta para el año próximo.

En los papeles uno podría hablar de una decisión de cambiar el tipo de programación --algunos decían que se estaba pareciendo demasiado al BAFICI--, pero yo intuyo que los motivos son algo más profundos y complejos de dilucidar. Tal vez cada nueva dirección quiera tener a su propia gente y ese sea el motivo de los cambios. O no. Nunca logré entender del todo al INCAA. Nunca.

Lo cierto es que después del festival, de a poco, se fueron empezando a saber las novedades. Que Peña se iba, que se iba, que se fue. Y que varios programadores eran desplazados a otros sectores del INCAA, que a otros se los dejaba elegir si continuar o no en un modelo de festival que nadie sabe muy bien cuál es, pero que da la impresión que será más acotado y con una programación más tradicional, nacional y, acaso, latinoamericana. De hecho, que el INCAA haya organizado un Mercado "posterior" a Mar del Plata y en Buenos Aires (en vez de hacerlo allí y durante el festival), invita a pensar de que el evento empezó a perder peso en esa organización.

Así, entonces, se fue Peña, la productora Virginia Petrozzino se pasó al Mercado (se supone que la producción del festival correrá por cuenta de los marplatenses) y la gran mayoría de los programadores se irá al terminar sus contratos (otros ya se fueron y otros pasaron a otras dependencias del INCAA), como Pablo Mazzola, Martín Maisonave, Mariano Goldrob, Eduardo Flores Lescano, Mauro Andrizzi y alguno más que ahora me estoy olvidando.

Quedan algunos, claro, junto a la figura señera de José Martínez Suárez. El festival, como pueden leer en la nota de "Clarín", es una incógnita que empezará a resolverse cuando el nuevo ente tripartito (INCAA, provincia de Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata) empiece a dar señales de qué es lo que hará en la próxima edición.

Se habla que serán sólo cien películas, en su mayoría argentinas y latinoamericanas. El INCAA dice que aportará sólo dos millones de pesos y que el resto saldrá de las otras dos patas del festival. ¿Quién sabe qué pasará? Lo único que queda claro es que Mar del Plata parece haber sido un festival renacido de una manera complicada hace ya trece años y que, por diversas circunstancias, nunca logró levantar cabeza, aún cuando hace unos años daba la impresión de que estaba empezando a lograrlo.

¿Habrá nuevo director artístico? ¿Sabremos qué será de la vida del festival? Imagino que sí, que en algunos meses tendremos más claro lo que se viene. Permítannos no ser del todo optimistas. Tenemos casi quince años de "experiencia marplatense" como para dudar del asunto. Ojalá nos equivoquemos.

Se vienen cambios fuertes en Mar del Plata

Mañana les cuento todo --compromisos profesionales no me permiten adelantar nada--, pero va a haber muchos cambios, muchísimos.

Alessi’s Ark - Notes From The Treehouse (2009)

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Alessi Laurent-Marke is an 18-year-old Londoner whose forthcoming debut album, Notes from the Treehouse, was produced by Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis. In advance of that, there is The Horse EP, an intriguing introduction to Alessi’s world. The first thing you notice is how much she plays with her voice: for the most part, it is used as merely another instrument, with no set sound or style. She can, in the space of a song, remind you of Kate Bush, Björk and Bat for Lashes. That’s not a problem. On the contrary — musically, songs such as Let’s Race and the title track prove just as experimental and wide-ranging, making the EP one of the most promising debuts of the year, with just weeks to spare. TIMES ONLINE