Scott Macaulay asked me to contribute some year-end thoughts to the FILMMAKER Magazine blog, and I did, and they’re up now. Personally, in memorializing the year that’s about to end while getting ready for the year ahead –– which, for me and virtually everyone I know, really begins mid-month at Sundance –– I find myself optimistic regarding all the great work I’ve seen over the past year and all the new possibilities that are becoming available to filmmakers, and frustrated that things aren’t changing fast enough to make those possibilities a reality. Here’s an excerpt:
Almost ten years ago, circa Erin Brockovich, I remember lying awake one night worrying about Steven Soderbergh’s career –– once responsible for Julia Roberts’ Oscar, would he ever make something as personal and indifferent to Hollywood commercialism as sex, lies again? Now, I lie awake at night worrying if people who are making films as personal and indifferent to Hollywood commericalism as those by Gerardo Naranjo, Matthew Newton and Frank V. Ross will ever get to have a career anything like Steven Soderbergh’s –– because before we can even wonder if they’ll ever get to prove their mettle through the moderately-budgeted studio films which lead to the franchise blockbusters which result in the clout necessary to mount completely uncompromising 4.5 hour dream projects, we have to wonder if they’ll ever see success on the level of the million-dollar Sundance sale.
Because there’s nothing like waiting until the last minute to do some holiday shopping, we’ve compiled this handy-dandy shopping guide to the best DVDs of 2008 that you can use now, or wait until the dust settles and clean up with any cash that Santa or Hanukkah Harry happened to leave you. It’s broken down by the person you’ll be shopping for to make things easier, even if that person happens to be yourself.
When noted, we’ve picked the Blu-ray version over the standard definition, because we try to be all about 1080p and other technical terms whenever possible. But, the regular versions are just fine as well. Still, it’s true what they say: once you go HD you’ll never go back.
Are you walking around with your “I Voted!” sticker proudly adhered to your chest? If not, get out there and do some lever pulling, chad punching, and ballot dropping. Then take the rest ofthe day off and watch one of these movies that’ll get you through the rest of election day and away from the nail-biting edge of election return coverage. There are a few minor spoilers inside, but don’t view that as me messing with the ballot box. You’ll still love the movies more than CNN’s infographics.
Fantastic Fest announced their film awards late last night, even through we’ve still got three more days of movie watching and alcohol drinking to go. As expected, The Good, The Bad and The Weird took the Audience Award, although JCVD took third place in that category, which continues to baffle me. The much buzzed about Let The Right One In was named best horror film over Donkey Punch and Acolytes, and the Danish film How To Get Rid Of The Others took top award in the Fantastic Features category with Cargo 200 and Ex Drummer in second and third place. Thankfully they gave the wacky and fun Santos a special award in that category.
We’ll have a lot more to say about these films and much more soon, so keep checking back for more festival information and news throughout the week. Heck, I’ve even enjoyed seeing Conquest of the Planet of the Apes at this thing. The complete awards listings can be found after the break. …Read more
Stefan Ruzowitzky won the Best Foreign Film Oscar for his movie The Counterfeiters, a WWII narrative based on true events around an enormous Nazi counterfeiting scheme. It’s been quite common to see movies based on the holocaust taking home Oscars (Nazis are a modern archetype making for great good versus evil showdowns). But what you don’t often see is an Austrian filmmaker making a movie for an apparently large audience that still refuses to believe Nazis were the BAD GUYS.
I revived an interview I did in Telluride with Ruzowitzky an hour before he premiered The Counterfeiters. He talks about why he made the movie and his desire to beat up old people after the jump…
January 2nd is rough. The champagne’s gone, that exciting post-midnight feeling of renewal is a distant memory, and we’re left to face the harsh reality that our overly-ambitious resolutions might actually require a less-than-pleasant change in behavior. Or maybe we’re just hungover. Whatever. In any case, here’s a clip from one of my favorite New Year’s movies, George Cukor’s Holiday, in which Cary Grant spoils a New Year’s Eve party by telling his fiancee’s moneybags dad that he plans to quit working in order to “find out who I am and what goes on and what to do about it––now, when I’m young and feel good all the time!”
Above: Jim Emerson’s Top Ten of 2007, presented as a tribute to both the dearly departed Michelangelo Antonioni, and the striking writers.
“After I saw Cabaret my life was never same. I wanted to move away from home, and become Sally Bowles.” AMC’s Future of Classic blog asks burlesque dancers to name their favorite classic films.
Mike Jones at The Circuit has named Telluride the Best Film Festival of 2007. An example of the fest’s power: “Before it won Venice, Redacted was despised at Telluride. Before it was everyone’s sweetheart, Juno was loved at Telluride. Similar to the best of Telluride’s previous years, the early talk forecast the two films’ trajectories.”
Click here to watch the entirety of last Friday’s episode of Charlie Rose featuring Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day Lewis, which I mentioned near the end of this post. Via The Playlist.
indieWIRE has posted the Top Ten lists of 20-something bloggers, filmmakers and industry types, including contributions from Matt Dentler, Aaron Katz, Michael Tully and yours truly. We’ll have more on the First Annual Boxing Helena Award in next week’s podcast.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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Scott Macaulay asked me to contribute some year-end thoughts to the 
