Long-tail | SpoutBlog

Single-Chick Indie Miracles

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

It’s not quite 8:00 AM, but I have a candidate for Quote of the Day. From Michael Atkinson’s review of Broken English, newly released on DVD, at IFC News:

Posey-triumph and single-chick indie miracle that it is, Broken English may also be the most eloquent portrait of its subject demographic ever made, despite changing two-thirds of the way through into a slightly ditzy French-movie version of itself and robbing a little, in the end, from Linklater’s Before Sunset. While Sex in the City reruns are merely the idiot’s guide to lonely-girl anesthetization, Cassavetes’s feature-film debut is the true gem.

Whatever you think of Zoe Cassavetes’ film, it’s definitely had an interesting media life. Largely overlooked at Sundance, generally shrugged-over in its theatrical release, reclaimed late in the game by a handful of bloggers (including me) and now, finally, earning glowing reviews at the end of its media cycle. If theatrical distribution is now essentially a commercial for home entertainment sales (and I’m fairly sure Magnolia, English’s distributor, believes it is), than this is perhaps the best reception a film could ask for: the longer Broken English sits in the culture, the more positive attention it attracts. It’s a “sleeper” on a long-tail timeline.

2 Comments

Uncategorized

Telluride followup with Bill

By posted 2 years ago

I talked to Bill for the first time since he returned from Telluride. He shared with me some of his favorites. Here they are for you. (And if you’re out there reading SpoutBlog and you went to Telluride 2006, give us a holler and let us know a few things you enjoyed most.)

5 favorite films:

- Volver
- The Lives of Others
- Ghosts of Cite Soleil
- The Last King of Scotland (we recorded a conversation four of us had after the film)
- Severance (we did a podcast interview with the director)

4 interesting people:

- Chris Anderson (author of The Long Tail, which I’ve blogged about)
- Lisa Kennedy (film critic for the Denver Post)
- Kevin MacDonnald (director of The Last King of Scotland)
- Asger Leth (director of Ghosts of Cite Soleil)

3 favorite spots:

- Baked in Telluride (amazing cinnamon rolls)
- Siam (an amazing Thai restaurant)
- the gondola

2 memorable moments:

- the dinner at the Steinberg residence (being a sponsor gave us great access to directors and others)
- being told by a woman named Rosie that my Spout shirt was very cool and she had to have it, so in the interest of marketing I gave her the shirt off my back

1 way the festival changed you:

- I realized that good directors aren’t good necessarily because they’re the best storytellers. They’re good because they have many of the same qualities as good managers: they’re good leaders who are able to attract the best talent and then create an environment where they can do what they do best.

0 Comments

Telluride 2006