Two films to consider:
2046 is a fascinatingly visual film (nice collage of stills here.) with an unconventional narrative flow that is unique and yet almost soothingly familiar. Topic? Uhh, storytelling, memory, love, relationships.

Me You and Everyone We Know deals with (among many other things) the beauty (or the art) in the ordinary and the everyday – finding what is beautiful and fascinating in what is ordinary, and taking simple steps to make the ordinary beautiful and fascinating.

Both are complex and rich films which I am not trying to review or summarize here. Merely recommend. Reviews of 2046 and Reviews of MYaEWK

Collision Course is a ridiculous movie starring Jay Leno as a slick cop in a convertible. Imagine seeing him act? Yikes. About as horrible as Bill Maher as a hero-in-the-future cop.

The New York Times writes about $1 DVDs, which are not bootlegs but simply films which have lapsed into the public domain for one reason or another.

Digiview actually paid for the rights to ‘American Vampire,’ a kind of ‘Beach Blanket Beowulf’ starring Carmen Electra of ‘Baywatch.’ Whether anyone will pay for the DVD is unclear. ‘Just because it’s a dollar doesn’t mean people want it,’ said Mr. Rosenberg, of Home Media Retailing. Indeed, a nickel might be too much for a DVD of Raymond Burr in ‘Bride of the Gorilla.’

Mr. Rosenberg said the novelty of dollar DVD’s would soon fade. ‘There’s a great danger of overdistribution,’ he said. ‘This is a business without much room for profit – either in the making or the selling. A year from now, most cheap DVD’s will be gone from stores.’ One ‘Killer Shrew’ alumnus hopes to cash in while the cheapness lasts. ‘This craze could build an audience for the sequel I’m writing,’ said Mr. Best, who played the stuttering Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on ‘The Dukes of Hazzard.’

He has nearly finished a first draft of ‘Killer Shrews II.’ The plot is fiendishly simple. ‘I return to Shrew Island to rescue a bunch of teenagers,’ he reported. ‘A new mad scientist has turned herself into a human shrew that not only chews, but swims.'”

Rise Lord Vader has become a catchphrase for the last Star Wars film, appearing in ads, and reportedly even in the trailer. But the scene where he is commanded to RISE doesn’t use that line. Kind of a drag, since the PR machine has got us waiting for it.

Vague spoiler in terse review. It was alternately cool and cheesy. When Anakin becomes Darth Vader, with the black helmet sliding into place, and you hear the mechanized breathing, it was pretty spine-touching cool. But moments later the actor in the suit stands up (and yes, he’s just had surgery etc. so will be wobbly but still) and moves in no way that resembles the Vader we know. It just looked…wrong. Moments later he is told something that causes him to scream “Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!” (and I’d swear the camera pulled far back and up at that time) – something that the Simpsons have rendered into an absolutely ludicrous cliche and only a moron would try to get away with that in a movie we’re supposed to take seriously.

This is pretty exciting – SFist published my thoughts about the new film Palindromes. Cool!

Watched a bunch of movies in the last week or so.

Out of five stars

Oldboy ****
The 39 Steps (Hitchcock’s version of course) ****
Picnic at Hanging Rock *
Appleseed *
Soylent Green (it’s people, did you know?) **
Infernal Affairs ***

Stockstock is a film festival consisting of short films made entirely from stock footage. We select a limited amount of stock footage and give it to you – your job is to make it into some kind of short video presentation.

Registration begins on Mar. 22!

Another winning entry from last summer’s StockStock festival is posted here, another is here, a third can be seen from here, and a fourth is here.

Someday I’ll figure out how to get ours down to a 9M file or something so we can post it somewhere. Hmm….

Pleix films are beautiful, disturbing jams of consumer culture and technology. (as seen on BoingBoing)

Appearing soon at the SF Indie Film Festival, Value-Added Cinema “a finely tuned montage of egregious product placement shots…insinuated into dialogue, thrown front and center like loss leaders, even engulfing entire features until they become little more than cross-promotions for toy manufacturers”

If you are in Seattle on June 1, you should definitely check out the Stockstock Film Festival where a film by Steve Portigal and Anne Williams will be screened. Stockstock is a film contest where entrants are given 30 minutes of stock footage and create a 3-minute film using only that footage.

Dear Stevep,
FUTURE Hero/Heroine of our forthcoming film,

Dhari Films Pvt. Ltd. invites young boys & girls to participate in the Talent-Search for a prestigious big budget HINDI feature film.
The Talent-Search is aimed at enhancing the individual talent with respect to his/her attitudes, perceptions and dilemmas, and harnessing the energy of the acting to create a successful ACTOR/ACTRESS in a healthy atmosphere. The focus is on strengthening one’s core, the firmness of one’s ability and the blossoming of one’s potential. The course-programmed (after the selection) stimulates commitment to one’s harmony and happiness that vexing problems though not solve, often dissolve under the guidance of Experts.
This talent-search is tailored exclusively for young talents. This search will not only give you the break to realize your dreams come true, but will help you boosting your positive attitudes and release an effusion of creativity and a deep sense of rejoicing within both yourself and your ability as an actor or actress, resulting in a favorable change in your work culture throughout your acting-career.
The Minimum Requirements:
1.Minimum Age Should be 18, but not more than 25 years.
2.Should speak HINDI.
3.Should know dance.
4.Should have sense of at least imitating.
& above all judge yourself that you can be HERO/ HEROINE or not.

I rented two films on Saturday: CQ, and Silent Running. The first is a recent movie about the filming/editing of a cheesy science fiction film in 1969 Paris, and the second is a not-so-cheesy science fiction film from 1971.

I learned about Silent Running years ago when I found an old Esquire magazine that had a series of portraits of the actors who portrayed the “drones” – double amputees who fit inside these plastic costumes to make for convincing little robots. It was a dramatic series of photos – people with no legs glaring with a lot of world experience and attitude, some as young as 16. I was very young when I saw it and really made an impression. I would love to find those pictures again. There are tons of web sites with stuff about the drones – CAD renderings, people who have made their own versions, on and on. But none of the portraits. Do let me know if you ever see what I’m describing.

Update: Found, and posted here.