Links for the Day (May 23rd, 2008)

1. From Cannes: Karina Longworth looks at Philippe Garrel's latest. A.O. Scott's latest Times report, touching on Che and Synecdoche, New York, among others. And GreenCine gathers reviews for Atom Egoyan's Adoration.

["The French title of Philippe Garrel’s film in competition here is La Frontière de l’aube; the English translation in the Cannes guide is Frontier of Dawn, but the subtitle at the beginning of the film read, The Dawn of the Shore. Neither title gives any indication of what this film is: a story of amour gone so fou that the natural world becomes subject to the supernatural. Hands down the most accessible Garrel film I’ve seen, it’s still a strange, swoony, genre-bending challenge."]

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2. "NASA preps for '7 minutes of terror' on Mars": From CNN.

[" "I do not feel confident. But in my heart I'm an optimist, and I think this is going to be a very successful mission," said principal investigator Peter Smith, an optical scientist with the University of Arizona. "The thrill of victory is so much more exciting than the agony of defeat." Indeed, the truth is that the planetary scientists and engineers who make up the Mars Phoenix Lander team will be biting their nails Sunday evening as they cluster around computer monitors in mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. That's when their spacecraft, which launched to Mars last August, will finally arrive on the Red Planet."]

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3. Slant Magazine has its own wrap-ups of the Indiana Jones "trilogy": House contributor Jeremiah Kipp on Raiders; Eric Henderson on Temple of Doom; and Kipp again on Last Crusade. Nick Schager reviews Crystal Skull here. Walter Chaw reviews the new film here. House contrib Rob Humanick has his thoughts here.

[""Anything Goes" is the opening refrain of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, as Kate Capshaw sassily steps in front of the title card while singing a Mandarin-language version of the Cole Porter showtune. And then Spielberg's camera follows Capshaw into the mouth of a dragon where chorus girls await to tap dance amid falling glitter, at one point defying gravity by kicking their way out of the splits. What is this, an action picture or Josef Von Sternberg's Blonde Venus? Though the opening turns out to be a red herring in many ways (among them the fact that the rest of the movie is actually a great deal darker than the other Indy films), and not simply because it spends most of its running time where the sun don't shine), but it does at least convey the notion that whereas Raiders of the Lost Ark was, despite being a throwback, a respectable genre homage-cum-update (one that could get nominated for a Best Picture Oscar without raising an eyebrow), Temple of Doom doesn't so much pay tribute to the serial adventures of yore as it does embody them. Here, frivolity and evil blithely coexist—and women are a lot more likely to scream than win drinking contests."]

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4. "My eBay Job": A Newsweek study on those who use eBay for a living.

["Certain numbers have an iconic status in America's business culture. One of them is the number of people who derive income selling goods on eBay: 1.3 million. The figure has been cited by eBay executives such as former CEO Meg Whitman, speaking on 60 Minutes in March; by companies that are part of the eBay economic ecosystem; and, in late April, by presidential candidate John McCain. "Today, for example, 1.3 million people in the world make a living off eBay," he proclaimed. "Most of those are in the United States of America." Where does this number come from? And do more than 650,000 Americans really "make a living" selling costume jewelry, baseball cards, and cameras in the world's largest swap meet?"]

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5. "US car dealer in free gun offer": And all thanks to Barack Obama. (Hattip: Ali Arikan)

["A car dealership in the United States is offering a free handgun with every vehicle sold. Max Motors in Butler, Missouri, says sales have quadrupled since the start of the offer. Customers can choose between a gun or a $250 (£125) gas card, but most so far have chosen the gun. ... He added that the promotion was inspired by recent comments from one of the Democratic nominees for the presidential election, saying: "We did it because of Barack Obama. "He said all those people in the Midwest, you've got to have compassion for them because they're clinging to their guns and their Bibles. I found that quite offensive. We all go to church on Sunday and we all carry guns.""]

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Quote of the Day: C.S. Lewis

"Friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another, 'What?! You too! Thought I was the only one.'"

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): For Reverse Blog's "Poster of the Week", robbiefreeling asks, "Is it better when it's called Collision?"



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Clip of the Day: Even parrots know who they're voting for.

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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged. Suggestions for links are also welcome. Please send to keithuhlich@gmail.com.