Links for the Day (June 19th, 2008)

1. "No Country For "It" Girls": From The Film Experience, the first edition of the new series "Best Pictures from the Outside In."

["Each week (or thereabouts) The Film Experience, Goatdog's Movies and Nick's Flick Picks will be looking at two Best Picture winners. We're pulling Oscar's favorites from the shelves from both ends, starting with the very first year of Oscar (Wings) and the most recent (No Country For Old Men). We'll work our way eventually to the 1960s, smack dab in the middle of Oscar's 80 years of back-patting. Wings (1927), the first film to ever win Best Picture, is an epic silent which tells the story of two young aviators from the same hometown, Jack Powell and David Armstrong (Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen), who fight the Germans and fight over women (sort of) in The Great War. No Country For Old Men (2007), more familiar to today's audiences, is the Coen Bros rendering of Cormac McCarthy's nihilistic spare novel about a death dealer drug kingpin Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), the man who stole his money Lewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) and the Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) who is trailing them both."]

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2. "The Best Film Book Ever": Why it has to be Seagalogy by Vern, of course. Take it, Tully!

["Let’s begin with a rather bold statement, but one that I am convinced is wholly accurate and which I am prepared to defend to the bloody death: Vern’s Seagalogy is the definitive statement of film writing by a member of my generation. Laugh if you want, but it’s true. You can even quote me. Go ahead. I dare you. For the fact remains that there has never been a film writer whose voice so distinctly and accurately represents the bipolar blend of sarcasm and sincerity that defines the late 20th Century generation to which we belong. By celebrating, dissecting, and nitpicking through the entire oeuvre of Steven Seagal, Vern has turned other critics’ trash into his own unique art. If you think Seagalogy is all one big, funny joke, you’re missing the point. It’s not a joke. It’s dead serious. But it’s also hilarious. As in That Is The Funniest Fucking Thing I Have Ever Read In My Life hilarious."]

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3. "Dreamworks in talks with India's Reliance ADA": From Reuters.

["The first act of a big Hollywood drama is nearing an end as Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG closes in on up to $600 million in financing from an Indian conglomerate to further its scheme to exit Paramount, a person close to the talks said on Wednesday. The $500 million to $600 million deal with Reliance ADA, one of the biggest names in Indian business, is the initial step in Spielberg's and DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen's plan to leave Paramount and set up their own studio to make films to be distributed by a soon-to-be-determined studio."]

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4. "Five Unsexiest Movies About Sex: The Breillat Awards": House contributor Lauren Wissot's latest column for Spout.

["I can think of no better poster child for celibacy than Parisian “provocateur” Catherine Breillat, the director of such erotic misfires as Fat Girl, Romance, and more recently, The Last Mistress, which stars another over-hyped “hottie” Asia Argento. Exiting the theater after a Breillat flick, I never want to have sex again. Ostensibly concerned with digging deep into the beating heart of female sexuality, Breillat creates characters that are writhing bundles of drama and pain, anger and confusion. There is no laughter, never any levity nor celebrations of desire at all – just academic intellectualization in lieu of visceral heat, cardboard cutout chemistry between actors, dire emotional consequences hidden in every fuck. The Breillat canon would make for a wonderful addition to those abstinence-only programs George W. loves so much."]

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5. "German woman claims phobia of official letters": Well this speaks bad of my heritage.

["A German court has ruled against a woman who claimed a phobia of official letters in her appeal against authorities' decision to cut off child support benefits. The finance court in western Rhineland-Palatinate state said Wednesday that the woman was sent a letter in May 2007 asking that she supply evidence to support continued payments for her daughter. After she failed to respond, she was notified in July 2007 that the money was being cut off and given a month to appeal. Only in September did she reply and supply the requested documents — telling authorities, who threw out her appeal because it was too late, that she had a phobia of official correspondence."]

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Quote of the Day: Thomas H. Huxley

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly."

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): A few billboards for your perusal.








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Clip of the Day: "Trillions and Zillions of Ideas," in which David Lynch expounds on catching the big fish. Via Kyle VanHemert at The Atlantic.

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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.