Links for the Day (July 17th, 2008)

1. "Hidden Treasures": The newest essay at Moving Image Source by Jonathan Rosenbaum on Cineteca Bologna's Il Cinema Ritrovato.

["Ever since I retired a few months ago from my 20-year stint as film reviewer for the Chicago Reader, perhaps the biggest perk of all has been freedom from the chore of having to keep up with new movies. In practice, this translates into more free time to keep up with old movies. So returning to one of my favorite annual pastimes, Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna—a festival that caters to people devoted to seeing old films in good prints—seemed only natural. Its 22nd edition, the fourth one I've attended, was especially rich."]

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2. "Pope Assails Moral Relativism": A New York Times report on Benedict's visit to Australia. Image above from AFP.

["The pope also issued a call for his audience to put religion at the center of their public and private lives. “Do not be confounded by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth,” he said. He also urged that faith take a central position in the moral universe, attacking the idea that there are no absolute truths. “Relativism, by indiscriminately giving value to practically everything, has made ‘experience’ all-important. Yet experiences, detached from any consideration of what is good or true, can lead not to genuine freedom, but to moral or intellectual confusion, to a lowering of standards, to a loss of self-respect,” he said. The theme of the six-day event is to renew the Church’s evangelical roots and encourage young people to propagate the faith around the world."]

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3. "'John Adams,' 'Mad Men,' 'Damages' lead in Emmy nods": From CNN.

[""Mad Men" and "Damages" made Emmy history Thursday as the first basic-cable series to be nominated for best drama. The pair, which had made the 10-series Emmy shortlist, have been widely hailed by critics and have received strong ratings for basic-cable series. On the other hand, HBO's "The Wire" -- which concluded its fifth and final season earlier this year -- once again came up empty in the best drama nominations. It did receive one nod, for writing."]

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4. "SnagFilms Acquires indieWIRE": The press release at the mother site. David Hudson gathers web reaction to the acquisition at GreenCine.

["IndieWIRE will provide archival and news content for SnagFilms.com and the company's virtual movie theater widgets, including breaking news from the indie sector, comprehensive film reviews and analysis, and the top relevant blogs. IndieWIRE will feature virtual movie theater widgets from SnagFilms, including the indieWIRE editors' top selections from the SnagFilms library. At the same time, SnagFilms will provide new resources to extend indieWIRE's coverage and enrich its offerings to the entertainment community and consumers passionate about independent film. IndieWIRE will continue to operate as an independent, standalone site. Eugene Hernandez, Editor in Chief and co-Founder of indieWIRE, will also become Editorial Vice President of SnagFilms, overseeing journalistic content on both sites. He will be assisted in this by his indieWIRE colleagues, Brian Brooks and James Israel, who will continue in the same functions after the acquisition. Financial arrangements were not disclosed."]

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5. And some Dark Knight pieces: Nick Schager for; Glenn Kenny kinda; Jürgen Fauth, nuh-uh; and Armond White, well, as with Hellboy II, he's probably gonna want you to watch this to get your synapses in alignment.

["If superhero films reflect collective fantasies regarding the current state of the world, then this summer's batch—Iron Man and its advocacy of military hardware as a tool of upright intentions, The Incredible Hulk and its belief that rampaging fury can be harnessed for positive purposes—has been a particularly comforting one. No such uplifting reveries, however, are dispensed by The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's majestically bleak vision of our modern age as dissolute, fragile and teetering on the precipice of anarchy. A film about the viability of justice, the tenuousness of goodness, the price of peace, and the gritty push-pull between ends and means, Nolan's follow-up to 2005's Batman Begins—a reboot whose structural and visual missteps couldn't quite diffuse its grim grandeur or its subtle suggestions of post-9/11 quandaries—is something very close to a pop masterpiece, a noir-ish DC Comics action-adventure reconfigured as a discerning, ambiguous rumination on these terrorism-besieged times. Thrilling, heady and, as befitting its title, exceedingly dark, it's epic pulp, or perhaps more accurately, it's pulp transformed through auteurist artistry into a piercingly relevant morality play epic."]

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Quote of the Day: Vincent van Gogh

"Color in a picture is like enthusiasm in life."

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): I always wondered what a mugshot of Dick would look like.



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Clip of the Day: If ever I wanted to be a cigarette...

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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.