Links for the Day (July 27th, 2008)

1. "Critics in Crisis": Phillip Lopate weighs in on the current state of criticism. (Hattip: GreenCine)

["My own feeling, based on talking to young cinephiles around the country, is that there continues to be a passion for cinema and an impulse to articulate the experience of falling in love with a certain film, as well as to thrash out the pluses and minuses of any lesser picture. Those who need to think about movies on the page will continue to do so, and the best of these pieces will find their way into literary journals, self-published tracts, blogs and e-zines. I do think a two-track system will develop in web writing, such that concision, originality, erudition and literary sparkle will come to be prized on some sites. As to how these future, stubborn film critics will be able to support their families and pay off their mortgages and college loans, that's a question I must beg off answering. I will only repeat that American film criticism has, traditionally, never been a cushy vocation with a guaranteed income; it has always been nourished by the financial sacrifices of the vast majority of its finest practitioners."]

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2. The contributions page at Michael Guillen's site for the Kiyoshi Kurosawa blog-a-thon.

["Welcome to the Kiyoshi Kurosawa Blogathon! Enthusiastic after the Val Lewton Blogathon, I announced this roundelay and then began to have immediate misgivings, partly because I have not had the opportunity to view much of Kurosawa's early work and—sadly—not had the opportunity to view his most recent (Loft and Retribution never made festival nor theatrical Bayside appearances). I started wondering if I shouldn't wait until these opportunities presented themselves? I debated whether the blogathon shouldn't be postponed until after I caught Tokyo Sonata at the Toronto International? But then while reading an essay on Loft written by author Jerry White for his volume The Films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa: Master of Fear—which Girish Shambu so kindly forwarded to my attention—I was struck by a comment Kurosawa made regarding that poorly-received project: "I had to do something that was a horror film; but, at the same time, I wanted to destroy horror films.""]

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3. "Information wants to be free, and so do I": Nina Paley, the director of Sita Sings the Blues (reviewed by N.P. Thompson here), on the problems of distribution. (Hattip to N.P. for this link.)

["My main goal with Sita Sings the Blues was always to have people see it, but the movie business makes that very difficult. I’ve been trying to go the movie biz route, really trying, with a sales rep and everything, but I’m about to throw in the towel. Distributors gain exclusive rights, and if they don’t exploit those rights competently, your film remains unseen (and for a little indie feature like mine, they offer to pay shit for those rights). Television actually pays very little for indies - about 1/6 what studio films get. Then there’s the problem that I can’t afford to sell my own film, due to the cost of officially clearing rights to the underlying compositions (the Hanshaw recordings aren’t protected by Federal Copyright law but the songs’ underlying compositions are still controlled by publishers and estates). I already owe $6,000 just for “festival rights” - the right to lose money sending the expensive prints to film festivals. To officially sell DVDs, I’ll need to purchase even more expensive rights - at prices designed for moneyed studios, not broke artists - and buy “E and O Insurance,” and doG knows what else. Yeah, yeah, I knew this going in, but I expected a distributor to pay for some of it. These costs are a pittance by studio standards, nothing at all really, but I’m still an “indie,” and no matter how many awards Sita wins, no distributor is going to spend real money on her. I just want people to see the movie."]

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4. "US Senate approves sweeping housing bill": From AFP.

["The US Senate on Saturday approved an elaborate housing rescue plan designed to help thousands of homeowners avert foreclosure and bolster mortgage finance giants that have struggled amid a volatile housing market. But it came as the government shut down two more banks, taking the total to 10 that have been closed in the 18 months since the housing crisis first shuddered through the economy. The Senate adopted the bill, which provides 300 billion dollars in federal guarantees to help refinance troubled mortgages, by a vote of 72-13, after the House of Representatives passed it on Wednesday. President George W. Bush had dropped his earlier opposition and promised to sign the bill into law as soon as possible."]

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5. Two posts from K. Bowen at Anti-dis-arts-and-entertainmentism on The X-Files: I Want to Believe. "I Wanted to Believe" & "Second Thoughts". Interesting how reactions shift and change. (I'm there with you on this one, K.)

["I think I’m slowly coming around to liking The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Don’t misunderstand me, my observations in my review still stand. But as the disappointment of the thin plot recedes from memory, I feel more intrigued and haunted by the relationship drama and the intellectual levels of the story. This is much more than we get from most films, much less summer releases. It does a lot of interesting things. While the reviews have been mostly negative, this is a thumbs-down film where the positive reviews are the interesting ones."]

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Quote of the Day: Alexander Solzhenitsyn

"Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag."

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): "Heath Ledger Joker bobblehead, presented without comment." —Karina Longworth—



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Clip of the Day: 1. Flintstone, Rubble, and Winston. 2. Chinese Baby give up chopsticks for spoon.



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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.