Links for the Day (August 28th, 2008)

1. An online only exclusive from The New Yorker: Any questions for David Denby?

["This summer, David Denby has reviewed “I Served the King of England,” “Traitor,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” “Elegy,” “The Dark Knight,” and “WALL-E.” If you’d like to talk about movies with Denby, submit a question online; his answers will be posted here later in the week."]

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2. "Louisiana Eyes Gustav, Activates Guard Troops: Three years after Katrina, nervous New Orleans watches another storm brewing in Caribbean": From ABCNews.com.

["On the eve of Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary, a nervous New Orleans watched Wednesday as another storm threatened to test everything the city has rebuilt, and officials made preliminary plans to evacuate people, pets and hospitals in an attempt to avoid a Katrina-style chaos. Forecasters warned that Gustav could grow into a dangerous Category 3 hurricane in the next several days and hit somewhere along a swath of the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle to Texas — with New Orleans smack in the middle."]

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3. "Georgia War Shows 'Weak' Russia, U.S. Official Says." Presumably a bit of reverse psychology to which a Russian official might reply, "I know you are, but what am I?" See Glenn Kessler's article in The Washington Post for more.

["Russia's conflict with Georgia is the sign of a 'weak' Russian nation, not a newly assertive one, and Moscow now has put its place in the world order at risk, the top U.S. diplomat for relations with the country said in an interview yesterday. 'There is a Russia narrative that 'we were weak in the '90s, but now we are back and we are not going to take it anymore.' But being angry and seeking revanchist victory is not the sign of a strong nation. It is the sign of a weak one,' said Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. 'Russia is going to have to come to terms with the reality it can either integrate with the world or it can be a self-isolated bully. But it can't be both. And that's a choice Russia has to have,' Fried said."]

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4. "The Seventh Art and the Eighth Wonder of the World": What does King Kong owe to Busby Berkeley? The Listening Ear knows.

["King Kong the movie is, from start to finish, built around cinema - it’s designed to look good as a film; it’s conceived around the technology of film. And revels in it - the stop motion animation, the elaborate mattes and models and process shots. It's set up to look right on screen. They aren't trying to hide these things - they are presenting us with an amazing spectacle, and expect us to marvel in it, all of it. The planning, the formal properties of the film, are made more explicit by being prepared by Denham's talk. His attempts to film on the island, his attempts to stage-manage the villagers or the fights with Kong, etc., set up the formal structure of the rest of the film - the parallel imagery on the island and in NY (the wall on the island serving as stage and curtain, that recurs in the second half; the parallels in how Ann and Kong are staked out for display; the parallel battles on Kong's mountain and the empire state building, complete with dangerous birds. Even details like the several scenes in both parts of the film of Kong fishing around caves/apartments for people.) The depiction of the act of making a film sets you up to wonder at the artistry of the story proper when it gets going. It's reminiscent of one of the other outstanding figures of cinema of the period - Warner Brothers' musicals, especially Busby Berkeley's parts. Berkeley’s numbers are almost parables for the shift from stage to screen. Their placement in the films (in 42nd Street, at least), and their overall structure, almost always enacts the shift from stage to screen. The numbers usually follow that pattern - starting on something like a real stage, then opening up toward film. First (usually) by shooting them from impossible places (the flies, through the floor), but eventually abandoning all sense of the spatial unity and integrity of the stage. The space in “42nd Street” (the song) or “By a Waterfall” or “Shanghai Lil” is pure cinematic space - much of it designed explicitly for the camera (and for editing), certainly constructing the three dimensional space of film. Interestingly, while this abandons the "real" space of the theater, it moves toward a "real" space of films - itself referring to the "real" space of, um - reality."]

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5. "Of Time and the City": Doug Cummings of Filmjourney.org on Terence Davies' documentary, and his first feature in eight years, shown as part of Los Angeles' DocuWeek. [Hattip: GreenCine.]

["Of Time and the City is Davies’ first documentary, and it’s a brooding, passionate, and often sardonic essay film that tributes the working class Liverpool of his childhood, and charts–with rueful adult hindsight–its cultural milieu. The film is largely comprised of archival footage from the era (Davies was born in 1945 and left Liverpool in ‘72) that is layered together with a supremely evocative soundtrack that includes broadcasts, classical music, pop tunes, and atmospheric sound effects with Davies’ own narration. His raspy, effusive delivery oscillates between his memories, musings, and quotations from the likes of James Joyce and T. S. Eliot. (Much like his absorbing DVD commentaries.) The latter poet is no surprise for those familiar with Davies’ autobiographical films: his trilogy of shorts, Distant Voices Still Lives (1988), and The Long Day Closes (1992) are all constructed as overlapping, circular memory films, snatches of scenes that fluidly merge in time and space, visually expressing Eliot’s idea that 'Time present and time past / Are both perhaps present in time future, / And time future contained in time past.'"]

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Quote of the Day: Ernest Hemingway

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): The poster for the Coen bros.' Burn After Reading. Links to reviews gathered at GreenCine.


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Clip of the Day: Patton Oswalt wants a steak (with illustrations). (Hattip: Kevin Seaman)


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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.