Links for the Day (November 8th & 9th, 2008)

1. "The Wild Child Takes a Seat at the Film Desk": At WNYC, Nathan Lee talks with film programmer Jake Perlin about Truffaut's great The Wild Child.

["One of the few bright spots in a bleak year for movie distribution has been the launching of The Film Desk, a micro-releasing outfit founded by BAMcinematek programmer Jake Perlin. Starting with the March release of “J’entends plus la guitare,” an extraordinary film a clef by the cult French director Philippe Garrel, The Film Desk went on to re-release Charlie Chaplin’s “Monsieur Verdoux” this summer, and is now opening Francois Truffaut’s “The Wild Child” at Film Forum. A regular presence on the local repertory and experimental film scenes, Perlin has built a reputation as one of the cities sharpest young programmers and most committed cinephiles. Funded, in part, by auctioning off his collection of movie posters, The Film Desk is true labor of love. I recently talked to Jake about his projects and passions. Here’s what he had to say about Garrel, Truffaut, and “Beverly Hills Cop 3.”"]

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2. "Change.gov": Office of the President-Elect. Watch this space; engage accordingly.

["Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today. "]

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3. Nick Pinkerton's take-down of Repo! The Genetic Opera makes me swoon.

["...a cloacal sludge of Guignol, compared to which watching "The Apple" is a cultural experience on par with hearing "Rigoletto" sung at the old La Fenice."]

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4. Two by Klawans on Desplechin: at The Nation and Nextbook. (Via GreenCine.)

["We make time: by flirting or declaring a break, by observing holidays or arranging the passing moments into music and theater. And time is always ready to unmake us. Maybe death comes in due season--with the fullness of time--or maybe it strikes like a Shakespearean tyrant, sending us off without reason or warning. All these types of making and undoing--celebratory and mournful, measured and arbitrary, fleshly and fanciful--get gloriously mixed together within the running time of Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale. You settle in for the duration: a very fluid two and a half hours, in the course of which no fewer than a dozen characters will take turns commanding your attention."]

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5. Glenn Kenny's headin' to Park Slope to give Jonathan Safran Foer some illumination. Stop by for a drink at mine GK.

["One thing for which you've got to give Jonathan Safran Foer credit: he's certainly consistent. Not as a writer, mind you. His debut novel, Everything is Illuminated, its understandable preciosity aside (what was he, like, twelve when he wrote it?), could reasonably be considered "promising," while its followup, the 9/11-themed Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, was absolute twaddle. So, no consistency there. No, the way Foer is consistent is that every time he deigns to make some sort of public pronouncement, he sounds—to paraphrase Joe Pesci's Nicky Santoro in Casino —like a complete fuckin' jagoff."]

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Quote of the Day: Charles M. Schulz

"There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker."

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Image of the Day (click to enlarge): So give him the blood, Eli! (Hattip: Karina Longworth)



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Clip of the Day: Too precious!

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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.