Things That Happen When You're Away

For the past two months or so, I've taken myself off the radar, cinema-wise, focusing on... well, nothing in particular. This week I've been trying to catch up on all the film/media news I've been missing/ignoring, and Christ, a lot has happened. Here are some of the highlights. Thanks to Jordany, Jason H, Blake and all the sources I culled the material from.

1. New Yorker Films comes back to life after closing its doors a year ago. Does that mean Céline and Julie will hit DVD this year?

2. Michael Haneke scraps the "old age" project he was set to shoot with Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant.

3. Though rumors had been circulating for a while, I guess the untimely death of you-know-who has shifted Amy Heckerling's focus from a Clueless sequel onto a vampire film (hmm), which will reteam her with Alicia Silverstone.

4. Carlos Reygadas announced his next film, something of an auto-biopic, entitled Post Tenebras Lux. I also overlooked the omnibus film he took part in, Revolución, which commemorated the centennial of the Mexican Revolution. Revolución screened at Berlin last week; the other directors who took part in the film are Mariana Chenillo (Cinco días sin Nora), Fernando Eimbcke (Lake Tahoe), Amat Escalante (Los bastardos), Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo García (Mother and Child), Diego Luna, Gerardo Naranjo (Voy a explotar), Rodrigo Plá (La zona) and Patricia Riggen (La misma luna).

5. Penélope Cruz was tipped as starring in Lars von Trier's upcoming Melancholia, but the rumor was later denied. Too bad she's opting for the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel.

6. Speaking of Lars von Trier and rumors, there was a lot of hoopla over von Trier making a Five Obsctructions-esque dare to Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro to remake Taxi Driver. But that apparently wasn't exactly true either.

7. Mariah Carey wore this outfit.

8. Beautiful, weird mystery and intrigue surround the release of these video teasers, by apparently a well-known pop star. "Christina Aguilera? Kylie Minogue? Little Boots? Röyskopp?" I was asked. "Goldfrapp? Sally Shapiro?" I replied. More speculation here.

9. Three truly exceptional albums hit record stores (or, really, iTunes and the like). And one I'm still confounded about (listen to it here).

10. Lucrecia Martel saw all three of her films on Cinema Tropical's list of the 10 best Latin American films of the decade. I can't say I'm surprised.

In DVD news, Tony Palmer and Frank Zappa's 200 Motels will make its overdue debut on DVD via Palmer through MVD. The release date? April 20, naturally. I was browsing Breaking Glass Pictures' Facebook page and was more than pleased to see that they've picked up the DVD rights to Gabriel Fleming's The Lost Coast, a haunting, outstanding film about four friends over Halloween night in San Francisco. The Lost Coast was previously available as a DVD-R on Amazon; it's still available to watch on Hulu (with commercial breaks) as well as streaming on Netflix (sans commercials). Breaking Glass will release it on 4 May, and it comes highly recommended.

I should also be attending the 7th annual True False Film Festival (which also slipped my mind). It begins on Thursday, and as I live two hours away I figure I may as well. Let me know if I should pay specific attention to anything screening there, as I haven't given the line-up a close examination yet. Another great documentary festival, Big Sky, announced their awards the other day, which you can find here. My good friend Stewart Copeland's new film Let Your Feet Do the Talkin' made its world premiere at Big Sky as well.

Super Scary

I sort of forgot, until I wasted my time watching the movie Trick 'r Treat, which came highly recommended to me by at least three people, that I co-wrote a Halloween-themed short a couple of years ago, with my friends Stewart Copeland and Chris Drummond. It was called Plastic Skeletons, and you can watch it below if you're so inclined. We made it as part of the 48 Hour Film Project. I don't think I particularly like it, but then again, I don't like most of the stuff I've done, film or otherwise. Ha. A self-deprecating plug. It does have at least three references to Bette Midler; but some of it is, as expected, cringe-worthy.

Announcing... The 18th Annual Saint Louis International Film Festival

Cinema Saint Louis has officially unveiled the line-up for the 18th annual Saint Louis International Film Festival today. I've known about all this for a while, as I did some assisting this year, but now that everything's set in stone (at least, as much as it can be) I can discuss some of the highlights this year. The four best films we're screening: Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman [La mujer sin cabeza], Lisandro Alonso's Liverpool, Claire Denis' 35 Shots of Rum [35 rhums] and Andrew Bujalski's Beeswax. All four will make their local debuts at the festival, which begins 12 November 2009, opening with Lone Scherfig's An Education, with Peter Sarsgaard, who hails from the Saint Louis area, in attendance. Sadly, I was so focused on the features this year I haven't had a chance to see any of the documentaries yet.

Bujalski will be in attendance at the Beeswax screening on 13 November at Webster University. Lee Daniels is coming with Precious (I tried to get Mariah, but y'know, she's busy) on 14 November. Director Kirk Jones will also be present for Everybody's Fine, a remake of Giuseppe Tornatore's Stanno tutti bene with Robert DeNiro, Drew Barrymore, Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale. Jason Reitman is coming with Up in the Air, followed by a Q&A, on 14 November at the Tivoli Theatre. Other appearances include Kevin Willmott with his The Only Good Indian; author Daniel Woodrell for the Director's Cut of Ang Lee's Ride with the Devil; Connie Stevens for Saving Grace B. Jones as well as co-stars Penelope Ann Miller, Rylee Fansler, Evie Louise Thompson and Tricia Leigh Fisher; Faruk Sabanovoc, co-writer and art director of Snow [Snijeg]; David Lowery with his excellent feature debut St. Nick; Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, with The Young Victoria which she co-produced with Martin Scorsese; AJ Schnack with his Convention; Joel Hodgson and the original crew of Mystery Science Theater 3000; Joe Berlinger with his latest film Crude; and Ry Russo-Young, writer/director of You Wont Miss Me, another film that comes highly recommended.

Stewart Copeland's Jennifer, which I discussed twice before, will screen as part of the Documentary Short collection "Individuals." Another friend of mine Mike Steinberg, director of the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, will premiere two documentaries: Old Dog, New Trick and The Pride of St. Louis (co-directed by Thomas Crone). The screenings, on 20 November, will be followed by a concert from the subjects of the docs, local musicians Steve Scorfina and the band Mama's Pride (one of my father's favorites, actually).

Closing on Sunday, 22 November, you have your pick between Agnès Varda's The Beaches of Agnès [Les plages d'Agnès], Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles, Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus or Jean-Marc Vallée's The Young Victoria.

A few other films screening this year that I quite admire: Nancy Kissam's Drool; two films from Christian Petzold, Yella and Jerichow; Lucía Puenzo's XXY; and Noah Buschel's The Missing Person. And a couple I have yet to see: Jia Zhang-ke's 24 City; Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Three Monkeys [Üç maymun]; Ondi Timoner's We Live in Public; and Hans-Christian Schmid's Storm [Sturm]. Check out the full schedule and descriptions (many of which were written by yours truly) at Cinema Saint Louis' website. I'll have more updates closer to the fest itself.

Miscellaneous Updates for 23 September

I mentioned my friend Stewart Copeland's film Jennifer playing on PBS' POV the other day; well, James Hansen posted the interview he conducted with Copeland yesterday on the Out 1 Film Journal. If you missed its airing last night, you can watch it here. Also, for the bored, you can watch the "web series" All the Young Dudes, which Stewart and I both worked on, via his website. I play a slightly exaggerated version of myself in three episodes. Look out, Courtney Love.

Canada has selected Xavier Dolan's I Killed My Mother [J'ai tué ma mère] to be their representative for the Oscars next year, which, if nominated, would make its director (one of?) the youngest director to be nominated for a narrative feature (correct me if I'm wrong). Canada last claimed the prize in 2004 with Denys Arcand's The Barbarian Invasions [Les invasions barbares]. Poland has chosen Borys Lankosz's The Reverse [Rewers], and Bosnia and Herzegovina named Namik Kabil's Guardians of the Night [Čuvari noći] as their official submission. According to Movie On, the Netherlands will be submitting The Silent Army, Italy's choice of Giuseppe Tornatore's Baarìa is not official and Serbia is reconsidering their choice of Here and There due to its prevalent English dialogue.

In acquisition news, Magnolia will add another Tilda Swinton to their roster (after Julia) in Luca Guadagnino's I Am Love [Io sono l'amore]. The film premiered at Venice and also played at Toronto... and was, according to Vice President Tom Quinn, "unanimously [Magnolia's] favorite film at Toronto." Sony Pictures Classics also picked up Aaron Schneider's Get Low, which stars Bill Murray, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Lucas Black.

And finally, I also have a few DVD updates for you. Though few, there are some noteworthy titles that have been announced, including the doc Beautiful Losers from Oscilloscope and Pascal-Alex Vincent's feature debut Give Me Your Hand [Donne-moi la main] from Strand, which I have yet to see.

- The Carter, 2009, d. Adam Bhala Lough, Virgil Films, 17 November
- Funny People, 2009, d. Judd Apatow, Universal, also on Blu-ray, 24 November
- Beautiful Losers, 2008, d. Aaron Rose, Joshua Leonard, Oscilloscope, 8 December
- Hollywood, je t'aime, 2009, d. Jason Bushman, Wolfe, 9 December
- 20th Century Boys: Chapter 1, 2008, d. Yukihiko Tsutsumi, Viz Media, 15 December
- Murder by Decree, 1979, d. Bob Clark, Lionsgate, 15 December
- The Tudors, Season 3, 2009, Showtime/Paramount, 15 December
- Ichi: The Movie, 2008, d. Fumihiko Sori, FUNimation, also on Blu-ray, 22 December
- Downloading Nancy, 2008, d. Johan Renck, Strand, 12 January
- Give Me Your Hand [Donne-moi la main], 2008, d. Pascal-Alex Vincent, Strand, 26 January

Tomorrow on POV

James Hansen at Out 1 conducted an interview with our mutual friend Stewart Copeland, whose short doc Jennifer will be airing on PBS' POV tomorrow, 22 September. The interview will go up tomorrow, but for now, you can watch the film, which runs about 5 minutes and is quite wonderful, on his website. Jennifer premiered at this year's Big Sky Documentary Film Festival where it won the prize for Best Mini Doc. Plugged.

Jennifer from Stewart Copeland on Vimeo.