Shorts, 1/1.

By David Hudson on 01/01/2009

"[I]n providing a frank and unsentimental depiction of the brutal excesses associated with 1960s radicalism, ['Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex'] sets an example that Hollywood would do well to follow," argues Jeffrey Herf in the New Republic. Which is an odd argument to make, considering that the film is a perfect example of the Hollywoodization of 1960s radicalism.

FilmInFocus goes "Behind the Blog" again, this time interviewing Michael Guillen.

Glenn Heath introduces the Film of the Month: "Bad Influence."

Kevin Lee's been busy. Besides bidding farewell to the legendary outlet Kim's Video, he's been watching - and researching - one movie after another:

• "Before the Revolution": "We have Bernardo Bertolucci's second feature to thank for serving a vivid analogy to the flaws of communism: like sleeping with your hot aunt, it's a utopian fantasy that, once achieved, goes downhill in a hurry."

• "Judex": "This remake of pioneer cineaste Louis Feuillade's 1916 action serial featuring cinema's original caped crusader can function today as a surreal subversion of the modern superhero genre that movie houses the world over."

• "Assault on Precinct 13": "In interviews [John] Carpenter has admitted to extending shots and scenes in order to fill up a feature running length with a limited budget and fairly simple story, but whether by design or necessity, the laid-back exposition generates an seductive air of fateful, impending doom."

For the Independent, Geoffrey Macnab talks with Garry Kasparov about Masha Novikova's "In the Holy Fire of Revolution," "a new film about the chess player's abortive attempt to stand in the Russian presidential elections last year."

"As conveyed in 'Port in the Storm: Heath Ledger's Final Days Among the Masses,' the Masses had become a refuge from the celebrity madness surrounding the actor in the two years before his death," writes Randall Roberts (site). "[T]he Masses was where the actor was learning the craft of directing, by working on music videos. When he died, the entire operation was thrown into a state of profound grief and confusion.... Nearly a year later, the Masses collective remains intact, and has not only survived the loss of its friend and benefactor but has harnessed the energy to generate work and income."

Also in LA Weekly: "Almost exactly a year after I visited the Sundance Institute Screenwriters' Lab in Utah, the sky has fallen on the economy and independent film is in trouble," writes Ella Taylor, who finds, in a brief followup that the subjects of her original piece aren't faring too poorly.

Meantime, Ella Taylor in the Voice on this year's batch of Holocaust movies: "In principle, nothing human should be beyond artistic expression. But why are these movies increasingly so awful? Money isn't lacking in Hollywood, and neither is sincerity.... But one thing Hollywood does have in plentiful supply is amateur historians bent on extracting Positive Lessons for Today from one of the great unexplainable catastrophes of history."

"'The Spirit' drove straight into Tanksville last weekend, earning only $6.5 million dollars," notes Kevin Kelly as he introduces a list of past superheroes who turned out to be not all that super at the box office. Related: "What, then, is [Will] Eisner's real legacy, 30 years after 'A Contract with God'?" asks David L Ulin in Nextbook. "More than anything, it's that he recognized the potential of the medium, seeing in comics not just disposable juvenile entertainment but a storytelling palette as rich as that of any narrative art. This is what 'The Spirit,' at its best, has to offer, although it came to fruition only once Eisner shifted his focus - in 'A Contract with God,' as well as the dozens of other graphic novels he produced, at the rate of nearly one a year - to the material he knew best: the urban immigrant world from which he had come."

"Daniel Herwitz asks some fascinating questions," writes Jeffrey Meyers, opening a review of "The Star as Icon: Celebrity in the Age of Mass Consumption" for Times Higher Education. "What makes a star an icon? Why does the public create and consume iconic figures?... Herwitz leans heavily on Leo Braudy's 'The Frenzy of Renown' and Tina Brown's 'The Diana Chronicles,' but he lacks their perceptive analysis and precise details." And Herwitz responds. Via Bookforum.

"Midway through the long, trying yarn that is "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," there are fifteen minutes of exquisite cinematic pleasure," writes Eric Hynes for Stop Smiling. "One of the most beautifully crafted and subtly emotive sequences of 2008, with perfectly framed and paced shots, and a sublime sketch of a performance by Tilda Swinton, it almost justifies and redeems the surrounding film." Related: Madeinhead explains why screenwriter Eric Roth owes him $17. Via Movie City News.

Tom Stempel considers another round of screenplays at the House Next Door.

David Cairns in the Auteurs' Notebook on "Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?": "Anthony Newley's autobiographical vanity project could be described as justly forgotten, except that in all its awfulness and horribleness, it's tremendously entertaining, although that does depend on where you like your needle to lie on the pleasure/malaise scale. Newley is determined to give us a bad feeling."

In the Guardian, Ryan Gilbey talks with Michelle Yeoh and Phil Hoad considers the implications of the "Watchmen" ruling.

Willoughby Sharp, "the Ivy League-educated scion of one of New York's most socially prominent families, who in the 1960s and afterward was on the cutting edge of the American avant-garde as a performer, producer, writer, publisher, curator, video artist and much else, died on Dec 17 in Manhattan," writes Margalit Fox in the New York Times. "He was 72 and lived in Brooklyn."

Online listening tip #1. At GreenCine Daily, Aaron Hillis talks with David Fear and Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York and critic/filmmaker Matt Zoller Seitz about "the future of film criticism; specifically, what we all would like to see and do to elevate and spread it in 2009."

Online listening tip #2. 70 minutes with Andrew Stanton ("Finding Nemo," "WALL•E") at Cartoon Brew.

Online viewing tip #1. Chuck Olsen has Eirik Solheim's "One year in 40 seconds."

Online viewing tip #2. At the SpoutBlog, John Lichman's got two minutes of Andy Warhol interviewing Steven Spielberg.

Online viewing tips. FuzzyCo's found "Some Classic Movies, Some Free."

[Photos: "Der Baader Meinhof Komplex," Constantin Film Produktion, 2008; "LA Weekly," January 2009; "Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?," Universal, 1969]

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