Shorts, fests, etc, 1/3.

By David Hudson on 01/03/2009

Randolph Jordan and Donato Totaro open an issue of Offscreen devoted entirely to FanTasia, Montreal's three-week-long genre festival, with reviews of over 30 films screened during this summer's edition. Totaro also talks with "exploitation auteur" Frank Henenlotter about his first film in 16 years, "Bad Biology," and, with Peter Rist, hosts a Thai horror roundtable with Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom ("Alone") and Youngyooth Thongkonthun and Paween Purikitpanya, who've worked with those two directors on omnibus/portmanteau four-story feature, "4bia." And Rist wraps things up with a look at three of the films screened in "a mini-retrospective of the Japanese Nikkatsu studio's 'B-movie' production of the late 1960s."

In the early 90s, Stanley Kubrick was working on "Aryan Papers," an adaptation of Louis Begley's 1991 novel, "Wartime Lies." He'd written a screenplay, cast Johanna ter Steege in the lead and scouted potential locations in the Czech Republic. Mark Brown in the Guardian: "The story of the movie Kubrick never made - despite investing enormous energy into it - is to be told through a new art installation at the British Film Institute in London by the Turner-prize nominated artists Jane and Louise Wilson."

"I'm charmed that a critic can entertain an ongoing relationship with a filmmaker over an extended period of time, such that his own body of work becomes an intensely personal reflection of the artist he mirrors." Michael Guillen collects, arranges and comments on a series of links to Jonathan Rosenbaum writing about Chantal Akerman.

"Where is Film Criticism heading to?" HarryTuttle offers his own answers to a series of questions that've branched off this one.

The American Cinematheque's "longstanding tradition of celebrating the redheaded stepchildren of popular film continues this weekend with a series that ought to raise the circulatory rate of a certain element of filmgoers, those who came of age during Hollywood's golden age of disaster epics, roughly 1972 - 1977," writes Dennis Cozzalio. "The new series, entitled 'Masters of Disaster: The Golden Age of Cataclysmic Cinema,' stretches over six nights and, while not exactly exhaustive in its representation of the nooks and crannies of the disaster film in all its various incarnations, the Cinematheque promises an excellent overview of the elemental essentials of the genre (water, fire, seismic shock) that, in its second weekend, extends to include disasters of history, nuclear meltdown and terrorism that most definitely qualify, even if they don't feature the histrionic heroics of George Kennedy."

The National Board of Review has named "In Search of a Midnight Kiss" one of "the Top 10 independent films of 2008. It also is nominated for the Independent Spirit's John Cassavetes Award for best feature made for less than $500,000," notes Edward Copeland. But here's the thing. An "evil deal between The Weinstein Company and Blockbuster keeps this great little film out of people's hands, at least for a while, except in [a] stripped down, colorized version. What a travesty."

"One of the best-known character actors in French cinema, [Fabrice Luchini] confesses that he is more attached to the theater, and more precisely his one-man show, which is now touring France and may come to New York in the fall," writes Elaine Sciolino.

Also in the New York Times: "Granted 20 minutes to speak with [William] Hurt about his role on the coming season of 'Damages,'" blogs Dave Itzkoff, "we somehow found ourselves talking to him - or listening to him talk - about the science of condensation (and how it informs his acting); the Baal Shem Tov, the mystical rabbi (and how Glenn Close reminds Mr Hurt of him); and, occasionally, about his wide-ranging feelings about working on 'Damages.'"

The Oregonian's Shawn Levy: "In today's paper, Jeff Baker profiles Portland writer Jon Raymond, who authored the short stories on which director Kelly Reichardt based both 'Old Joy' and 'Wendy and Lucy.'"

Online viewing tip. Pacze Moj points the way to "Eric Rohmer's 1968 TV documentary 'Louis Lumière,' featuring Jean Renoir and Henri Langlois."

Tags: Episode 312, promo, Robyn Hitchcock, The Henry Rollins Show, Tim Roth