Shorts, 2/19.

By David Hudson on 02/19/2009

"Gene died ten years ago on February 20, 1999," writes Roger Ebert. "He is in my mind almost every day. I don't want to rehearse the old stories about how we had a love/hate relationship, and how we dealt with television, and how we were both so scared the first time we went on Johnny Carson that, backstage, we couldn't think of the name of a single movie, although that story is absolutely true. Those stories have been told. I want to write about our friendship." As an addendum, a video tribute, "Remembering Gene Siskel," in three parts.

Paul Morrissey ("Flesh for Frankenstein," "Blood for Dracula") picks his top ten Criterions.

"Bad art is supposed to be harmless, but the 2008 film 'Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired,' about the notorious child-sex case against the fugitive director, has become an absolute menace," argues Bill Wyman in Salon. "The film, which has inexplicably gotten all sorts of praise, whitewashes what Polanski did in blatant and subtle fashion - and recent coverage of the case, in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and elsewhere, has in turn accepted the film's contentions at face value."

Alejandro Adams posts an extraordinary specimen and then comments: "If anyone representing my film(s) were to send this letter to a critic, I would shred the contract. Even a starving independent filmmaker would be on thin ice with a letter like this - and I say that as someone who begs critics to watch his films."

David Carr snaps back at Slate's Timothy Noah.

"You would be wrong were you to assume the reviews of movies in the New York Times have always been as immature, neurotic an sociopathic as they are currently," wrote Henry Hart in Films in Review - in 1971.

Fellow film bloggers, Aaron Hillis has a question for you at GreenCine Daily: "How do we make our collective voice louder and sharper in a world whose distractions multiply with each new viral fad?"

It's Black History Mumf at Big Media Vandalism.

"[John] Heyn and [Jeff] Krulik had no idea 'Heavy Metal Parking Lot' had exploded until 1994, when Heyn received a call from Sofia Coppola, who had found his name in the DC phone book." Ed Halter in Triple Canopy on the many lost cultures the film preserves and on where Krulik went next: "Emerging from that 1980s no-zone, he has been able to create his own brand of television art: documentaries in the service of a unique screwball populism."

Matt Mazur has a good long talk with Mike Leigh at PopMatters.

The latest addition to Scott Tobias's "New Cult Canon" at the AV Club: "Eyes Wide Shut."

David Cairns in The Auteurs' Notebook on "Marianne de ma Jeunesse": "Made in France in 1955, during the period when [Juilien] Duvivier's brand of poetic realist high-gloss entertainment was under increasing attack by the critics of Cahiers du cinema, it's a peculiar piece of overwrought lyrical mysticism that achieves a searing shade of purple only detectable in a few earlier Duviviers (the campy Strauss biopic 'The Great Waltz,' which seems like a rehearsal for Ken Russell films to come, and the romanticized musical fantasy scenes in 'Carnet du Bal' and its quasi-remake 'Lydia,' perhaps)."

"[T]he Web-based software that B-Side offers has more or less revolutionized festivalgoers' experiences." Mike Kanin profiles Chris Hyams as he readies his company for its next move: distribution. Also in the Austin Chronicle, Josh Rosenblatt talks with Kelly Reichardt about "Wendy and Lucy" and Raoul Hernandez reviews Criterion's new Buñuels.

"Taking Chance" premieres this weekend on HBO; Scott Foundas talks with its makers for LA Weekly.

Tom Stempel's "Understanding Screenwriting #19" is up at the House Next Door.

"Oreste Lionello, an entertainer and film dubber who was Italy's 'voice' of Woody Allen, Jerry Lewis and other comic stars, died in a Rome hospital Thursday," reports the AP. He was 81.

DVD roundup: Peter Sobczynski at Hollywood Bitchslap.

Online browsing tip. Bollywood posters at the Telegraph, via Movie City News.

Online listening tip #1. On the Leonard Lopate Show, Sam Kashner "reveals some behind-the-scenes stories from 13 iconic films in the book 'Vanity Fair's Tales of Hollywood.'"

Online listening tip #2. John Lichman and Vadim Rizov talk with Philadelphia Weekly film critic Matt Prigge at the House Next Door.

Online viewing tip #1. The Pet Shop Boys at the Brits, via Mark Graham at Vulture.

Online viewing tip #2. The first nine minutes of Patrick Bokanowski's "The Angel," introduced by Neil Young in The Auteurs' Notebook.

Online viewing tip #3. Blame Ringo's "Garble Arch: A Day in the Life of Abbey Road," via Jason Kottke.

Online viewing tip #4. "VBS Meets Albert Maysles," via Filmmaker's Scott Macaulay.

Online viewing tip #5. Nathaniel R has the teaser for Pedro Almodóvar's "Broken Embraces."

Online viewing tips. "[Paul] Proulx's montages, posted under his nom de splice, barringer82, first at YouTube and now on his blog, are cleverly crafted, eye-popping showcases for the oeuvres of his favorite directors: Kubrick, the Coen Brothers, David Fincher, Wes Anderson, David Lynch." Mike Miliard in the Boston Phoenix: "They've earned him legions of admirers.... But in recent weeks, YouTube has steadily removed many of Proulx's videos for fear of corporate lawyers screaming 'copyright violation.'"

[Photo: Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, "At the Movies," ca. mid-90s]

Tags: Albert Maysles, Eyes Wide Shut, Gene Siskel, Jeff Krulik, Paul Morrissey, Roger Ebert, Roman Polanski