Shorts, fests, 2/22.

By David Hudson on 02/22/2009

Wildgrounds posts a list of Akira Kurosawa's top 100 films. Via Chris MaGee.

"Iceland's star filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur is in advance preparation on his biggest project ever, the $50-$70m English-language 'Vikingr,' most of which will be shot in Iceland," reports Annika Pham for Cineuropa.

Jonathan Rosenbaum offers first impressions of "Helsinki, Forever," by Peter von Bagh, "prolific film critic, film historian, and professor, onetime director of the Finnish Film Archive and current artistic director of two unique film festivals, the Midnight Sun Film Festival (held in Sodankylä, above the Arctic Circle, during what amounts to one very long day in the summer, when there's no night) and Il Cinema Ritrovato (held soon afterwards, in Bologna)." Jonathan also revisits his essay, "'New Hollywood' and the 60s Melting Pot."

"Deborah Stratman's films feature multiple explosions and a jarring mix of noises and near-silent drones, so it is curious to also discover that an endearing innocence often prevails, a longing for some kind of miracle--a flying saucer or a goblin--just around the bend," writes Annie Buckley for Artforum. "Deborah Stratman: America's Haunted Spirits," a program built around the filmmaker's Sundance entry, "O'er the Land," is on Monday night at REDCAT in Los Angeles.

Brannavan Gnanalingam previews New Zealand's Film Society's new season for the Lumière Reader.

"A cult figure amongst film critics and the few cinephiles who are connected with the film industry or the festival circuit, Pierre Rissient is one of those legendary behind-the-scenes operatives whom people in the know love to claim to know." Matt Riviera reviews "Man of Cinema: Pierre Rissient," which he's caught at the Adelaide Film Festival.

Mike D'Angelo has all the stats on all the Skandies.

"How strange, when a book and film with no direct connection seem to engage in noisy conversation, clamoring to elucidate one another. There is ecstasy as neutrons fire between texts, as if there was no interlocutor." Max Goldberg is "busily returning the pages of Gaston Bachelard's 'The Poetics of Space' the morning after seeing 'Of Time and the City.'"

In the New York Times' "Spring Theater Special," Ben Brantley previews the season and Charles Isherwood notes that, while a small galaxy of stars is headed to the Great White Way, "Off Broadway has its own stars, you know."

Charles McGrath profiles Jane Fonda, who, at 71, has returned to Broadway after 46 years to play musicologist Katherine Brandt in Moisés Kaufman's "33 Variations": "She has become a feminist, an environmentalist, a student of Zen, a practicing Christian and, just lately, a blogger." Also: Patrick Healy on Oliver Platt ("Guys and Dolls") and Alex Witchel on Rupert Everett ("Blithe Spirit") and, briefly, Celia McGee on Geoffrey Rush ("Exit the King").

Jon Savage traces the history of the Smiley, right on up to "Watchmen." Also in the Guardian, John Crace interviews novelist and screenwriter Tom Perrotta.

Via Movie City News, Cory Doctorow at Internet Evolution: "Media-Morphosis: How the Internet Will Devour, Transform, or Destroy Your Favorite Medium."

"I lost count of the anorak-clad sages who told me at the Sundance Festival that the era of the small, independently financed film is over," writes Nick Fraser, but: "Far from being moribund, the revolution has just begun." Also in the Observer, Andrew Anthony profiles Rebecca Hall.

In the Independent, Craig Mclean profiles producer Graham King and James Mottram interviews Jennifer Lynch.

Ja'nell Nequeva talks with Danny Glover for Interview.

The Cinema Strikes Back team posts 2008 top tens.

At Alternet, Monica Shores lists the "Best Movies About Sex Work."

"[I]n 'Madea Goes To Jail,' [Tyler] Perry's playing-to-the-cheap-seats drag shenanigans hijack a morose street melodrama every 15 minutes and haul it into places even Flavor Flav fears to tread," writes Nathan Rabin at the AV Club. More from Sam Adams (Los Angeles Times), Melissa Anderson (Voice), Alonso Duralde (MSNBC), Rob Humanick (Slant), AO Scott (NYT), Eric D Snider (Cinematical) and Stephanie Zacharek (Salon). And of course, whatever the critics say, it's huge.

Robert Cashill remembers Robert Quarry, 1925 - 2009.

Online listening tip #1. At GreenCine Daily, Aaron Hillis talks with fashion designer Jay McCarroll, the subject of "Eleven Minutes."

Online listening tip #2. Scott Kirsner hosted a panel at USC on Thursday, "Innovation in Hollywood: Past, Present & Future," and now posts audio.

Online viewing tip #1. "Imaginary Landscapes: A Film on Brian Eno," via John Coulthart.

Online viewing tip #2. "The Crisis of Credit Visualized," via Horse Think.

Online viewing tips. From Mike Everleth: "Filmmakers Post Videos, Too."

[Photo: Akira Kurosawa]

Tags: Akira Kurosawa, Baltasar Kormákur, Deborah Stratman, Jane Fonda, Madea Goes To Jail, Peter von Bagh, Pierre Rissient, Tyler Perry