Shorts, fests, etc, 5/16.

By David Hudson on 05/16/2009

"Casey Affleck is starring in Michael Winterbottom's upcoming adaptation of Jim Thompson's 1952 novel 'The Killer Inside Me,' and I'm more excited about a film adaptation of one of my favorite books than, perhaps, I have ever been," writes Michael W Phillips Jr.

"Ewan McGregor, currently winning plaudits for his performance in 'Angels & Demons,' will team up with director David Mackenzie on the forthcoming film, 'The Last Word,'" reports Geoffrey Macnab in Screen.

"Color me dubious." Shawn Levy foresees a few problems facing Martin Scorsese as he readies his Frank Sinatra project.

Samantha Morton's directorial debut, "The Unloved," is "certainly among the more remarkable British TV dramas of the past 25 years," argues Gerard Gilbert in the Independent.

A list from Ted Hope: "38 American Independent Film Problems/Concerns."

The New York Times this weekend features a special section on the 2009 Tony Awards and...

Mekado Murphy gets "Up" director Pete Docter and production designer Ricky Nierva to "discuss their ideas behind the film's four central characters." And the piece comes with an audio slide show.

Caryn James reviews David Thomson's "Try to Tell the Story," the "most intimate book yet from this most personal, intellectually present of critics."

John Anderson talks with Anders Ostergaard about his award-winning documentary, "Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country," chronicling "the 'saffron revolution' of 2007, in which robed Buddhist monks joined street protests against Myanmar's military dictatorship."

Mike Hale profiles Yojiro Takita, whose "Departures" "spoiled countless Oscar pool entries by snatching the best foreign-language film award."

And this is just too good to hold til Tuesday: Dave Kehr reviews an "excellent restoration from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment," Fritz Lang's "Man Hunt":

Lang's films are often said to center on questions of fate and predetermination, as if his characters were locked within eternally returning patterns of action, cycles of revenge foremost among them ("Fury," "Rancho Notorious," "The Big Heat"). But this is a fate without supernatural origin: the only gods in Lang's universe are the puny, self-proclaimed ones, like Dr. Mabuse, whose own destiny is to be brought down.

Perhaps the enduring fascination of Lang's work lies in the way he evokes these powerful, impersonal forces without ever locating them in something as recognizable as religion or politics; they seem to inhabit the frame already, embodied in the unswerving line of his tracking shots and the giant fields of brightness and shadow created by his lighting effects. Like a less larcenous version of the Victorian ghost photographers, he knows how to take pictures of things that aren't there.

"What a calling card 'The Terminator' turned out to be." Nathaniel R launches a multi-part retrospective.

"'Anvil! The Story of Anvil' is a tribute to the unwavering belief in a dream." Drew Fortune talks with the band for Stop Smiling.

"Hidden Hanks: Ten from the Back Catalog of the World's Most Notorious Nice Guy." A list from Bob Westal in Bullz-Eye.

Michael Guillén takes a first look at the lineup for this year's Another Hole in the Head Film Festival. June 5 through 18 in San Francisco.

"Monica Bleibtreu, a respected stage, film, and television actress, and mother of Moritz Bleibtreu, died yesterday, May 14, in Hamburg," writes Andre Soares in the Alternative Film Guide. "She was 65. Bleibtreu had been battling cancer for a number of years." More in the German papers: Dieter Bartetzko (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), Christian Buß (Spiegel), Tilmann P Gangloff (Frankfurter Rundschau), Helge Hopp (Stern), Bert Rebhandl (Berliner Zeitung), Christian Schröder (Tagesspiegel), the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Peter Zander (Welt).

Online listening tip. Filmbo listens to Bulle Ogier talk about working with Jacques Rivette.

Online viewing tip #1. Sujewa Ekanayake rounds up a couple of reviews of "Here. My Explosion..."

Online viewing tip #2. David Poland talks with Sasha Grey about "The Girlfriend Experience."

Online viewing tips. "I am proud to present this first line-up of films restored with the aid of the World Cinema Foundation," writes Martin Scorsese. "We launched the foundation in 2007 with the goal of restoring and preserving neglected films from around the world. We also understood, very quickly, that we needed to help create awareness of the films, to get them known and seen. That's why we entered into a partnership with The Auteurs." The first four films are viewable online right now. For free.

Michael J Anderson reviews three: Kim Ki-young's "The Housemaid," Metin Erksan's "Dry Summer" and Djibril Diop Mambéty's "Touki-Bouki."

[Photo: Detail from the cover of "The Killer Inside Me," Lion Books, 1952]

Tags: Anders Østergaard, Anvil, Casey Affleck, David Mackenzie, David Thomson, Ewan McGregor, Fritz Lang, Jim Thompson, Martin Scorsese, Michael Winterbottom, Monica Bleibtreu, Pete Docter, Ricky Nierva, Samantha Morton, Sasha Grey, Ted Hope, Tom Hanks, Up, Yojiro Takita