Shorts, fests, etc, 5/18.

By David Hudson on 05/18/2009

"Tilda Swinton is attached to take the lead in Lynne Ramsay's big-screen adaptation 'We Need to Talk About Kevin.' The movie, based on Lionel Shriver's novel, tells the story of a smart, educated New York mother who does her best to raise a son she never wanted in the first place." Stuart Kemp has more in the Hollywood Reporter.

"Producer Edward Pressman and director Mary Harron are teaming up for the first time since 'American Psycho' on the Gothic horror 'The Moth Diaries,'" reports Jeremy Kay for Screen. "Rising British star Lily Cole and Scott Speedman will star."

Andy Rector posts a swath from a 1987 conversation between Jacques Aumont, Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub.

Michael Caplan is working on a documentary about Nelson Algren and Chicagoist Rob Christopher checks in on him.

"'German art films right now always seem to be about dying people who want to see the sea one more time,' the 48-year-old director says by telephone from his home in Berlin. 'I find Hollywood movies more complicated and respectful of the audience.'" Ella Taylor talks with Christian Petzold for the Los Angeles Times, where Rebecca Ascher-Walsh talks "Easy Virtue" with Stephan Elliott.

At Hollywood Bitchslap, Rob Gonsalves celebrates Fangoria's 30th anniversary.

Victor Fleming may have been passed over by the auteurists, but "he had made a number of entertaining movies in the 1920s and 30s and his two super-productions of 1939 are very likely the most widely seen movies in American film history - not just good pictures but films that have entered the unconscious of generations of moviegoers." David Denby:

"Gone with the Wind," with its happy plantation slaves - emblems of Noble Toil - posed against reddening skies, has its enraging and embarrassing moments; the racist kitsch is, regrettably, part of the nation's collective past. What remains remarkably modern in the film is the central combat of wills between [Vivien] Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara and [Clark] Gable's Rhett Butler, each seeking the upper hand in and out of bed. Margaret Mitchell set up the conflict, but it was Fleming who got the two actors to embody it. As for "The Wizard of Oz," the movie's version of the magical land of Oz, in its combined freedom and unease, happiness and fear, has become a universally shared vision of the imagination itself. Since Fleming was the element common to both movies, it's time for his contribution to be lifted out of the shadows.

The 70th anniversary of these two classics has seen deluxe new (and expensive) versions on DVD, and the appearance of two good books.

And they would be Michael Sragow's "Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master" and Molly Haskell's "Frankly, My Dear: 'Gone With the Wind' Revisited." Also in this week's New Yorker, Denby reviews "Angels & Demons" and "Summer Hours."

For the Guardian, Bobbie Johnson gets a few words with Steven Spielberg, who's "been a gamer since the beginning."

Philip French's "screen legend" in the Observer this week: Warren Oates.

Robert Horton lists the "Ten Best Movies" of 1995.

Mike Everleth lists the award-winners coming out of the Milwaukee Underground Film Festival.

Bob Turnbull wraps Hot Docs.

"Sid Laverents, who started making movies in his Southern California basement after he turned 50 and became perhaps the most celebrated hobbyist in the amateur film world, his resourceful and dryly giddy work chosen for the National Film Registry, died on May 6 in Chula Vista, Calif," reports Bruce Weber in the New York Times. "He was 100 and lived in Bonita, Calif., near San Diego." Related online viewing: At Cargo, Ekkehard Knörer has "Multiple Sidosis."

"Frank Aletter, a veteran character actor who starred in the 1960s situation comedies 'Bringing Up Buddy' and 'It's About Time,' died on Wednesday at his home in Tarzana, Calif," reports the AP. "He was 83."

Online browsing tip. Time presents its "Summer Arts Preview."

Online viewing tip #1. Craig Keller's "Social Olympics."

Online viewing tip #2. From John Coulthart: "The good people at Ubuweb have excelled themselves by turning up this 70-minute avant garde work by a director who'd managed to stay resolutely off my radar despite years spent delving for cinematic weirdness. 'L'Ange' (1982) is a film which stands comparison with the more abstracted moments of David Lynch and the Brothers Quay."

Online viewing tip #3. The Art of the Title Sequence talks with Kyle Cooper about "The Incredible Hulk."

[Photo: Detail from the cover of "We Need to Talk About Kevin," Counterpoint, 2003]

Tags: Christian Petzold, Danièle Huillet, Fangoria, Frank Aletter, Hot Docs 2009, Jean-Marie Straub, Kyle Cooper, Lynne Ramsay, Mary Harron, Sid Laverents, Stephan Elliot, Steven Spielberg, Tilda Swinton, Victor Fleming, Warren Oates