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Under discussion:

Masculin/Feminin  (1966)

Lust, Caution  (2007)

• Lady Wakasa makes a strong case in defense of Lust, Caution. “It’s true that there are elements in the story that won’t be clear to some Western audiences…There are universalities that can be picked up: about the effects of environment and upbringing, about the nature of love, about what in relationships is and isn’t an act, how war is hell with a twist. But these universalities are filtered through a Chinese lens. As such, I think it’s up to the Westerners to go the extra mile and fill in blanks they find. The shoe on the other foot, to a certain degree.”
• The Shamus thought Contempt was “about nothing more than the pneumatic perfection of Brigitte Bardot’s ass,” but a later Godard film went over much better. “Masculin-Feminin strikes me as a Warhol-esque montage of the ’60s as we wanted them to truly be, with more going on under the surface than we might want to admit.”
• A holdover from the heady days immediately following Dumbledore’s outing … you know, last week: Joe Leydon writes that he’s “occasionally had students ask me — earnestly, not snickeringly — if certain movie characters are intended to be interpreted as gay…The two names that pop up most often during these “Is he or isn’t he?” queries: Jedediah Leland (Joseph Cotten) of Citizen Kane and Cosmo Brown (Donald O’Connor) of Singin’ in the Rain.”
• The Flaming Lips sent 1000 skeletons on parade in Oklahoma City. Scott Solary links to the video evidence.
• For the record, I would like to note that I recorded my segment of this week’s episode of Film Couch, about actresses who have played Joan of Arc, way back on Tuesday. At the time, I had no idea Jeff Wells would use multiple Saint Joan references to mock Tom O’Neill’s unflappable faith that Sweeney Todd has a chance in hell of winning multiple Oscars.

Under discussion:

The Tracey Fragments  (2007)

Via Filmmaker comes word that director Bruce McDonald is asking the online masses to recut his latest film, The Tracey Fragments. He’s posted all of the film’s raw footage, including the score by Broken Social Scene, on the film’s website, and is inviting anyone who wishes to download the materials and cut them into music videos, trailers, or full re-edits of the film. Canadian residents can then submit their videos through the same website, and a winner selected by McDonald will receive a Final Cut Pro pirze package, and will have their cut included on the film’s DVD.

The Tracey Fragments is on my short list of films that I’m dying to see right now, and I keep missing my chance. It stars Ellen Page as a 15 year-old girl in search of her lost little brother, and the story is presented in an almost-constant, ever-changing split screen. I missed Tracey at the Toronto Film Festival but have heard nothing but good things from people who saw it there and in Berlin. I was hoping to catch it in Denver, but it turns out I won’t be arriving in town until after it screens. It’s opening in Canada this week, but as far as I know it still doesn’t have US distribution. I’m hoping Ellen Page’s impending uber-hotness will provide a domestic distributor the impetus to pick it up. In the meantime, I’m downloading the footage just to get a peak.

Under discussion:

Running With Arnold  (2007)

As if to teach me a lesson for questioning their commitment to the distribution of indie film, Netflix’s Red Envelope Entertainment inked a deal this week to distribute Running with Arnold, a documentary on Arnold Schwarzeneggar’s rise from Mr. Universe (yes, seriously) to governor of California. The film premiered at SXSW, and recently won a documentary prize at the Zurich Film Festival.

About a year ago, Alec Baldwin, who narrates the film, caused a bit of a dust-up with a dramatic entry on the Huffington Post, in which he claimed he was pursuing legal action to have his name and voice removed from the final cut. Baldwin claimed that he didn’t have time to screen the film before recording his narration, and when he finally did see it, he felt that some of director Dan Cox’s visual choices (such as archive footage of Nazi rallies used to hammer home a point about the Governator’s quest for power) went “over the line.” By the time the film premiered at SXSW in March 2007, that conflict had been resolved. As producer Mike Gabrawy told me during that festival, “The cease-and-desist was absolutely off base. They had no grounds.”

Paul interviewed Dan Cox about Running With Arnold at SXSW; you can check that out here.