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Under discussion:

The Birds  (1963)

• “Once Upon A Time in America, Dead Man, L’Argent, Ivan the Terrible, Crash—these are some of my favorites in the BFI series of monographs,” Girish writes. “Are there others in the series you particularly like and would recommend?” I read tons of these in grad school; my favorites included Groundhog’s Day, Independence Day, Salmon Rushdie on The Wizard of Oz, and Camille Paglia on The Birds.
• Jeff Wells, after trisecting Gus Van Sant’s career, worries which version of the filmmaker showed up to make Milk.  “If Van Sant who made Drugstore Cowboy is making Milk, terrific. If a blend of that Van Sant along with the guy who made Elephant is directing Milk, beautiful. But if the Finding Forrester Van Sant is anywhere near the Milk set, watch out.”
• On a recent press tour for Smart People, Sarah Jessica Parker was reluctant to speak about the Sex and the City movie at all, but she did try to assuage worries that, content wise, the film is going to be more TBS than HBO. “I don’t think we have any interest in doing some homogenized, conventional version, in order to appeal.  We don’t think mass.” Via Michael Musto.

Under discussion:

Batman Begins  (2005)

The Dark Knight  (2008)

Cloverfield  (2008)

I guess I will be seeing The Dark Knight no matter what, but this new video of “Rachel Dawes” (Maggie Gyllenhaal) endorsing “Harvey Dent” has me half-wanting to boycott the thing. While not entirely harmless, the clip is obnoxiously pointless, and it is written and acted poorly enough to feel like the opening of an SNL skit. I assume that Christopher Nolan didn’t have much to do with it, and I find viral marketing tactics like this to cheapen a film and do more harm than good. Who could watch this thing and honestly think it makes the Batman Begins sequel look appealing? Even if you’re smart enough to know the actual film won’t look like this, you might at least get the impression that Gyllenhaal’s performance here is a sampling of her portrayal of Dawes (previously played by Katie Holmes) in The Dark Knight.

And no, I’m not biased against Gyllenhaal. I do think she’s highly overrated, but she’s a decent actress most of the time (when she has more air, apparently). However, I do admit I already find this Harvey Dent political campaign-as-marketing campaign to be superfluous. It only continues to psyche up the geeks who are already psyched up anyway, making its an unnecessary cost to Warner Bros. And as happened on the road leading up to Cloverfield, my excitement for The Dark Knight is lately fluctuating between really pumped and really jaded. I shall now sit and wait for the backlash to the backlash.

• Predictions that Leatherheads would take the top spot at the weekend box office in spite of middling reviews and virtually no hook for young viewers proved to be unfounded. The Film That Turned George Clooney Fi-Core made just $13.5 million, barely enough for second place behind the still strong 21.
• Sundance vets Trouble the Water and Man on Wire both took jury prizes at the Full Frame Film Festival this weekend.  In a Dream and The Betrayal also left Durham with awards.
• In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Director’s Fortnight sidebar, this year’s Cannes Film Festival will screen a number of retrospective titles from past years, including Stranger Than Paradise and Aguirre, Wrath of God. The program will then travel to Rome and Buenos Aires.