It’s been quiet around here, what?

• Adam Roberts on Iron Man.
• Jonathan McCalmont on Soi Cowboy and  The Brothers Bloom.
• Robert Briggs’s ‘Culture & Pedagogy’.
• Lady Gaga’s ‘Alejandro’
• Jim Emerson on the reaction to Film Socialisme.
• Nicolas Cage in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
• The Expendables (choose trailer 1).
• Rakash Ranjan Kumar’s Dear Friend Hitler.

• Steven Shaviro on Slow Cinema Vs Fast Films.
• Friend of Orson Kerry Bradshaw (who runs a secret cinema in Bath/Bristol) has just finished making her five-months-in-the-making short documentary about young asylum seekers for Rasp. Go and watch it; it’s free!
• Two excellent podcasts: The Business and Creative Screenwriting Magazine.
• Apichatpong ‘call me Joe’ Weerasethakul has taken the 2010 Palme d’Or for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Orson hasn’t seen the film yet, of course, but it’s bloody brilliant that Weerasethakul has gained this kind of exposure. If you haven’t seen it, drop everything and find a copy of Syndromes and a Century, a Lynchian, science fictional, quietist, meditative fantasia that is one of those films critics can’t find the right words for, as I have just demonstrated.
• Strange casting? Stranger casting.

• Iron Man 2 is (I attest!) better than Iron Man – because it doesn’t have to bother with all the laborious character-formation that distracts from the utterly, unambiguously Randian superheroics we pay our money for (what are they waiting for?). Poet Ron Silliman thinks otherwise.
• Attend to David Milch and you will be rewarded – in this life!
• A reminder about one of the best French films I’ve seen in recent years, Heartbeat Detector. Like the comments say, it isn’t quite a masterpiece, but it is driven by ideas, and argues its case rather than junking it all in during the last act, which is rarer than it should be.
• “A very private internal implosion.” Casey Affleck tries desperately (I assume) to keep the cat in the bag.
• This is nothing to do with film, but I link to this recent Oxfordian v. Stratfordian Shakespeare authorship debate because (a) it’s quite comprehensive if you’ve read little previously about the topic, and (b) Orson Welles found J. Thomas Looney, who first suggested the Earl of Oxford was the true author of Shakespeare’s works, very persuasive indeed.
• Speaking of Shakespeare, Michael Sheen is taking on Hamlet. Just as exciting is the news that Ian Rickson is directing.

Hello all. After a political hiatus I am now back to grab your brain hole with links and nonsense. Rejoice.

• Heard of the Kuleshov effect? No? Well read the Wikipedia article. And then let’s have Alfred Hitchcock explain it to us with a gratuitous shot of some totty.
• Unreality magazine discusses the most disappointing films of the last decade. The low hanging Matrix fruit are pretty obvious, but Watchmen? Really? It wasn’t that bad.
• Jake Mcmillan asks ‘where have all the Bond Villains gone’? Pretty much agree with it all, except Trevelyan. He was a shit baddy.
• Here’s one of them new-fangled podcasts of an interview with Chris Morris about Four Lions. Bad intro music warning.
• And if you’re no good with computers, here’s a normal word-based interview with the same man on the same subject.
• I want to see Four Lions.

• M.I.A. – ‘Born Free‘
• Boing Boing on Kenyan short film ‘Pumzi’ (albeit mostly just pointing out the existence of ‘Pumzi’).
• Chris Hemsworth is Thor!
• Matt Smith is Christopher Isherwood!
• Fritz Lang’s Metropolis is to be released – finally complete! – in September. (Infinitely exciting because probably no one in the world saw Lang’s original version between its 1927 premiere and the footage turning up in a Buenos Aires film vault a couple of years ago.)
• 3-D Ang Lee.

• David Bordwell has written a great blog-piece on Scorsese as an expressionist.
• If you have $425,500 to spare and morbid interests (alas, I don’t have both!) why not think about moving to Washington? Laura Palmer’s house is for sale.
• Not content with Sherlock and Stark, Robert Downey, Jr. may soon have his hands on “The Great Powerful“. Sam Mendes is in talks to direct this Oz-prequel, which presumably counts him out of sadly-indefinitely-delayed Bond 23.
• James Cameron hasn’t (yet) come out in support of the Naxalites in Orissa, but he has planted a tree. It’s a start.
• Joss Whedon prepares to direct The Avengers at Hijinks Ensue. But what will happen to the Marvel universe afterward?

• Roger Ebert claims that video games will never be art. I’m not sure I agree. EDIT: I’ve thought about it now and I do agree. Sorry y’all. However, as he asks, why are gamers so adamant that they be recognised as such?
• You may or may not be aware of the excellent faux-trailer Hobo With a Shotgun, which was created as a result of a contest to be included as part of the Grindhouse cinema release. If you’re not, go and watch it now. Back? Brilliant, right? Well hold onto your socks, because it’s being made into a feature. With Rutger Hauer! Sweet Jesus!
• When will depressio-Scandinavian-maestro Lars Von Trier’s relentless misogyny be satiated? Perhaps after he tortures Kirsten Dunst to the point of breakdown? First Johnny Borrell, now this? What cosmic wrong did the poor lass commit?
• JB’s already packing his suitcase. Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School is open for business.

• The new issue of Film-Philosophy is now available – for free. Knock yourself out; it’s huge. I’m reading about Scorsese, The X-Files, Richard Kelly, geopolitics and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but there’s so much there’s almost something for everyone.
• Cinema Scope reviews the last decade.
• Alfie picks the Tories. (Although it’s nothing we didn’t already know.)
• My trip to Brighton last week involved, among other things, watching Kick-Ass (of which more in a bit) and discovering Cyriak. Watch giant teddy bears invading Worthing and then go from there, here.
• Todd Alcott on A Serious Man (which I’m not reading until I’ve seen the film).
• Heheheheh. Hehehehe.

UPDATE

• SPECIAL BONUS LINK: A Life In Sound (part 2)

• Happy (belated) Easter.
• Five of the best nuclear apocalypse movies from Geeks are Sexy. This is a good list, but I’m buggered if I’ll ever sit through Threads again.
• “A retired surgeon who has a unique fantasy: to construct the world’s first human caterpillar by taking captives and surgically connecting them mouth-to-anus.” Has to be worth a punt, right? A crisp tenner to the first screencap of the inevitable money shot.
• An article by Jeremy Bernstein about playing chess with Kubrick. Actually fascinating.
• I was going to post the follow up to that 70 minute review of the Phantom Menace, but it looks like RedLetterMedia is having some dramas with copyright claims. Keep an eye on the profile and be sure to watch the Attack of the Clones review when it comes back up. It’s inspired stuff.

• Dr. Mark Kermode provides us with an even-handed, scientific appraisal of the latest 3D revival. Incidentally, I’m reading his book at the moment and in it he makes the point that studios are pushing 3D so forcefully because it’s more difficult to pirate. This honestly never occurred to me before, but it seems to be pretty much on the money. Interesting.
• J.D. Shapiro, the man responsible for notorious scientologist stinker Battlefield Earth, has apologised for his crimes against cinema while collecting the Razzie for worst movie of the decade.
• Talking of flops, did you hear that Uma Thurman’s latest flick Motherhood took £88 on its opening weekend? No, I didn’t omit an ‘m’ after that figure. Literally 11 people went to watch this movie. Ouch.
• Here’s an interesting piece of history: a letter from James Cameron to H. R. Giger explaining why he didn’t contact the artist about collaborating on Aliens. By the by, I totally didn’t know that Cameron’s middle initial was F when I called him James ‘fucking’ Cameron last week, but I’m totally pretending that I did.
• On a serious note: Dennis Hopper is terminally ill. He’s one of my favourite actors and I was really upset to hear the news. At least he has been given the honour of a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star before he passes, but it’s likely to be the last time he’s ever seen in public. This is how I’ll remember him: