2008 February | Coosa Creek Cinema

Another One Bites the Dust

By Rick, on February 29th, 2008 |

New Line is no more. Variety reports that parts of its operation will be folded into parent company Warners, but it will mean the ouster of contentious studio heads Bob Shaye (right) and Michael Lynne, as well as most of its 600 staffers.

Time Warner said New Line would continue to have development, marketing, business [...]

Coosa Creek Times, Oscar Wrap-Up Edition

By Rick, on February 26th, 2008 |

I can honestly say that Sunday’s Oscars were the most satisfying in years, and not just because I beat out my wife at the prediction game, either. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t very good at predicting: just one pick better than 500 (alas, it seems my rule of thumb “If No [...]

Oscar in 60 Seconds

By Rick, on February 25th, 2008 |

via Ted Zee at Big Screen Little Screen

Bergman Parodista

By Rick, on February 22nd, 2008 |

Do you love Ingmar Bergman but would also love to see an affectionate send-up? Do you hate him, think his films are the most pompous pieces of flammable celluloid ever to haunt the planet? Feel just . . . feh! about him but have nothing else to do? Well, have I [...]

The Getaway, Baby!

By Rick, on February 20th, 2008 |

I turned on one of the HD movie channels the other day — I love HD! — and there’s Al Lettieri, lying in a veterinarian’s office, menacingly fingering a little black kitten. “Don’t kill that cat,” I want to scream, but he doesn’t. Not yet, anyway. Big Al is one of the [...]

Fellini’s First 8½: The White Sheik

By Rick, on February 19th, 2008 |

Note: this is part of a series which began here.

My wife and I have this huge disagreement over Fellini. She thinks he’s an over-the-top hack who’s never met a plot he liked. She’s seen pictures of painted dwarves, overweight, dancing whores, and strange conga-lines snaking about under a patently fake, Italian moon. [...]

Coosa Creek Times, 2-18-2008

By Rick, on February 18th, 2008 |

Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1922 – 2008

French writer and director Alain Robbe-Grillet has died. Although he is perhaps best-known among cinephiles as the screenwriter for Alain Resnais’ masterpiece Last Year in Marienbad, he directed several films on his own, including Trans-Europe-Express (1963) and Eden and After (1970). Robbe-Grillet was also an influential [...]

One Ring to Sue Them

By Rick, on February 16th, 2008 |

Yet another party has sued New Line over a cut of the receipts from The Lord of the Rings — heirs of the Tolkien estate and a group of publishers has sued for at least $150 million. According to the New York Times, the suit alleges that

“they have never received a penny from a [...]

There Will Be Blood: Religion and Capitalism in America

By Rick, on February 15th, 2008 |

Warning: There be spoilers ahead!

Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood explores themes that include the dynamics between fathers and sons, the corrosive effects of greed, and the role of religion in the rise of industrial capitalism. This last is perhaps the most striking, but it’s also the most misunderstood. [...]

Kon Ichikawa, 1915-2008

By Rick, on February 13th, 2008 |

Japanese director Kon Ichikawa is dead at 92. A contemporary of Akira Kurosawa, Ichikawa directed his first feature,in 1946 and his last in 2006. He began his career in the animation department at what would become Toho studios, and moved to assistant director of live pictures in 1935 before making A Girl [...]