Category: media

Michael Moore is once again the toast of Cannes, where the European audiences have always enjoyed his blistering attacks on American government and corporations. Farah Nayeri says that Moore’s latest film, on America’s floundering health care system, has less ranting and more legitimate documentation than some of his past efforts. But Moore was confronted after his Cannes screening by Canadian journalists who say that his glowing portrayal of their country’s national health care system is flatly inaccurate.

Landmark Theatresis building a new multiplex in Hollywood. It offers a state-of-the-art experience. “The steeply raked, stadium-style auditoriums feature leather seats and ample legroom. Three theaters will be fitted with the latest digital projectors, one auditorium will be equipped for 3-D movies, and guests in some smaller auditoriums will be able to stretch out on sofas and love seats.”

So the FCC wants to regulate violence on TV. But “there’s a reason no one is keen to define excessively violent programming. Anyone who tries will face insoluble practical and constitutional problems. Because opinions about what is appropriate for children vary widely, any definition of excessively violent programming would be attacked as too narrow, too broad, or both.”

Cannes may be a festival of art and culture, but it is first and foremost a marketing flak’s paradise, loaded down with movie people trying desperately to sell their latest opus. How else to explain why Jerry Seinfeld dressed up in a bee costume and jumped off a roof this week?

“For decades, the amount of advertising on Canadian television has been set in Ottawa. Now the decision will be left up to the networks – and how much their viewers are willing to stomach. Canada’s broadcast regulator announced Thursday that it is getting out of the business of regulating how many ad minutes broadcasters can air each hour.”

“This may be premature speculation, but has television given up on men? As the fall season is unveiled in New York this week, where the U.S. networks are spinning their lineups, one thing is becoming clear: we’re approaching The Year of the Woman.”

Hollywood releases dominate multiplexes around the world, but in India, a thriving and well-funded homegrown film industry has always held its own against the American blockbusters. Now, though, Hollywood is beginning a major push to make itself the primary player in Indian cinema, and Bollywood can be expected to push back, hard.

Massachusetts lawmakers are offering newly sweetened deals for Hollywood filmmakers who want to shoot in the Bay State. “The change, which must be approved by lawmakers, would give just about everyone making a movie in Massachusetts a financial reward for shooting here. Previously, only projects with budgets of a certain size qualified for cash back.”

What’s the biggest threat to traditional TV? CBS president Les Moonves thinks if the networks are smart they’ll weather any challenges. “We don’t care how you get our content — over the air, over cable, satellite, the Internet, or on your cell phone — as long as we get paid for it.”

The movie was the subject of a bitter dispute about who was responsible for its losses. Neither side ultimately wins. “The case may have been much ado about less than nothing — $105 million less than nothing. That is the sum of money that “Sahara,” with a $160 million budget and starring Matthew McConaughey and Penélope Cruz, has lost for its investors, principally Crusader Entertainment. Along the way, jurors and the public have learned that Hollywood studios and best-selling authors sometimes exaggerate or lie.”