Category: media

“When, if ever, will an erotic film not marketed as pornography show a man and a woman enjoying spontaneous, passionate full-frontal sex? With the appearance of Michael Winterbottom’s “9 Songs,” the answer is now.”

The Canadian government has committed $25 million toward a new Film Center for the Toronto International Film Festival. “Tuesday’s announcement brings the total amount raised to $94.7 million to date. However, organizers still have a long way to go before a groundbreaking ceremony – expected for next spring. The campaign goal is to raise $196 million, designated to pay for capital funding, the creation of an endowment fund and ongoing operational costs.”

How to finance that $100 million Hollywood blockbuster movie? First you go to Germany. “The Hollywood studio starts by arranging on paper to sell the film’s copyright to a German company. Then, they immediately lease the movie back—with an option to repurchase it later. At this point, a German company appears to own the movie. The Germans then sign a “production service agreement” and a “distribution service agreement” with the studio that limits their responsibility to token—and temporary—ownership.”

The Asian film industry is coming into its own. “World culture is a growth industry, and national cinemas in Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong have become a significant part of the equation. The films of the region are part of an aesthetic continuum, although it is sometimes hard to tell the voice from the echo. Individually, they are rooted in national trends, myths and cultural interests that collectively form a pan-Asian consensus.”

Mary Jacobs stopped watching TV 15 years ago. As Turn-Off-Your-TV Week began she spent a solid week watching again. “My conclusion? Bad TV is much worse. It’s uglier, meaner and more inane. But good TV has actually gotten better. Characters have real depth; there’s more ambiguity and nuance; plots take unpredictable and interesting turns. Maybe, when the baby boomers’ hair turned gray, television became more adept at dealing with gray areas. So, will I keep on watching? Probably not.”

So now we have “movieoke” where people can go up and lip sync to their favorite movie scenes. “What’s interesting about movieoke from a cultural perspective is that it seems to be another example of how entertainment — and, by extension, our culture — is becoming more and more about exhibitionism and voyeurism.”

“Argentina is home to the most exciting filmmaking in the world at the moment – and certainly, with the possible exception of South Korea, it is the core site of fresh work by women directors – if the country itself and the new voices emerging from it weren’t so disparate, drawing from European and American influences as well as the history of a Latin American country second only to Brazil in terms of film production. This achievement is amazing, considering the country’s new wave has risen from – and crashed against – economic ruin.”

Shocked by the salaries and percs that big Hollywood stars demand and get? Oh come now. The really outrageous feeding at the trough of greed is done by entertainment company execs whose philosophy seems to be ‘why spend a dollar when you can spend a million?’

Before video really takes off on the internet there will have to be a way to find the video you want. “In recent weeks, Yahoo, Google and MSN have each rolled out services designed to make it easier to upload or locate video online. The portals’ rollouts come as a handful of startups and independent film sites are creating tools to make putting video online nearly as simple as publishing text.”

Women have quietly taken their places at the top of the Hollywood movie business. “Though men still figure most prominently in the corporate echelons of the media companies that own the studios, and talent agencies like William Morris and Creative Artists Agency are still male dominated, these women, who over the years have fought and fostered one another as part of a loose sisterhood, have finally buried the notion that Hollywood is a man’s world. So striking is the change that some now see Hollywood as a gender-balanced model for the rest of corporate America.”