Category: media

“Wearing black bodysuits, these volunteers roam the theatre in stealth silence during films, pouncing on anyone who may be disturbing other patrons with a warning: ‘Shhhhhh.'”

Tom Rothman kept movies under budget and focused attention on arthouse movies – and apparently pissed almost everyone off in the process.

“As the internet has advanced, it’s become exactly what it was supposed to: An interconnected series of networks that have organically grown to meet demand at the edge. Like cockroaches, it can survive in hostile conditions. But unlike roaches, it’s something most people want in their lives, so news of its growing resiliency and localization should be good news.”

Charles Isherwood: “[Rock of Ages and Bachelorette] both had me wincing more often than I laughed. The dispiriting part is trying to keep intact in your memory file the delight you took in the material onstage when it has been so thoroughly flattened onscreen – to say nothing of trying to explain its allure to people who saw only the movie version. How many ways can you say, ‘You kind of had to be there’?”

“AMC says DISH dropped its programming because it wants to gain leverage in an unrelated lawsuit. DISH, on the other hand, says the faceoff is over a practice called “bundling.” Cable providers hate bundling — in which big networks like AMC try to sell several of their channels, both high- and low-rated, to providers in a bundle to get a better price.”

Tom Holland’s Islam: The Untold Story “examined claims that rather than Islam’s doctrine emerging fully-formed in a single text, the religion instead developed gradually over many years with the expansion of Arabic empires. … [The film] received around 1,200 complaints when it was first broadcast at the end of August.”

“The top four record labels have won a significant decision in their long-running suit against Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the Minnesota woman found by a court to have ‘lied’ about illegally uploading music to the Web.” The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the trial’s award of $220,000 in damages, which a previous appeal had reduced to $54,000.

“The company’s report shows how the nature of TV service is slowly changing. Before the percentage started declining about three years ago, more than 99 percent of TV homes received the traditional TV signals. Now that has dipped just below 96 percent.”

“After years when going to the movies meant sitting in a drafty hall or a village square watching a film chosen by a local government committee, the Chinese middle class has embraced the idea of taking in a movie as leisure activity – one in which, increasingly, they want to choose their fare from an array of global offerings.”

The event’s top award went to Korean director Kim Ki-duk’s Pieta, even though the jury’s favorite film among the entries was Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. What happened? Well, there’s a quirk in the rules. Jury president Michael Mann explains.