“What happens in the United States during a presidential election year is a thing to behold. The popular culture becomes enmeshed with the political culture. And that’s good. In Canada we tend to shy away from such coverage, being all earnest and sober about election coverage. And that’s bad.”
Category: media
What If You Could Digitally Delete Actors You Didn’t Like?
“If you can use computer-generated imagery to insert actors into films, why not use it to remove them as well? Just think of how many movies would be improved by the process.”
The Promised Land, The Evil Empire: How Other Nations’ Movies Portray America
World cinema has more than just a love-hate relationship with the world’s 800-pound gorilla of entertainment (and politics and business). There’s terror of emasculation and sexual domination; there’s a vision of a literally unreachable ideal; there’s disappointment with reality in the US. And there’s Condoleezza Rice belly-dancing.
At Telluride, Sarah Polley’s Family Memoir Wins Big (Unofficially, That Is)
“By the time things wrapped up Monday night, the biggest grumbling from passholders – other than how impossibly long the lines were this year – was that they hadn’t heard the good buzz about [Polley’s] Stories We Tell in time to catch the sleeper hit of the festival.”
Amazon Deal Doesn’t Look Great For Netflix – Or Does It?
Netflix stock prices dropped when Amazon announced a deal with EPIX to stream movies like The Hunger Games and The Avengers – but will that deal actually harm Netflix?
John Cleese Orders Strike On Iran In Ad For Israeli Nutella
“We’ve already established that John Cleese will do anything for money when it comes to shooting ads. … For example: the new Israeli commercial below, in which he plays a Western general who, at the behest of Israel, accidentally orders a military strike on a foe, presumably Iran.”
The New Combined-Genies-And-Geminis Will Be …
“The new Canadian prizes for film, television and digital media will be known as the Canadian Screen Awards, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced today. … The academy announced earlier this year that the Genie Awards for Canadian English-language film and the Geminis for Canadian TV would be combined.”
Despite Blockbusters (And Crazy $$ For The Avengers), Box Office Is Down
Summer box office receipts fell about 3 percent compared to last year – and audience numbers were the lowest in 20 years.
But That Summer Box Office Isn’t All About The Boys
“As tempting as it is to think of summer as ‘boy movie season’ and fall as ‘grown-up lady film season,’ our cinematic habits are, thankfully, much more nuanced than that.”
Co-Founder Of File-Sharing Site Pirate Bay Arrested In Cambodia
“A founder of the Pirate Bay filesharing website has been arrested in Cambodia at the request of Swedish police. Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, 27, was detained in Phnom Penh by officers executing an international warrant issued against him in April after he did not turn up to serve a one-year jail sentence for copyright violations.”