This looks like a emotional bender from Charlie Kaufman.

Gonna be out a few days recovering from the scapel (again) so I thought I would leave you to peruse a few pictures with no specific themes from here and there.

I found the book very good, better than Platform. I think maybe Houellebecq has gone as far as possible with his literary vision so directing was the next logical choice. (I believe he is quiet the photographer) The site and trailer are in French but both look very snappy indeed.

I visualize a picture right down to the final cuts. I write all this out in the greatest detail in the script, and then I don’t look at the script while I’m shooting. I know it off by heart, just as an orchestra conductor needs not look at the score. It’s melancholy to shoot a picture. When you finish the script, the film is perfect. But in shooting it you lose perhaps 40 per cent of your original conception- AH

I don't agree about the shooting of the film, but more script details - or at least clear, concise details- might not be a bad thing.

Indie Filmmakers, wanna film a scene in a moving car on the cheap? I.e., not shooting from the back of your Uncle's F-150 or laying on hood of said-car while praying your actor did not dip into the booze before the shoot. Check this out via Peggy Archer

The Magic Window” by Desiree Holman

Tons of places to pick up Jason Ricardo and Team's Opie Gets Laid as the DVD will be released soon courtesy of Universal/Vivendi:   Go here or here. We have been tracking this movie for awhile now and congrats go out to Jason and the filmmakers who saw the project through from the beginning. As  most filmmakers know, your work does not end when the film is in the can, or on the hard drive as the case may be.

- Indiewire covers the 13th Annual Pusan Film Fest in Seoul, South Korea. Ah, brings back memories.

- Rippers Hark! Judge Shuts Down DVD-Ripper 
Round one of the lawsuit between the movie studios and RealNetworks goes to Hollywood, with a federal judge in California temporarily ordering Real Networks to stop selling a program that allows people to copy their DVDs.  (thanks Ross)

No matter how far I roam  in the land of film criticism, I always come back to Dargis. Sigh..Here she is on Soderbergh's movie opus to Che:

"Mr. Soderbergh cagily evades Che's ugly side, notably his increasing commitment to violence and seemingly endless war, but the movie is without question political -- even if it emphasizes romantic adventure over realpolitik -- because, like all films, it is predicated on getting, spending and making money."

                                  (pic via Hollywood elsewhere via David Poland)

Just for kicks and because it's Friday, and because I am too busy to casts the nets, I thought I would bore you with an entry from my jounal dated 10/10/07. As I read over it, I wonder about where my head and energies were at then and if some proverbial progeress has been made. The jury is still out on the latter. Names have been changed to protect the guilty and innocent.

10/10/07-  On a plane to Atlanta for the NAFEM show, visit P*** P***, and on to Raleigh to visit T** T***, M** T**, and DB****, and then on to Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach to hammer out an outline for “TFC.” It has been 1 month since I quit boozing it up. I feel OK although I have been smoking cigs and c****, the latter which relaxes me but also brings on a crisis of conscience for the things I do which I shouldn’t. Booze did cause some of my more stupid moments or indulgences but I wonder if quitting will cut-down on these? One hopes.

I do miss drinking especially when friends are over, there are parties to go to, or good food like clams over pasta is on the menu. A bottle of white is sorely missed. Having said that, I have not had a deep panic attack like I sometimes have during business dinners with intimidating bigwigs. H***** and I are kinder to each other except when there is a pack of cigs floating around. They drive her crazy much the same way massive amounts of booze do me. Managing addictions is not the only challenge.

Writing is finally moving forward. Not that I have anything on paper just yet, mostly a bunch of notes- but I feel I understand now what writing a good book or screenplay is about. I know what is expected of me (I also know how difficult it is!) Part of this trip is dedicated to some good hard work on TFC. I will be angry with myself if I sink into a morass of loneliness and slothful indulgence.

Work is going OK I guess. We are not making any big accounts or sales but we are making some small accounts. S***-San, the President of N**** Japan, is in LA for a few weeks. It seems he brought his mistress with him. Ballsy. Like many Asian Bosses, he talks a lot but rarely listens. T** and M***** barely translated. He-S****-just went on and on. T** gets on my nerves sometimes because he forgets a lot and seems to not care about employee benefits but I know this is not the case. He is a nice guy but seems over-burdened. M***** is plain slow. But I am sure I pose a lot of trouble to those two as well. MJ**** is in it for the laughs and to say he has a job despite getting a windfall of $$$ from his grandmother and his father’s passing.

                      (Nuns Playing volleyball on Redondo Beach, 10:42 am)

"I mean, if I knew it would take me 15 years to get back in the saddle and work again because of the way I handled things, I really would have handled things differently. I just didn't have the tools. I'm doing things differently this time around -- understanding what it is to be a professional, be responsible and to be consistent. Those are things that weren't in my vocabulary back then. Change for me didn't come easy; I didn't wanna change until I lost everything, until I realized that you better change, or, you know, blow your ****ing brains out. -Mickey Rourke doing press, sorting it out, proving that it is never over until it's over.

Some random thoughts on Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex which I saw last Friday in Santa Monica as part of the LA Chapter of The Goethe Institute..hmm, which reminds me to seek out Fassbinder's take on the movement.

You can tell the director Uli Edel really was inspired to emulate the style and pace of Downfall, the brilliant German film about the last days of Hitler & Co written by  Bernd Eichinger who, as it turns out, is also the writer of DBMK. The film works but only if you take the ride on its own terms; i.e. throw out the three-act structure with a required all-is-good climax. It's a more tantric endurance test than that, but one that pays off if you stick it out.

Any film that even remotely deals with Terrorism from the terrorist’s POV, especially Western Terrorists, is going to raise some eyebrows. I think that is why the filmmakers tried a stylized docu-drama approach, mixing in real news footage of the RAF and staged scenes of the fine, big-boned German casts (Moritz Bleitreu, Martina Gedeck, Bruno Ganz) partying nude, smoking dope, and making bombs. It made me think of the documentaries on American Terrorist movements like The Weathermen and SLA.

 Heady stuff but often draining.

There is one funny scene that stands out as a blaring gulf between West and (Mid) East revolutionaries. The RAF (a movement that is believed to have killed more than 30 public figures in an attempt to crush West German capitalism in the late 1960s and early 1970s) visit a Palistinian Terrorist Camp and immediately piss off the PLO or Hamas (?) by the fore-mentioned  nude sunbathing, drinking, and smoking dope under the Desert sun.

As a film it is often overwhelming as it takes off, almost stops, and then takes off again. That is how history unravels I suppose, but like I said, if you like Downfall’s pace you can get into DBMKs.’ You don’t have to be Chomsky-ites to sympathize with the human toll total faith and immersion in a movement-outlaw or otherwise-can take on a human being. I read that this film will try to be the Best Foreign Film entry for Germany come Oscar time but I'm not holding my breath. A little too..um, challenging for the Academy.

Highly recommended.

It's appears that there is indeed feast or famine in the Hollywood Food Chain of Salaries from the bottom (temp) to  roughly the region of the hip or cleft of the buttocks (Development Exec). I would say go into a different biz like real estate or hedge funds but now that is also being capped.

Make something like a bench and sale it or open a vegetarian fast food restraunt instead.

Well, thank the good Lord, your higher power, or the door knob to your office for another week in the can. I am off to see the Der Baader Meinhof Komplex tonight (alas, I will miss the debate) in Santa Monica. Very excited about this one. Here are a couple of well..things you might be mildly interested in

HUMANS ARE SUCH EASY PREY DRIVE-IN SERIES
Hollywood MobMov has teamed up with the Steve Allen Theater to give you a spook every Friday till Halloween.

THIS WEEK:
Village of the Damned (1960)

In the English village of Midwich, the blond-haired, glowing-eyed children of uncertain paternity prove to have frightening powers.

All screenings begin at 9 p.m. in the parking lot. Screenings also will occur in the theater in case of overflow crowds. Lot opens at 8:30.

Tickets are $5.00 per person, and can be purchased in advance here.

So you think you're funny? Prove it! Submit your comedy script or short film today at www.lacomedyshorts.com. Hurry... Early Bird Deadline ends Friday, October 3rd.

When folks ask why HIT became involved in the web serial Masher, we have to kinda wonder ourselves. Some commenters have used the word "pervesploitation" and there is a grain of truth in that. But we can offer up two points to consider about Masher and the nature of socio-sexual interaction:

1.) Any experience that human beings seek out is a part of being human as a whole, no matter how weird or strange it may seem.

2.) Art (I use the term broadly) has a responsiblity to at least try to show or illuminate the sexual mores of human beings outside the filter of accepted sexual behavior in society. Whether or not it entertains is a matter of taste which only reinforces my point in a way.

I said all this because Karina Longworth offers an excellent review of the doc I Think We're Alone Now from the Fantatic Fest.

..the popularity of I Think We’re Alone Now (otherwise known as The Tiffany Stalker Movie) at Fantastic Fest makes a certain perfect sense, and not just because this audience is accustomed to stories of sexual obsession (usually fictional, usually much gorier). In putting a camera in the faces of two lonely, mentally unwell adults, who are both desperate for the attention but incapable of filtering their stories, director Sean Donnelly has made what could be classified as an exploitation film. But even more appropriate for the venue, it’s an exploitation film tailor-made for anyone familiar with unrequited longing, and it wouldn’t work at all if Donnelly’s genuine care for his subjects didn’t shine through.

HIT urges you to seek this one out in the theater if possible or on DVD if you live in a town with only multiplexes. Read Karina's review and then with that in mind, here is the first episode of Masher.