Slasher Scarecrow Gets his Close-Up [Comic
Geekdom]

Scarecrow has always been one of the greatest Batman villains, as was evidenced when we got a small dose of him in Batman Begins. But how much mayhem could he cause if there were no ratings system to hold him back? Writer Joe Harris and artist Juan Doe have an ...

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2008 SFSFF13SSSSSSSSH!!!

It's hard to keep quiet about the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, poised to start at the Castro Theatre this Friday evening with the 7:00 presentation of The Kid Brother (1927), featuring Harold Lloyd and introduced by Leonard Maltin.

Here at The Evening Class, Michael Hawley's provided an excellent overview and I've spoken with Artistic Director Stephen Salmons, parts one and two.

Delfin Vigil likewise chatted with Salmons for the San Francisco Chronicle, detailing how the festival has "resurrected history" with such screenings as this year's Her Wild Oat (1927), for which I understand ticket sales have been especially brisk.

At SF360, Mary B. Scott has furnished her own overview, highlighting William Desmond Taylor's The Soul of Youth (1920)?"[A] gritty study of baby trafficking, unloved orphans, homeless young men, corrupt politicians, reformers and amazingly understanding judges"?and The Silent Enemy (1930), which she places in the context of quasi-ethnographic docudrama replete with "absolutely gorgeous" photography, "fascinating" rituals, and a "thrilling" caribou stampede. Scott finds the film "simply stunning" and "amazingly well-shot and edited."

At the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Dennis Harvey traces how the orphan as a staple figure in silent cinema serves as a "popular dramatic conceit" in Taylor's The Soul of Youth. Erik Morse focuses on the "mutilation masterpiece" centerpiece The Man Who Laughs (1928).

Much of the research material Brian Darr collected for Teinosuke Kinugasa's Jujiro (1928) and Japanese silent cinema had to be left out of his program guide essay and slide show presentation due to space limitations; but, fortunately, he's got Hell on Frisco Bay to catch the spillover. Over the next several days, nothing will be wasted at his site.

Hailing in from Seattle, Anne M. Hockens anticipates her upcoming sojourn to San Francisco and asks: "Are you ready for the marathon?" She highlights Rene Clair's Two Timid Souls and the debut performance of the Bay Area's Baguette Quartette "known primarily for their renditions of classic Parisian dance hall music." She likewise draws focus to gay cinema landmark Mikaël (1924) by Carl Dreyer, Kinugasa's "surrealistic and visually expressionistic" Jujiro, and Lotte Reiniger's animated wonder The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), which her cohort David Jeffers lovingly wrote up for SIFFBlog earlier this year.

Jeffers?who is literally counting down the hours until the opening night of the festival?has likewise written up the opening night feature The Kid Brother. Noting that Harold Lloyd "considered The Kid Brother to be lacking sufficient action and humor", Jeffers counters that in reality Lloyd's "tenth of eleven silent features was the synthesis of all his acquired talents. It was Lloyd's greatest success in blending his trademark gags with well-developed characters, and a thoughtful, engaging story."

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Holy Rainbows Cartman! Are Cartman and Stan Going
'Brokeback Mountain' for Outfest [Polar Bears In Compromising Positions]

Today is a special Gay Day! No, they didn?t pass another fabulous law for the gheys, it?s the first night of 26th annual film fest, Outfest. The 13-day blast of gay film kicks off tonight with Breakfast with Scot, featuring Tom Cavanagh (Ed) and Ben Shenkman (Angels In America) at the Orpheum Theatre. We talked to Kirsten Schaffer, the interim executive director about her new favorite flicks, and the process of whittling all those submissions down to a manageable ?225 movies from 25 countries and nine venues for over 13 days, and we expect over 50,000 attendees,? as she put it in her understated way. And also we find out how exactly a South Park movie makes the cut in a gay fest. (Hint: It?s a sing-a-long. All together now: ?Uncle Fucker!?)

Defamer: I see you have a series called Four in Focus dedicated to first-time filmmakers. Is there one to watch? Do you find that younger filmmakers focus on different subject matter than their predecessors?

Kirsten Schaffer: Half Life, by Jennifer Phang, is exceptional (see video clip above). The thing that they have in common?which is interesting and sort of new is that the gay subject matter is definitely a part of a story, but it?s not the central focus of any of these stories.

Do you think that?s something different with the younger generation?

I do. Because this generation has grown up seeing more images of queer people on film and in television, they are free to tell stories they want to tell, and integrate the queerness in different ways. Like, in the 90s and even in the first part of 2000s, we weren?t seeing enough coming out stories, so people were making a lot more coming out stories. They are still being made and they are often good, but at the same time the filmmakers are reaching a little bit deeper into their lives and telling stories that are complicated and involve queer stories in a different way.

How has the quality and number of submissions changed over the years?

The submissions have definitely gone up. When I first started programming in Seattle with a fax machine-before the Internet, I feel like there were maybe 200 submissions. So now it?s tripled, and I think the biggest change is the diversity of things to choose from. It used to be if there was a gay romantic comedy, you had to show it. Now, there are 20 gay romantic comedies, and you can choose from the best. That said, the other thing that?s changed, more so, in the last couple of years, is that there?s fewer and fewer films being made on film and more being made on video and DVD. And the plus side of that is that people who didn?t have access to film are making great movies. The downside of that is, sometimes it feels like the movies are getting made really fast. Sometimes the quality isn?t always the same. The stories are good, they are interesting, but there?s something that?s missing from not being made on film.

Local filmmaker JD Disalvatore has a funny line on her website: "Please, help me, help you not see bad gay movies!!!" Do you think this is a frequent pitfall in some gay films?

I think it?s happening in independent cinema across the board. I don?t think it?s just gay films, I think it?s everything. It really is, it?s great and it?s terrible at the same time. There are some good movies being made, but just because somebody grabs a camera and makes a real good movie, but then, there?s a lot more to wade through because someone is grabbing a camera and making a movie. There?s a intentionality and a skill that?s missing than when you are making a film on film, and you have to spend two, three, five, 10 years raising the money and reworking the script. There?s a difference between making a movie in a month and making a movie in five years.

Which movies do you consider some of the most monumental flicks in gay filmmaking that Outfest has shown?

Hedwig and the Angry Inch?that was the opening night in 2001; Boys Don?t Cry; High Art; Making Love in 1983; Desert Heart in 1985; Paris is Burning; Poison, Todd Haynes? film from 1991; Go Fish in 1994; Celluloid Closet in 95.

Which flicks in this year?s fest are worthy of the Canon?as they say?

There?s a film called Wild Combination about musician Arthur Russell which I think is exceptional. I think a Jihad for Love because it?s the first of its kind is a really important movie. I really like this film The World Unseen, a lesbian film set in South Africa in 50s. It?s really lovely and beautiful.

Half Life?that is set suburban northern California, it?s about a family and a single mom and her two teenage children; trying to figure life out in the suburbs. It?s not as dark as Todd Solondz?s movie, Welcome to the Dollhouse. It?s a little bit dark, sometimes funny and mostly dramatic suburban tale, which is my favorite kind of movie. A little like American Beauty, Safety of Objects. What this has that?s different is the 12, or 13 year-old boy lives in a fantasy world, and when he goes into that fantasy world, she uses animation. The teenage girl?the 19 year-old-?her best friend is gay and there?s a whole subplot that focuses on their relationship and his relationship to his Christian parents.

Hamlet 2. Andrew Fleming?s new movie, he did Threesome. This is a really fun film with Amy Poehler, Catherine Keener, Elizabeth Shue. It?s about a high school drama teacher who is quite unsuccessful and decides that instead of doing the kind of plays he?s been doing, he?s going to write his own. So he writes Hamlet 2. There?s one of the students is gay and he writes Hamlet 2 as a musical, so it?s pretty campy.

We?re also showing a film called 11 Minutes which is about Jay McCarroll, the first winner of Project Runway. I think that?s going to be a fun screening because he?s going to be there. That?s on July 16th.

What sort of movies are you ultimately looking for?

We?re looking for films that are of interest to the lesbian, gay, transgender, queer, community. It?s kind of broad. Sometimes that?s a film that?s a gay film from start to finish, or sometimes that?s a film that?s really campy, because it?s of interest to the gay community. Like this year, we?re doing South Park as a sing-a-long, because we think that?s campy and fun and the gays want to see that. Sometimes we?ll show some feminist movie that?s not that lesbian but it?s really about women and feminist culture and that?s of interest to lesbian audience. This year we?re showing a film that?s mostly about environmental issues, but has, it?s a mockumentary, it has a gay-appearing character as the lead, but it?s not about their gay identity at all. It?s totally about environmental issues. But they seem gay to me and I liked it, so we?re showing it. The movie is called Sizzle. It has an awesome photo of a guy and a polar bear in a slightly compromising position.

For more info: check the schedule here.

Also: FREE TIX. First two people to respond to each email get entree to the Eleven Minutes screening Wed. 7/16 at 8 p.m., and The South Park Sing-a-long on Thur. 7/17 at 8 p.m. Both are at the Ford. Send emails to southpark AT outfest DOT org and 11min AT outfest DOT org and it might just be your lucky day.

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Elfquest: The Movie. Say it Ain't So.

There's very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very (well you get the point) very bad news for fans of Elfquest the classic independent fantasy comic book by Richard & Wendy Pini. It seems that the guy who pissed all over Michael Chabon's Mysteries of Pittsburgh (resulting in an outraged Pittsburgh boycott and bad word of mouth) has his hands on the project. Yikes.

The Pinis themselves seem happy (they've discussed the news on their site) and include the director's quote

"...the most important thing is to stress that Warner Brothers loves the property (as does the director) and the plan is to do justice to the underlying work by honoring it in the adaptation. This is going to be the film version that EQ fans around the world have been waiting and hoping and dreaming for."

Don't the Pinis know that Rawson Marshall Thurber (best known for Dodgeball) also claimed to love Mysteries of Pittsburgh before he altered the most fundamental things about it? By all reports he gutted the novel and replaced it with something infinitely blander.

There's been talk of an Elfquest movie since at least the early 80s. The first edition debuted in the year of Star Wars, 1977. A movie would require an incisive and confident touch if it ever hoped to be as stirring as the comic book. It would require somebody as brilliant about transferring material from one medium to another as Peter Jackson... not someone willing to chuck out intricately woven details and idiosyncratic spirit.

And make no mistake, it's tricky source material. For an epic comic book story about cute hobbit-sized elves who have spiritual companions in wolves, it's got a randy anything-goes adult sexuality coursing through it, a good amount of violence, a ton of plot (it'd be better as a miniseries) and an Altman-sized ensemble full of surprisingly complicated characters who are rarely purely good or evil. True story: My ultra conservative dad who thinks comic books and movies are silly is obsessed with it. Weird, right? My family had to buy 3 copies of the graphic novel compilations since we all read it repeatedly, wearing out the binding. It inspires that kind of devotion.

I will be crying when Hollywood f***s this up. I never needed to see a movie made unless it was going to aim for genius.

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Fests and events, 7/9.

Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell post a whopping wrap-up of Il Cinema Ritrovato, the festival of restored films in Bologna. Among the highlights are notes from a briefing on what's known so far regarding the recently discovered copy of...

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It's Time: Kill the TCA Press Tour [Rants]

As far as circles of hell go, we've already established you can't really do much worse than the Television Critics Association semi-annual press tours — the gaseous summer version of which is feeding the palms in Beverly Hills as we speak. But it's not just the bloggers and bitter ideologues who have ruined the bed-in between networks, stars and the writers who love them (until the expense account runs out, anyway); we're learning more today about why the TCA tour may have bottomed out earlier than predicted, featuring an opening cavalcade of virtually uncoverable has-beens and hypocrites who don't bode well for the future of, well, anything. From the WaPo:

The day on which the Thank God We're Working Summer TV Press Tour got its start was one of singular euphoria. ...

So thrilled were the critics with the whole still-employed/Beverly Hills/expense-account thing, they generously overlooked TV One following its first session, on racism in America, with one that kicked off with homophobic remarks made by a guy who appears to be one of the new co-hosts of TV One show Black Men Revealed.

And, hours later, they also graciously let it slide when Florence Henderson — born 1934 — slipped in a reference to herself as being part of the baby boom generation...

*GUNSHOT*

And this is one of the good items — a self-effacing glimpse into the abyss of modern culture, where ex-SAG president Ed Asner predictably wheezes on behalf of an actors strike, the Hallmark Channel cannibalizes the very bones of cable television and Ted Koppel fakes what little funk remains beneath his ever-thickening species of wig. Sign us up, seriously. How did we ever overlook the credentialing process?

We think we know, actually: Having proven its irrelevance after nobody — not readers, not viewers, nobody except perhaps the overextended networks and publishers who pay for it all, and certainly not us — even noticed when the WGA strike necessitated its cancellation last January, the TCA press tour is but a holdover of entitlement and uselessness, all but invisible, little but dead. Which is to say: Make it stop. Dogs, ponies, shows — drown them all, pocket the money, make better TV and hire back the swaths of critical dead who gave half a fuck before polishing network turds became the law of the land.

Or just call it even. We don't even care at this point as long as the publicity reach-around in TV, film, politics and pretty much any measurable media ecology makes so few people happy or even remotely intrigued. Just make it stop. Katherine Heigl doesn't need your defenses, Chandra Wilson. Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira's "romantic tension"? Kill yourselves. Mark Cuban on day-and-date film releases for the trillionth time? He can afford to be wrong for 20 lifetimes, but beat writers fall for it year after year after year.

So, TCA press tour attendees? Hello? We love you as people, support you as peers and just want to see you happy. Really. And we know your editors will take it rough, but they'll get over it, and anyway, it's time: Put this dog down.

• That Sputtering Sound You Hear? Another Press Tour Revs Up [Washington Post]

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Celebrating the Best of British

This idea was inspired by a brilliant post at Moon in the Gutter in which it's author, Jeremy[...]

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If There's One Thing That's Guaranteed At This
Year's Shakespeare Festival/LA, It's That Shrews Will Be Tamed [The Bard]

We don't mean to bite our thumbs at the Shakespeare's entire body of work, but let's face facts: some of The Bard's plays can be rather staid and boring (even in the hands of Baz Luhrman). But the Shakespeare Festival/LA has the antidote to our short attention spans and disinterest in anything ultra-historical. Last year they staged A Midsummer Night?s Dream in a jazzy '20s setting. This year, they go very L.A. for Taming of the Shrew. For starters, they put the play's protagonists, the lovers Kate and Petruchio, in a car. On a roadtrip.

(Since I am now officially an old with a bad memory, I consulted the Cliff?s Notes online?yes, they are online now!— to brush up on the Bard?s play. According to Cliff, ?Shrew? is one of his earliest comedies, dating to around the late 1850s. Bianca is in love with Lucentio, but because her sister Kate, is ?so forward and unruly? their father refuses to let suitors in the house until she is married off. Thus begins Petruchio?s witty, wordplay-driven courtship.)

The particularly Los Angeles twist to the somewhat sexist play is described as ?high-octane,? ?full-throttle? and ?off-road,? in the company?s press release, but thankfully, the words, ?crash-and-burn? don?t appear. You spend all day in your car, what?s a few more hours?

Previews open tonight. Seating begins at 6:30. Bring non-perishable food or cash for general admission. Visit www.FreeWillLA.org or call the Box Office at (213) 975-9891 for tickets and information.

• Shakespeare Festival/LA

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Hellboy II: The Golden Army, round 2.

Round 1 was looking pretty good. But let's see... "Guillermo del Toro's 2004 Hellboy, based on the popular Mike Mignola comics about a spawn of Satan who heroically helps humanity fight off beasts and bad guys from all dimensions, was...

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Distribution debates, 7/9.

"I've held off writing a post-mortem on The Nines, but now that everything is said and done, I should probably say and do it," announces writer-director John August. "The short version is this: the movie turned out just the...

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