Time once again to check in on to see what's going on with some of our favorite film blogs ... and by the bye, folks -- if you have a film blog that I don't know about, please drop me a line and point me to it. I love, love, love my fave film blog reads, but, like any good addict, I just can't get enough, so bring on your film blogs! Drop me a line at kim(at)cinematical(dot)com ... It's technically not a blog, I suppose, but MCN Voices has an excellent piece up by screenwriter Larry Gross on Ingmar Bergman, in which he analyzes the director's genius and influence. If you want to learn more about Bergman, you can check out the always excellent Senses of Cinema's Great Directors piece on the auteur. While you're over there, you can read up on the other directors Gross mentions in his Bergman piece -- filmmaking greats from Fellini to Cuaron to Welles to Altman -- and another recently deceased filmmaking legend, Michelangelo Antonioni, who passed away July 30 at the age of 94. For even more on both Bergman and Antonioni, check out Chicago Tribune critic Michael Phillips very excellent piece on both directors on his Talking Pictures blog, and Roger Ebert, who we're ever so glad to see back in action, with his own tribute to Bergman.
More group-hugging action after the jump ...
Senses of Cinema also has a really interesting interview up with a younger director, Andrew Bujalski, who's been busy making his own mark in the sub-genre of the low-budget, semi-improvisiational indie films that rely on friends and family to flesh out the cast, and the real-life experiences of the director's social circle for inspiration. Bujalski has directed some well-regarded indie films including Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation. Bujalksi wears mutliple hats in the indie film world -- he both contributed to the screenplay and acted in Joe Swanberg's current indie darling, Hannah Takes the Stairs.
If you don't happen to live in Singapore, you might not have know there was a bash for the gala premiere of Taiwanese pop-superstar Jay Chou's (Curse of the Golden Flower) directorial debut, Secret (or Bu neng shou de. mi mi, depending on how you like your foreign film titles). Fortunately for you, filmblogger Stefan S, who runs a nifty little blog out of Singapore called A Nutshell Review, was onhand for the festivities, and he has a spectacular photoblog up that will almost make you feel like you were there.
Feeling sexy? Check in on Nerve's Film Lounge, where they partnered with IFC to put together a list of The 50 Greatest Sex Scenes in Cinema. The list is full of those hot, sweaty moments that make you go "Oooooh," including one of my favorite entries from Pedro Almodóvar's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990), about which they have this to say: "Abril goes hands free, wriggling underneath him until Banderas valiantly utters, "The only thing the bastards left alone was my cock." A point they go on to prove for three solid minutes: up, down, and helpfully reflected in the skylight mirror." Want more? You know you do ... and you can peruse the full, sexy list right ... here. (And thanks, Kate, for turning us, er, on to the list ... )
Speaking of sex, I guess we just can't get enough "young guy horndog movies." Over on Hollywood Elsewhere, Jeff Wells writes about Variety's piece about Maxim Films and Screen Gems pairing up to make films targeted at that demo. Wells points to this rant over at The Rec Show titled "Maxim Makes Films Masturbate" (now there's some alliteration for you), which in turns points to a piece over on CHUD about the same topic. Whew -- did you follow all that? Cinematical's Ryan Stewart wrote about the Maxim films as well, wryly noting, "I love the fact that there's actually a target audience for a film like this -- it's called 'guys who have never heard of pornography.'" I suppose I could get on a feminist rant about the topic of "young guy horndog movies," but I think I'll spend that time instead watching some Bergman and Antonioni DVDs.
