Film International - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2006

THIS MARKS THE FIRST article for what will become a regular Film International column, highlighting film and media projects as well as the craftspeople and companies that produce these projects that reflect an independent or experimental spirit and motivation. Film International invites fi lm-makers and other related media artists, to submit works particularly those that do not achieve mainstream distribution for consideration and possible review in this column. Please direct all (NTSC VHS or any DVD format) submissions to: Liza Palmer, Review Editor, Film International, c/o University of North Carolina Wilmington, 601 South College Road, Wilmington, NC 28403-5616, USA. For more information or to suggest topics for future Film Scratches, e-mail Liza at: palmerluncw.edu.

There have been a good many works of art based on the character and career of Richard Nixon more, I should guess, than about any other American president since Lincoln and among them are at least three items of major aesthetic significance:

Ask anyone in Japan who the most influential writer of mystery and detective fiction in their country is and they will probably come back to you with the name of Edogawa Rampo.

The storyline of Dogme 95 would never have made it into a film manuscript. There are too many implausible incidents along the way as to be accepted as fiction. But what was it?

Leaving aside one very early and generally inaccessible feature film and a couple of shorts dealing with gays and AIDS, Tsai Ming-liang's uvre to date reveals an overall unifying pattern that is probably unique in the whole of world cinema.

A neglected approach to the art of Ingmar Bergman is the study of the relationship between his films and the affluent Swedish welfare society in which they were conceived and received over a period spanning almost exactly 60 years.

This interview was made in mid-September 2005 during Lund International Fantastic Film Festival in Sweden. Terry Gilliam arrived the day before to receive a lifetime achievement award at a prize ceremony held in the twelfth century crypt of the town's cathedral followed by a preview screening of The Brothers Grimm. Tideland was not part of the programme. It would be screened a week later in San Sebastin and I had only seen bits and pieces of the film. Consequently, this interview, geared in constant overdrive within a half-an-hour time frame, is mostly about The Brothers Grimm. Then again, as Terry Gilliam is a man with a distinct personal vision, a series of abandoned projects but still on the constant lookout for money in order to continue to make films his way, the interview continuously took off into various directions.

Often the experience of watching movies is like reading a book, but I prefer the audience to see things, colours, to hear sounds. I don't want the audience to forget that they are watching a movie.

Gladiator: Extended Edition Ridley Scott, DreamWorks, 2000

Over the Edge Jonathan Kaplan, Warner, 1979

Land of the Dead George Romero, Universal, 2005

Boxes to spend a weekend with The Corporation Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, Zeitgeist, 2004

My Own Private Idaho Gus van Sant, Criterion Collection, 1991

Box of the Banned various, Anchor Bay, 197282

Clerks X: 10th Anniversary Edition Kevin Smith, Alliance Atlantis, 1995

Five documentaries The Yes Men Chris Smith, Dan Ollman and Sarah Price, MGM, 2004

George Stevens: A Film-makers Journey George Stevens, Jr., Warner, 1984

Inside Deep Throat Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, Universal, 2005

The Celluloid Closet Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, Sony, 1995

Sympathy for the Devil Jean-Luc Godard, Abkco, 1970

Interesting films but not much extras The Bela Lugosi Collection Various, Universal, 193240

Cop James B. Harris, MGM, 1988

Demon Seed Donald Cammell, Warner, 1977

Lilith Robert Rossen, Columbia, 1964

Rome, Open City Roberto Rossellini, Arrow, 1945

The Innocents Jack Clayton, Fox, 1961

Ugetsu, (1953) Japan

Tout va bien, (1972) France

27 Years Later

Visions of Belonging: Family Stories, Popular Culture, and Postwar Democracy, 19401960 Judith E. Smith (2005) New York: Columbia University Press, 464 pp., Hardback. ISBN 0231121709. 41.50; Paperback. ISBN 0231121717, 24.00.

Edward Yang John Anderson (2005) Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 144pp, ISBN 0252072367, paperback, 16.95

Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach: The Hidden Structure of Successful Screenplays / Paul Joseph Gulino, (2004) London: Continuum, 224pp, ISBN 0826415687, paperback, 14.95

In Short: A Guide to Short Film-Making in the Digital Age Eileen Elsey and Andrew Kelly (foreword by Gareth Evans) (2002) London: British Film Institute, 220pp, ISBN 0851708935, paperback, 16.99.

The Film Preservation Guide: The Basics for Archives, Libraries, and Museums (2004) San Francisco: National Film Preservation Foundation, 121pp, ISBN 0974709905, paperback, no price. (Available online at: www.filmpreservation.org/preservation/film%5Fguide.html. Accessed November 2005. Printed copies may be ordered from NFPF)

Toronto International Film Festival 817 September, 2005