The News: Marty Shines Light at Berlinale

By S.T. VanAirsdale

Some of today's movie news of note from around New York:

--Congratulations to Martin Scorsese, whose all-star home movie of The Rolling Stones rocking the Beacon Theater in 2006, Shine a Light, will open the Berlin Film Festival on Feb. 7. You might remember Al Maysles and Robert Richardson (among others) playing camera assistants at the time, or The Reeler's sincere prayers that an audience-participation Shaky-Cam orgy could ensue from the surplus of equipment floating around the room like $8 beers, but it appears this is actually Last Waltz-esque mythos for the ages. Scorsese and the Stones are expected to attend; we'll keep you informed of any upcoming NYC screenings.

--Congratulations also to the makers of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days on advancing to their surefire date with Oscar's Best Foreign-Language Film award; the Palme d'Or-winning, New York Film Festival-wowing, critic-captivating Romanian triumph dwarfs its international competition on the short list released Tuesday, and... oh, wait. Sorry. I meant the makers of Persepolis, the NYFF's closing-night fave and... wait. What? Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me.

--That said, there's no reason to point your bitterness at the prospective nominees that took your favorites' places. Exhibit A: The typically profound, worldly ruminations of one Anthony Kaufman: "I haven't seen all of the films, but the appearence [sic] of Cao Hamburger's The Year My Parents Went on Vacation and Giuseppe Tornatore's roundly dismissed The Unknown suggest that the same-old, formulaic foreign-language films are still the ones that are welcomed by the Academy, while more artistic films (Secret Sunshine) and genre blends (The Orphanage) are overlooked." Passing judgment on foreign films you haven't seen, Anthony? Maybe you have more in common with the Academy than you think.

--The Cloverfield shit will hit the fan here before very long, but in the interim, I will make do with my favorite three-word criticism to date: "Whoa, Wikipedia, dude."

Posted at January 16, 2008 11:14 AM