Tag: 06.16.00

RAISE THE RED CURTAIN

Chinese director Zhang Yimou (“Raise the Red Lantern,” “Ju Dou,” “To Live”) is considered one of the world’s greatest filmmakers. At age 48, with nearly a decade under his belt of clashing with Chinese authorities over the politically explicit nature of his work, his renown even more startling considering he’s been banned from all international coproductions for the last six years. “He was cut off from the foreign finance, technology and even film stock that enabled him to create his indelible images. A man who may be the world’s greatest active filmmaker thus spent the second half of the 1990s cut off from world cinema, busying himself with cheap domestic productions and directing operas.” – The Telegraph (UK) 06/16/00

BANNED IN ONTARIO

The Ontario Film Review Board has banned a poster for an Israeli art film because it contains some nudity (though not enough to prevent the poster image to be printed in the newspaper). The film’s distributor calls for the dismantling of the review board. ”I’ve come to a point where I think this is completely archaic. This kind of control does not make any sense in this day and age.” – National Post (Canada) 06/16/00

MOVIE RIPOFF

Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Time Warner and Twentieth Century Fox, are among seven companies taking legal action against RecordTV.com. alleging that the internet site has been recording their films and TV shows and illegally retransmitting them over the web. – BBC 06/16/00

SAVING JOYCE

“Weary of the Dublin authorities’ failure to save the setting for Joyce’s short story The Dead, Brendan Kilty has decided to do it himself. He has bought 15 Ushers Island, a derelict Liffey quayside house, and intends returning it to the way it was in the writer’s day.” – The Times (UK)

FEAR NOT THE BIGS

After seven months of study, a Canadian government  commission studying the publishing industry concludes “that bookstore giant Chapters and its wholesale outlet Pegasus are not the problem that some of the small bookstores and publishers have alleged.” – CBC

THE PROOF’S IN THE PIRATING

One in five music CDs sold throughout the world last year were pirated versions, according to a new London-based study. That means more than 500 million pirated-music CDs were sold last year alone, and at least 25 million pirated files are currently available for download online. Illegal music sales outnumber legal ones in 19 countries. – The Age (Melbourne)

THE AMATEUR CLIBURN COMPETITION

Inspiring as the competition was, it was also profoundly depressing. It represented a celebration of the piano and the discipline of playing the instrument; it was a celebration of music, and of the people who have to make music, no matter what. But it was also an indictment of a society that has so little place for people with musical gifts to exercise them, especially if they want to live the American Dream.” – Boston Globe

BETTER LIVING THROUGH BOWLING

“Bob Putnam, a government professor at Harvard University, writes about bowling in the way Rachel Carson wrote about spring in “Silent Spring” or Ralph Nader wrote about cars in “Unsafe at Any Speed.” For Putnam, the dwindling percentage of Americans who bowl in a league is the perfect metaphor for the sharp decline of civic involvement. – Washington Post

FOLLOW THE LEADER

As North and South Korean relations continue to thaw, will artists in the two countries actually begin to enjoy artistic freedom for cross-cultural collaborations? The outlook is good, given that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is surprisingly committed to the performing arts and film. “The 58-year-old leader possesses particular interest and expertise in movies and stresses their importance in public more often than other fields. Film is recognized as one of the highest forms of art in North Korea as it is believed to encompass all other areas of arts following the leader’s conviction.” – Korea Herald (Part III of IV)