Tag: 12.23.04

Beyond The Obvious – This Year’s Best Actresses

Some critics say this has been a terrible year for women’s roles in the movies. “While it is true that Hollywood does not make enough movies that focus on women, it is equally true that Oscar voters annually overlook the best performances by actresses because they’re too lazy to move beyond the “What did Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon do this year?” thinking that results in so many nominations for those women.”

Hollywood North Is Dying

The movie business in Toronto, long popular with Hollywood producers because it was cheaper than working in the US, has dried up. “With foreign film production down almost 40 percent from the peak years of 1999 and 2000, the debate in Canada has become how to compete with lower-cost areas like Eastern Europe or American states like Louisiana and New York that have recently introduced attractive filmmaking subsidies.”

Here’s Ten Grand. Go Learn Farsi.

It’s been well documented that the English-language market for books in translation has nearly dried up in recent years, with the increasing global dominance of American culture and declining American interest in literature in general. But now, the Association of American Publishers is attempting to jumpstart the translation market by offering $10,000 to any publlisher willing to release one of several translated Iranian novels. The money comes from a grant by philanthropist and Democratic power broker George Soros.

Eos Orchestra Is No More

New York’s Eos Orchestra has shut down because of money peoblems. The band put on “unusual and theatrical concerts like stripped-down versions of Wagner operas and the nonfilm music of Bernard Herrmann. “The group, which was founded by Jonathan Sheffer in 1995, had about four productions a year with up to 20 performances, and “at its peak” had an annual operating budget of about $2.5 million.”

Court Victory For Family Seeking Nazi-Looted Art

“A Canadian family scored a major legal victory yesterday when a judge in the Czech Republic agreed that they should gain possession of a valuable art collection — believed to be worth millions of dollars — assembled by their Jewish grandfather, then later confiscated by the Nazis and the Communists… [T]he decision, which will be issued in writing late next month, will likely be appealed. That appeal could take more than a year, with the case possibly going as far as the Czech Republic’s Supreme Court. As a result, it might be as late as 2008 before the collection ends up on Canadian soil, if ever.”

How Long Before They’re Paying Us To Rent Movies?

Locked in a price war with WalMart, Blockbuster Video has announced that it will slash the cost of a monthly subscription to its mail-order movie rental service by $2.50, and will increase its film inventory for the service. The new Blockbuster price undercuts WalMart by 55 cents. Meanwhile, the original online/mail order movie service, NetFlix, which had previously cut its monthly price by $4 to compete with Blockbuster, says the latest cut will drive customers away from Blockbuster’s own brick-and-mortar stores.

Texas-Sizing Your Museum

“The Dallas Museum of Art has suffered growing pains. Back-to-back expansions of the downtown building, the last ending in 1993, left more space than art to fill it. Recently, it’s had the opposite problem. The contemporary collection has snowballed since director John R. ‘Jack’ Lane’s arrival in 1999, but the Contemporary Art Galleries weren’t designed for the kind of big works being done today, many of which include films or videos with noisy soundtracks.” But now, with a major renovation just completed, DMA may finally have a space that fits its collection.