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Five New Albums Worth Your Dime

Chinese Cash for "Curse of the Golden Flower"

Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower" broke box office records in China last weekend, opening to a four day total of RMB 96 million ($12.5 M U.S.) on 826 screens. Previous successful openings are "Hero" opened to RMB 35 million ($4.5 million), "House of Flying Daggers" to RMB 61 million ($7.9 million), "The Promise" to RMB 75 million ($9.7 million) and "The Banquet" to RMB 45 million ($5.8 million). The film, which tells the story of an imperial family's slow decline stars Gong Li and Chow Yun Fat, and is China's submission for Oscar consideration for Best Foreign Film. Sony Pictures Classics will release the film this Thursday, Decembe...

gurus: post-globes

Short Docs Shine at the Inaugural Independent Lens Online Shorts Festival

This month the acclaimed ITVS/PBS showcase "Independent Lens," which bills itself as "the film festival in your living room," launches its first annual Online Shorts Festival, debuting a stellar array of short documentaries on its website and rebranding itself as "a film festival at your fingertips....

Reuters: Herzog in Antarctica: An easy place to make a film

Werner Herzog, who has made movies about grizzly bears in Alaska and a downed fighter pilot in Laos, just finished filming in Antarctica and one thing he wants to make clear: it was easy. Herzog, 64, filmed at Mount Erebus, home of a live volcano, in the Antarctic spring. "It's a perpetuated sort of...

SF360: James T. Hong on Heidegger, Hitler, and his new film

There's no middle ground with San Francisco artist James T. Hong: he's got strong opinions and he's not afraid to share 'em. His work is smart, often darkly witty, provocative, and has--on at least one occasion, after a Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival screening of "Taipei 101: A Travelogue of Symptoms (Sensitive Version)"--nearly incited audience violence. But meet Hong in person, and he's a pretty damn friendly guy, even when discussing topics that might prickle more average company: Hitler; race ("Taipei 101" jabs at Asian girl-white guy couples); and his appreciation for the controversial, be it Mel Gibson's latest public ou...

Old Joylessness

AFP: "Alatriste," "Volver" among Spanish Goya prize nominations

"Alatriste" by Agustin Diaz Yanes, Pedro Almodovar's "Volver" and "El laberinto del fauno" (Pan's Labyrinth) by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro have taken the lion's share of nominations for Goya prizes, the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars. "Alatriste", the story of a 17th century soldier-turne...

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