Robert Altman, one of the most adventurous and influential American directors of the late 20th century, a filmmaker whose iconoclastic career spanned more than half a century but whose stamp was felt most forcefully in one decade, the 1970s, died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 81.

So "Prairie Home" will be his last.

“The people who get into this business are fast-buck operators, carnival people, always have been,” Mr. Altman said in a 1993 interview. “They don’t try to make good movies now; they’re trying to make successful movies. The marketing people run it now. You don’t really see too many smart people running the studios, running the video companies. They’re all making big money, but they’re not looking for, they don’t have a vested interest in, the shelf life of a movie. There’s no overview. No one says, ‘Forty years from now, who’s going to want to see this?’ No visionaries.”

Robert Altman, Iconoclastic Director, Dies at 81

Highly anticipated!

The consecration of a fleeting, fugitive moment is one of Mr. Wong’s specialties. Perhaps more than any filmmaker since Alain Resnais, his great subject is time — or more specifically lost time. His rhapsodic movies, haunted by voice-over ruminations and swathed in lush regret, seem to transpire in the realm of memory. People and places are mourned even as they are captured on camera.

I hope Wong's collaboration with Darius Khondji is as fruitful as that with Christopher Doyle. But maybe that will have to wait; Khondji explains about the tight shooting schedule for "My Blueberry Nights":

“It’s not as perfect as his last two movies. There’s no time for perfection.”

Those last two were perfect, cinematographically, at least. Still, it looks like there will be some great shots of the American West.

The Master of Time: Wong Kar-wai in America

When was the last time you walked out of the theater physically worn out from both laughing and being continually surprised by the lengths the filmmakers went to to shock you?

This is one of those films.

Well, that would have to be The Aristocrats, but Borat is better. Whereas The Aristocrats was all talk -- and anyone who's heard it will be glad it was only talk -- Cohen is able to physically inhabit his character, and to embed him in the all-too-real world, replete with its gullible, bigoted people. Whereas The Aristocrats draws its power from an intense focus on one thing -- the eponymous joke, inspected from every possible angle -- Borat is about so many things, and often all of them at once. It frequently overflows with more comedy (slapstick, over the top racial and sexual humor, the deepest, darkest satire you've seen) than you can process, and it is complexly layered in ways that should reward repeat viewing. (You will probably need a few iterations anyway, just to pick up all of the dialogue amidst the belly laughing of your neighbors.)

As an example, most Americans, on their first viewing, will probably interpret the "sack" scene as a simple gag. It is not.

Borat | Premiere Magazine

Even John Kerry likes it!

Sometime in early 2005, a mustachioed Kazakh journalist known as Borat Sagdiyev slipped into America with the intention of making a documentary for the alleged good of his Central Asian nation. Many months later, the funny bruised fruits of his labor, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” are poised to hit the collective American conscience with a juicy splat. The Minutemen, those self-anointed guardians of American sovereignty, were watching the wrong border.

Among movies currently in theaters, "Borat" is tied for the highest rating (8.5) on cin-o-matic. Here are the top reviews:

E!

Cohen has updated the art of racial satire for a new, troubled world, and Borat is its king.

Rolling Stone

...a mind-blowing comedy classic in the making...

Entertainment Weekly

...scandalously rude and funny...

Chicago Tribune

...a provocative, riotous and multidirectionally offensive comedy...

New York Post

Propelled by Sacha Baron Cohen's genius performance, this proudly offensive mock documentary is a blast of fresh, rude air.

New York Times

The brilliance of Borat is that its comedy is as pitiless as its social satire, and as brainy.

LA Weekly

Wherever Borat goes, Cohen implodes notions of political correctness and leaves you both hurting from laughter and marveling at the fact that he managed to get the movie in the can without getting himself lynched.

Let Borat Be Your Voter Guide!

ROME, Oct. 13 — Gillo Pontecorvo, the Italian filmmaker who explored terrorism and torture in colonial Algeria in the powerful and influential 1965 classic, “The Battle of Algiers,” died here on Thursday. He was 86.

Gillo Pontecorvo, 86, Director of ‘Battle of Algiers,’ Dies

I posted this because of the recent CNN article recommended by others on MemeStreams.

Like Chris Rock’s character in the similar (and similarly disappointing) “Head of State,” Tom is meant to be honest and fearless, offering a welcome antidote to the usual timid, hypocritical candidate-speak. He serves up some pretty shocking stuff, boldly coming out in favor of environmental protection and improved education, while pointing out that politics is dominated by “special interests,” that Americans are sick of bitter partisanship, and that you can’t tell the two major parties apart anyway.

Unlike the television satirists whose cachet he tries to bogart, Tom is careful never to address the actual issues that provide the content and context of contemporary political argument.

Instead the movie is all about process: about the machinery of celebrity and also about voting machines.

Ms. Linney, bless her, insists on acting, which she is very good at but which is pretty much irrelevant here.

'Man of the Year': 'a spoonful of cold mashed potatoes'

abaddon wrote:

So this movie was great, its easily one of the best I've seen in a few years...its by the same guy who made Memento and I think it actually has a stronger story...check it out...

I second the recommendation; this is a film worth seeing. I can't go so far as to say it's among the top five (or ten) of the best in recent years -- but then again I see a lot of films.

Following

This list is drawn from the second edition of "The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made" (St. Martin's Griffin, $24.95), edited by Peter M. Nichols and published in 2004. For additional information about the list, read Peter M. Nichols's preface, or A. O. Scott's introduction.

How many have you seen?

The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made

What is Tube Poker?

Ever sat on an underground train and felt you were being watched? You might have been an unsuspecting participant in a game of Tube Poker, the gambling phenomenon that's sweeping the globe.

This is Poker with a difference - cards are replaced by people. Whether male or female, young or old, everyone is worth a certain value. The game can be played by two opposing players on any train with five seats in a row.

Originating in Japan in the late 80's as "Subway Poker" and tightly controlled by crime syndicates, the game has subsequently spread to many major cities around the world.

Tube Poker is an entirely original short film about a dangerous, addictive game that has left several dead and hundreds more injured. Involving interviews, foreign news reports and undercover police footage, this groundbreaking film ultimately reveals the final and shocking truth about Tube Poker.

Tube Poker - A short film by Simon Levene

Anthony Lane on Factotum.

The film will not cheer you up, but there is no denying the expertise with which it invites you to join the club of the cheerless. As Chinaski informs us, on a betting spree, “The racetrack crowd is the world brought down to size. Life grinding against death, and losing. Nobody wins, finally. We are only seeking a reprieve, a moment out of the glare.”

Yay! It's like traveling!

“Factotum” | The New Yorker