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January 2, 2005

Random Film Notes

Found a couple of cool film notes while doing some procrastination this afternoon. First, instead of releasing a Tarnation soundtrack on CD, Tin Drum Recording has released Max Avery Lichtenstein's original music online as MP3s (via eugonline).

Also interesting: the 60 Minutes profile of Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai (link via indieWire insider). The interview coincides with the release of Rai's Hollywood debut, Bride and Prejudice, which will be hitting art house theaters soon. The 60 Minutes report, summarized here, was a pretty decent introduction to Bollywood, noting in particular that India's film studios produce more films every year than Hollywood, but the report also "sold" Bollywood primarily in terms of Rai's beauty and Bollywood's "squeaky-clean" storylines (kissing cannot be shown in Bollywood films). The interview with Rai featured a useful dicussion of the politics of Rai crossing over into American cinema, but that's short-changed in the summary.

Update: Apparently, there's a Time Asia profile of Rai, too.

Update 2: Found another morning coffee read that looks very cool. The Movie Blog identifies several blogs by independent film producers seeking exposure for their work: Everything is in Between and Selling "No Place" an Indie Feature Film.

Posted by chuck at January 2, 2005 10:05 PM

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Comments

I disagree.

Posted by: Gold Star for Robot Boy at January 3, 2005 3:00 AM

There's a slightly more jaded view of the 'Aish' appearance on 60 minutes yesterday at Sepia Mutiny. One of the commenters is pretty aggressive in debunking it:

"What you've just witnessed in this CBS broadcast was merely a puppet of commercialization brought to you in the form of what appears to be a woman ridden with publicity and hype to fulfill her obvious purpose on this earth - a walking poster girl to define India's "tradition" to the google-eyed and ooglefied men and women that thoguht this interview was something worth waiting for. She's as good a household name as Apu Nahasapeemapetilan or Gandhi; so if you're expecting a surge of talent to come from this washed up actress in Hollywood, it's only as her Hollywood agents aim to present her as..."

Posted by: Amardeep at January 3, 2005 6:20 PM

Ouch. I was starting with the assumption that the CBS broadcast was clearly motivated by commercializing "Aish," given that Bride and Prejudice is coming to theaters soon. And, yes, I was troubled by the framing device asking if she is "the most beautiful woman" on the planet (or whatever). Now I'm not sure why I held back from being more critical of the report in the first place. Thanks for passing along the link, Amardeep, and sorry we missed each other at MLA.

Posted by: Chuck [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 3, 2005 6:34 PM

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