Notable film links--October 9, 2008

---The best of forty years of interviews in Time Out: "I’ve always felt violence was part of the aesthetic equipment of film. We’re dealing with motion pictures, with movement, chases, fights. Those things lend themselves to cinema very well. To take a moral position on them is ludicrous." (Brian De Palma, 1984)

---Universal's new DVD edition of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil sounds good according to Doug Cummings of Film Journey. Also, in Parallax View, Sean Axmaker found an illuminating 1998 interview with Walter Murch, who helped re-edit the film.

---Vanity Fair profiles Amy Adams: "Not long before Junebug opened—and before the Oscar nomination that would pull her out of the pack—Adams went on a cattle-call audition for a role that involved singing and dancing as well as acting. It seemed no different from all the cattle calls she’d been on before. Three hundred actors auditioned for the role. Adams was just another virtual unknown in the crowd: No. 275.

With sheer talent, she won the role.

The movie was Enchanted."

---Ibetolis of Film for the Soul continues to celebrate the best of British cinema with his discussion of Withnail and I (1987): "Amongst the vast copious amounts of alcohol, the most quotable lines of dialogue this side of The Big Lebowski and general hilarity, Withnail and I is full of pathos, remorse and longing."

---Ann Thompson of Variety decries Hollywood's tendency to not hire back experienced directors.

---Jason Bellamy of the distinguished Cooler seeks contributions to his Politics and Movies Blog-a-thon.

---How can you tell a film is a classic? When Holden Caulfield of The Catcher in the Rye has a little sister whose favorite film is The 39 Steps, directed by the young Alfred Hitchcock. Check out T. S.'s take on the movie in Screen Savour.

---Film bloggers still search for the right voice for critiquing today's comic action flick. Writing for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw has found the answer--sound like the Incredible Hulk: "`Hulk. Smash!' Yes. Hulk. Smash. Yes. Smash. Big Hulk smash. Smash cars. Buildings. Army tanks. Hulk not just smash. Hulk also go rarrr! Then smash again. Smash important, obviously."

---Lastly, I'm a fan of Johnny Rotten's, I mean Lydon's work. As much as anyone, he invented punk rock, so somehow it makes a kind of sense that now he's selling butter.