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POPS"The Dark Knight" Earns An Unprecedented $18,489,000 BURBANK, Calif., Jul 18, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Just past the stroke of midnight, Warner Bros. Pictures' "The Dark Knight" broke the record for a 12:01 a.m. film opening, earning an unprecedented $18,489,000 at the box office. Warner Bros. Pictures presents, in association with Legendary Pictures, a Syncopy Production, a Christopher Nolan film, "The Dark Knight," starring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Morgan Freeman. Nolan directed the film from a screenplay written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan.
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POPSLawyers accuse judge of lying, bungling Roman Polanski case The famous film director Roman Polanski fled the US in 1977 because he was charged for statutory rape. Twenty years later, Polanski's lawyer and prosecutors made a deal that would have allowed Polanski to return to the US. Polanski refused the deal because the judge wanted the proceedings televised. Fast forward to now, when HBO releases its Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired documentary which contains this little tidbit. The judge calls the story completely fabricated. Both the defense and prosecuting attorney go on the record calling the judge a liar.
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POPSLibby, Cheney, Rove - 'Traitors.' Et tu Thompson? Plame Wilson portrayed herself to the outside world as an employee of Brewster Jennings & Associates. That was a dummy corporation set up for the purposes of tradecraft by the CIA. Cheney and his henchmen destroyed the value of that facade. They also put in danger the lives of everyone known to have closely associated with Plame Wilson and her "company"-- i.e. her assets and contacts in Africa and elsewhere helping her with counter-proliferation. Cheney had Libby and his other gang members potentially "burn" all those agents.
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POPSThe Private Life of a Cat This is a 22-minute 1947 film about a "family" of cats. It is a very cute and sweet film. The video should load by clicking on the picture (either in this clip or at the source material). By the way, I'm not clipping the video itself because videos are now segregated from clips and I think not many people are going over to the video side of things.
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POPSForgotten Silver (1995) - Peter Jackson's film forgery David Bordwell talks about Peter Jackson's film Forgotten Silver, which is kind of like Spinal Tap for silent films. The film makes fun of nationalistic film history (we did it before the others) and the biographical convention that treats the artist as a rebellious, suffering soul.
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POPSWhite Dog (1982) - allegorical film about racism
White Dog was directed by Sam Fuller but the studio never released it in the US. Bootleg copies are available. The film is about an aspiring actress (Kristy McNichol) in LA who adopts a white German Shepherd and discovers that the dog was trained to attack and kill black people. A black animal trainer (Paul Winfield) takes on the challenge of deprogramming the dog. The film is surprisingly effective, for a low-budget Sam Fuller film--he actually got some decent performances from his actors this time. Maybe its because I love dogs, but I got caught up in McNichol and Winfield's struggle to save this dog's soul from racism (and from being put to death). It is hard for me to see any profound messages in the film's narrative though. Racism is seen as a problem of psychotic, extremist whites but that is a very narrow conception of racism. Still, I'd recommend it, for no other reason than it is a well-made film with an interesting story and good acting.
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POPSThe Betrayal of Captain America Conservative film critic Michael Medved accuses the Captain America comic book of promoting "a destructive cynicism and mistrust of the United States Government".
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POPSBorat - The story of Vanilla Face The hotel manager ("Vanilla Face") who was accosted by Borat was friends with this blogger, who shares his story. I have to confess being disturbed by the amount of deception the film crew used to persuade the manager to participate in the film, especially since the guy was dealing with the loss of his father. EDIT: Via digg
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POPSWeinstein company sells exclusive rental rights to Blockbuster The Weinstein Company is selling exclusive rental rights for its films to Blockbuster. The NYT article says this means that Netflix will not be able to offer them; and if I read this correctly neither will local, independent video rental stores. I love how Blockbuster is trying to protect its market share by limiting consumer choice. Yet another victory for the free-market! Congratulations, Milton Friedman! (and, btw, RIP) Via Ezra Klein
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POPSRomanian extras sue Borat Regardless of whether or not the Romanian town has a legal leg to stand on, the filmmakers of a movie that has grossed millions don't come off looking too good when they defend themselves by saying they donated $5,000 to the town. Some news reports are saying that ironically the town is predominantly Gypsy (ironic because Borat expressed anti-Gypsy sentiments), but I wonder if that is just confusion between Romania and the Roma (Gypsy) people.
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POPSWhat's Real in Borat? Highlights: * The elderly kosher bed-and-breakfast owners liked Cohen, liked the film. * The woman who booked Borat on the Mississippi news station blames Cohen for her onset of depression and for her losing her job there. Via Jim Emerson's scanners blog. By the way, Jim Emerson (who has been filling in for Roger Ebert) is a very good film critic and writer in his own right and I encourage film lovers to check his blog out.
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