Oddments

• In the past my desire to like Charlotte Gainsbourg's music outstripped the interest I could actually muster for her tunes. But "Terrible Angels" is a bit of a Goldfrappe-y banger, and the video features an army of dancing doppelgangers. [via]
• Imagine the basic dynamics of Baby Mama, but change the infant to a much-needed kidney and you have Jan Krawitz's new doc: “It’s not about organ donation—of course it is, and people will learn a lot about it—but it’s also about where we all reside on this continuum of altruism. And that’s what attracted me to the film. ‘How come she’s doing this and I’m not? How come she is on such an extreme end of the continuum?’ I want people to walk away a little uncomfortable: ‘She’s doing it and I’m not. What am I doing in my life to leave the world a better place, to make the world a better place?’” 

• Two from Vulture: a page from The Godfather annotated by Francis Ford Coppola [above] and the winners of the polite Godfather contest, "in which we (courteously) asked you to take a famous quote from any of the three Godfather movies and Miss Manners–ize them." Still laughing at runner-up "Look, I brought you part of a pony!"
• A "Congratulations, how wonderful!" goes out to the cinetrix's grad school classmate Jeb Brody, named president of production at Focus Features.
• Meanwhile, in the L.A. Times, another school chum, critic Mark Olsen, takes exception with elevating the middlebrow: "[T]he problem lies with opting for the obvious and becoming complicit with the incurious. Aiming for the middle is too often an excuse to aim too low. [Hollywood Reporter critic Stephen] Farber extends his argument to claim that writers who champion films such as The Future,  Bellflower or Meek's Cutoff are, in his words, 'desperate to prove that they're hip.' ...Since one origin of the word 'hip' is a West African term meaning 'to open one's eyes,' I accept the charge. But if I am desperate for anything, it is to point broad-minded moviegoers toward good work in peril of going unfairly underseen."
• While away some time exploring the Harvard Science Center Film Collection, won't you? "This 16mm film collection, donated by the Harvard Science Center Media Services Department in 2010, features educational science films from 1933 to 1998 focusing on a variety of scientific subject matter including physics, chemistry, biology and astronomy. The intended audiences for most of these films were high school students, though some were produced for military training or general audiences. A finding aid for the Harvard Science Center Film Collection can be found here."
• Let me draw your attention to two highlights. For those interested in the institutional history of film studies/faddish moments in education: Reading films. William G. Perry, Jr., Charles P. Whitlock, Harvard University, 1948. A short introduction to an instructional film for the purposes of speed reading. This is likely the first part to a series, Harvard University Reading Course, of which this is the only portion included in this collection.1 can of 1 (65 feet): silent, b&w; 16mm triacetate projection print. HFA item #24679. And for Ricky Leacock completists: Frames of reference. Stephen White, Richard Leacock, directors, Kevin Smith, producer, Educational Services, Incorporated, 1960. Educational science film featuring professors Patterson Hume and Donald Ivey. The film demonstrates through a variety of experiments the distinction between an inertial and non-inertial frame of reference, and the appearance of fictional forces in a non-inertial frame. Opens on a scene in which what at first appears to be down is gravitationally up, and a sequence in which it is difficult to identify whether the foreground or background is in motion. Using slow-motion photography the path traveled by a ball dropped from a stationary and constant velocity cart is studied from both fixed. 1 can of 1 (985 feet): mono, b&w; 16mm triacetate projection print. HFA item #24633
• Oh, George. Not again. "There are few guarantees in life, but here's one of them: If a new home-video format becomes popular enough, George Lucas will tweak the Star Wars movies and sell them all again once more. And so it is that all six films are headed for Blu-ray next month, and while the new collection boasts deleted scenes, never-before-seen production snippets, and minor fixes, Episode I: The Phantom Menace has perhaps the most significant change: The puppet Yoda that was originally in the film has been replaced by a CG version, to better reflect the Yoda of Episode II and III."
• This clip from new release Circumstance hints at the bombast and excess that bugged the ever-living shit out of me when I caught it at a festival this spring. It is very pretty. I suppose I was also disheartened at how little has changed in Iran since the mid-80s adolescence of Marjane Satrapi.
• Let's close with kudos to FOC Sean O' Sullivan, whose book on Mike Leigh got this recent shoutout from Jonathan Rosenbaum: "Shotcuts to Happiness [SECRETS AND LIES] From the Chicago Reader (October 25, 1996). In a recent and rather interesting book about Mike Leigh published by the University of Illinois Press, Sean O’Sullivan takes exception to this review (among others), with intriguing results. — J.R."