A few notes and links and things.

A trio of Roger Ebert links: On the best animated films of 2010, his thoughts on Shoah now that it has been re-released and interviewing John Waters.

Jim Emerson's Head Exploding Awards- Good and bad thinsg to make your head explode.

Movie Posters from an alternate reality. This is cool stuff like John Barrymore as Batman with Lon Chaney as the Joker.

Filming the MGM lion.

IFC takes a look ahead at this years films here.

The Hulk in Ang Lee's film was originally going to be a robot. This is a piece on what might have been.

The weather kept me from attending this Wednesday’s screenings at the NY Jewish Film Festival. The snow was clear, the streets were fine, the trains on my line were running a schedule to be determined… For now there are films on the up coming schedule that I maybe able to fit in so we’ll see what happens.

I also did not attend the first screening of Korean films at the Tribeca Cinema, however my friend Dave was there and he said he had a good time. He’ll be filing a full report when he gets a minute.

Now a flashback to one of the films I missed at last years NYAFF/Japan Cuts I finally caught up with the film Zero Focus which was to be the last film in my long run of films. I bailed on the film because it was going to be too much effort for one movie. Catching the film on import DVD I’m kind of glad I didn’t go to see it in the theater since I wouldn’t have really been ready for it the way I should. The film, a remake of a film from the early 1960’s, concerns a barely married young woman who’s husband goes missing after going away on a business trip right after returning from their honeymoon. Needing to know what might have happened she begins to investigate and soon begins to uncover some things that probably should have stayed buried. It’s a film that is very much in the upheavals happening in Japan in the late 1950’s as the old was giving away to the new. Its also very much a film that looks and feels like a Hitchcock film from the period. I don’t think it’s a great film, it’s a little too long at 135 minutes, but it’s a good one. I’m going to do a long review when I get a chance to see it again, but for now this short one will have to suffice.

Also in the offing will be the Always films from Japan. these played two or three years at the NYAFF and got good word of mouth.They have been damn near impossible for me to find, at least in English. I finally found them and I've seen the first film. Its a heart warming film about the people on one particular street in Tokyo in the late 1950's. It needs a full review- and I want to see the second before I write up the first, but basically if you want to see a movie that will make you smile see this film.