Roman Polanski's latest effort is an adaptation of French dramatic auteur—and, for a short while, Nicolas Sarkozy confidante--Yasmine Reza's play “God of Carnage.” After being favorably received onstage, both Broadway and the West End mounted productions to mostly positive acclaim. It seems natural, then, that a film version—a ninety-minute set piece in which the characters barely leave the room

In this week's Chicago Tribune is an article by film critic Michael Phillips about the demise of the small-town movie theatre. Converting the projectors to digital costs money and mom-and-pop theatre owners just don't have the fund since they've often been running on fumes. The problem is a lack of incentive, of course. The cost of creating a 35 mm print is about 12 times higher for the studios

This week the Press Play blog's Serena Bramble and Simon Abrams are presenting the first chapter in a video-essay series on Roman Polanski's movies, called, unsurprisingly, Life’s work: the films of Roman Polanski, curated by Indiewire and Salon contributor Matt Zoller Seitz. Any doubt you may have on the producers' intentions will vanish as soon as you learn the first chapter’s title: Roman Polanski is God

In the epic saga of Netflix v. pay TV there is some light at the end of the tunnel for the familiar red envelope company. As first reported on Gizmodo, Dreamworks Animation studios have granted Netflix the rights to stream their catalog. That’s really good news for Netflix--they beat out HBO in competing for fresh studio content--as it gives them new credibility and legitimizes them, and it’s good for the consumers, as there will now be a little bit more movies to choose from—if Shrek and Madagascar is your thing. What hasn’t been made public yet is how quickly movies would be available for streaming. No word about this on the Netflix blog as of the writing of this article.

Whoever knocks Abercrombie & Fitch is going to have to deal with me so don’t badmouth them, especially not in front of actress Katie Cassidy: she used to model for them--one look at her headshot and you'll understand why. All-American beauty Katie Cassidy has made Screen Comment's PEOPLE TO WATCH section and we’re thrilled to be able to talk about this fine young thesp. Cassidy appeared in the CBS sitcom Listen Up and also did some stage work in 7th Heaven the Musical. The twenty-five year old, who reminded us of Hilary Duff, was born for showbiz. Her dad David Cassidy was a 1970s pop star; Katie herself is a native of Los Angeles, California. And Katie's mother was a fashion model.

I was skimming through the evening's tweets when I came across this one. Couldn't help a couple guffaws--or three. I don't think I've ever seen Paz De La Huerta (The limits of control, Enter the void) not naked on screen. Some actresses just pick and choose roles like that. But I digress. I just read that The Artist, by French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius, took home the Audience Awards at the 59th San Sebastian Festival

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