KINO

While it's hard to dispute muse malade's claims that this whole YouTube phenom will get hijacked by the craftiest sum'bitches, the below screen makes it feel well worth the inevitable headaches and evilness:



That's right, kiddies: technology has evolved to the point where you and I can watch the best movie of 2000 -- Guy Maddin's The Heart of the World -- not by buying the Archangel/Twlight of the Ice Nymphs disc, but by clicking a couple buttons. And in relatively good quality, no less! (Be patient with the loading time; I tried it on a couple computers, and for whatever reason it always took eons.)

This is a very exciting development. Granted, the qualities aren't ideal -- the logo's an unsightly blemish, to say the least, though the clips on the YouTube site are clean -- but the accessibility's hard to beat. Basically, you know those hopelessly obscure shorts you've always wanted to see? Well, now there's a chance some dork not only has a digital copy of it, but has uploaded it to YouTube's seemingly inexhaustible terrain. Already, there are a couple Svankmajers and Angers floating about, and that number can only go up. I know there are many carps to lodge with this new gimmick, many, probably all, of which I share. Right now, however, I'm just gassed enough about watching Michel Gondry's new White Stripes video when I wish to temporarily ignore them. The days of forking over thousands for an nth-generation dub are so almost over.

This week's Weekly junk, by the way, entails a my annual tirade at AMPAS' FL branch by way of a review of the undeserving Oscar-winner Tsotsi, and, as ever, Rep. Again, mad props to whomever booked a celluloid screening of Preminger's hard-to-find Forever Amber. If only anyone actually liked it...