Ok, catching up on the catching up. Obviously while we were out of town at SXSW a bunch of things happened.
A rare screening of Todd Haynes’ “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story” took place at SXSW on Monday night. Many have seen it on bootleg over the years, as we have, but getting to see a 16mm projection is a very rare treat. The film uses Barbie Dolls to depicts the tragic story of Karen Carpenter of the ’70s easy-listening softies The Carpenters who died from anorexia in 1983. Though it came out in 1987, Haynes lost a 1990 lawsuit for copyright infringement by her irate brother Richard Carpenter and the film was pulled from circulation. If you’ve never seen it, the 43-minute film is still on Google Video. You can also still download the flick for free at Illegal Art. [Kim Voynar]
– There was another “secret” screening on Monday night at the SXSW film festival and that news eventually broke and it turned out to be Richard Linkater’s (an Austinite, go figure) “Me And Orson Welles,” which we saw at TIFF and did not care for much at all so we encouraged people on Twitter to go see something more worthwhile (sorry, Richard you’re nice and all, but…).
British director Julien Temple (“Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten,” the Sex Pistols film, “The Great Rock And Roll Swindle”) is directing a movie based on the 2nd-wave U.K. ska band Madness. They’re famous for their hit “One Step Beyond.” [Undercover via The Daily Swarm]
– Andy Samberg was tapped to host the MTV Movie Awards. We still think they need the entire Judd Apatow crew to take it over, but maybe they’ll take our advice one of these years. [MTV]
In news that should cross all barriers of blogs, no matter what you normally report, electronic/classical maestro Aphex Twin is putting out a new album. [BBC]
