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When Fate Intrudes, Death on Screen as Well as Off. Cate Blanchett gives the most compelling screen performance of her career as a principled terrorist whose desperate act of violence tragically backfires. By Stephen Holden. [New York Times: Movies]

Personal Views of Broken Homes. A clear-eyed documentary about the painful, unbridgeable divide between three gay and lesbian adults and their religious parents. By Lawrence Van Gelder.

Arthur Dong's 'Family Fundamentals' is a clear-eyed, narrowly focused documentary about the painful, unbridgeable divide between three gay and lesbian adults and their religious parents, whether biological or surrogate.

This film, which opens today in Manhattan, continues Mr. Dong's exploration of homosexuality, begun with 'Coming Out Under Fire,' about World War II military policies, and 'Licensed to Kill,' about convicted murderers of gay men. In the latter, he says at the outset of 'Family Fundamentals,' the Bible often came up as a point of reference, and his new film tells three stories that share a conservative Christian foundation that condemns homosexuality.

[New York Times: Movies]

For Strangers in the Night, Gridlock Is an Opportunity. Claire Denis's surreal erotic fantasy has the irresistible earmarks of the kind of high-toned bodice-ripper at which the French excel, but its cinematic realization is oddly gawky and tepid. By Stephen Holden. [New York Times: Movies]

Seeking a Smoking Gun in U.S. Violence. Michael Moore's disturbing, infuriating and often very funny documentary examines the culture of violence in America. By A. O. Scott. [New York Times: Movies]

No Madonna Is an Island. Madonna stars in a soggy and superfluous English-language remake of Lina Wertmüller's tart, schematic 1974 comedy about class struggle and sexual combat on a deserted Mediterranean island. By A. O. Scott. [New York Times: Movies]

A Mullinski as Mastermind of a Heist That's a Bellini. A chipper little picture about a motley crew of lovable criminals involved in a complicated, lucrative heist. The movie, which features a gang of first-rate actors mugging, ranting, and generally looking silly, was written and directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, two brothers from Cleveland. By A. O. Scott. [New York Times: Movies]

Pinocchio Infatuates Italians (and That's No Lie). With the imminent release of a new, live-action movie of "Pinocchio" by the Italian superstar Roberto Benigni, Italians are in a kind of Pinocchio swoon. By Frank Bruni. [New York Times: International]

Slowly, a Princess Turns Into an Urchin. Michelle Pfeiffer is an indelibly acute screen presence in this rich, turbulent screen adaptation of Janet Fitch's best-selling novel. By Stephen Holden. [New York Times: Movies]

Delicate Moral Questions Under the Nazis in France. Heavy with incident and running nearly three hours, Bertrand Tavernier's new film follows the attempts of the French film industry to stay alive during the Nazi occupation. By Elvis Mitchell. [New York Times: Movies]

• Walt Disney's Credit Rating Downgraded [ Los Angeles Times ]
• Hollywood pins the donkey [ Washington Times ]
• Radio: FCC to hear 'EVD v. Disney [ New York Daily News ]
• Women make passes at me every day. It comes with the job, being 40ft high on the movie screen. Why do you thin [ This is London ]
• Movie studios put fake fan messages on Web [ Chicago Tribune ]
• MGM tests niche licensing effort [ Miami Herald ]
• Hollywood Slams Electronic Frontier Foundation [ Electronic Frontier Foundations ]

FCC Rejects Echostar, Hughes Merger: The Federal Communications Commission rejected on Thursday a proposed merger between Echostar Communications Corp. and Hughes Electronics Corp., scuttling an $18.5 billion deal that would have created the nation's largest pay-TV service. [Chris Van Buskirk's ITV Weblog]

Too Curious to Turn Down a Job Offer From Hitler. The access the directors of this documentary gained to Adolf Hitler's secretary is remarkable, and it compensates for a lack of filmmaking flair. By Elvis Mitchell.

It probably makes sense for filmmakers not to prod an 81-year-old woman too hard, and the gentleness extended to the subject of "Blind Spot" seems to grow out of such courtesy. That 81-year-old woman, though, is Traudl Junge, and the full title of the documentary, which plays today at the New York Film Festival, is "Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary." She served as secretary to Adolf Hitler from 1942 through the end of the war. The access the directors gained to Ms. Junge is remarkable, and it compensates for a lack of filmmaking flair; it's concrete, cold and hard, with Ms. Junge speaking about being a few feet away from arguably the worst tyrant of the 20th century.

[New York Times: Arts]

'Bloody Sunday' in Londonderry. Paul Greengrass's magnetic and impassioned melodrama re-creates the 1972 outbreak of violence during a pro-I.R.A. civil-rights march in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. By Elvis Mitchell. [New York Times: Movies]

Dr. Bott strikes EyeTV distribution deal [MacCentral]

Sleepless and Wordless, He Leaves 'Em Speechless. In this nonstop short day's journey into nightmare, James Thiérrée turns a sleepless night into a masterly display of usually wordless comedy and circus arts.

With Charlie Chaplin as his grandfather and Eugene O'Neill as his great-grandfather, it seems only natural that James Thièrrèe should be pulled hither and yon by the forces of light and darkness.

Happily for audiences fortunate enough to make their way to the New Victory Theater before Sunday, the comic side of Mr. Thiérrée's pedigree prevails, even if a bit of Freud, Kafka, Dada and MoMA pop up now and again. The result is "The Junebug Symphony," a delightful and fanciful 80-minute intermissionless excursion into physical theater intended for audiences 8 and older.

By Lawrence Van Gelder. [New York Times: Arts]

Tragedy Haunts Film on Afghan Diaspora. Sometimes it seems to Jawed Wassel's Afghan-American friends in New York that his ghost hovers over his unfinished film, "FireDancer." By Dinitia Smith. [New York Times: Movies]

It May Sound Like Faust, but the Body Is the Lure. By the end, after an hour and a half of wondering just what this strenuously unconventional movie is supposed to be, you discover that the answer is as conventional as can be. By A. O. Scott. [New York Times: Movies]

Supreme Court Hears Copyright Challenge

No member of the Supreme Court had a good word to say today for the 1998 law that added 20 years to all existing copyrights. But that did not make the job any easier for Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford Law School, who faced an uphill battle to persuade the justices that the extension, which Congress adopted at the behest of the Walt Disney Company and other powerful corporate copyright holders, was not only bad policy but unconstitutional.

Hadn't Congress granted copyright extensions numerous times since the country's earliest years, the Justices wanted to know. Didn't this challenge to the latest extension necessarily call into question the validity of the major rewriting of federal copyright law in 1976? Wouldn't the result of accepting Professor Lessig's theory mean "chaos" in the world of intellectual property, Justice Stephen G. Breyer asked.

That was possible, Professor Lessig conceded

[New York Times: Technology]

I have a new column up in the Online Journalism Review. It's about personal storytelling, and it profiles the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley. [JD's New Media Musings]

According to a recent report, consumers believe not enough online content takes advantage of speedy Internet access to make the monthly fee worthwhile. As a longtime dial-up user who often waits for bandwidth-heavy pages to load, I beg to differ. [osOpinion via The All Electric Media Weblog]

SEC Probing AOL-Oxygen Deal... [The All Electric Media Weblog]

Editors of the Lawmeme blog who attended the Supreme Court Eldred hearing this morning have already blogged their first impressions of the arguments.

Justice Breyer was particularly hard on the government's position. He brought in a number of economic arguments. Basically, he made the point that the expected value of the extended copyright was so small as to be virtually zero. He also asked whether the governmen could re-copyright Ben Johnson. The government did not say "no." Justice Stevens appeared skeptical of the government's arguments. The government made much of the inequities of not providing retroactive and prospective extension together. Scalia questioned whether the inequities argument could be turned around. J. Breyer, in essence, answered "yes" by claiming that existing copyright owners get all the benefit and, inequitably, prospective copyright owners get very little benefit. . . .

I'm told that people started lining up for tickets to the Eldred hearing yesterday at suppertime; only 60 non-ticketed members of the public were admitted. Maybe they should move the Supreme Court to a football stadium. [Donna Via Boing Boing Blog]

Fencing Off the Public Domain. It's the place where great ideas go to rest until somebody figures out a new way to use them. But strict copyright laws are making it harder for works to enter the public domain. By Brad King. [Wired News] [The All Electric Media Weblog]

Congressman James Sensenbrenner was interviewed for NPR's story on the Eldred case, which is being argued in the US Supreme Court today. He explained one reason for Congress' extensive support for the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension law was a desire to make the term of United States copyright the same as European terms.

Sorry, but I'm not buying that. . . . even if the Bono act was passed to make the US laws "similar to European laws" it misses the constitutional point. Our Constitution says Congress can pass laws related to copyrights and patents to "promote the useful arts and sciences" but only for "limited terms." European countries, I gather, are not similarly constrained. …

[Ernie the Attorney]

Regulators Poised to Block EchoStar's Purchase of Hughes [DirectTV]: FCC Chairman Michael Powell is among those opposing the deal, these people said. [Chris Van Buskirk's ITV Weblog]

One Visa Problem Costs a Festival Two Filmmakers. The Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami was unable to get a United States visa in time to attend the New York Film Festival, prompting fellow director Aki Kaurismaki to boycott the festival in protest. By Celestine Bohlen. [New York Times: Movies]

On Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a suit seeking to overturn the 1998 law that extended the copyright term from 75 to 95 years. Plaintiffs argue it's a First Amendment issue. By Michael Grebb.

Plaintiffs have challenged the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 (CTEA), which extended current and future copyrights by 20 years. The law passed as a result of heavy influence from Hollywood studios such as the Walt Disney Company, whose earliest copyrights on film depictions of characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck were about to expire under the old limit of 75 years.

[Wired News] [The All Electric Media Weblog]

An Affectionate Tribute to an Artist's Artist. John Walter's documentary provides an intriguing and entertaining introduction to the artist Ray Johnson, focusing on his varied art and the mystery surrounding his death. By Lawrence Van Gelder.

They remembered the time he dropped footlong hot dogs from a helicopter over Ward's Island and the time an admirer sought to buy one of his collages. The prospective buyer said he had $1,000 to spend. Johnson asked $2,000. The prospective buyer offered $1,500. He got the collage. But Johnson had cut away a quarter of it.

[New York Times: Movies]

Protesting the Big Brother Lens, Little Brother Turns an Eye Blind. A national debate over the ethics of surveillance continues to grow as video cameras proliferate. By John Markoff. [New York Times: Arts]

Prime Time Gets Real With a Plump Heroine. The sudden embrace of the Rubenesque seems to span all across popular culture, including a new ABC sitcom, "Less Than Perfect." By Alessandra Stanley. [New York Times: Arts]

In a Film Festival's Winners, a Focus on Artists at Work. Montreal's Le Festival International du Film sur l'Art will be offering film buffs a sort of on-screen tour of artist's studios and galleries around the world. By Joanne Latimer. [New York Times: Movies]

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1962: When the Silver Screen Never Looked So Golden. Many film buffs have anointed 1939 as the apex of cinema history. The movies of 1939, however, simply didn't have the audacity or range or depth of the movies made in 1962. By Stephen Farber. [New York Times: Movies]

Herzog Goes Hollywood? Yes, but Actually No. Though he lives in Los Angeles, Werner Herzog, a director of nightmarish visions, returns to Europe in "Invincible." By Lisa Zeidner. [New York Times: Movies]