by Indy Datta

I don’t have any opinion on the substantive (let’s be polite)  issue, as I haven’t seen The Artist, and probably wouldn’t have recognised the love theme from Vertigo anyway (what? It’s hardly the theme from Jaws), but it’s good that Kim Novak has learned the most important rule of making public statements in the early 21st century – nothing must ever be rhetorically compared to rape, under any circumstances.

Novak has been unrepentant in the face of predictable internet opprobrium, and in an interview on BBC Radio 4 (about 50 minutes in to the programme), chose to extend her list of things The Artist is like to plastic surgery and shepherd’s pie. Which makes me think she’s folowing some kind of Viz top tip (“Made an embarrassing public blunder by employing disproportionate rhetoric? Why not disguise it as part of a series of increasingly ludicrous statements? Everyone will soon forget the initial faux pas“).

Inspired by the nontroversy, Indiewire’s Press Play blog is running a competition (and you still have time to enter!) for the best mashup of the Vertigo music with an existing film. I don’t see how anyone can top this:

The Artist opens wider this weekend, so if you haven’t seen it, now’s your chance, but if you don’t want to run the risk of seeing a film that makes you think of shepherd’s pie*, the big new UK release this weekend is Shame, Steve “Hunger” McQueen’s second feature, and his second feature starring man of the moment Michael Fassbender, reviewed on these pages yesterday. But maybe you won’t like it if you’re a woman, and thus immune to the charms of a man who can “hump strangers like a demented rock drill”. Anyway, watch the trailer, it looks fantastic**:

America this weekend finally gets to Talk About Kevin, but the MostlyFilm stateside recommendation of the week*** surely must be Albatross, wniner of the EIFF MostlyFilm Jessica Brown Findlay award for best newcomer.

In other stuff:

– In the wake of the US box office triumph of The Devil Inside, a short history of found footage horror flicks.

– so freaking hot off the presses that I haven’t even watched it yet, but I just saw on Twitter that it had gone up, the trailer for the new Wes Anderson film, Moonrise Kingdom.

In fact, I’m going to stop now, so I can watch that trailer.

*Yeah, I think that’s definitely safer than the joke I was originally going to go with…

**Ha ha! I totally fooled you! We’ll be reviewing Haywire next week.

***Not an actual recommendation.