It's November, and unless you're fortunate to live in one of the few American places sane enough to bypass the daylight savings time nonsense, it's now darker an hour earlier. Thus, we'd all have every right to be doggone depressed. But, instead, GreenCine brightly tromps ahead. We're excited to plug some favorite new DVD and VOD titles, film screenings, articles and a lot more. GreenCine: we're better living through cinema.

Author of several books (as well as our primer on film noir), Eddie Muller is also a filmmaker, a programmer and lately a sought-after commentator on a series of DVDs. In short, he is, as Jonathan Marlow points out in the introduction to his extensive interview [Eddie Muller, Cultural Archaeologist], a "consummate showman."

Note to those in the San Francisco Bay Area: Today, November 1, at the Balboa Theater, Muller will be on hand with Tab Hunter to sign copies of their new book, Tab Hunter Confidential at 6 pm. Then, at 7:30 pm, Muller and Hunter will introduce a screening of Polyester (1981). The rarely seen Gunman's Walk (1958) will be screened at the Balboa on November 2, followed by Lust in the Dust (1985).

We hope you've taken a time-out to read through Jeffrey M. Anderson's grand overview of Vampires, from Max Schreck and Bela Lugosi through the Hammer years to the variations and deviations of more recent years. Delight in the most beautiful of monsters, the bloodthirsty, the undead, the vampires.

The GreenCine Daily, our award-winning film blog, is as busy as ever, and celebrating the 50th anniversaries of both Bright Lights Film Journal and the recently sold (but hopefully not sold-out) Village Voice.

Video-on-Demand: Masquerade (2001).

As mentioned last week, GreenCine has added a boatload of new Hentai titles for download. Besides the aforementioned Urotsukidoji I: Legend of the Overfiend and Urotsukidoji II, and quite a few others, we'd like to call out the cult favorite Masquerade, the first and second episodes of which are now available on demand. AnimeOnDVD summarized Masquerade as "a beautiful story that happens to have sex in it." "The animation is just superb," adds Anime News Network. "Clean lines and smooth animation coupled with truly excellent design and layout make this show a pleasure to watch simply on aesthetic levels." Go to our write-up on BlueCine for more details on all the newly added Hentai titles.

Another new addition to GreenCine's VOD collection also strikes our fancy: Nobody Knows Anything! (2003), an appropriate title for a film about Hollywood - which comes from a famous remark by screenwriter William Goldman about the ridiculousness therein. The indie film features The Daily Show's Stephen Colbert as, of course, a delusional TV newsman, along with Margaret Cho, Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller, Kristen Johnston and Mary Kay Place, among many, many others, in what must have been a cathartic experience for all. And the cast really is the reason to see this one, which you can do any time you wish with a few clicks of your mouse button via GreenCine's Video-On-Demand.

GreenCine Staff Pick of the Week: Shattered Glass (2003).

Actor Peter Sarsgaard first made an impact in the shattering Boys Don't Cry, in which he played the creepiest of Brandon Teena's tormentors to mesmerizing effect, and has more recently been praised for his lovely, Oscar-nominated turn as Dr. Kinsey's bisexual assistant, and as a tormented soldier in the just-released Jarhead. But in the sharp Shattered Glass he does remarkable work as well, playing New Republic editor Chuck Lane, who takes over from Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria, quite good in a rare dramatic role), the editor who initially hires eager young writer Stephen Glass. Hayden Christensen, a.k.a. young Annakin Skywalker, is in a far more interesting, if still enervating, role as Glass, the puppy-doggish writer who sacrifices ethics and truth in favor of attention. He constantly asks "Are you mad at me?" in earnest, with Sarsgaard's Lane seemingly the only one who is. In one particularly nerve-wracking sequence, Lane takes Glass on a fact-checking tour to the places mentioned in one of his fabricated articles to basically rub his nose in the lies. The always engaging (even when he's in crap like Sahara) Steve Zahn lends fine support as a rival reporter who sniffs something isn't quite right with Glass' reporting. Director Billy Ray had called his film "little brother to All the President's Men," and while Shattered Glass isn't quite in the same league as that king of all investigative reporting films, it's very worthy progeny, suspenseful and extremely provocative. The "60 Minutes" interview with the real Glass included here is fascinating and disturbing; he seems to revel in the spotlight even as his reputation has crashed and burned beyond redemption. Sadly, as we've seen in subsequent years, he's not alone. -- Tamara Lees

Our highlights of the week's new DVD releases will look a bit shorter, as we attempt to accomodate the average attention span here with a few less write-ups, but as always, all the summaries can be found on the new releases page. Meanwhile, here are a few of our favorites, not including this one, something about Siths or something:

Tropical Malady (2004). "If there is a Thai equivalent of Gesamtkunstwerk, [Apichatpong] Weerasethakul's cinema is it," James Quandt wrote in Artforum back in May, noting he's a filmmaker steeped in "Bruce Baillie and Andy Warhol... Thai soap operas and ghost stories, love songs, talk shows, children's tales, and Buddhist fables... to turn everyday objects and images into the ineffable and enigmatic, inhabitants of a phantom zone where the hard, 'real' world of cars and bodies and buildings cedes dominion to a magical realm of reverie and desire." Also: Don't miss the interview Jonathan Marlow conduced with Apichatpong Weerasethakul earlier this year.

"Heights (2004), a feature debut by director Chris Terrio, celebrates its essential New York-ness as few other films have," wrote N.P. Thompson in the introduction to his interview with the filmmaker. "Along with the screenwriter Amy Fox, the impressive cinematographer Jim Denault, and a flawless cast, Terrio tracks a day in the life of Isabel (played by Elizabeth Banks), a woman in her twenties, who balances her upcoming wedding to a handsome young attorney (James Marsden) with her struggle to establish a name for herself as a photographer." With a terrific turn from Glenn Close and, in supporting roles, Eric Bogosian, Michael Murphy, Isabella Rossellini, Rufus Wainwright and George Segal.

Two for the Road (1967). "They keep talking about doing a remake of this, but who would have the balls?" Don Roos wondered out loud as he compiled a list of guilty pleasures for Film Comment this summer. "It's perfect." With Audrey Hepburn (swoon) and Albert Finney. See also our new trivia contest for a chance to win this lovely classic.

New Anime:

Kyo Kara Maoh! God (?) Save Our King! (2005). "I admit it, I absolutely loved this anime," Battie wrote of the first volume. "Every male character is extremely bishie (even if Yuri and his fiance are younger-looking). I've heard people say X has some bishie guys, but they can't compare to Kyo Kara Maoh's lads." "Whether you're in it for the adventure or the lighthearted man-on-man innuendo, this series is a quirky and fun twist of a well-worn genre," writes Carlo Santos for the Anime News Network.

Again, for a more detailed list of this week's new releases, please go here.

Speaking of trivia contests, congrats to the winners of our Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection giveaway: pooja and shin (the answer was Van Williams). Elektra: Unrated Director’s Cut winners will be announced separately soon, along with other contest winners, in this very space. Meanwhile, take a stab at our latest trivia contest, up on the home page today, for a chance to win a trio of classic romantic dramas: Two for the Road, The Rains Came and Orchestra Wives.

The member list of the week is Chyekk's What a Drag, compiling great moments in cinematic cross-dressing.

Tomorrow night! GreenCine presents Such a Pretty Little Beach by Yves Allégret, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Wednesday, November 2, 7:30pm.
YBCA
701 Mission Street at Third, San Francisco
Box office: 415.978.ARTS (2787)
$7 regular
$5 GreenCine members, seniors, students & teachers
$5 YBCA Members

As mentioned here last week, GreenCine is also proudly co-presenting two screenings in the Film Arts Foundation's 21st Annual Film Arts Festival, at the Roxie Cinema (3117 16th Street, San Francisco) next weekend:

Wellstone!, the inspiring story of the remarkable senator from Minnesota, Paul Wellstone, who defied tradition to return political power to the people, will screen on Satuday, November 5, at 8:20 pm, with an introduction by GreenCine's Jonathan Marlow. Romantico, Mark Becker's superb documentary chronicling the struggles of an illegal immigrant who works as a mariachi in San Francisco's Mission district until family matters bring him back to his Mexican village, screens on Sunday, November 6 at 2:00 pm. Both are part of the Mother Jones Agitators and Instigators series, and the screening of the latter will conclude with a live music performance by Trio Los Románticos.