Natalie Portman is currently playing a Jewish-American searching for her identity in Amos Gitai’s Free Zone, a road movie set between Israel and Jordan. The Jerusalem-born actress made the news recently when the shooting of a kissing scene near the Wailing Wall offended the sensibilities of dozens of ultra-Orthodox Jewish worshippers nearby, who proceeded to run the actress and the crew off from the area. Next up for Portman is a segment from the ongoing omnibus film I Love Paris, which consists of 20 shorts, one for each of the city’s districts, by directors ranging from Jean-Luc Godard to, uh, Johnny Depp. Portman’s section is by Run Lola Run director Tom Tykwer.

Al Pacino will step into Charles Laughton’s shoes for a redo of Billy Wilder’s 1957 Witness for the Prosecution. The film will be helmed by Robert Benton, and Ally McBeal creator David E. Kelley is adapting the script from the original Agatha Christie play about the trial of a man whose own wife testifies against him … Also on the remake front, Disney has hired two screenwriters to develop a remake of their technically innovative if hopelessly inane 1982 film Tron. In the original, a computer programmer found himself downloaded into a computer game program; for the 21st century version, he’ll be a prisoner of cyberspace.

Taking time out from running the girondi faction, an outfit dedicated to organizing anti-government protests, Nanni Moretti is about to start shooting Il Caimano, in which he plans to go after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ... And Gianni Amelio is getting back to political filmmaking as well with an adaptation of a novel by Ermanno Rea about the Naples steelworkers action protesting against plant closures in the Nineties. Sergio Castellitto will star as one of the steelworkers, after he gets done acting in Marco Bellocchio’s Regista di matrimoni, the story of a film director from Rome who comes to live in a Sicilian village. And everyone’s favorite Italian funnyman, Roberto Benigni returns in La Tigre e la Neve, as a poet stuck in Baghdad suffering from writer’s block just prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion. Let the hilarity commence!

Alain Delon has passed on playing Louis XIV in Sofia Coppola’s upcoming film on the life of Marie Antoinette. The actor explained that it’s not the type of role that his fans would want to watch.

AFTER THE GOLDRUSH
Amy Taubin shares her thoughts on how to break Hollywood’s chokehold over the Sundance Film Festival.

“Sundance’s problems won’t be solved by a change of venue; they might even be exacerbated by a more accommodating location. No, the big question for the festival is whether to take the course of least resistance – showcasing primarily the kind of independent film Hollywood finds sexy and potentially profitable – or return to its original raison d’être – focusing on films that break with the Hollywood model in content and form.”

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THREEWAY
Nathan Lee reviews EROS the omnibus – a trio of shorts by Wong Kar-wai, Stephen Soderbergh, and Michelangelo Antonioni.

“A trio of world-class filmmakers go down the runway: Wong soars, Soderbergh crashes, and Antonioni never takes off… Encountered in stone cold ignorance of IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE and 2046, Wong’s deft miniature THE HAND would bring a flush to every cinephile on earth. Tossed in their lap, it’s a handjob for the Wong cult. Putting the error in EROS, Soderbergh tossed off EQUILIBRIUM, and it wobbles. Whatever else may be said of Antonioni’s THE DANGEROUS THREAD OF THINGS, it compels attention simply by existing.”

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KONTROLL
Laura Kern reviews Nimród Antal’s KONTROLL, now playing in New Directors / New Films 2005 in NYC

“It’s hard to imagine a more soul-sucking workplace than the netherworld of the subway… As hellish as the setting may sound, it serves as the perfect backdrop for a film. Cigarette smoke and shadows, flickering fluorescent lights, winding tunnels, bright headlights illuminating pitch-dark runnels, and a trippy costume party sequence contribute to the extraordinary atmosphere, which threatens violence and menace at every turn. Luc Besson’s 1985 Paris-Metro-set SUBWAY would be the obvious inspiration, but though both films share pulsating music and frenetic pacing, KONTROLL is far more resonant.”

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FILM COMMENT READERS' POLL AND COMMENTS:
See what our readers had to voice off about.

Eternal Sunshine:
"I cannot believe my #1 of the year is a Jim Carrey film... What is the world coming to??!?!?"

Sideways
"If Payne keeps this up, he is going to make Woody Allen look like an underachiever in the drama-as-comedy department."

Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle:
"The bag of weed dream sequence (if you've seen it, you know what I mean) is one of the funniest scenes of the year."

Click here for more readers' raves and rants.

FIELD NOTES
Nathan Lee chats with Paul Pfeiffer about Empire - the ultimate bug movie.

Click here to read the interview

COVER STORY: Dustin Hoffman: Happiness is a Warm Blanket
The Marathon Man is still running. Chris Norris on the eternal comforts of Dustin Hoffman.
Click here to read the article online.

Amitabh Bachchan: The Big B
The Rise and Fall and Rebirth of Bollywood Superstar Amitabh Bachchan by David Chute
Click here to read the article online.

Beat Street: Johnny Staccato
Meet Johnny Staccato, John Cassavetes' hipster TV detective. This eccentric 1959 TV vehicle resurfaces. By J. Hoberman
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DISTRIBUTOR WANTED: Café Lumière
Amy Taubin makes the case for Hou Hsiao-hsien's Ozu-inspired fantasy of light.
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REVIEW: Kung Fu Hustle
by Sam Ho
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and more...

Read the Table of Contents Online

Our friends at Kino on Video would like to make you aware of a new DVD set, EDISON: THE INVENTION OF THE MOVIES. An unprecedented collaboration between MoMA, the Library of Congress, and Kino International, the leading distributor of silent and early cinema on DVD, this all-new four-DVD set collects 140 films (over fourteen hours of footage) produced by the Edison Company between 1891 and 1918. The set is now available for pre-order at a discounted price.

To learn more visit Kino's Edison website at www.kino.com