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if there is anyone out there that reads this blog regularly and also pays attention to the poster, you know of my disgust, hell lets call it hatred for harvey weinstein. throughout his time with miramax, weinstein managed to destroy any real chance for independent cinema to actually be independent, instead making it just another way for those in the movie industry to make money and with the thanks of the media, hypocritically feel like they were actually making “good” films.

so when i woke up this morning and took a look at the movie section of the nytimes and saw an article about the man himself and his great plan for releasing todd haynes latest film i’m not there (if you do read this blog, you probably know i love haynes) i was curious and hoping not to lose my breakfast.

weinstein’s plan is to open the film in november at nyc’s art house fav film forum, and while i love film forum, it is undoubtedly one of new york’s smallest theaters. this strikes me as strange, as not only does haynes have a cult following, he is also an academy award nominated filmmaker. more than that, the film stars christian bale, heath ledger, richard gere, julianne moore and cate blanchett - all actors that can carry their own film. so why such a small release?

according to weinstein : “With a movie like this you have to build it. I don’t think you can go out on 500 screens. The reason for Film Forum is you go where the best word of mouth is on the movie. I like the movie; I think it’s adventurous. The audience is going to have to work — work in a good way.” the times also went on to cite that: “Mr. Weinstein said the decision to pick up “I’m Not There” was not purely about making money but about an obligation to have important movies distributed.”

this from the man that made sure jim jarmusch’s masterpiece dead man failed in every way possible when it came to distribution. jarmusch refused to cut the film (and rightly so), and weinstein refused to actually try to get people into the theaters. it didn’t matter that dead man was an amazing film by one of the most important directors of the time - what mattered was that he didn’t think it would get any money.

to be fair i should add that it turns out the film will also open at lincoln plaza, another nyc art house theater… and although this makes me feel better, i am worried about where the film will go from there. it is also curious to me that todd haynes had no comment for the article - he was “unavailable”. call me crazy, but this doesn’t make me feel good about this supposedly harmonious relationship.

there is some potentially good news though, harvey did go on to mention that in regards to cate blanchett getting an oscar nomination that ““ if Cate Blanchett doesn’t get nominated, I’ll shoot myself.” - here’s hoping.

check out the entire article here