If you’re not already using the discrete invention called Google Alerts to scour the web for pertinent information related to you (or just sort of tangentially related to you in any way at all)… you should. We get lots of funny Angelika alerts, so we thought we’d share.

This week, Whizziwig discusses War, Inc., and informs us that “Ben Kingsley shows up, because he’s now required to be in every movie shown at the Angelika.”

Look for Ben Kingsley in THE WACKNESS, TRANSSIBERIAN, and ELEGY, all opening up this summer at the Angelika New York!

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CHILDREN OF HUANG SHI director Roger Spottiswoode sat down with us to talk about his new film.  View the full entry to watch.

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ELSA AND FRED director Marcos Carnevale took some time to answer a few of our questions about the film. The film, an uplifting tale of two completely different people who yearn for the same thing as they approach the end of their lives: one last chance to find happiness, opens at the Angelika New York on June 27.

Q: Can you describe ELSA AND FRED in your own words?
A: Elsa & Fred is a story about two people who, at the end of the road, discover that it’s never too late to love or to dream. Elsa always dreamed of a moment that Fellini had already envisaged: the scene of “La Dolce Vita” at the Fontana di Trevi. The same scene without Anita Ekberg in it but Elsa instead. Without Marcello Mastroiani but with that love that took so long to arrive. Elsa’s dream was also my dream: all my life I wanted to meet Fellini. It’s a story that teaches us that it’s never too late to live what we haven´t lived yet.It invites us to live with no fears.

Q: Why do you think that the emotional conquests of elderly people are always so endearing?

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We had the privilege of interviewing Guy Maddin, director or BRAND UPON THE BRAIN and MY WINNIPEG and one of the most interesting minds in the film world. He talked about everything from his neediness as a narrator, what it means to be Canadian, and how he feels about blindingly hot underwear models. Check it out below.

Why do you like to do the live performer/orchestra thing…Why include live elements?

BRAND UPON THE BRAIN was the first time I did it and I kind of liked the transformation going on inside of me. I have all these state supported films and artists, so [normally]you feel like a filmmaker, with all the bad connotations that word has, and you feel like you’re making film for yourself - self-absorbed, selective, for a small audience. But when you introduce the live element, all of a sudden you feel like a showman and you really do want to make a connection with an audience. You really feel it when it’s live, because you don’t want any of the live performers to die on stage, so you really do become a showman that gives a shit. You just really care a lot, and at the end of the show the beer tastes unbelievable because you’re so relieved that you got through it, and then the adrenaline is there for the next time and usually I just finish a movie and watch it once or twice at the most and then file it away, but live shows, I was going nuts, I was watching them every night because each one is a different narrator and each one is a little different, it’s like a real experiment and experience to see the tiny differences, because the narrator plays such a small role, but makes a huge impact to set the tone for the whole thing -so it’s this big experience to me.

But I also just realized that there was far more or fewer empathy, I guess because they were scared something might happen, or desired that something might go wrong… maybe a certain part of everyone wanted something to go wrong…everyone sort of wants to see someone fall flat on their face- I don’t know, this kind of weird suspense you get from watching someone live.

How do you pick your performers?

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Academy Award winning director Errol Morris sat down with us in Dallas to discuss STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE, his latest documentary that explores the horrors behind the Abu Ghraib prison torture photographs that shocked the nation. Backed by a two-year research arsenal, Morris’s film probes the prison policies in Iraq to prove that the torture at Abu Ghraib was in no way an isolated incident.

Click the film still below to watch the exclusive interview footage.

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SEX AND THE CITY blew away competition and expectations this weekend with an estimated box office of almost 56 million dollars. Scads of women (and men!) dressed up and came out to support their favorite television series-turned-big screen smash, probably leaving sad street-cleaners and janitors to clean up the the debris of shattered martini glasses and broken high heels that the crowds left behind.

For the past three weeks, the Angelika Film Center hosted its own SATC column/look-a-like contest, and it’s time to announce the winners. Posted after the jump are the first prize photo and column. Click the cosmo to view the winners.

SEX AND THE CITY is now playing at the Angelika Dallas and Houston.

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