KEEP GOING THE WHOLE NIGHT THROUGH HOW-TO, PAGE 3B. NEW BURLESQUE PRODUCTION BRINGS BACK CLASS. PAGE 6B. B THE MICHIGAN DAILY THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2006 ON _ k4/a ,' ยข i,"' The long and short o it I read continuously that we are the ADD generation - no patience for even commercials anymore (and, thanks to TiVO and DVD, no need for it). But though we do storm YouTube for the a quick fix of three- minute Colbert Report segments, KRISTIN we're MACDONALD simultane- ously committed to long-term TV show addictions. Anyone who's ever purchased a season of "The Sopranos" or "Arrested Develop- ment" can tell you how surprisingly easy it is to fit 18 hours of television into a handful of days. The film world could stand to expand its form along with these latest viewing patterns, and our love of the long plot has already shown its influence. This summer's "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequel drew on the plotting style of an hour-long TV drama, albeit unsuc- cessfully - though it had the epi- sodic feel of several back-to-back "Lost" installments, it closed like a cliff-hanger season finale instead of a self-contained movie. The appeal of TV's longer narra- tives isn't hard to understand - the longer the emotional investment, the deeper the effect (i.e. Pam and Jim's big moment in last season's finale of "The Office," which made my heart break like few 90-minute movie romances ever have). The super-epic film experience ought to emerge accordingly, and could do so for products of any screen size. Theater owners need to lure moviegoers from their increasingly affordable big screens - how bet- ter than by the example of a hand- ful of LA cineplexes that offered mega-screenings of the entire "Rings" trilogy or a complete sea- son showing of "24"? Now that's entertainment at its most immer- sive. Such marathons are rarities, with audience attention spans held in serious doubt. Long movie epics are generally denied the big-screen treatment and released instead as a film-quality mini-series, which gets them out to the public without realizing their full potential. Last year's certifiably addictive "The Best of Youth' a six-hour Italian soap-operaesque drama spanning 40 years in the life of a single fam- ily, was originally an Italian TV mini-series. In installments, it's affecting; in a single-sitting screen- ing, it's downright hypnotizing (ditto for the likes of the BBC's famous "Pride and Prejudice" and that incomparable Mr. Darcy). But going shorter is perhaps a more feasible direction for film, with obvious production and budgeting benefits as well as easy appeal to our instinct for instant gratification. Consider "Jackass's" two assaults on the silver screen - they may be hilarious, but they're not actually movies, and never would have made it to a producer's office hefore the mid-'90s. Little See MACDONALD, page 2B W ith the questions on art These days, everything is getting whether time-relative art like film posed by today's critics smaller. Cellphones are tinier (see and music can still have significant and, increasingly, audi- the Cingular ad comparing its latest messages behind it. It's how we ences, you'd hope that casual cof- to lipstick and a piece of sashimi), absorb the information presented, or fee-shop discussion would return televisions slimmer in thickness if rather what we think we can grasp, to the eternal "L'art pour lart" wider in breadth, what's popular in in shorter and shorter time frames debate or something similar to pet dogs. And, more than ever, even of subject matter. Here's a look at Walter Benjamin's theory of art's what we term as art is being pack- some of the most easily consumed of significance in an age of mechani- aged in smaller and smaller pieces, today's art. cal reproduction. so much so that the question now is - Kimberly Chou SEE RELATED STORIES, PAGE 4B AND 5B. ~LISTA 14 Oct. 12 to 15 A weekly guide to who's where, what's happening and why you should be there. Arts editors recommend this week's best bets. OUT & ABOUT The seventh annual Art Walk through Ann Arbor's galleries, exhibition spaces and art gal- leries will take place tomorrow and Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Participants can wander at their leisure through Ann Arbor's artistic hotspot. Maps for the art walk can be picked up at any par- ticipating venue, or downloaded from the Art Walk website at www.annarborartwalk.com. ON TlE PAGE ON THE PLATE Tonight, Claire Messud, whose most recent novel, "The Emper- or's Children," has become a New York Times bestseller, will be at the Residential College Audi- torium at 5 p.m. Messud is on campus as part of the Zell Visit- ing Writers Series, and has been awarded both a Guggenheim and a Radcliffe fellowship. The read- ing is free and all are encouraged to attend. "Cooking 101: The Basics" will be held Sunday from 7 to 9 p.m. The introductory cooking class, which will meet in the U-Club at the Michigan Union and con- tinue with the lesson in the Union kitchen, will focus on teaching participants classic, simple Ital- ian dishes such as ravioli and fresh pasta. Participants must register online in advance. The course includes a $10 fee. ON SCREEN This Friday, which just hap- pens to be Friday the 13th, M- Flicks will screen the thriller flick "Silence of the Lambs," starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster in Oscar-winning roles, at 9:30 p.m. at the Natu- ral Science Auditorium. View- ers should expect spooks, scares and cannibalism to be had for all. The screening is free and open to the public.