PK: How about "It's a Wonderful Life?" Or maybe that's a generation before you.

MD: I've never watched "It's a Wonderful Life."

JD: It's one of the great Christmas movies. I've seen it a couple of times. But I guess one specific thing that we've noticed about ourselves that makes us kind of laugh is that when our friend were watching "Star Wars" we were watching "Ordinary People" and "Kramer Vs.

We pick up the conversation as the topic turns to incest and the sexual chemistry between Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill.

PK: Did you feel like there was a line you shouldn't cross with the potential eroticism. Did you have discussions about where to take it?

Jay Duplass: It's interesting, Mark and I don't really try to talk much about it because we don't want to intellectualize the process that much.

About a month ago I wrote a story called "Voodoo Economics" in which I attempted to show how the current spate of films about Zombies and Vampires reflects the audience's fears and fantasies about our ongoing economic crisis. To which, no doubt, most sane people would respond, "Lighten up, they're only movies."

One of the biggest lessons that the Duplass Brothers, Jay and Mark, learned about making movies is that you don't need fancy props. Just a telephone answering machine, as in their short "This Is John," (2003), or a Lazyboy recliner, as in their first feature "The Puffy Chair" (2006), or a brown paper bag, as in their second feature, "Baghead" (2008),

I was shocked and saddened to learn recently that my friend and colleague Peter Brunette had died suddenly of a heart attack while attending the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily. All the more so because I had just started reading Peter's new book on Michael Haneke, which, like all his writing, balanced academic rigor, canny insight, good humor, unabashed passion, and down to earth clarity in making a difficult subject engaging and lucid.

Yesterday might have been Father's Day, but mothers seemed to be getting all the attention at the just concluded Provincetown Independent Film Festival, in particular mothers with troubled relationships with adolescent or post-adolescent sons who, perhaps uncoincidentally, are touched with genius or insanity.

PK: I have to ask you this question. A friend of my told me once that you are a duchess, is that correct?

TS: Umm no. But don't tell them. Let them dream on.

PK: But you are a member of one of the oldest families in Scotland, correct?

TS: Yes.

PK: Is that something that doesn't mean anything to you, or is it something you've rebelled against at one point? How does that fit into your metamorphosis?

In which Swinton denies that she wants to become a director or carpenter but doesn't close the door on being the Countess Bathory.

PK: Do you plan to direct yourself? I read somewhere that you and the director of "I Am Love" had a project in mind which you were writing and also perhaps directing.

TS: I'm not planning to direct.

For nearly 25 years her bright red hair and pallid changeling beauty have illuminated some of the best work by auteurs such as Derek Jarman, the Coen Brothers, Jim Jarmusch, and David Fincher. Most will remember her from the 2007 Oscars, where she accepted the Best Supporting Actress Award for her role in "Michael Clayton" and distinguished herself as the most interesting looking person on the show.

Forget the bunnies, maids, witches, nurses, etc, when it comes to fetishized female role modes, nuns beat them all (and given their knack for corporal punishment, beating might be one explanation for their appeal). Lady Gaga was no fool when she donned nasty habits for her new music video for "Alejandro;" good Catholic school girl that she is, she knows a well-turned black hem and a pair of sensible shoes is the key to every bad Catholic school boy's libido.