Edited by Adam Cook
News.
- Issue 67 of Senses of Cinema is now online for your reading pleasure. Highlights include an interview with Matthew Porterfield (pictured above) by Brigitta Wagner, a piece on Assault on Wall Street by Celluloid Liberation Front, and a "Great Directors" article on Christian Petzold by Jaimey Fisher.
- John Woo is set to make his next film, The Crossing, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Ziyi, and Song Hye Kyo. From the press release: "The Crossing is about three couples from different backgrounds whose lives are affected by the tide of history. They survive war and disaster to finally find happiness."
- Jafar Panahi made a surprise appearance at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival via Skype. According to Variety, Panahi introduced a screening of his new film, Closed Curtain:
"Karlovy Vary festival is one of the festivals I truly love, and when I was here I had the chance to meet with great filmmakers who became part of my family. Unfortunately I have lost that family, but my heart is with you."
- Abel Ferrara has secured funding for Pasolini, an ambitious feature that will portray the last few days of Pier Paolo Pasolini's life with Willem Dafoe starring as the revered artist.
- Notebook all-star Ryland Walker Knight is looking to GoFundMe to crowdfund his new short film, Inside Voices. We're looking forward to following along the progress of his production. If you're interested in supporting the film, click here.
Finds.
- Above: David Fincher's new ad for Calvin Klein starring Rooney Mara.
- On his website, David Bordwell has some thoughts on Johnnie To's Drug War:
"At first glance, Drug War (2012) seems an unusual film for Johnnie To Kei-fung and his Milkyway Image company to make. For one thing, this Mainland production lacks the surface sheen of To’s Hong Kong projects. Shot in wintry Jinhai, a northern port city, and in the central city of Erzhou, it presents stretches of industrial wasteland and bleak superhighways. As a result, To’s characteristic audacious stylization gives way to a bare-bones look. The saturated palette of The Longest Nite (1998) and A Hero Never Dies (1998) is gone, replaced by metallic grays and frosty blues. Hong Kong heartthrob Louis Koo, rapidly becoming To’s jeune premier, is bluntly deglamorized—first glimpsed spewing foam as he tries to steer his car, then moving through the film with a blistered face and a bandaged nose. The noir-flavored Exiled (2006) made its steamy Macau locales seem exquisitely somber and menacing, but Drug War’s early scenes in a hospital have a mundane, documentary quality. Little in To’s earlier work prepares us for the grubby scene of drug mules groaning as they shit out plastic pods of dope."
- Above: Mondo will be releasing a new limited edition poster for Joe Dante's Gremlins, designed by Drew Millward.
- Above: the trailer for Mahjong, a new short film by João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata.
From the archives.
- Above: via The Seventh Art, Kurosawa: The Last Emperor directed by Alex Cox:
"Made for television broadcast in 1999 by British cult-director icon Alex Cox, the documentary Kurosawa: The Last Emperor is a thorough historical chronicle of, naturally, the life and work of Akira Kurosawa. Cox gives the legendary Japanese director an extensive profiling, utilizing the details of ruminations and anecdotes from interviews with family, cast and crew colleagues, friends, and numerous filmmakers. These are incorporated with a wealth of footage from many of Kurosawa’s films, and the result is an informative nonfiction portrait that provides but just one perspective on the multifaceted legacy of one of cinema’s greatest artists."