News.
- The highly celebrated Russian director Alexey Balabanov has passed away at the age of 54.
- James Gray–whose newest film The Immigrant premieres in Cannes this Friday–has announced his next project: a sci-fi film produced by RT Features. Variety has the details.
- Laurent Cantet, director of The Class, also has a new project: "Vuelta a Itaca is a Cuban set drama about Amadeo, who returns to the Havana after a 16-year exile. Over one night, he and his childhood friends retrace their lives." via Dark Horizons.
- At Cannes this weekend, Claude Lanzmann presented The Last of the Unjust, a companion piece to Shoah that focuses on one man whose interviews were left out of that masterwork. Check out this wonderful piece on Lanzmann and the new film in The Guardian.
- Above: Concept art and a frame from Hayao Miyazaki's new film, Kaze Tachinu (The Wind is Rising). Further details, including a release date can be found at Slash Film.
- From Alfonso Cuarón to Sam Raimi, Indiewire collects a curious list of names making the jump to directing Television episodes in the upcoming 2013/2014 season.
Finds.
- Above: Peter Cook takes a look at the history of the matte painting at Shadowlocked.
- At The Vulgar Cinema Jake Cole and John Lehtonen write about Kingpin and Me, Myself & Irene in an on-going project that takes a look at The Farrelly Brothers' underrated body of work.
- At Making Light of It, Jacob W. has compiled a list every James Benning interview available on the web–a helpful guide through the work of one of America's finest artists.
- In the New York Times J. Hoberman lovingly covers the career of his friend, avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs:
"His first movie, 'Orchard Street' (1956), was a straightforward observation of Lower East Side life; the films that followed, many starring the wildly uninhibited Jack Smith, used Manhattan streets, rooftops and dumps as the backdrop for sardonic minidramas of social despair."
From the Archives.
"In terms of the story, what bothers me, Frank’s story, is the style, the lightness of touch. It’s a very deceptive movie because there’s a lightness in the storytelling visuals and in the cutting in this story about Frank and his two fathers — really one father in a way."
- Circa 2002, Martin Scorsese & Steven Spielberg talk Lubitsch and the "lightness of touch" in an interview conducted after the release of Catch Me If You Can. via From Director Steven Spielberg.