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NEWS
Above: David Fincher and Gary Oldman on the set of Mank (2020).
- David Fincher's Mank leads this year's nominations for the Academy Awards. A complete list of all nominations can be found here.
- Legendary actor Yaphet Kotto, best known for his charismatic presence in films like Alien, Blue Collar, and Live and Let Die has died.
- Spike Lee will be leading the 2021 Cannes Film Festival Jury, promising to return after the cancellation of last year's festival: "Book my flight now, my wife and I are coming!"
- After a months-long hiatus, Film Comment has announced its return, marked by a new weekly letter and two new episodes of the Film Comment podcast.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
Above: Mark Rappaport's The Stendhal Syndrome or My Dinner with Turhan Bey.
- Today's the last day to watch two new essay films by Mark Rappaport that explore the intertwining of fantasy and Hollywood history, presented by Filmmuseum Münchenoday: The Stendhal Syndrome or My Dinner with Turhan Bey (2020) and Two for the Opera Box (2021).
- Calling all Columbo fans! On April 1, UCLA will be presenting a screening of Chevy Mystery Show episode “Enough Rope,” a production that would later become the template for the Columbo TV series. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Amelie Hastie, author of the forthcoming book, Columbo: Make Me a Perfect Murder.
- The SF MoMA is hosting an ongoing series, Assembly of Images: On Histories of Race and Representation, co-presented with the San Francisco Cinematheque. This month's program features the films of Christopher Harris and Crystal Z Campbell.
RECOMMENDED READING
Above: Zack Snyder's Justice League.
- Ahead of the long-awaited premiere of Zack Snyder's Justice League, Snyder discusses the circumstances behind the project and its four-hour runtime with The New York Times. Vanity Fair has also profiled Snyder, digging deep into the viral campaign to revive the "Snyder Cut."
- "What art have you turned to in this time?" The New York Times has gathered a funny, heartbreaking, and moving set of responses by 75 artists to questions about creative challenges and triumphs during the pandemic.
- The New Yorker's Richard Brody responds to the list of Oscar nominations with an examination of the Academy's reinforcement of "professional norms and standards," and a list of overlooked films, including Frederick Wiseman's City Hall, Eliza Hittman's Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Steve McQueen's Lovers Rock, and Tyler Taormina's Ham on Rye. For some necessary context behind Oscar nominations, turn to Alissa Wilkinson's overview of how Oscar campaigns work.
- Notebook contributor and scholar Michael Guarneri has written a new book, Conversations with Lav Diaz, available to order online at PIRETTI EDITORE.
- "In Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974), play is a life force, pleasure a form of liberation." Beatrice Loayza on Jacques Rivette's gleeful masterpiece for Criterion.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
- The Film Comment podcast returns with a discussion on the many questions surrounding virtual festivals, which have emerged as a response to cinema closures but not without their own set of challenges. Joining Film Comment editors Clinton Krute and Devika Girish are curator Abby Sun and critic Jessica Kiang.
RECENTLY ON THE NOTEBOOK
- Ela Bittencourt reviews two new titles from the Berlinale: Avi Mograbi's The First 54 Years – An Abbreviated Manual for A Military Occupation, and the newly restored Fury Is a Feeling Too by Cynthia Beatt.
- For The Action Scene column, Jonah Jeng investigates Yûji Shimomura's Crazy Samurai Musashi, which deconstructs normative film style even as it exudes a compelling physicality.
- Andréa Picard interviews Camilo Restrepo, whose striking portrait film Los Conductos is exclusively showing in many countries starting March 11, 2021 in MUBI's Debuts series.
- Evan Morgan and Sean Gilman continue their series of dialogues on Hong Sang-soo's cinema with a conversation on his latest film Introduction.
- Michael M. Bilandic chooses One Shot for A Voyage of Growth and Discovery by artists Mike Kelley and Michael Smith.
- Sophia Satchell-Baeza explores nitrate homages to Barbara Hammer by Lynne Sachs, Deborah Stratman, Mark Street, and Dan Veltri. The series Ways of Seeing with Barbara Hammer is currently playing on MUBI in many countries.
- In an interview with Matt Turner, Su Hui-Yu discusses his installation-turned-film The Woman's Revenge and his method of "reshooting."