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NEWS
- André S. Labarthe, critic and producer of the long running Cinéastes de notre temps film series covering famed film directors, has died.
In memory of André S. Labarthe, who, with Janine Bazin, created the TV series Cinéastes de notre temps, a historic, inexhaustible trove of filmed portraits of directors and interviews with them and associates (too often only seen as DVD-extra snippets): https://t.co/t7qm8AlT4b
— Richard Brody (@tnyfrontrow) March 5, 2018
- Following a report earlier this year, award winning director Kim Ki-duk has been further accused of sexual abuse. The actresses making said claims remain anonymous in fear of being publicly shamed, Yahoo reports.
- Quentin Tarantino is making moves on his controversial new project, which appears in part to concern the Manson family murders. Variety reports that Brad Pitt has joined the project alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.
- Devin Coldewey reports on the popular but suspiciously cheap theater ticketing service MoviePass:
"Everyone knew the MoviePass deal is too good to be true — and as is so often the case these days, it turns out you’re not the customer, you’re the product. And in this case they’re not even attempting to camouflage that. Mitch Lowe, the company’s CEO, told an audience at a Hollywood event that 'we know all about you.'”
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
- Museum of Modern Art curator and film critic Dave Kehr pays tribute to the B-movies of Poverty Row in a marvelous and insightful video essay.
- Shown during the Academy Awards, Rolex has made what amounts to a big budget video essay devoted to auteurism, interpretively showcasing the styles of directors Martin Scorsese, Kathryn Bigelow, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and James Cameron.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
- Production and distribution company A24 has launched their podcast, aptly titled "The A24 Podcast", with a premiere episode featuring the luminary American film talents Barry Jenkins and Greta Gerwig.
RECOMMENDED READING
- The March/April issue of Film Comment is here, which includes online pieces on Black Panther (by Devika Girish), You Were Never Really Here (by Gina Telaroli), and much more.
- The Academy Awards have come and gone, but before closing the book on this contentious time of year in American film culture, K. Austin Collins provides an incisive read on the broadcasted ceremony for The Ringer.
- Meanwhile, Lina Wertmüller recalls her life in cinema and the landmark moment of being the first female director nominated for an Oscar in an interview with Variety.
- Evan Morgan reviews Hanagatami, the latest film from Nobuhiko Obayashi, the underestimated Japanese director of Hausu fame, for Seattle Screen Scene:
"In Japan, Obayashi is known for his films that celebrate the laze and haze and promise of youth in its natural season, summer. These are his furusato—or hometown—movies, as he calls them: films conceived in close consultation with their locales, suffused with the particular light of a place or its singular air, where the action is as much determined by the ungainly curve of an ancient street as it is by the generic demands of the youth film."
- A free monograph from the True/False Film Festival dedicated to the Black Audio Film Collective penned by critic and programmer Ashley Clark is now available online:
My 52-page @truefalse monograph, “Black Audio Film Collective 1980s—1990s”, is now available to read online. I’m really proud of this. Enjoy! https://t.co/xDiGCHfdS4
— Ashley Clark (@_Ash_Clark) February 27, 2018
- For i-D, Matthew Whitehouse profiles a promising new film about the untold story of the Istanbul's punk/hardcore scene circa the 90s.
RECENTLY ON THE NOTEBOOK
- We caught up with Penelope Spheeris, director of the Decline of Western Civilization trilogy and Wayne's Word.
- Eli Roth has released his remake of Death Wish, which has inspired us to look at the uneasy evolution of the franchise.
- Ashley McKenzie's Werewolf is one of the best and most bracing of debut films we've seen in a long while. We spoke to her on the eve of her film's release in U.S. cinemas.
EXTRAS
- Independent video game developers Hyacinth Nil and Luke Palmer have released the (free!) game David Lynch Teaches Typing, filling a hole we never previously realized was there.
- Jodie Mack has contributed a lovely .GIF to This Long Century's on-going collection of diverse contributions from diverse artists.