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NEWS
Dore O.'s Alaska (1968)
- The German avant-garde artist Dore O., whose poetic films were at once vast and intimate explorations of dreams, has died at 75. O. was a founder of the Hamburg Filmmakers Co-op (1968-1974), a participant in the famous German exhibit documenta 5 in 1972, and a prolific painter. The DVD label RE:VOIR VIDEO had recently released a collection of six restored films by O. In 1988, the critic Dietrich Kuhlbrodt wrote: "Dore O. has become classic, and suddenly it turns out that her work has passed the various currents of time unharmed: the time of the cooperative union, the women's film, the structuralists and grammarians, the teachers of new ways of seeing."
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RECOMMENDED VIEWING
- Richard Linklater returns to the rotoscoping technique used in Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006) with his upcoming Netflix film Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood, a coming-of-age story set in the summer of 1969.
- A trailer for Sergei Loznitsa's latest documentary Mr. Landsbergis, which investigates Lithuania's fight for nationhood between 1989–1991 through archival footage and interviews with the first Head of the Lithuanian Parliament, Vytautas Landsbergis.
- Hulu's trailer for Adrian Lyne's first film in a decade, Deep Water. Starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, Lyne's adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith 1957 novel looks expectedly brutal and very erotic.
- The late Barney Platts-Mills’ feature debut Bronco Bullfrog (1969) has been restored in 2K, marking its 50th anniversary. Shot in London’s East End and starring mostly non-professional actors, the film follows a 17-year-old who relieves his boredom by breaking into train cars with his friend “Bronco Bullfrog."
RECOMMENDED READING
- You can now pre-order Semiotext(e)'s The Cinema House and the World: The Cahiers du Cinema Years, 1962–1981, a massive 616-page collection of writings by French critic Serge Daney, who became the editor of Cahiers du cinéma in 1974. The book, which was translated by Christine Pichini, includes a foreword by critic A.S. Hamrah.
- In a new talk published by the New York Times, Bong Joon-ho and Ryusuke Hamaguchi (who previously spoke together at the Busan International Film Festival) exchange thoughts on their respective breakthroughs into the Oscars, and one another's approach to filmmaking.
- March 5th marked the centennial of Pier Paolo Pasolini's birth. Fireflies Press has announced the upcoming release of Pier Paolo Pasolini: Writing on Burning Paper, a book that celebrates Pasolini's influence with a translation of his epic autobiographical poem “Poeta delle ceneri," as well as several written and visual tributes by contemporary filmmakers like Alexander Koberidze, Jia Zhangke, Anocha Suwichakornpong, and Basma Alsharif.
- In an interview with Filmmaker Magazine, production designer Dante Ferretti discusses what it was like to work with Pasolini on films including Accattone (1961), Oedipus Rex (1967), and Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975).
- Christophe Huber reviews a new book on Daniele Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, Tell It to the Stones: Encounters with the Films of Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub: "The result offers a springboard for newcomers, but also insights for longtime followers of Straubiana, and not only the self-declared 'Straubians.'"
- Vanity Fair takes us behind the scenes of Andrew Ahn's "revolutionary queer rom-com" Fire Island, a Pride and Prejudice-inspired film that takes place on the eponymous island, and which stars comedians Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang.
- At 4Columns, Erika Balsom writes on the ambiguities and the opacity of Nina Menkes' films, six of which are currently showing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of a retrospective.
RECOMMENDED EVENTS
- Artangel presents Jitterburg, a new short film by Ayo Akingbade commissioned by Artangel and the Museum of the Home. The film, a Hackney-set portrait of gentrification, will be screening at select London venues throughout the month. Several of Akingbade's shorts are also streaming in select countries on MUBI, in the series Becoming and Belonging: An Ayo Akingbade Focus.
- The Film Society of Lincoln Center's exciting retrospective dedicated to the directorial works of Kinuyo Tanaka showcases six newly restored films. The retrospective starts March 18 and continues until March 27.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
- Critic and filmmaker Gina Telaroli and Anthology Film Archive archivist John Klacsmann recently joined the Film Comment podcast to discuss the form of the diary film. Their conversation touches upon Jonas Mekas’s As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty, Ed Pincus’s influential Diaries (1971-1976), and the HBO show How To with John Wilson.
RECENTLY ON THE NOTEBOOK
- Lê Bảo shares five inspirations for his film Taste, which is now exclusively showing on MUBI.
- Ruairi McCann appraises the recent films of American director Steven Soderbergh, who has pivoted from retirement to making exceptionally bold and format-pushing series and feature films.
- Mahamat-Saleh Haroun shares the five inspirations behind his film Lingui, the Sacred Bonds, which is also showing exclusively on MUBI in the series Luminaries.
- Nadine Smith explores the bootleg origins of the Jackass franchise, which has its origins in skate videos, wrestling, and video art.