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NEWS
- A new short from Pedro Almodóvar, Strange Way of Life, will make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The film—coming soon to MUBI in Italy and Latin America—is a “western shot in the south of Spain” and stars Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal. Keep an eye on Notebook tomorrow for more Cannes updates as the festival unveils its official selection.
- In production news, Paul Schrader has finished writing an adaptation of a novel by Russell Banks; he plans to shoot it this summer with Richard Gere. (The full profile in Curbed is worth a read.)
- According to IONCINEMA, Kiyoshi Kurosawa begins shooting a French-language remake of his 1998 film Serpent’s Path in May.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
- Sink into this two-hour interview with Béla Tarr, via Partizán, which is newly online with English subtitles.
- KimStim Films have shared a trailer for Cyril Schäublin’s pleasingly unorthodox second feature Unrest (2022) ahead of its May 5 US release. The film takes place in the Swiss watchmaking town of Saint-Imier in the 1870s, wherein a young would-be anarchist finds himself stimulated by goings-on in the town. When the film screened on MUBI in February, Schäublin contributed a Notebook introduction to the film alongside some photographs from the set.
RECOMMENDED READING
- Cinema Scope’s 94th issue is now online. Highlights include new writing from Phil Coldiron on the “narrative sophistication” of Angela Schanelec’s Music (2023), and from Beatrice Loayza on the role of “the ‘medical gaze’” in Claire Simon’s Our Body (2023). The magazine is still seeking your support through subscriptions.
- The US release of Kelly Reichardt’s latest feature Showing Up (2022) has instigated several pieces of great writing on the film. We enjoyed reading filmmaker Ricky D’Ambrose (The Cathedral) in conversation with Reichardt for Reverse Shot, and also Phoebe Chen’s review of the film in the most recent Film Comment Letter. Chen describes how the film, unlike many other works about artists, “opts to draw levity, not gravitas, from the mounting demands” its sculptor protagonist faces.
- “'The unconscious wants to forget,' Marilyn wrote, but she would ‘try to remember.’” A fascinating Substack post by Jillian Hess, an English professor at CUNY, explores the role of psychoanalysis in Marilyn Monroe’s life, revealing how the actor’s “fragmented and incomplete” diaries and notebooks “show a woman trying to heal herself from childhood trauma.”
- Artist and writer John Menick writes about film critic Jaime Grijalba’s project, now five years in the works, to gradually and fastidiously translate the diaries of Raúl Ruiz into English—which the filmmaker started in “1993 at the age of 52 and continued until the end of his life”—one entry at a time.
- Elsewhere, Andrew Key reflects on the experience of writing his own Substack, Roland Barfs Film Diary, in which he shared notes on every film he watched over a four-year period. He stopped after reaching the milestone of 1000 films watched, having written a total of 565,000 words—“more than twice as long as Moby-Dick.”
RECOMMENDED EVENTS
The Bridge (Mark Leckey, 2023).
- London: The latest work by British artist Mark Leckey, most famous for his rave nostalgist video essay Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999), is his first made in VR. The Bridge was produced as part of an exhibition titled “Tremulations,” curated by Daniel Birnbaum and Jacqui Davies. Here, Leckey uses a type of intricate 3D rendering technology to “connect to the audience through shared memory and experience, beginning with his own.” The work can be viewed at Swedenborg House from now until April 26.
- Los Angeles: At the end of this month, on Sunday, April 30, Mezzanine presents an all-16mm tribute to Michael Snow, pairing Wavelength with two earlier, harder-to-see shorts, Standard Time and See You Later (Au Revoir).
- New York: Japan Society has cut a trailer for their upcoming Shinji Somai retrospective—the first in North America, running April 28 through May 13. Per the program notes: “Somai came to prominence during the 1980s [...] following the collapse of the Japanese studio system. In this transitional period, he served as a crucial bridge into the era of independent studio productions.”
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
- The third season of the MUBI Podcast, “Needle on the Record,” explores the art of the needle drop. Episode two narrates how Donnie Darko resurfaced Tears for Fears for a new generation of teen angst. Host Rico Gagliano speaks to the film’s director Richard Kelly, star Jena Malone, and composer Michael Andrews.
RECENTLY ON NOTEBOOK
Features:
- In a new Notebook Primer, Vikram Murthi tackles the resonance of Jim Jarmusch, the subject of a current MUBI retrospective in many countries. In Murthi’s telling, Jarmusch is a keen chronicler of America, “always eager to absorb people and spaces without preconceived notions.”
- Poulomi Das reports on the state of nonfiction cinema in India. In a sweeping survey, she speaks to prominent filmmakers about their ambitious projects, as well as the challenges of financing, distribution, and censorship that often beset independent filmmakers.
Quick Reads:
- Adrian Curry’s latest Movie Poster of the Week column rounds up the most popular posters from the column’s official Instagram over the past six months. Eclectic designs aplenty, and a glimpse of film-news highlights in miniature—the top honor goes to Jeanne Dielman, marking Akerman’s number-one placement in the Sight and Sound poll.
- "I wonder if this is why I am drawn to film—its unique ability to capture passing time, or as Bazin put it, to 'mummify' change." David Easteal pens a lovely introduction to his wonderful debut The Plains; the film is now showing exclusively on MUBI.