Edited by Adam Cook
- Cinema Scope #58 is available now (with a good chunk of the content available online)—and features pieces by several Notebook contributors! In the Editor's Note, Mark Peranson reveals the magazine's Top Ten films of 2013:
1. L’inconnu du lac (Alain Guiraudie)
2. Norte, the End of History (Lav Diaz)
3. A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke)
4. What Now? Remind Me (Joaquim Pinto)
5. The Strange Little Cat (Ramon Zürcher)
6. Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang)
7. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel and Ethan Coen)
8. Story of My Death (Albert Serra)
9. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
10. Computer Chess (Andrew Bujalski)
- The 19th edition of La Furia Umana is now online for your perusal.
- Above: an excellent (French) making-of/look back at James Gray's debut feature, Little Odessa.
- For Film Comment, Giovanni Vimercati (rather venomously) reports on the Berlinale:
"People often forget the etymological roots of the word 'festival.' A film festival signifies a technically convivial, joyous occasion, where you may watch, discuss, and (if you’re a distributor) buy movies. The sheer size and machine-like organization of the Berlinale puts it miles away from any idea of, let alone the actual possibility of, festivity. It’s hard to procure press tickets, hard to get to the different venues, and a single minute of delay will earn you a prolonged, excessive wait for what’s called a 'late entrance'—just late enough to miss the beginning of a film. Add to that the breathtaking ugliness of the city and the bone-chilling warmth of the locals, and you have a painful and slightly sadistic gymkhana through the German capital occasionally interrupted by mildly pleasurable movies."
- Above: Adam Nayman discusses Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls on the occasion of his new book, It Doesn't Suck: Showgirls.
- Through the lens of Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, Richard Brody considers "The Radical Power of Classic Comedies".
- Above: via Adrian Curry, an Italian poster for The Deer Hunter by Averardo Ciriello.
- For Movie Morlocks, R. Emmet Sweeney writes on two James Cagney pictures, Winner Take All, and Here Comes the Navy.
- Above: Jonathan Hertzberg has released the fifth and final part of "Dirty Old New York aka Fun City". "This segment begins with a recap of the previous installments; this includes scenes that are unique to Part V, but are connected by motif to scenes collected in DIRTY OLD NEW YORK SUBWAY and Parts I - IV. As with the other videos, I've attempted to connect the scenes by location, film, actor, or theme. This video contains some nudity so it may be NSFW depending on where you work. You will also notice my continued pre-occupation / obsession with analog, often obsolete, technologies...pay phones, turntables, tube television sets, 3/4" video tapes, VCRs, etc."
- Above: a video compilation of Scorsese on some of his favourite films.