The Noteworthy: Critics Round Up, Soderbergh's Speech, Mekas' "Outtakes"

Edited by Adam Cook

News.

• A more than welcomed alternative to Rotten Tomatoes, Critics Round Up is "the first movie review aggregator to select critics and publications based on merit instead of popularity." We're proudly among the publications cited and this is a space that will likely be a valuable source for cinephiles trying to get a sense of critical consensus amongst writers they trust (and will likely be especially handy come Cannes).

• Some additions to the Cannes lineup: Jim Jarmusch's vampire film, Only Lovers Left Alive, is now in the Official Competition. Claude Lanzmann's Le dernier des injustes will play Out of Competition and Un Certain Regard has added three titles from Hiner Saleem, Katrin Gebbe and Lucia Puenzo. Meanwhile, Cannes Classics has unveiled its selection of restorations and docs. Finally, 3x3D, featuring 3D shorts from Jean-Luc Godard (pictured above), Peter Greenaway and Edgar Pêra, will close Semaine de la Critique.

• Over the weekend, at the Riviera Maya Film Festival, prize money was handed out to some "works in progress," and one of the winners is a production we're following closely: Raya Martin and Mark Peranson's La Ultima Pelicula. Keep your eyes peeled for a festival debut in the coming months. The awarding jury's statement: 

"With hilarious and poetic heterogeneity, this meta-immersion into the unknown turns out to be successful in spite of having been designed for failure. It evokes past stories while looking ahead to an imminent filmic, cultural and spiritual apocalypse."

Finds.

• Above: via The San Francisco Film Society, Steven Soderbergh's keynote speech on the State of Cinema (full transcript here).

• A new blog, The Vulgar Cinema, has assembled a group of "open letters" to John McTiernan. 

• Above: a clip from Jonas Mekas' Outtakes From the Life of a Happy Man, on which Aaron Cutler has a piece in The Village Voice:

"Images race by of snowy city walks, sunlit relaxing in parks, and late-night drinks at home. Mekas himself sometimes shows up as a willowy, angular man who seems to have rounded and mellowed with age. Throughout, Out-Takes contrasts his different selves. The older Mekas periodically appears whistling and listening to rock music in his studio as he edits and projects his life, drinking in his present moment. The younger Mekas flashes in and out along with friends and family members, all of whom appear in shots that are just long enough to be absorbed, after the manner of the filmmaker's previous Bolex-recorded treasures. This silent 16mm footage, often scored here with choral chanting, has been glowingly transferred to video. Though they capture the past, these preserved images exist to please whoever receives them in the present."

• Above: Michael Mann makes the Hong Kong news as he prepares to shoot his next film, Cyber, starring Chris Hemsworth.

• Above: from the Tribeca Film Festival's 30th anniversary screening of The King of Comedy: Jerry Lewis reunited with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro (take a look here for some highlights of the evening).

From the archives.

• Above: Images of the Mind - Cinematic Visions by Raymond Durgnat, "Finnish academic Jarmo Valkola's 1992 documentary about the highly influential British film critic."