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NEWS
Lil Peep and Terrence Malick
- Here's a surprising one: Terrence Malick is set to executive produce a documentary about the late rapper Lil Peep.
- Ang Lee has begun preparing to direct a biographical film about Teresa Teng, the Taiwanese pop icon who passed away in 1995 at the age of 42. There's also some very exciting rumors that the role of Teng is to be played by pop icon Faye Wong.
- Lucrecia Martel is mounting her next feature, her first documentary chronicling "the murder of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar and the removal of his community from their ancestral land in Argentina."
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
- The Coen brothers' forthcoming anthology western, starring the likes of Liam Neeson, Zoe Kazan, Tom Waits, and Tim Blake Nelson, gets its 2nd trailer ahead of its Netflix release.
- This one caught us by surprise: Shunji Iwai (All About Lily Chou Chou, April Story) has a new film on the way entitled Last Letter, which is set to release in China and North America this Friday. Here's the trailer, sans English subtitles:
- The remarkably productive (and consistent!) Sergei Loznitsa is back with a new documentary assembled from footage of a Soviet show trial concerning a possible civilian coup d’état. We interviewed Loznitsa earlier this year in Cannes about his other new, excellent movie Donbass.
- David Lynch & Angelo Badalamenti have released their long lost album under the banner Thought Gang, originally recorded in 1992. Here's a renewed, casually surreal music video from the project for the track "A Real Indication," which was previously heard in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
- We somehow missed this last week: American independent animator Don Hertzfeldt has kindly shared the HD restoration for his 2001 short comic masterpiece Rejected.
RECOMMENDED READING
Robert Pattinson for Interview Magazine.
- For Interview Magazine, Robert Pattinson shares an honest conversation with Willem Dafoe about his fear of interviews, risk-taking roles, and the divide between personal versus popular works of art.
- With the long road to Orson Welles final film now complete, many writers have now filed their thoughts on the infamous, complicated, even caustic vision that is The Other Side of the Wind: For Steven, it's a "late-career revision of Citizen Kane," Neil Bahadur reckons with the film's nuanced relationship with authorship, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky examines its treatment of filmmaking, and for Nick Pinkerton "it completes a legacy."
- Meanwhile for Frieze, a lucid and captivating discussion between scholars Erika Balsom and Trinh T. Minh-ha that branches out from documentary filmmaking and identity politics to decolonial feminism.
- The November-December 2018 of Film Comment includes reviews of several rule-bending and intriguing titles from the last year: Manu Yáñez Murillo on Happy as Lazarro, Jeff Reichart on Bodied, and Aliza Ma on Shoplifters.
- A necessary perspective on the ecological consequences of our advancements in recording technology: Ed Yong of The Atlantic has provided a harrowing look into a viral video of a baby bear, whose life was put on the line by the nearby drone that captured the footage.
- A new issue of The Brooklyn Rail has arrived, and includes wonderful pieces on recent cinema, including Gina Telaroli on Happy As Lazarro and its treatment of modernity, and Phil Coldiron on the soundscapes of Mary Helena Clark's The Glass Note, which we're currently showing on MUBI in select regions.
- On the topic of lost and unfinished movies, at The New York Times Jason Bailey gathers an enlightening list of films resurrected.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Linda Darnell
- Karina Longworth's essential podcast You Must Remember This takes a look back at the life and career of Hollywood star Linda Darnell in its latest episode.
RECENTLY ON THE NOTEBOOK
- Elissa Suh provides an overview of BAMcinématek's "Women At Work" series, featuring films by Martha Rosler, Chantal Akerman, Ousmane Sembène, and Todd Haynes.
- For the latest entry in his "Infinite Fest" column, Eric Hatch contemplates "the potential for transformation and growth in audiences—and year-round engagement thereof," particularly regarding younger, more diverse demographics.
- To accompany the ongoing MUBI retrospective Guru Dutt Restored!, Sucheta Chakraborty takes a look at Dutt's "commercially successful and yet formally rigorous" works, and the "in-between space" that they occupy within the traditions of Indian cinema.
EXTRAS AND RE-DISCOVERIES
- Alanis Obomsawin, the great chronicler of Canadian First Nations experiences, has received a gorgeous mural on the streets of Montreal. You can watch 26 of Obomsawin's films for free at the National Film Board of Canada's website.
A new mural in Montreal is being unveiled this morning, it pays tribute to Abénaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin. pic.twitter.com/FiCng3Cu2K
— Ka’nhehsí:io Deer (@Kanhehsiio) November 5, 2018