• The Smithsons on Housing: writer and filmmaker B. S. Johnson’s eccentric and compelling BBC documentary made in 1970 about architects Alison and Peter Smithson; I came to this via John Grindrod’s terrific blog Dirty Rotten Scoundrel, which has an informative entry here (and lots more links to fascinating films).
• Los Angeles Plays Itself: Thom Andersen’s great 2003 essay film (above) about Hollywood’s representation of the city of angeles is finally available on DVD (albeit as a Region 1 impost); here’s the trailer…
• Survival tactics: German filmmakers in Hollywood, 1940-1960: a long, detailed and dense essay by Joe McElhaney for Lola about Michael Curtiz, Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder and others – fascinating if you’re prepared to devote the time it needs.
• How I feel for the films of Robert Siodmak: Geoff Andrew for the BFI on the noir director who has a retrospective at BFI Southbank this month and next; here’s the trailer for the re-release of Siodmak’s Cry of the City (1948):
• The Angelic Cinema of Manoel de Oliveira: a beautiful video essay by Kevin B. Lee for Fandor about the cinema of the director who died very recently, taking its inspiration from the film de Oliveira made at the age of 102, The Strange Case of Angelica (2010, above); go here for an excellent tribute to the filmmaker compiled by David Hudson.
• Stranger than fiction: Honour Bayes for The Space writes about how ‘artists are beginning to use YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and probably an array of new programmes I’m not cool enough to know about yet, to make art.’ She includes a host of projects including Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir…
• Let’s Tanz: Pina Bausch’s Wuppertal dancers on her unearthed 80s creations: with the radical German company back in London at Sadler’s Wells this week with Auf dem Gebirge Hat Man ein Geschrei Gehört (above), this is a really good piece by the Guardian’s Chris Wiegand about the recovery of early works by the late choreographer.
• Love and marriage – an ultimate journey: Adrian Martin at Fandor on Vigo, Rossellini and ‘a sense that second chances for married lovers are forever possible’ – lovely piece.
• Cries and Whispers – love and death: Emma Wilson for The Criterion Collection on Bergman’s great film (above), immaculately illustrated with extracts.
• Shedding her skin: The Good Wife, currently running on More4 (with, among others, Archie Panjabi as Kalinda Sharma, above) is simply the best thing on TV – did you see last week’s show with the prison consultant? This New Yorker piece by the excellent Emily Nussbaum from last autumn goes some way to explaining its strengths: ‘the series is a model of how strict boundaries—the sort that govern sonnets—can inspire greater brilliance than absolute freedom can.’
A time there was when I would post a list of links on a Sunday morning, but over the past week I have been experimenting with a new approach by which I highlight just three things each day. Even collectively, these easier to compile than the old Sunday links, and maybe easier to consume. Regularity and consistency, however, are essential for anything like this, so let’s see if I can keep the idea going for longer than this first week. Today’s choices are:
• The Grantland Q&A – Errol Morris: Alex Pappademas interviews the documentary maker at length: ‘I’ve often said that my work is the perfect blend of the prurient and the pedantic.’
• Screening Surveillance: a substantial video essay by Steve Anderson focussing on surveillance in Hollywood movies, including 1984 (1984); this is published by the excellent online journal [in]Transition, and is discussed both its maker and by Kevin B. Lee here.
• Video Essay – Walerian Borowczyk: an introduction by Violet Lucca to the strange, sexual world of the Polish filmmaker, tied to Obscure Pleasures: The Films of Walerian Borowczyk which has just closed at Lincoln Center.
(Go here for a note about why I have started to post in this way.)
• Tom Cruise’s 10 greatest movie stunts: fascinating Vulture article in which stuntman Randy Butcher talks Bilge Ebiri through moments of the Mission Impossible series and more, including this sequence:
• Georges Perec’s lost novel: by the French’s author’s translator and biographer, David Bellos, for the New York Review of Books.
