The week’s links 22-28/4
Marc Karlin was a major filmmaker and a good man. He was a colleague and we worked together on two of his films for television. I appreciated his imaginative and rigorously intellectual yet poetic approach to working with images and sounds. I admired his organising energy, his passion and his political commitment. And I’m grateful that he took me to my first professional football game, at his beloved Highbury. He died in 1999 – and my obituary for The Independent, written in great sadness, is here. Picture This in Bristol, in conjunction with the In the Spirit of Marc Karlin research project, has just hosted an exhibition of his work, together with a weekend of screenings at Arnolfini (only Julius Caesar preparations prvented me from going). And there was a roundtable discussion of his legacy, an audio recording of which can – wonderfully – is available for download here. More links for the week, with the expectation of additions across the coming days, can be found across the jump. [Updated: 07:45 on Thursday.]
• The death of film and the Hollywood response: the excellent online film journal Senses of Cinema has a spiffy new look, and this piece by Andrew Gilbert on this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Picture is a fascinating read: ‘Each of these movies deals with the conflict of reconciling past and present, and offers its own solution and resolutions that while not always practical, satisfy us emotionally. In each we find the pain of nostalgia, the problem of transition, and the power of, and need for, the past.’
• Garlands and cobwebs – Vincente Minnelli’s ecstatic vision: at Sight & Sound Keith Uhlich considers the extraordinary work of the director who is showcased at BFI Southbank this month and nxt.
• Clear and present: Dennis Lim for Artforum on the glorious films of Robert Bresson, most especially The Devil, Probably.
• It’s good to be the King of the World: David Bordwell on the extraordinary power of James Cameron.
• Success breeds success: spot-on Mark Shenton piece for The Stage on excellence of current generation of stage directors – but it’s disappointing to learn that Rupert Goold will not be directing the RSC Troilus and Cressida as a collaboration with the Wooster Group this summer.
• Streaming ahead: Laura Battle for the Financial Times on Glyndebourne’s plans to stream its operas to cinemas, and on the general trend to this by houses elsewhere.
• Nick Denton wants to turn the online media world on its head: interesting piece by Mathew Ingram for Gigaom about the thoughts about online discussion of the founder of Gawker.
• *NEW* The crisis of big science: Steven Weinberg considers the funding problems for nuclear physics and astrophysics, but the kicker is in the final paragraph: ‘It seems to me that what is really needed is not more special pleading for one or another particular public good, but for all the people who care about these things to unite in restoring higher and more progressive tax rates, especially on investment income.’
World Shakespeare Festival (in which I’ll try to draw together some of the best pieces about Globe to Globe and more):
• Around the world in 37 plays: lovely Andrew Dickson scene-setter for the Guardian.
• Venus and Adonis: for The Arts Desk Jasper Rees hymns the opening Globe to Globe presentation – Shakespeare’s sexy narrative poem staged by Cape Town’s Isango Ensemble.
• *NEW* In praise of… Shakespeare’s sonnet 18: the Guardian gives us ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day’ in, well, fourteen different languages.
… and …
• Twelfth Night is the first of three Radio 3 Shakespeares that will be available for download and to keep (yes, download, not just streaming – but only for the next seven days); this new production has David Tennant as Malvolio (and you can sign up for the other two as podcasts via iTunes). Thank you, Radio 3!
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