Videos for the weekend

12th January 2013

Always looking for the new and different, I am extending this blog’s ‘Links for the weekend’ (see tomorrow) with a complementary post that features just videos. Which doesn’t mean that I won’t include videos in the ‘Links’ but rather that this will provide me with a focus to look out different kinds of stuff. Some of the videos will be topical (like the Quentin Tarantino interview below), while others may be quirky choices from long ago that I happened across during the week. Wherever possible, I will embed the videos here, but on occasions I will include links to sites that do not allow this. I will also aim to include things that are going to stay around, so this is not the place for time-restricted BBC iPlayer tips. As for the detail above of Paul Emsley’s new portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge, unveiled yesterday at the National Portrait Gallery, see no 10 below. 

1. Quentin Tarantino on Channel 4 News

‘I’m shutting your butt down,’ shouts the director as Krishnan Guru-Murthy pushes him on the possible link between violence on the screen and the real world. 8 min 36 sec.

2. 50 Essential Chinese Films

Kevin B. Lee’s Keyframe video is an astonishing compilation, about which he writes very thoughtfully in an essential Fandor blog post which also includes credits for each film included. 6 min 53 sec.

3. Trailer for No (2012)

Released in the UK on 8 February, No is a new (and newly Oscar-nominated) Chilean movie set inside the media team for voting against Pinochet in the 1988 referendum. Pablo Larrain directs what many think is one of the best-ever movies about politics and media. 1 min 29 sec.

4. Snow (1963)

Courtesy of the BFI’s YouTube channel (and programmed here because of this weekend’s weather warnings), this is Geoffrey Jones’ wonderful short, made for British Transport Films and cut to a sensational Johnny Hawksworth score. BBC Radiophonic Workshop wonder woman Daphne Oram receives a ‘Music Effects’ credit. If you’ve never seen it before, you’ll love it – and it will make you think about the possibilities of sponsored documentaries in a quite new way. 7 min 47 sec.

5. Alan Rusbridger plays Chopin

In a charming video the Guardian’s editor reflects on taking up the piano again as an adult and learning to play Chopin’s first Ballade. 4 min 48 sec.

6. Eugene Onegin trailer

In the wake of Royal Opera LIVE on Monday, during which we saw early rehearsals for this production, here is the moody Royal Opera House trailer for Kasper Holten’s new production of Tchaikovsky’s great opera. There is more here about the production, which is shown live in cinemas on 20 February. 1 min 04 sec.

7. This is the BBC (1959)

… and this is one of the great documentaries about television, directed by Richard Cawston as a celebration of the BBC. The structure is a-day-in-the-life and there’s no commentary, just a dazzling montage of sounds and sights. I keep meaning to write more fully about the film – and perhaps featuring it here will encourage me to do that. The presentation on YouTube is courtesy of the Alexandra Palace Television Society. 81 min 53 sec.

8. Tate Shots: Kurt Schwitters – Merz Barn

The German artist Kurt Schwitters lived the last years of his life in exile in the Lake District where he constructed a final, extraordinary work. The latest Tate Shots is tied in to the forthcoming Schwitters in Britain exhibition which opens at Tate Britain on 30 January. 2 min 30 sec.

9.1913 | Dynamism of a Soccer Player by Umberto Boccioni

MoMA’s Chief Curator for Painting and Sculpture Ann Temkin introduces Boccioni’s futurist masterpiece from one hundred years ago. 1 min 17 secs.

10. HRH The Duchess of Cambridge

At Illuminations my colleague Linda Zuck, working with editor Todd Macdonald, produced this short video about Paul Emsley’s new portrait for the National Portrait Gallery. The painting, unveiled yesterday, has had a fairly rocky reception so far. 3 min 30 sec.