The Roundup is a regular column which collates (and curates) news, feature articles, podcast episodes and other online curios associated with film.
News
- Tarantino is taking over Los Angeles revival cinema, the New Beverly, with a strict no-digital policy. He’s planning on showing prints from his own extensive personal collection, as well as showing his own films every week, saying “If you want to see one of my movies in 35mm, any week of the year, there is one place you can go to.”
- Miranda July launched Miu Miu-backed messaging app Somebody, where strangers act as conduits to deliver your messages, with an accompanying short film at the Venice Film Festival.
- TIFF have decreed that September 5 shall henceforth be known as Bill Murray Day. We have no objections.
- Our friends at The Festivalists are launching Movie Club, involving screenings and talks hosted together with the Museum of Sydney. It kicks off on September 21 with a series of documentaries on Australian architecture, moderated by Sydney architect David Neustein.
- Legendary Bondi Junction video store Dr What is having one final closing down sale from 16-28 September.
- Comedian and cinephile Bill Hader has compiled a pretty excellent list of the 200 movies he thinks every comedy writer should see.
Features
- This article by The New York Times’ A. O. Scott and Manohla Dargis suggests the representation of female characters in films is improving.
- From The Guardian: UK film classification board the BBFC’s granting of an 18+ rating for Jörg Buttgereit previously censored 1987 horror film Nekromantik has reignited the debate on acceptable limits for horror and pornography.
- David Bordwell’s essay on his personal history and connection to film archives is a must-read.
- Drew Johnson has started a fascinating six-part series of essays on the “ephemeral real” in cinema in The Los Angeles Review of Books.
Podcasts
- We recently discovered Peter Labuza’s series of podcasts The Cinephiliacs. We recommend his interviews with Gabe Klinger, former Chicago Reader and New York Times critic-turned-MoMA-programmer Dave Kehr, and Dana Stevens talking about her love for Max Ophüls’ classic Letter from an Unknown Woman.
Other
- This 8-bit pixel art tribute to the films of Hayao Miyazaki (pictured above) is pretty incredible.
- Check out Rivette, Rohmer, Truffaut et al’s star ratings of films from back in the day (we’re personally offended by their relatively low rating of Tashlin’s 1955 classic Artists and Models).
- This reading list for Thomas Beard’s course on Writings by Filmmakers has us asking where to sign up.
- Michael Pattison wrote some sage advice on how to make it as a film critic for those starting out on the international film festival circuit.
Tweet of the Week
I like to imagine that everyone who bought a ticket to Sin City 2 on opening weekend ended up in the Under the Skin black-abyss
— Ian Barr (@ianbarr) September 8, 2014