Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.
NEWS
Jia Zhangke's Ash is Purest White.
- Just in case you missed it, the multiple lineups for the various festivals at Cannes this year have been announced. You can find all of the announcements on Notebook: the 71st Cannes Film Festival, Directors' Fortnight, Critics Week, and ACID. Additionally, Cannes has also announced the jury tending to the official selection: Cate Blanchett (President), Chang Chen, Ava DuVernay, Robert Guédiguian, Khadja Nin, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Denis Villeneuve, and Andrey Zvyagintsev.
- After a truly eventful life (which includes being kidnapped by Kim Jong-il) and phenomenal career in cinema, the Korean screen legend Choi Eun-hee has died. Screen International provides a thorough obituary.
- Czech New Wave luminary and New Hollywood transplant Miloš Forman has died. Duane Byrge honors the man and artist with an obituary for The Hollywood Reporter.
- We remain very eager for the next film from American auteur Michael Mann, which is why we're glad to hear he has purchased the rights for an exposé on transnational crime figure Paul Le Roux, as reported by Deadline.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING
- The first trailer to appear for Dogman, Matteo Garrone's new film set to premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
RECOMMENDED READING
- For The New York Review of Books, Darryl Pinckney charts some of the imperative early silent films made by black directors and the many battles against racist representations.
- Another highlight from the NYRB is by Esther Allen, who translated into English Antonio Di Benedetto's Zama. Allen goes into the history of Di Benedetto's authorship, her own translation work, and, of course, its relationship to Lucrecia Martel's brilliant adaptation into cinema of the novel.
- The 40th Cinéma du Réel film festival, dedicated to groundbreaking works in ethnographic and experimental film, concluded earlier this month. Leo Goldsmith provides an essential overview of this years lineup for Artforum. Tangentially, Erika Balsom ponders for Frieze why filmmakers are increasingly turning to the form of landscape.
- At his personal website, film critic and avant-garde connoisseur Michael Sicinski considers the many experimental victories of "Canyon 50," a traveling retrospective of the most significant artistic institution dedicated to the avant-garde in the United States: Canyon Cinema.
- Willow Maclay and Caden Gardner continue their crucial, illuminating analysis of transgender cinema (in preparation for a book on the subject) with Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin.
- For The Village Voice, Craig Keller "reintroduces" the many cinematic talents of Sacha Guitry, in the event of a mini-retrospective at Spectacle cinema in New York.
RECENTLY ON THE NOTEBOOK
- We've translated the shooting diary for Damien Nanivel and Kohei Igarashi's charming feature, The Night I Swam.
- You both watch and read about the graduation film of Daisies director Vera Chytilová, a poignant portrait of a Czech fashion model.
- Our movie poster columnist rounds up the most popular designs he has recently found.
EXTRAS
- Apropos of Choi Eun-hee's passing, here's the the actress and filmmaker with Marilyn Monroe (date unknown).
François Truffaut’s press card for the 1957 Cannes Film Festival pic.twitter.com/GmlLZbxfzA
— Eyes On Cinema (@RealEOC) April 12, 2018
- We're counting the weeks until Cannes, in the meantime here's François Truffaut's (misspelled!) press pass from an earlier edition of the festival.