Good news from Poland! It seems the film industry is growing rapidly over there, and it’s producing quality material. Stephen Heyman of the New York Times has an article about Poland’s film scene here.
Film
[Article] We’re an Anonymous Band: How Do You Make a Film About the Residents?
A legitimate question, really, posed over at Rolling Stone Magazine. Still, the idea of seeing a well-done documentary on The Residents is intriguing.
[Film] ‘Watership Down’ to be released by The Criterion Collection
Watership Down was my favorite movie as a child, even with all the violence and political intrigue in the movie a 10-year-old would not be able to process maturely.
It’s nice to see The Criterion Collection publish a piece of my childhood.
[Sample] Das Mädchen von Hongkong O.S.T.
I can’t get enough of cheese-ball Euro-trash soundtracks, so coming across a gem like this on Bandcamp made my day! It’s for Das Mädchen von Hongkong, a film from 1973, and Black Pearl Records deserves all credit for hipping the world to this digital album.
[Film] Wim Wenders: “Everything I loved I had to defend”
The Talks is a website I came across through my daily Facebook crawls. Today’s issue has an interview with German film director Wim Wenders, mainly on what makes the man tick.
[Lit] ‘Dr. Zhivago’: The Classic Book That Was Almost Never Published
Russia bans books and movies from time to time. It takes a lot of cheek to compare banning a literary classic like Boris Pasternak’s ‘Dr. Zhivago‘ to trash like Pussy Riot, but this is what one learns to expect from the Huffington Post.
Still, the literary world would have been a poorer place had ‘Dr. Zhivago’ had never seen the light of day.
Read Petra Couvée’s article for HuffPo here.
[Film] Run Run Shaw, Chinese-Movie Giant of the Kung Fu Genre, Dies at 106
Run Run Shaw, king of Hong Kong film industry, and especially Kung Fu Theater, passed away at the age of 106. Jonathan Kandell of The New York Times eulogizes the legend here.
[Film] Bosnian Cinema: Out of Bosnia Film Retrospective
Though this post is quite old, Andrew Horton’s post for Kinoeye is quite informative if you have an interest in learning more about Bosnian cinema.
[Video] Paul Bowles – An American in Tangier (1993)
Paul Bowles, the legendary wandering scribe who introduced America to the pleasure of 1950s Morocco in all its splendor, mystery and decadence, is given a wonderful documentary tribute. The video is directed by Mohamed Ulad-Mohand, and is hosted by the ever-wonderful UbuWeb, which houses many of the experimental and avant-garde world’s treasures.
Bidoun Magazine, a great resource covering art, music and culture from the Middle East and the Ummah in general, contributed mightily to hosting this video.
