Film Links

• Christian Petzold’s new film Barbara has been getting excellent reviews, and will be the official German entry considered for nomination in the Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film category. I’m a huge fan of the (regrettably only) three films of his I’ve seen so far, The State I Am In (2000), Yella (2007) and Jerichow (2008). Fandor’s Keyframe has published an article on Petzold and his films that serves as a good introduction to his work.
• Ashes, a recent short film by 2010 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul, is available for viewing for free at MUBI. Known as Joe to those few who can’t or prefer not to try to pronounce his given name, Weerasethakul discusses Ashes and another recent film, Mekong Hotel, here.
• The September edition of Senses of Cinema is available here.
• Andrew O’Heir bemoans the end of a vibrant movie culture, and its replacement by a focus on television, at Salon.com. While he perhaps exaggerates a bit, I can’t help but see his point. Films are very rarely at the center of our cultural conversation anymore, except in purely financial terms.
• Many of you have probably noticed, as I did, that Robert Osborne, the genial host on Turner Classic Movies, hasn’t been on the air recently. Luckily, he has now returned, and it was not a health problem that kept him away. He addresses his absence in this letter.