“The square cartridge’s half-inch magnetic tape was recently digitized. The Cartrivision tape shedded white powder during the initial effort and deteriorated further during a second pass.”
Two Lost Welles Films From 1970 Unearthed

“Guillermo del Toro Remembers Making Pan’s Labyrinth: ‘Everything That Could Go Wrong Went Wrong’“

IRS Won’t Use Private-Party Facial Recognition (For Now) For You To Access Your Records

Mullally And Offerman To Host Spirit Awards

“I always say that it is not I who is provocative or scandalous, rather that the world is old and moldy. I refuse to allow myself to have censors dictate what I can and cannot show or decide for me what I, as an artist, should be presenting or representing. As both a woman and a director, I should be allowed to speak out and decide what images I want show, and how I am going to make my film. I forbid that censors dictate what my works are going to be like, or where I can place the camera or what I can show.”
Quelques mots avec Catherine Breillat

“William Gibson’s ‘Neuromancer’: Does the Edge Still Bleed?” by Eileen Gunn

“’I love product placement in movies,’ says CEO Stacy Spikes, wearing a Steve Jobs/Elizabeth Holmes-style turtleneck. ‘I’m the person that has a notepad and I’m writing down, is that Hugo Boss? I’m that guy.’ With the new version of MoviePass, you can watch ads to earn credits that can go toward free movies. Your phone camera will track your eyeballs to make sure you’re actually watching. ‘What it does is it basically creates a transaction between you and the brand.'”
MoviePass Publicizes Bizarre Relaunch

“Your phone, your device uses your own facial detection. It doesn’t go to the cloud, nobody goes through anything other than you andyour information in yours. And you opt in to do it on your own.” 

Alex Weprin: “Discovery shareholders will vote on the company’e merger with WarnerMedia on March 11. Would be final hurdle before a deal could close.”

The Twelfth Governors Awards, Honoring Samuel L. Jackson, Elaine May and Liv Ullmann, And Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award To Danny Glover Will Be Presented In An Even Smaller Format On March 25; Luxury Watch Company Remains Exclusive Sponsor

It’s Jonas Mekas FBI File Release Day!

Two More Scores For Spielberg, And John Williams Will Retire At 90

Sting Summons $300 Million For Songs: “It felt natural to unite everything in one trusted home”

“Want 87 minutes of something bright and beautiful with a cool kind of hotness? Try Kimi, a minimalist thriller in which Steven Soderbergh’s camera and an electric-blue-haired Zoë Kravitz move in sync like two rare birds in flight… A year or so from now, I’ll watch Kimi again and remember not just the panic of the pandemic, but the pleasure of movies that dazzle the mind’s eye and ear, particularly this one.”
Taubin On Kimi

Ann Hornaday At The Washington Post: “West Side Story, Steven Spielberg’s remake of the beloved 1961 classic, offers a poignant case study in the shifting standards: Although it’s been well-received by filmgoers who ventured out to see it, its release coincided with the omicron variant, which has kept its core audience of over-55 adults out of theaters . With seven nominations to its credit, including for best supporting actress, best director and best picture, the strategic question for West Side Story is whether its distributor, 20th Century Studios, will keep the film exclusively in theaters in the hopes of a post-nom bump, or hurry it to streaming to capitalize on heightened awareness there.”

West Side Story Will Premiere March 2 On Disney Plus In Most Of The World And HBO Max Only In The U.S.

Will Van Morrison Perform All Five Nominated Songs?
Oscar Ceremony Will Admit Unvaccinated Attendees, Unlike SAG Awards And Critics Choice

Producer Michael Shanberg, 41-Year Academy Member: “The Oscars will be dead by the end of the decade without a radical reset. First off, the Academy needs to rewrite or cancel the ABC contract because ABC forbids livestreaming the Oscars. Kids today are cord-cutters who can’t afford a carrier of broadcast TV. The ABC deal runs for another six years. Let Disney+ , which owns ABC, stream the Oscars. Or get Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, or HBO Max to bid for the rights. Each of these streamers has more than 70 million subscribers which dwarfs the maximum ABC broadcast television audience. The annual license fee of $125 million is a drop in the bucket to these deep-pocketed companies. Blow up the show and start from scratch. Even if every Marvel character gives out every award in costume it still won’t make a difference. Compared to the energetic and lively videos we see all the time on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, it’s dullsville to watch presenters read off a Teleprompter to a stiff audience sitting side-by-side. Nobody cares if all of the show is live.”

Richard Rushfield: “So the Academy exists to ratify the esoteric choices of guilds and 400 critics groups; critics who themselves are largely now unread, except by each other. But of course, it was impossible to hold the theatrical category to any viewership standards once the floodgates opened to the streamers. And instead of taking public reaction into account, it’s just thrown out the window, and Oscar can become… Another critics’ film circle? Which, if you’re looking at it from a perspective of honoring craftsmanship in cinema, is wonderful. If you’re looking at it from a perspective of maintaining a mass medium’s connection with a mass audience, then well, what would you say is the level of public excitement for one’s local critics’ circle announcements? Have you sensed an unfulfilled public demand for more of those?”

“I whispered “Holy shit” and “Jesus Christ” like a mantra during Hamaguchi’s long, considered takes. To discuss the plot any further would risk spoiling ‘Drive My Car’‘s wending paths. As you’d guess from the setting, there are themes of ruination and long-buried grief. And like Murakami’s interest in Western culture, Hamaguchi shows his admiration for French New Wave filmmakers like Jacques Rivette. Much of ‘Drive My Car’ is in dialogue with other films. There’s an audition scene with Takatsuki which recalls Naomi Watts’s from ‘Mulholland Drive.’ You can see Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan in the compositions and editing. And the long, revelatory car rides join a mini canon with George Sluizer’s ‘The Vanishing’ (the Dutch version) and Charlie Kaufman’s ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things.’ But Hamaguchi is his own capital-f Filmmaker.”

James Newton Howard Film Score Catalog Acquired By Multimedia Music After $100 Million Round Of Fundraising