LOST: French Filmmaker Sarah Maldoror Was 82

Macron Says No French Fests Before Mid-July at Earliest

A Monday Message From Nicolas Winding Refn

Kim Masters: “Matt Holzman created The Business, got me hired as host and argued with me relentlessly when he produced the show in my early years. In many ways, he was KCRW. No one ever had a bigger heart. What a crushing loss.”

Unicode: No New Emoji Until 2022

A Thread From Jason Zinoman: “Just realized it’s been exactly a month since I’ve taken the subway or gone into the city. I went to Joe Allen’s to interview Martin McDonagh. Grateful it began like this:
Me: I’ve interviewed thousands of people…
Martin McDonagh: And I’m the best. Or the drunkest?”

“i live like a movie serial killer now. wake up, drink some black coffee then pace around my immaculate apartment, maybe do some push-ups. later, i’ll take out the garbage full of anti-bacterial wipes and nitrile gloves while maintaining a a safe distance from everyone i see.”

“When people draw clichéd analogies between the crisis and the second world war, they seem to forget very obvious things. That conflict was characterised by mass mobilisation. Anyone who could work simply had to: the great upsurge in production that necessarily underpins all-out war demanded it. The coronavirus crisis brings the polar opposite: a new world of confinement, silence, closures, lay-offs and ‘furloughing.’ If you are able to work from home, relatively free of anxiety about your job and so far untouched by either illness or death, isolation might come with compensations: you may, indeed, be living the Sunday-supplement lockdown dream of craft projects with the kids and demolishing your backlog of novels. But that is the experience of a tiny minority, even if it is informing some of the media’s apparent neglect of what so-called lockdown actually means for millions of people.”

“in like a year we’re gonna go through a weird period where there are no new movies or TV shows at all”

UK Newspapers: ““Many groups cited a precipitous fall in advertising as they unveiled the cuts but delivery has also become a critical issue as customers who bought newspapers during a routine shop visit or on their daily commute stay at home. Up to 4,000 outlets across the country that sell print titles have been forced to shut during the lockdown.”

Memo To The 6,000 Employees Of Condé Nast: “For those of you who celebrated the recent Passover or Easter holidays, and for those who may still be out today, I hope you’ve had the opportunity to spend time with your families and loved ones – whether virtually, or in person. While we’re working from home, we still need to take time to recharge.As I’ve shared in my recent emails, we’ve been working to assess the impact of the crisis on our business and to reset our financial plan for the year. That work has involved modeling several different scenarios. I recognize these are extremely challenging times both personally and professionally, and that any amount of added uncertainty is stressful. As a leadership team, we’ve continued to work to do everything possible to protect jobs, limit impact to lower wage earners, and continue to provide benefits to individuals and their families through this time. Temporary salary reductions: We’re implementing temporary salary reductions for all those who earn a base salary of at least $100K. This action will start at the top. I will take a 50% reduction of my base salary, as will the external members of our board. We will also work to implement reduced working hours and work week schedules (e.g. three to four-day work weeks) for certain roles, in particular where government programs and stimulus packages can help supplement employees’ earnings. These decisions will be made locally in markets in accordance with available government programs. Along with the salary reductions noted above, these are actions that will help us preserve jobs and benefits. Our efforts to diversify our business model and grow consumer revenue are helping us weather this challenging time, and we must continue to focus and adapt our business in that direction. Over the past few months, I’ve said repeatedly how proud I am of this team. That is even more true today, as we embark together on these actions in an effort to protect our business for the long term.“

“Quentin Tarantino asking the Ringer dudes ‘Why do you guys always quote Roger Ebert like he’s Aristotle?’ is one of the funniest things I’ve heard on a podcast.”

“Iger has effectively returned to running the company. After a few weeks of letting Chapek take charge, Mr. Iger smoothly reasserted control, BlueJeans video call by BlueJeans video call. (Disney does not use Zoom for its meetings for security reasons.) The new, nominal chief executive is referred to, almost kindergarten style, as “Bob C,” while Mr. Iger is still just “Bob.” And his title is “executive chairman” — emphasis on the first word. Mr. Iger is now intensely focused on remaking a company that will emerge, he believes, deeply changed by the crisis. The sketch he has drawn for associates offers a glimpse at the post-pandemic future: It’s a Disney with fewer employees, leading the new and uncertain business of how to gather people safely for entertainment… The company is losing as much as $30 million a day [and] borrowed $6 billion at the end of March.”
Bob Iger Is Back

More Assault Charges Against Sex Offender Harvey Weinstein

“One of his first stories was about a young man whose kidney disease left him on punishing dialysis three days a week in a five year long wait for a donor kidney. That man was Matt. He got a call while he was in line for a ride at Disneyland that some very precious cargo was waiting for him.
KCRW Mainstay Matt Holzman, Hosted “The Document”

“Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day is the ‘War and Peace’ of Taiwanese juvenile-delinquent movies. It is also part of a tradition of films that use the process of a character slowly learning a single song as a narrative-building device.”

Stan’s Donuts L. A., Open Since 1965: “Thank you! We baked our last donut on Thursday, April 9, 2020”

Burning Man Sputters

David Cale On Paris, Texas: “I write and perform monologues. I tried to emulate the peep-show monologues in my show ‘Smooch Music.’ Do my version of them, without seeming derivative. A friend gave me the published script with scene stills. When it came out on video I bought it. When it came on DVD on a low-budget label I bought it again, and then subsequently acquired the English DVD because I thought it might be a better print. And then when Criterion released it, I purchased it again. I’ve seen the film probably ten more times since that first encounter, and still when those final scenes begin, I brace myself. And can’t wholly understand what the film has done and is doing that so deeply moves me.”

“Johnny Guitar (1954) is the world’s first and perhaps only work of art.”