Owen Gleiberman Takes A While To Approach A Point About All Writers, Which, To These Eyes, Is Perhaps That Even The Most Discursive And The Most Prolix And The Most Enervating Among Us (Close And, Yes, Also Far Away), Are Deserving Of An Editor, One Who Is Not A Friend, But One Who Is Still Kind And Stern: "But not really. Because even once you accept that Orson Welles did deserve the co-screenplay credit for Citizen Kane, there’s a question that lingers, and it’s the mystery that I think Kael tried (unsuccessfully) to poke at. Kael’s essay, among other things, was a kind of backhanded meditation on the inner meaning of what a screenplay is. And the reason that question creates such an endless conundrum when we think of Citizen Kane is that Kane was the Hollywood movie that changed the answer to it. If you believe, as I do, that Kane is the greatest movie to have come out of classic Hollywood, and maybe the greatest movie ever made, and then you ask, “Okay, but why is it the greatest movie?,” the answer is 50 reasons at once — the visionary excitement of it, the through-a-snow-globe-darkly gothic majesty of it, the joyous acting and grand brooding cinematography, the hypnotic structure, the playfulness, the doomy haunting mythology of Rosebud, and on and on and on. The pleasures and profundity of Kane are right there on the surface, and infinitely deep beneath the surface."

Yahoo | November 29, 2020

France: "On one hand, citizens are asked to accept the possibility of being filmed under the pretext that they have nothing to fear if they have done nothing wrong. And at the same time the police refuse to be filmed, which is a right in every democracy”

November 29, 2020

Nimic and the Top Ten Favorite Movie Posters of Designer Vasilis Marmatakis

November 29, 2020

David Prowse Was 85

Hollywood Reporter | November 28, 2020

“Tony Hsieh, 46, the former boss of Zappo’s, who pumped a fortune into downtown Las Vegas and became the face of its revitalization”

November 27, 2020

Martin Campbell on Casino Royale: “I think the sequence was pretty convincing. What you realize is, it’s not just the card games — it’s the stakes. It’s also two guys eye-fucking one another, basically. That was the secret.”

Polygon | November 27, 2020

Internet of Not-so-Dumb Things: “U. S. government agencies from the military to law enforcement have been buying up mobile-phone data from the private sector to use in gathering intelligence, monitoring adversaries and apprehending criminals. Now, the U.S. Air Force is experimenting with the next step. The Air Force Research Laboratory is testing a commercial software platform that taps mobile phones as a window onto usage of hundreds of millions of computers, routers, fitness trackers, modern automobiles and other networked devices, known collectively as the ‘Internet of Things.’”

Wall Street Journal | November 27, 2020

Deutsche Kinos bis Dezember 20 geschlossen

Hollywood Reporter | November 27, 2020

“Behind the lights, pyrotechnics and superstars at every arena show is a crew several times the size of the band. From lighting riggers to sound engineers, tour managers to caterers, these crew members – sometimes thirty-strong – are the ones who put the show on the stage. Yet throughout the pandemic, they have been forgotten.”

November 27, 2020

"The law that enabled the rise of social media and other internet businesses is facing threats unlike anything in its 24-year history, with potentially significant consequences for websites that host user content. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was instrumental to the success of Silicon Valley tech giants such as Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google and YouTube by giving them broad immunity for the content they publish from users on their sites."

Wall Street Journal | November 26, 2020

Daria Nicolodi: "Not only an incredible actress the co-writer of one of the most legendary horror films of all time, Suspiria..."

Twitter | November 26, 2020

"Courted by criminals, the King of Spain and even the Pope, Maradona became a quasi-religious figure in Naples. He brought joy to a desperately poor city blighted by bloody conflicts between the competing clans of the powerful Camorra organised crime network, one of whom Maradona would get to know well. Maradona's penchant for late-night parties, cocaine and women were almost as famous as his magical displays on the pitch. But on Thursday many of the pictures and letters being left for him outside the stadium were from adoring children. Fathers and sons performed the sign of the cross in front of blown-up photos capturing the footballing wizard as he ran wildly down the pitch after scoring, his arms raised in triumph. So deep was Maradona's attachment to Naples that he called Napoli's first-ever league title, won a year after he led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup, the "greatest triumph" of his career."

Yahoo | November 26, 2020

"Pretty Soon There’ll Be Just One Big Book Publisher Left: The acquisition of Simon & Schuster by Penguin Random House shows the industry headed toward a monopolistic singularity"

November 26, 2020

Chad Hurley: "If I was still CEO of YouTube , I’d implement layers of verification, either social or monetary, to determine your relevance in search or related videos. The era of unchecked growth is over."

"This is a great idea. Post whatever you want, free speech. But if you want the algorithms to pick you up for distribution, there's some layers of know-your-customer and quality checks you have to run through. Not free distribution."

Twitter | November 26, 2020

"While it may not be perfect, McQueen’s Lovers Rock is a solid contribution to the ongoing project of archiving our histories, which – although it is easy to forget – are characterised by joy as well as struggle."

The Guardian | November 26, 2020

Disney Increases Worker Layoff Total to 31,000

November 25, 2020

“MURDOCH TO TRUMP: DROP DEAD”

November 25, 2020

ViacomCBS to Sell Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House for More Than $2 Billion

Hollywood Reporter | November 25, 2020

“Hungary's government has hit George Clooney for describing Prime Minister Viktor Orban as an example of anger and hate in the world who could fuel a dystopian future. “We weren't in the middle of a pandemic when it happened, but there were still all these other elements, these elements of how much hate and anger all of us are experiencing in this moment of history, all over the world - go to Bolsonaro in Brazil, or Orban in Hungary." Government spokesman Ors Farkas said the actor voiced the pro-immigration message of Hungarian-born U.S. liberal billionaire George Soros, a promoter of open societies and a long-time Orban opponent... “George Clooney is a good actor so deserves respect, but... nobody should treat him like a global political oracle. He has people whispering in his ears."

November 24, 2020

Gianfranco Rosi on Documentary Filmmakers: "We have to experiment constantly. We have to find a language, a challenge and not repeating ourselves. That is what is fantastic about documentary – that you’re able to experiment and challenge yourself. Commissioning editors give you money for a script and then the film has to be that script. That is wrong. You start with a lie... the death of documentary. It’s such a limitation when they ask you to write a script. You cannot write a script. You can write an idea and that idea has to be extremely pregnant, extremely thick. My films are never born with a table or a pen. My films are born with a very small idea and a big need. When I start any project, I never know where it goes. I never know when I put the camera down in front of me what is going to happen. For me, every film is a matter of being able to find the right language in order to be able to tell that story… When you put the camera down, things happen in front of you.”

Screen Daily | November 24, 2020