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François Truffaut’s Big Interview with Alfred Hitchcock (Free Audio) | Open Culture
The great French filmmaker François Truffaut would have turned 80 today, and to celebrate, we’re bringing back a wonderful series of audio recordings — Truffaut’s lengthy interview with another legendary director, Alfred Hitchcock. Back in 1962, François Truffaut , the inspiration behind French New Wave cinema, met with Hitchcock. And, assisted by a helpful translator, the two directors talked through Hitchcock’s life and vast filmography, moving from his early films shot it Britain ( Blackmail , The 39 Steps , Secret Agent ), to his later Hollywood productions – North by Northwest , Psycho and Vertigo. In total, Truffaut and Hitchcock talked for over 12 hours, and, several years later, Truffaut published a now classic book based on these conversations: Alfred Hitchcock: A Definitive Study (1967). Thanks to the Hitchcock Wiki , these original audio recordings now appear online. 25 recordings, each separated into 30 minute chunks. Below, you can revisit a selection of these recordings.
The Mind & Art of Maurice Sendak: A Video Sketch | Open Culture
Like the children in his books, Maurice Sendak, at age 83, is doing the best he can to navigate a frightening and bewildering world. “We all have to find our way,” Sendak says in this revealing little film from the Tate museums. “If I could find my way through picture-making and book illustration, or whatever you want to call it, I’d be okay.” In books like In the Night Kitchen , Where the Wild Things Are and Outside, Over There , Sendak has explored the wonders–and terrors–of childhood. “No one,” wrote Dave Eggers recently in Vanity Fair , “has been more uncompromising, more idiosyncratic, and more in touch with the unhinged and chiaroscuro subconscious of a child.” Sendak’s own childhood in Brooklyn, New York, was a time of emotional trauma.
Mathematics in Movies: Harvard Prof Curates 150+ Scenes | Open Culture
Oliver Knill teaches calculus, linear algebra and differential equations at Harvard, and, several years back, he pulled together a fairly nifty collection of Mathematics Scenes in Movies . Over 150 films are represented here, everything from Good Will Hunting , A Beautiful Mind , Jurassic Park (above) to Alice in Wonderland (1951), The Maltese Falcon and Apocalypse Now . You can watch each scene in flash format on Knill’s site , or download them as a quicktime file.Stanley Kubrick's Fan Letter to Ingmar Bergman
When people ask actors and directors and authors who their influences are, I always feel like those people answer with the names they think are most appropriate. That’s why I love when there’s evidence, like this fan letter, that predates the fame of the adoring fan. In 1960, at 31 years of age, Stanley Kubrick wrote a letter to Ingmar Bergman praising the filmmaker’s vision and skill. I believe you are the greatest film-maker at work today.
Steve Rose talks to Werner Herzog about a new documentary on capital punishment In a fascinating interview for The Guardian , Steve Rose talks to filmmaker Werner Herzog about his new documentary, Into The Abyss: A Tale Of Death, A Tale Of Life . Herzog describes his approach to documentary filmmaking, his position on capital punishment, and the myths that have come to surround his name (link via Susan Tomaselli ): Some years ago, Werner Herzog was on an internal flight somewhere in Colorado and the plane's landing gear wouldn't come down. They would have to make an emergency landing. The runway was covered in foam and flanked by scores of fire engines.
Werner Herzog on Death, Danger and the Abyss | A Piece of Monologue: Literature, Philosophy, Criticism
Rear Window is, in my book, Hitchcock’s best film. It hooks you immediately, trapped in the same sense of voyeuristic helplessness as Jimmy Stewart’s wheelchair-bound character who finds himself the witness to a murder in his own backyard. It’s also a film that draws much of its suspense from limited perspective--shots cropped by binoculars--tiny snippets of isolated characters going about their days. So what would happen if someone came in and showed us the whole scene at once?
Hitchcock’s "Rear Window," Recut Into An Amazing Panoramic View | Co.Design: business + innovation + design
The Brain in Film | BrainWorld
■ It’s true that movies—and all art—is about what the artist intends and what the mind interprets. But films about the mind—the tricks it plays, the depths it sinks to and the feats it’s capable of—are guides to the zeitgeist of their era, as well as a window into the future. For example, George Orwell’s book 1984 predicted fantastical concepts that are now commonplace (doublespeak=politics?). Similarly, in Steven Spielberg’s 2002 Minority Report (based on the short story by sci-fi writer Philip K.
Food
Pedro Almodóvar Blog
Every time I get up to go on a trip I feel an irresistible need to stay at home. As if every trip signified the end of a stage in my life, which the journey turns into an irreparable loss. It doesn’t matter if the reason for the trip is pleasure and enjoyment. That sensation, a mixture of failure, melancholy and anticipated nostalgia, always accompanies me when I set out on a trip. On the way to Torrejón airport, I read El País and Les Inrocks. And I feel a sudden, urgent need to read all the books that are reviewed in Babelia, the literary supplement.
Federico Fellini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stanley Kubrick , Martin Scorsese , Woody Allen , Rainer Werner Fassbinder , David Lynch , Terry Gilliam , Pedro Almodóvar , Dariush Mehrjui , John Waters Federico Fellini , ( Italian pronunciation: [fedeˈriːko felˈliːni] ; January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993) was an Italian film director and scriptwriter . Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential filmmakers of the 20th century, and is widely revered. [ 1 ] He won five Academy Awards and was nominated for 12 in a career that spanned over forty years. Fellini was born on January 20, 1920 to middle-class parents in Rimini , then a small town on the Adriatic Sea . His father, Urbano Fellini (1894–1956), born to a family of Romagnol peasants and small landholders from Gambettola , moved to Rome in 1915 as a baker apprenticed to the Pantanella pasta factory.