Basically: “Cannes may be the pinnacle of cinematic prestige and hold an outsized reverence for the past, but it represents a mind set that, depending on one’s point of view, should either be valiantly upheld in the face of barbarians or eagerly torn down in the name of democracy.”
Author: ArtsJournal2
The Walker Art Center Will Remove A Sculpture That Elicited Protests And Outrage Before Reopening Its Sculpture Garden
The piece, called “Scaffold,” was meant to commemorate the gallows where 38 Dakota people were hanged in 1862 – but Minnesota’s Native American communities said it was insensitive and a trivialization of history and genocide. “Sheldon Wolfchild, a Dakota traditional elder who has strong family connections to the Dakota 38, said the decision to erect such a sculpture was proof that Minnesotans need to be reeducated on history.”
At Cannes, The Swedish Film ‘The Square’ Wins The Palme D’Or, And Sofia Coppla Wins Best Director
Coppola is the second woman to win a solo directing prize in the history of the festival (Jane Campion shared it in the 1990s). But “the awards capped what had been an often disappointing festival characterized by a fairly weak feature-film competition, misfires from venerated auteurs and rumors that some movies had been rushed into the festival before they had been fully edited. (The overlong running times of some titles certainly suggested as much.)”
The British Airways ‘IT Problem’ Meltdown Strands Curtis Institute Musicians In London
The first of two groups got as far as the gate when all flights were suddenly canceled, which looks like it was the right thing to do: “When members of the first Curtis group finally got through passport control — as if they were reentering a country they never actually left — they found their luggage right where they had checked it. Apparently, the conveyor belts didn’t even work.”
What, Aside From The Next Big Hit, Do Indie Distributors Look For When They Go To Cannes?
Not things that would work easily in the comfort of your own home: “The very obvious, generic star packages [that look good] on paper no longer necessarily work at the box office; the generic is consumed online at home [on streaming platforms]. If you want to get people to go to a cinema, you really need to have something special, distinctive; it’s got to be an event, something that people talk about.”
Top AJBlogs For The Weekend Of 05.28.17
All the Poets: Rhiannon Giddens
The second installment of my Los Angeles Review of Books — All the Poets, in which musicians discuss their literary influences — went up the other day: Rhiannon Giddens, who earned her reputation with … read more
AJBlog: CultureCrashPublished 2017-05-28
How to Talk about Saving the NEA
The President’s 2018 budget includes just enough funding for staff time required to shut down the NEA and NEH. Arts advocates and administrators have responded with pleas that federal arts funding is important and can’t … read more
AJBlog: The Bright RidePublished 2017-05-28
Recent Listening: Charlie Shoemake, Teacher
Charlie Shoemake Trio And Quartet: Central Coasting (CCJAZZI) In addition to being a premier jazz vibraphonist, Charlie Shoemake has long devoted himself to helping young musicians develop their skills. After he and … read more
AJBlog: RiffTidesPublished 2017-05-26
The Novelists Who Own Bookstores Tell Us What To Read This Summer
Hey, good news: Novelist Emma Straub’s “Books Are Magic is opening in the midst of a renaissance for independent booksellers. The American Booksellers Association counted 1,775 members around the country in 2016, up from 1,410 in 2010.” (Now here’s what to buy from them.)
Movie Credits Are Long, But Maybe They Should Be Even Longer
The history was that only the main players got credits – at the beginning of the film. Then the unions started to gain more clout, and “as productions grew more lavish and more complicated, more and more crew members were needed. But in the age of celluloid, studios had to be mindful of how long their credits would be. Film was more expensive to work with and process, so each added reel had an impact on the budget.”
How Instagram Helped Poet Rupi Kaur Find Her Audience – And Sell 1.4M Books (So Far)
The 24-year-old Canadian poet became famous when Instagram banned a self-portrait in which she was lying on her bed, with sheets stained by menstrual blood. That banning got her 1.3 million followers to the site, where she publishes poetry and illustrations. She credits social media for its openness: “I used to submit to anthologies and magazines when I was a student – but I knew I was never going to be picked up. All their writing was, you know, about the Canadian landscape or something. And my poem is about this woman with her legs spread open.”
The GIF, Which Transformed The Internet (And Sparked Millions Of Pronunciation Arguments), Turns 30
And, honestly, GIFs are living their best lives right now. “Twitter has a GIF button and even Apple added GIF search to its iOS messaging app. Such mainstream approval would have seemed unthinkable even a decade ago, when GIFs had the cultural cachet of blinking text and embedded MIDI files. But today they’re ubiquitous.”